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Trials Day 1 – Rupp Rules
Day one of the Trials is in the book, and if today’s results are any indication this is gonna be a humdinger! Because in spite of the rain that came down during most of the competition, the athletes were nothing short of competitive! After all, THIS is the Olympic Trials – go big or go home! Let’s start with the days’ two finals, the men & women’s 10,000 meters – which did and didn’t run to form. Following the script were the men, as Galen Rupp was in control from the gun running easy as you like while helping to pace Dathan Ritzenhein, who needed an "A" qualifier to go…
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Farah Sharp at “Hi Performance” Meet
The year’s best gathering of middle/long distance runners took place this past weekend in Southern California at the “Oxy Hi Performance” meet. But after all the races were run and the results came in, I’m still in the dark as to how things look for American distance running – and we’re only a month out from the Trials! Don’t get me wrong, there were some solid performances. Best of the bunch was Mo Farah (GBR) who turned in a 3:34.66 / 13:12.87 double with less than an hours rest between the two events – and won both! Farah starts off his season in fine shape – and I have to…
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Mt SAC Match Ups
What’s a sign that this is an Olympic year? That the Mt SAC Relays are loaded. Several fields have multiple world class/ranked athletes scheduled to compete, and the overall level of athletes is as high as I’ve seen in a while. Below is my list of names and events that I think deserve more than a causal look – and there are plenty. This could end up being one of those “memorable” meets. So much so that that I expect that we’ll have LOTS to talk about when this meet is over. For example, take a look at the men’s 400 where Jeremy Wariner will be competing against US indoor…
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More Weekend Highlights
Day one of the Florida Relays was a hard act to follow, but the rest of the weekend managed to hold it’s own starting with Day Two in Florida. Focused on relay events the men’s 4×1 and the women’s 4×4 produced some outstanding times. In the 4×1 a Pure Athletics team of Mookie Salaam, Keston Bledman, Travis Padgett, and Nickel Ashmead went 38.64 to win ahead of host Florida’s 38.91. The winning time equaled the #3 time in the world while Florida became the #3 collegiate 4×1 on the season. Notable in 4th place was Star Athletics which featured Trell Kimmons to Justin Gatlin on the first two legs. Notable…
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Flanagan & Kefelzighi Lead Way to London
The U.S. began the first stages of putting together the Olympic squad for London today with the running of the Marathon Trials. If the results in Houston are any indication of the overall team we’ll be sending to London, then we’re going to be loaded by the end of June, because the marathoner’s came through in awesome fashion! The goal at the Trials is to make the team, but the men and women in the lead packs in both races were clearly out to win and run fast – and that bodes well for their ability to compete in London. In the men’s race Ryan Hall lead for most of…
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Olympic Marathon Trials are in Three Days
It’s time to start the selection process for the U.S. Olympic Team. First stop, Houston and the Marathon Trials, which astonishingly will be the first time that the men and women’s teams will be selected at the same time! The storyline that everyone was looking forward to with this race was the anticipated first ever marathon of Galen Rupp – American Record Holder in the 10,000 meters. That will now be a non-story as Rupp has withdrawn from the Trials, having decided to put all of his eggs into his 10,000 meter basket. His withdrawal has taken away much of the mystery from the men’s race, which should be dominated…