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Doha and Kingston Heat Up the Season
Penn was the unofficial start to the outdoor season. The "USA v The World" is sort of the kick off to things. That was last weekend. This weekend sh*t got real, as the Diamond League got under way with the first stop in Doha on Friday. And to make sure that things were underway, the Jamaican International Invitational in Kingston made sure that there was plenty of hot action. We’re now officially on our way to Rio! As usual, the sprinters are in mid-season form – especially the women. Not that the men weren’t impressive. LaShawn Merritt is proving to be in fine form. After running 19.78/44.22 the past few…
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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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Trials Day 3 – Redemption Sunday
Today’s agenda was short but sweet – 8 events, 7 finals and 1 semi. But when the names involved include Cantwell, Hoffa, Gay, Gatlin, Richards Ross, Merritt, Wariner, and Suhr you’re talking about one high powered afternoon. Not to mention a lot of athletes looking for redemption – and most got just that. The most anticipated event was the men’s 100 meters as most people were looking to see how Tyson Gay was going to hold up. The worry rapidly changed from Tyson’s legs to Walter Dix’ as Dix pulled up at the end of the first semi! Dix showed up for the final, but his leg was heavily wrapped…
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Trials Day 2 – Ashton Eaton, 9039 WR
Excitement and drama. That’s standard when talking about the Olympic Trials. And while there were only three finals, Day Two just might be one of the most exciting and dramatic Trials days ever! Let’s start with the decathlon, since it did start the day off. Ashton Eaton entered the day with a score of 4728 pts, putting him on WR pace as he, Trey Hardee, and Bryan Clay looked to be on their way to sending the greatest trio of decathletes ever to the Games. A 13.70 to open up things in the hurdles kept Eaton on pace. Unfortunately for Bryan Clay however, it all went wrong. First he hit…
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Trials Preview – Men’s 100 Meters
The very nature of the Trials makes this meet exciting – the best in the country come together with only three competitors per event moving on to the Olympic Games. That alone puts a spotlight on every event – and I will be keeping an eye on them all. But some events carry even more intrigue and drama. So while I’ve already given my list of who I think will make the team for London, there are a couple of events that I want to take a closer look at starting with the Men’s 100 meters. The 100 takes on a bit of added importance in this Olympic cycle, because…
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The Pieces are Coming Together
The great thing about the Penn Relays is that it’s the first time we get a large gathering of top athletes together at the same meet. The tough part is that they aren’t competing head to head and they’re not competing in individual events – so "evaluating" where they are can be a bit more difficult. And with the Trials less than two months away, and the Games within there months, trying to figure out the pecking order of the top athletes is on everyone’s mind. Well I think several athletes had great early auditions yesterday in Pennsylvania. On the men’s side the US won both "heats" of the 4×1:…
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8 Must See Trials Events
I’m getting antsy, it’s Friday night and no big results can be found – everything major will be happening Saturday. So my mind is wandering in the direction of the Trials. After all, once the smoke clears everything comes down to two meets this year – National Trials and the Olympic Games.In some countries the Trials may be the years most important meet, beside if you don’t get past the Trials you’ll never see the Games – at least not from the stadium in London. So I’m anticipating the Trials almost as much as the Games. With everything on the line and great depth in several events, the US Trials…
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2012 Outdoor Preview – Sprints
Now that we’re completely done with the indoor season, it’s time to start taking a look at how this outdoor season might possibly shape up. More importantly, at how the Games might shape up. So as I go through the various events on the Olympic slate, I’m going to try and Identify those individuals that I feel as of today ill be in the mix – the contenders and potential contenders. I’m going to start with the sprints because they tend to get going a bit earlier than other events. And this time around they’re already pretty well defined, as we have a large group of veterans that “should” be…
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Has the U.S. Lost Its Sprint Mojo?
Talking with a neighbor who is a fan, but not an “uber” fan, of the sport after this weekend’s U.S. Open, I was asked “what’s wrong with the U.S. sprinters?” When I asked what he meant, he basically said that we didn’t win either sprint (won by Asafa Powell & Veronica Campbell). I responded that many of our best weren’t at the meet, and his follow up was that we didn’t win the World Championships, or the one before that, or the Olympic Games either. We had a nice chat after that, and while I won’t bore you with the blow by blow conversation, it did make me realize a…
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Will 2012 be the Year of the Double?
I was reviewing the Marathon Trials finish last night and wondering how well Shalane Flanagan will do doubling in the 10,000/Marathon, when it hit me: we may have more legitimate “doublers” heading into London than ever before! In Beijing we had 5000/10000 double victories turned in by Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba; and a sprint double (100/200) by Usain Bolt. We also had double silver by Elvan Abeylegesse (5000/10000) and Tatyana Lebedeva (LJ/TJ); a double bronze performance by Walter Dix (100/200); and a silver & bronze performance by Kerron Stewart (100/200). Heading into this Olympic season of the ’08 doublers, Bekele, Bolt and Dix seemed best positioned to double again…