{"id":141,"date":"2009-04-25T17:57:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-26T00:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=141"},"modified":"2009-04-25T17:57:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-26T00:57:00","slug":"penn-relays-us-vs-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=141","title":{"rendered":"Penn Relays – US vs The World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
It’s April. Teams for this year’s World Championships won’t be chosen until June. The World championships themselves won’t be held until the end of August in Berlin Germany. But this year’s Penn Relays was billed as a series of rematches between the US and Jamaica! <\/p>\n

There has been much hype about Jamaica taking over as the world’s sprint power since they won the Men’s 100, 200 and 4×1 and the Women’s 100 and 200 in Beijing. So much so that USATF CEO Doug Logan has had talks with Jamaica’s federation about having a dual meet between the US and Jamaica. But if today’s Penn Relays was any indication, talk of the demise of US sprint supremacy may be just a bit premature as US squads dominated the “US vs The World” section of the Penn Relays and sent word that Beijing was merely that occasional hiccup that occurs occasionally on the world stage. <\/p>\n

US sprinters, still in the early stages of their preparation for the meets that really matter later in the season, showed up and through their performances said “don’t make the mistake of counting us out”. It started with the opening gun of the men’s 4×1 as Walter Dix gave notice that his negative wind 10.00 a couple of weeks ago was no fluke as he blazed the turn on the leadoff leg to give the US a lead it would never relinquish. After Shawn Crawford’s third leg proved that age is just a number, Doc Patton had clear sailing to the finish line. Jamaican anchor, Asafa Powell, attempted to give chase, but that lasted only a few strides then quickly slowed succumbing to the ankle injury that was reported earlier. Patton, meanwhile, crossed the line in 37.92 taking over the world lead from Jamaica who had run 38.10 in an earlier meet. A second US squad of Terrance Trammell, Mark Jelks, Ivory Williams and Mike Rogers took second in 38.36 just edging out the Olympic silver medal team from Trinidad (38.37 here) anchored by Olympic 100 silver medalist Richard Thompson.<\/p>\n

The women continued the theme of “redemption” as leadoff Lauryn Williams repeated Dix’s performance by blazing the turn and giving the women a lead they would never relinquish. Allyson Felix held form before Jamaican Kerron Stewart tried to bring her team back on the third leg. Games gold medalist Shelly Ann Fraser attempted to do the same on anchor, but current world leader, Carmelita Jeter, turned on the jets and ran away from Fraser on her way to leading the US squad to a 42.40 victory and world lead over Jamaica’s 42.77.<\/p>\n

Jamaica notched a win of their own, however, as their women set a world best in the Sprint Medley Relay (3:34.56 ) as Kenia Sinclair (1:57.43) outran Hazel Clark (1:58.03) on the anchor leg. But hopes of any further victories were put to rest with two convincing victories by US 4×4 squads. The women started off with Monica Hargrove (51.9) handing a lead over to Natasha Hastings (51.0) who held it in spite of running with only one shoe for the majority of the race. That effectively ended the race as Allyson Felix (49.64) and Sanya Richards (50.52) finished the race without challenge. The winning time of 3:23.08 being another world leading performance.<\/p>\n

The men finished the day off with another world leading victory (2:59.78) as Kerron Clement (45.7), Angelo Taylor (44.6), David Neville (45.27) and Lashawn Merritt (44.26) stayed ahead of a tenacious Behamian squad of Andrea Williams (46.4), Michael Mathieu (45.3), Nathaniel McKinney (44.24), and Chris Brown (44.35) who were second in 3:00.29 gamely holding off the USA Blue team of Torrence (46.0), Everhart (44.8), Spearmon (45.50) and Williamson (44.25). Their 3:00.58 showing just how deep the US is in the quarter mile.<\/p>\n

As I said at the start of this post, it is only April and there is much track and field left to be run. But today did prove two things. 1) That having one great meet does not make for domination. 2) As I said in a previous post, there’s no need to panic over US sprinting!<\/p>\n

More on Penn and Drake coming up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s April. Teams for this year’s World Championships won’t be chosen until June. The World championships themselves won’t be held until the end of August in Berlin Germany. But this year’s Penn Relays was billed as a series of rematches between the US and Jamaica! There has been much hype about Jamaica taking over as the world’s sprint power since they won the Men’s 100, 200 and 4×1 and the Women’s 100 and 200 in Beijing. So much so that USATF CEO Doug Logan has had talks with Jamaica’s federation about having a dual meet between the US and Jamaica. But if today’s Penn Relays was any indication, talk of the demise of US sprint supremacy may be just a bit premature as US squads dominated the “US vs The World” section of the Penn Relays and sent word that Beijing was merely that occasional hiccup that occurs occasionally on the world stage. US sprinters, still in the early stages of their preparation for the meets that really matter later in the season, showed up and through their performances said “don’t make the mistake of counting us out”. It started with the opening gun of the men’s 4×1 as Walter Dix gave notice that his negative wind 10.00 a couple of weeks ago was no fluke as he blazed the turn on the leadoff leg to give the US a lead it would never relinquish. After Shawn Crawford’s third leg proved that age is just a number, Doc Patton had clear sailing to the finish line. Jamaican anchor, Asafa Powell, attempted to give chase, but that lasted only a few strides then quickly slowed succumbing to the ankle injury that was reported earlier. Patton, meanwhile, crossed the line in 37.92 taking over the world lead from Jamaica who had run 38.10 in an earlier meet. A second US squad of Terrance Trammell, Mark Jelks, Ivory Williams and Mike Rogers took second in 38.36 just edging out the Olympic silver medal team from Trinidad (38.37 here) anchored by Olympic 100 silver medalist Richard Thompson. The women continued the theme of “redemption” as leadoff Lauryn Williams repeated Dix’s performance by blazing the turn and giving the women a lead they would never relinquish. Allyson Felix held form before Jamaican Kerron Stewart tried to bring her team back on the third leg. Games gold medalist Shelly Ann Fraser attempted to do the same on anchor, but current world leader, Carmelita Jeter, turned on the jets and ran away from Fraser on her way to leading the US squad to a 42.40 victory and world lead over Jamaica’s 42.77. Jamaica notched a win of their own, however, as their women set a world best in the Sprint Medley Relay (3:34.56 ) as Kenia Sinclair (1:57.43) outran Hazel Clark (1:58.03) on the anchor leg. But hopes of any further victories were put to rest with two convincing victories by US 4×4 squads. The women started off with Monica Hargrove (51.9) handing a lead over to Natasha Hastings (51.0) who held it in spite of running with only one shoe for the majority of the race. That effectively ended the race as Allyson Felix (49.64) and Sanya Richards (50.52) finished the race without challenge. The winning time of 3:23.08 being another world leading performance. The men finished the day off with another world leading victory (2:59.78) as Kerron Clement (45.7), Angelo Taylor (44.6), David Neville (45.27) and Lashawn Merritt (44.26) stayed ahead of a tenacious Behamian squad of Andrea Williams (46.4), Michael Mathieu (45.3), Nathaniel McKinney (44.24), and Chris Brown (44.35) who were second in 3:00.29 gamely holding off the USA Blue team of Torrence (46.0), Everhart (44.8), Spearmon (45.50) and Williamson (44.25). Their 3:00.58 showing just how deep the US is in the quarter mile. As I said at the start of this post, it is only April and there is much track and field left to be run. But today did prove two things. 1) That having one great meet does not make for domination. 2) As I said in a previous post, there’s no need to panic over US sprinting! More on Penn and Drake coming up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-2h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":291,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=291","url_meta":{"origin":141,"position":0},"title":"The Diamond League Needs Relays","author":"CHill","date":"March 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As I start to look ahead at the season, one of the first things I've taken a look at is the new Diamond League. Of course, as has become the trend in the sport, the meets tend to be abbreviated versions of a \"real\" track meet - various events left\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=291#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=311","url_meta":{"origin":141,"position":1},"title":"This Week\u2019s Big Meet \u2013 Penn Relays","author":"CHill","date":"April 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Penn Relays are on tap this weekend, and while the focus is on the return of Usain Bolt to Penn and the USA v World events the collegiate competition could be the most exciting with high powered programs from Florida, Oregon, LSU, Florida Sate and Texas A&M on hand.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Track and Field: 115th Penn Relays","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/3\/b\/2\/c\/Track_and_Field_0942.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1094,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1094","url_meta":{"origin":141,"position":2},"title":"Several Vets Will Be at Penn – Now It Starts","author":"CHill","date":"April 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Penn Relays time! Which means the end of the relay season and the unofficial start of the Road to London. Now things have actually gotten rolling a bit earlier this year with several big names throwing down some outstanding marks: Blake 9.90, Dix 9.85w, Spearmon 19.95, Reese 23' 4\",\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1094#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Relay Shadow right","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Relay-Shadow-right_thumb1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":476,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=476","url_meta":{"origin":141,"position":3},"title":"Penn Relay Pools are Out \u2013 No Bolt or Gay","author":"CHill","date":"April 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the highlights of the Penn Relays is the \u201cUSA vs. The World\u201d segment of relays \u2013 4x1, 4x4, Sprint Medley, Distance Medley. While all the relay teams have yet to be identified, the pools for the US and Jamaica have been released. While the names of those that\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=476#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh5.ggpht.com\/_q69RXDGKhjE\/TbhpCYjDtCI\/AAAAAAAAAKY\/2_9IzeI8Vn8\/image_thumb%5B1%5D.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":292,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=292","url_meta":{"origin":141,"position":4},"title":"Spring Track and Field","author":"CHill","date":"March 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Such a quiet week in the sport. Coming off the indoor season it takes a minute before the elite athletes really begin to roll. We probably won't see them really hit their stride until some time after the Penn Relays in late April. So what to do til then?No brainer\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=292#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Track and Field: Nike Outdoor Nationals","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/8\/a\/4\/7\/Track_and_Field_0d27.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":313,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=313","url_meta":{"origin":141,"position":5},"title":"Weekend Review \u2013 Penn","author":"CHill","date":"April 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As excited as I was that Penn was finally here, I feel somewhat let down now that it\u2019s over. Yes, there was a Bolt sighting. And yes there were huge crowds. But there were several things that I found disappointing. There were highlights. The Tennessee Lady Vols picked up where\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Track and Field: 116th Penn Relays","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/7\/a\/c\/2\/Track_and_Field_de4c.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}