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 Read More...
Who’s Windows are Threatening to Close?
9:57 am PDT
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 Read More...
2012 200 Meter Rankings–men/women
5:01 pm PST
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 Read More...
Pre–Outstanding Results, Lots of Questions
8:17 am PDT
Trying to put something together on this meet has been giving me fits. Once again the Pre Classic was the best non championship meet on US soil. From the distance races Friday night (streamed live thank you) to the Bowerman Mile that closed out the NBC broadcast, the fields were top notch across the board Read More...
Back to Code for Some After Ostrava
3:38 pm PDT
Well, that wasn’t quite what I expected! Let’s start with the obvious, Usain Bolt (JAM) 10.04 - the slowest 100 meter final of Bolt’s professional career! That’s what I said. He ran 10.03 (0.7) in Rethymno in his pro debut at the distance in 2007. Then opened up in Spanish Town in Mar ‘08 at 10 Read More...
The Pieces are Coming Together
9:42 am PDT
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 Read More...
The Outdoor Season Kicks it Up a Notch
6:06 pm PDT
It was only a couple of weeks ago that we were talking about the Indoor World Championships, yet here we are in the month of March and we have our first “sub” of the season! Sub meaning a mark under a typically accepted elite threshold – like a sub-10 100 for men, sub-4:00 1500 for women, or a sub 27:00 10,000 for men Read More...
2012 Outdoor Preview – Sprints
11:32 am PDT
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 Read More...