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Shanghai Preview
It’s time for the second installment of the Diamond League, and if Doha was any indication of how the year is going to go then Shanghai should be a real humdinger! Looking at the start lists, things should once again be exiting from start to finish. As usual however, there are some events that I am especially looking forward to: Men’s 110 Hurdles Aries Merritt, David Oliver, Jason Richardson This is one of those wonderful events where the best compete head to head quite often – and the anticipation never drops. That said, this trio could end up being the threesome that represents the US in Moscow, and Shanghai…
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London Olympics – The US Finds Its Stride
We’re roughly half way through with the track and field portion of the Games and though there has been a medal here and there,US troops haven’t really gotten untracked – until today. The team that’s expected to leave with the most medals in t&f, had struggled a bit to this point, as several athletes didn’t quite hit the mark. That happens in big time meets as we’ve seen with athletes from many countries, but you had to figure that at some point things would change – today was that day. I knew it would be a good day when I looked at the schedule and saw that the morning would…
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Lessons Learned From Women’s Day in Rome
The results are in, and after watching the Rome leg of the Diamond League I think I learned a few things. Prefontaine is only two days away, so things could change a bit over the next 48 hours. Results of the meet can be found here, so without going into each and every race and result, here are my thoughts on what happened in Rome. Men’s 100 meters. After watching Bolt today (9.76, -0.1) Ostrava was a matter of jet lag – or perhaps being out too late the night before. Either way, “sluggish” Bolt gave way to a sprinter that had the race under control by 30 meters –…
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2012 Outdoor Preview – Hurdles
If you like speed and competition then you must like the hurdles. Unlike the pure sprinters, who seem to avoid each other as much as possible until forced to toe the line for championships, the hurdlers compete often and face each other with regularity. The sprinters tend to get more publicity but of the four hurdle events three of them have legitimate shots at having WR’s broken – two by more than one individual. The hurdles are among the hottest events in the sport, with some of it’s best athletes. If you’re not watching the hurdles you’re missing some of the best competition the sport has to offer. Here’s…
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2011 in Review – Women’s 400 Meter Hurdles
The women had a much better season relative to their male counterparts. Whereas the men seemed to have difficulty coming up with quality times, the women had no such troubles. Right off the bat, the women started asserting themselves as Lashinda Demus (USA) turned 54.85 to set a solid world lead on May 7th. A week later she lowered her SB to 54.58, but found herself behind the rapidly improving Kaliese Spencer (JAM) at 54.20. Two weeks later they would take to the track in Eugene with Demus turning the tables with a 53.31 to 53.45 win over Spencer – with defending World and Olympic champion Melaine Walker 3rdin 53.56…
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Worlds Day Six – USA Day (Sort Of)
With three gold medals in five finals, one would have to say that it was a very good day for the United States. But in one event it was a good news, bad news day that left me a bit sad in spite of the gold medal. That event was the final of the women’s 1500, where the field lined up twelve women of fairly equal ability. And they ran like it as no one seemed to want to set the pace as the field was still bunched with 2 laps to go. At that point Morgan Uceny was back in 9th and began was has been her standard move…