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Kirani James’ 44.02 Highlights Shanghai DL
Perhaps Doha raised the bar a bit high, but I didn’t come away from Shanghai with the same WOW factor that I had following the Diamond League opener. A nice set of marks were turned in, but that special something was missing in most of the events on the track. One running event that hit on all cylinders however, was the men’s 400 as both LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James showed up to compete. Both men took it out down the backstretch and add they headed around the second bend, James began to seriously work, emerging with a slight lead that he increased with each stride up the straight, and…
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Hot Istanbul Match Ups
The World Indoor Championships this weekend in Istanbul Turkey will close out the elite indoor season and provide a segue into the outdoor season proper. As such we should see the best performances yet on the 200 meter oval. Before I post my predictions tomorrow on who I think the winners will be (I’m still on the fence in a couple of events) here are a half dozen events that I’m really looking forward to based on the match ups that will be on the track. Women’s Pole Vault Yelena Isinbayeva has come back in a BIG way this indoor season. For starters, she took down her own WR…
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Claye, Isi, Lowe, & Kimmons Lead Busy Weekend
There was a lot of activity in what was a long weekend of track and field as multiple day meets took center stage with athletes looking to qualify for the NCAA and World Championships. Clearly we are witnessing the first “peak” of the year, as many folk showed up ready to rock and roll! So many, that I’m going to tackle the highlights by areas of disciplines instead of individuals or individual events. Jumps and Vaults I’m going to start here, because the first real highlight of the weekend happened before the weekend got fully under way as Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS) solidified her return to the vaulting wars by a)…
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Weekend Action, Jan 21/22
Now it feels like track season, as several performances that were turned in this weekend were truly up to par. As usual for this time of year the best of them were in the field – specifically the pole vault. In Reno, Nevada at the annual pole vault summit, Brad Walker (USA) cleared 5.80m (19’ 0.25”). An excellent mark for January – so good in fact that it would have won last year’s U.S. Outdoor Championships! As a matter of fact, Walker only jumped better (5.84) on one occasion in all of 2011 – so hopefully we are seeing a return of the 2007 vaulter that won the World Championships…
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Swagger – Who has it in Track and Field?
I was watching SportsCenter yesterday and caught Deion Sanders talking about the evolution of defensive backs in the NFL. Of course it being “Neon Deion”, he talked about the “swagger” that he brought to the position, and how others have tried to emulate it. That made me think about track and field, wondering about the amount of “swagger” we have in our sport. I know what swagger is, and I think most people know what swagger is, but I decided to look it up to see what the official definition is before I started looking for it, and I found the following: Swag-ger: verb, 1) to walk or strut with…