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Olympic Trials Part 1 – Upsets & Speed
We’ve finally arrived to that part of the season that really matters – Olympic team qualifying! That means EVERYONE had to show up. That means some of the best competition of the year. That means watching track and field the way it is supposed to be watched – in a stadium; with ALL of the events represented! And guess what? No one leaves early. No one is worried about "attention spans". No one needs bands playing in the parking lot, or portions of the meet in the street! Why? Because when you get the best athletes available to compete, the sport in its purest form is as good as ANY…
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A Month From the Trials
We’re about a month away from the Trials and the crystal ball is still pretty murky! Usually I have a pretty good idea how the Trials are going to go by now, but so many elites have been quiet – especially the distance crowd. This may be one of the most surprising Trials in awhile. The colleges have yet to have their Regionals and Nationals – those will take place in the next two weeks. Though I’m not seeing a lot of collegiate athletes making this team. Mainly because a lot of top talent has already gone pro. We’ve had three Diamond League meetings with this weekends competition in Rabat,…
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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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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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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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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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2012 200 Meter Rankings–men/women
The 200 meters belongs to the United States and Jamaica. That’s the conclusion one must come to when looking at this year’s results on both the men’s and women’s sides. Yes, others are on the track, and even occasionally make an appearance in the 3rd or 4th position, but reality is that in spite of the lack of focus on the event outside of major championships, this event is undergoing major change and only two nations are keeping pace. On the men’s side, gone are the days when 20.0/20.1 made you a major contender. Sub 20 is required to even think about finishing in the upper half of a major…
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2012 100m Rankings for 2012 – Men/Women
I’m going to try something different this year, in that I’m going to go five deep for events as I rank them and present both the men & women simultaneously. Five Deep because in general that’s really where the top athletes are in any given event. After that things usually get rather fuzzy. And since the lists will only be five deep, it should make for more interesting reading to include both genders at the same time – essentially presenting a top ten athletes for each event. The first event, the 100 meters, actually was fairly easy to rank, as the Olympic Games proved to be the best indicator of…
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Drizzle Fizzle and Sizzle in Zurich
Zurich has traditionally been one of my favorite meets over the years. Mostly because, even before there was a Diamond League (or Golden League) Zurich has always attracted the world’s top sprinters – and this year was no exception. Don’t get me wrong, Zurich is annually one of the world’s best meets overall with high level fields in all of their events, but the sprints have always been special in Zurich. Today however, after watching this meet I’m left with a bag of mixed feelings labeled drizzle, fizzle and sizzle. The drizzle is from the rain that feel during the meet. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a year…
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Aries Merritt Back on Track in Birmingham
The double meet weekend that started Thursday in Lausanne, ended early today in Birmingham – and just as it was in Lausanne, speed was on display in Britain. In a meet with several Olympians in attendance the highlight of the day was turned in by Aries Merritt who is on an unbelievable streak of hurdling consistency. Merritt started the weekend by getting DQ’d in Lausanne for a false start. Actually for a flinch – and personally I’d like to see starters take more control in these sorts of situations. The final word on false starts comes down to the human in charge, and when machines detect something the eye can’t…