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Events I’ll Be Watching at US Nationals
Typically Nationals is one of the two hottest meets of the year behind only the World Championships or Olympics. This is an "off season" however, that once every four years non championship season. So the full complement of elites looking to make a global team is a bit lighter than usual. My biggest disappointment in this regards is the Men’s 100 which is missing Justin Gatlin and the new kid on the block Trayvon Bromell, as neither of the year’s two fastest Americans is entered in the competition. I think that could have been the match up of the meet. That said however, I think there are several match ups…
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You Know It’s an Off Season When …
Track and Field exists in its own alternate universe where semi finals consist of THREE heats, and the focus on promoting the sport is NOT on the competition, but individual performances! In that same vein, it’s the rare sport where its most outstanding performances tend to occur outside of championship settings and in seasons where there is no major championships at all – the Off Season. We’re not like swimming where records and sensational times fall like leaves from the trees when their World Championships and the Games come around. Especially in events longer than one lap where running fast – for whatever reasons – takes a backseat to tactics.…
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Mary Cain to Go Pro
It had to happen sooner or later, a high school phenomenon turning pro. After all, we’ve seen world class high schoolers in the past. Certainly several WAY back during the early days of track and field when youngsters like Bob Mathias were dominant internationally. Even during what I consider the modern era of the sport – The 1960’s forward, athletes like, Houston McTear, Mary Decker, Dwayne Evans, and Gerry Lindgren among others were among the top world class level athletes. There was simply no professional track for them to transition into. More recently, however, we’ve seen Allyson Felix emerge as an international threat while in high school. She made the…
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World Championships Review–Individuals Pt1
Now for the fun part, looking at individual performances – and there were certainly some very good ones. First however, let’s get a bit of perspective by taking a look at medal counts. The double digit medal earners: United States 25 total, 6 gold, 14 silver, 5 bronze. Russia 17 total, 7 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze Kenya 12 total, 5 gold, 4 silver, 3 bronze Ethiopia 10 total, 3 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze As expected Russians performed well at home. While traditional European power Germany continues to have difficulty getting back to Eastern Bloc prominence. In general there was no core of dominant nations, but a relatively even…
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The Final Prep for Moscow is Done
The London Diamond League was pretty much what I thought it would be – best meet of the year and perhaps a preview of several events in Moscow. If this weekend was any indication, we’ve got a Wild West shoot out kind of World Championships coming up, because there just aren’t that many “sure things” out there this year. But that’s a good thing, because it means we’ll have a week of exciting track and field in store with so many event titles / medals up for grabs. In event after event, London showcased excellent competition with few winners decided before things got started, and a few surprises along the…
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Rollins’ 12.26 Leads Weekend at Nationals
As I thought prior, this was one of the hottest National Championships in a long time – and it was lead by women and youth. Don’t get me wrong, the men got the job done and we’re sending a nice male squad to Moscow. But the women were doing spectacular things everywhere you turned – and none were any more spectacular than Brianna Rollins. Rollins started looking like gold at the NCAA Championships when she screamed collegiate records of 12.47 & 12.39 – but that was just a warm up for Des Moines. This weekend saw her run 12.33w, 12.30w before blazing 12.26 (1.2) in the final for a new…
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Prefontaine – Post Meet Thoughts
Ok people, like Christmas the Prefontaine Classic has come and gone – and just like Christmas I find myself the day after trying to figure out how it compares to meets past. It’s not a question of whether or not I liked the meet. It was track and field, of course I liked it. The question is to what degree was my appetite for the sport satiated? Perhaps because of the discussion about the sport in general over the past week I may be a bit more "critical" than usual, but I found the meet to be "just ok" for me. Somehow the "Wow" factor was missing. You may or…
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Big Weekend – Birmingham & Millrose
The indoor season is just about ready to come to an end. It’s short and sweet and usually ends with a bang as the athletes that are competing indoors like to really test their fitness before hitting the track outside. These “season ending” meets usually a test of early fitness and sharpness. The best of this weekend were the meetings in Birmingham England and New York (Millrose). Both had great fields and therefore great competition – and fortunately I was able to actually watch the action in both meets . Thanks to the internet I watched the Birmingham competition live online – most meets in Europe are streamed live if …
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Rupp (3:50.93) & Cain (4:32.78) HOT!
The Olympic year might be behind us, but it’s clear that winning at World’s means something too, because those athletes that are competing indoors are crankin out the marks. This weekend the mile was the star of the show, with the 600 making noise as well. And I must say that the internet played one of it’s greatest supporting rolls to date as those of us on Twitter were able to follow both Galen Rupp and Mary Cain and their fabulous mile runs simultaneously! Rupp showed tremendous extended range in the mold of the East Africans as he dropped his mile PR down to 3:50.93 to go with his 10000…