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Who’s Windows are Threatening to Close?
A common phrase in the world of sports refers to an athletes "window" closing – to his or her window of opportunity expiring. In most cases we’re talking about the opportunity to win a title, but the term can also refer to obtaining records or other significant performances. Every couple of Olympic cycles or so, as the sport’s population begins to age at the top end, we get a group of individuals who’s windows begin to close. For these athletes, they start to compete against “Father Time” as much as their real world opponents. In that regard this year could be huge in the careers of several athletes – more…
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Will the Men’s 100 Live Up to the Hype?
The men’s 100 meters. Perhaps THE marquee event of the Olympic Games. Most of the world will remember who won the 100 long after the Games are over. Jesse Owens, Jim Hines, Hasely Crawford, Valery Borzov, Carl Lewis, Donovan Bailey, Linford Christie, Maurice Greene. Names that resonate still long after retirement, because they won 100 meter gold at the Olympics. Usain Bolt went from "who" to the face of the sport with his victory in Beijing, and would like to become the first man to repeat as champion. However, the fact that he would be the first to do so underscores just how difficult a task that is in light…
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Kingston Doesn’t Change the London 100
The defeat of Usain Bolt at the Jamaican Trials has not changed the Olympic 100 meters. Why? Because as I’ve said before Bolt has always been beatable. It’s not easy to do, and not everyone has the ability, but it’s always been possible. It requires two things: a sprinter with serious top end speed and a killer finish; and an average/typical start by Bolt. While the perception of Bolt over the last four years has been that he is Superman and invincible, his “defeatablility” has always been there. The issue isn’t that something has suddenly changed, but that the top sprinters don’t race enough for these things to come into…
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Blake Upsets Bolt at Jamaica Trials!
Before I get to our Trials, everyone had been waiting on the Jamaica Trials to see what the sprinters there are doing. Well, London is going to be hot in the short sprints. In the women’s 100, Shelly Ann Fraser wins in 10.70 (+0.6) over VCB (10.82), Kerron Stewart (10.94), and Sherone Simpson (11.01). So there’s your 3 for London, plus relay – more than likely. On the men’s side we get an "upset" as Yohan Blake wins in a PR 9.75 (+1.1) over Usain Bolt (9.86), Asafa Powell (9.88), and Michael Frater (9.94). Their 3 for London plus relay – again more than likely. I haven’t seen video yet,…
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D.oha A.thletes M.ake N.oise!
D.A.M.N.! If today’s meet in Doha was the”opening act” of the Olympic year, I can hardly wait for the denouement in London – it’s going to bring down the house! Today’s events were Olympic in quality across the board and began to fuel plot lines that will only be answered by a gathering of all the world’s best into one stadium. As several athletes were clearly looking to send/answer statements to and from their peers. Take the sprints for example. Last week Usain Bolt’s 9.82 in Kingston let the world know he was up to the challenge of defending his Olympic title. Mid week Yohan Blake said, not without a…
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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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U.S. Open Preview
The U.S. Open Indoor meet will be held this weekend, and there are several events worth keeping an eye on, as there will be many top level athletes competing. So let’s take a look at what I think will be the top competitions. Men’s 50 Meters Easily one of the deepest fields of the meet, the men’s 50 has former Olympic & World 100 champion Justin Gatlin (USA); former 100 Meter WR holder Asafa Powell (JAM); and #4 all time in the 100 Nesta Carter (JAM) among the entrants. Powell and Carter are both known as super-fast starters, which should give them an edge in the shortest event on the…
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The Best Performers of 2011
December is already a third gone – not much time left in this year. As a matter of fact the indoor season is already getting started! My how time flies when you’re having fun! So before the month gets away, and Baby New Year shows up, I want to give out some kudos to athletes that I feel really got the job done in 2011. I’m going to call them “The Best of 2011”. Some categories are a bit nontraditional – Best Start for example – while others will probably be seen on other lists – like Best Performance. Just a bit of fun as we wind down the year,…
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Bolt Wants Four London Golds – But are Any Certain?
Usain Bolt stated recentlythat he now wants to add the 4×4 relay to his repertoire in an attempt to go for four gold medals at the London Olympic Games. The last time we saw a four medal haul at the Olympic Games was by Carl Lewis in 1984 – before that it was Jesse Owens in 1936. So it is indeed a very rare occurrence – one that requires both dominance over one’s opponents as well as a bit of luck and good fortune. Owens was one of the most dominant athletes of his day. But in fairness to the competition, Ralph Metcalf didn’t run his best 100 in Berlin,…
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2011 In Review – Men’s 100 Meters
With the general rankings out of the way, it’s time to start taking a look at individual events. So twixt now and the end of the year, I will look back on several events in between other news and events that come up. I will start with the men’s 100 meters which always lends itself to questions/controversy. Even more so in recent years as we seem to get fewer and fewer matchups among the events top combatants. The 2011 100 meter season started off like a house afire, with Steve Mullings (JAM) blasting a PR 9.90 in mid-April (16th), then turning that into 9.89 in late May (21st). As June…