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Trials Preview
Now that we’ve gotten past the first big championship meet of the year (NC’s) we’re days, not weeks, away from US Trials. Days as in about 10. A meet that many consider as tough as Worlds. Given its depth and cutthroat nature. This year should be no different with several high level matchups on the horizon. In some ways that’s an understatement, because basically every event has some sort of high level matchup. This year, however, there are some matchups that seem more exciting to me than usual. For example. Trey Cunningham v Devon Allen – Men’s 110H At the start of the season, most would have predicted…
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The Chill List
It seems that everyone has a “list” these days. There’s the Bowerman for collegiate athletes. And I’ve noticed several podcasts attempting to put together lists. The problem that I have with these lists however. It’s that it’s basically impossible to separate say 10 athletes from the pack in this sport. Especially Post Covid, as it seems that every event has at least two or three deserving athletes – at every level of the sport! So, I’ve decided to create a list that ISN’T supposed to be the ten “best” athletes in track and field. Instead, my list is of the ten athletes I’m going to focus on watching this year!…
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Who Will Win the Millrose 60?
Ok, now that the season is finally under way, it’s almost time for the elite athletes to take the stage. And if the exploits of the collegiate athletes is any indication, we’re in for some exciting competition. First meet with loaded fields will be the Millrose Games. On tap for January 29th. While all of the events at Millrose appear to be loaded, with athletes like Athing Mu, Ryan Crouser, Elle Purrier, and others. This year’s bonus, will be the first “sprint battle” of 2022! This is exciting as we’ve already seen some very hot individual performances. Micah Williams of Oregon (6.48) and Terrance Jones of Texas Texas Tech (6.45)…
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Early Season Thoughts
Hear ye, hear ye. The 2022 season has begun! A slew of indoor invitationals have got things finally going. And while we’re a couple of weeks away from the “elite” invites. We’ve away gotten some pretty outstanding results coming in. Enough for me to say that 2022 could be an even better year statistically than last year! Some thoughts from this weekend. Matt Boling – I’m going to start with this young man because it seems he always ends up under a microscope. His opener was exciting for me, because of his long jump win. Exciting because he lept 8.25m (27′ 0.75″). As good a sprinter that he is, that…
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Prefontaine Highlights
This was easily the most anticipated single meet of the year outside of championships and it lived up to the hype! Nike put its considerable wallet into play, producing Olympic quality fields across the board. Oh to have Nike’s money. That said, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. The matchup between Sha’Carri Richardson and “The Jamaican Medalists”. After all, if you were “new” to watching track and field, that’s why you tuned in. And if you are a long time fan, you wanted to find out the outcome. Well, you were treated to one of the most exciting races the sport has ever seen. Sha’Carri just didn’t feature in…
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Tokyo Recap
I have to admit, I didn’t realize just how tough it would be to watch the Olympics live! Here on the West Coast, that meant getting up at 3:00am. Watching the Games. Then a full day of work. Then more track and field. Then bed long enough to get some rest before repeating – for a week and a half. Literally track and field Nirvana. However, my goal of writing something every day, went out the window on Day 3. So, here is my recap of one of the most interesting Games I’ve watched in my lifetime. For the first time ever, I spent almost the entirety of the Olympics…
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First Stop Women’s 100
And we’re off and running, literally. As the first few rounds of events have taken place and we’ve had our first couple of finals. The first actual final was themes 10,000 meters. Won by Ethiopian Selemon Barega. An interesting race given the heat and humidity as it turned into a wait and kick affair. That which hurts the distance runners however, tends to be good for sprinters and hurdlers. And so far, the conditions and the track have been to the liking of both sprinters and hurdlers. That was clearly evident as the top women’s 400 hurdlers – Sydney McLaughlin, Femke Bol and Delilah Muhammad – seemed to “stroll” the…
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The Games Have Arrived!
It’s here. The Tokyo Olympic Games have finally arrived.We’ve had several sports already take place, and now it’s time for the heart of the Olympics, Track and Field, to take to the stage! The world has been waiting for five years, half a decade, for the next week and a half. And while there have been World Championships and other championship meets that have taken place in the time in between, for track and field the Olympics are IT!. It’s the one time every four years that the world actually pays attention to this sport. Many people don’t know that for most of his career, Usain Bolt rarely competed –…
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It’s Prediction Time – US Trials Relays
This season has been moving along so quickly, that it’s been too fast to keep up with – pun intended. Literally every few days something extraordinary has occurred. Athing Mu, Trayvon Bromell, Allyson Felix, Kenny Bednarek, Gabby Thomas, Terrance Laird, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! It’s now mere weeks from the NCAA Championships and the Olympic Trials – and time to start to spec out who’s going to be taking that trip to Tokyo. So that’s what I’m going to start doing – give my predictions of who I think us young to represent the US at the Games. I’m going to begin a bit differently…
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Up and Coming
One of the hottest indoor seasons in recent memory, is coming to a close. As we get ready to head outdoors, I wanted to take a look at a few athletes that have proven worthy of being on someone’s watch list – mine. Every Olympic year, there are athletes that emerge that no one thought about the year before that become good enough to go to the Games. New exciting performers that make this sport what it is. This indoor season, we’ve seen a plethora of top level performances, including some unexpected ones by some up and coming athletes. Here are a few collegiate and Europeans, that have recently found…