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London Olympics – THAT Was Exciting !
OK, my feed was working all day, and it was a great day to watch live track and field at the Olympics. I’m a day behind, but so much happened not enough time or room to catch up on everything. I will say an outstanding win in the pole vault for Jenn Suhr (USA). Primarily because Yelena Isinbayeva was in the field and finished with the bronze. A great win for Jenn who upgraded from silver in Beijing, but more so the signal of change in the event, as “Isi’s” best days are clearly behind her. Remember a couple of weeks ago I said this was going to be a…
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Trials Final Weekend
After over a week of action, the Trials wrapped things up in nice style this weekend. There were only 2 finals on the track on Saturday, but 5 on Sunday. With 2 field finals each day. One would almost think they could have had single day “finale” and did it up right for the fans. Still there was some great action over the final two days. There were only four finals on Saturday, but they were something else. In the field we got what we expected in triple jump with Christian Taylor and Will Claye setting the pace. They did it early with Taylor hitting 17.32m/57’10.25” and Claye 17.55m/57’7” in…
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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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Can US Male Milers Make the London Podium?
I ask that question on the assumption that the women CAN medal. After all, we went to Daegu and won gold AFTER our favored athlete was tripped and failed to finish the race! US women milers have made huge strides in the last few years. Three have gone under 4:00, and two others are knocking hard at the door. We had two finalists in Daegu and won gold with our #2. So the women are doing well enough that it would not surprise me to see three American women in the final in London. Nor would it be a surprise to hear the Star Spangled Banner being played during the…
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What Will Our Male Middle Distance Presence be in London
Looking back on 2011 & Daegu, and forward to 2012 & London, I find three areas in the U.S. that concern me. One is the men’s sprints & hurdles which I recentlytouched on. Another is our field events in general – something I’ll be talking about in the very near future. The other, that I’ll be addressing today, is our male middle distance runners. I say this in spite of Matt Centrowitz’ surprise bronze in Daegu, because it was just that – a surprise. Because right now there is only one middle distance runner that we can count on to produce when needed – Bernard Lagat – and his career…