\n| Brussels, Belgium<\/td>\n | Friday August 27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Links to the proposed entries are on the right. I have to say however, that after all the hype last year about the new Diamond League the sport has once again dropped the ball when it comes to marketing. This \u201cdebut\u201d is a bit of a let down, as several of the sport\u2019s top stars will not be in attendance \u2013 a point that I will continue to hammer unrelentingly over the course of the season, as we can\u2019t seem to get enough of our stars on the track at any given time. Let me change that, we can\u2019t seem to get our top stars on the track with any regularity!<\/p>\n It would have been nice to kick things off with Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Kenenisa Bekele, Abubaker Kaki, Carmelita Jeter, Valerie Villi, Dayron Robles and several others missing from this meet. I mean, how do you start what is supposed to be your flagship set of competitions and NOT have your star attraction on the start list? Or how about a couple of marquee matchups like Rudisha\/Kaki, Jeter\/Fraser, Vlasic\/Friedrich, or dare I say Bolt\/Gay. Hey, we\u2019ll take Gay\/Powell – #\u2019s 2 & 3 all time in a head to head before taking on Bolt, to get the juices flowing. <\/p>\n In yet another marketing faux paux, however, we get none of that. We were told that we were going to get plenty of Bolt, Gay & Powell in the Diamond League \u2013 the sprints being a central focus since Bolt is the face of the sport. But what we get in Doha is Powell and a lot of guys still trying to make a name. The track and field equivalent of Gladys Knight and the Pips minus Gladys Knight. Hard to sell tickets to a Gladys Knight and the Pips concert when just the Pips keep showing up! But this is what happens when A) you focus your marketing efforts around one individual, and B) you lose track of what makes the sport great \u2013 competition. Without your headliner ticket buyers lose interest. Ironically Bolt and Gay will both be competing within days of the Diamond League\u2019s debut \u2013 Gay in Manchester on Sunday, Bolt in Daegu on Tuesday. Just another case where the loose association of meets that seem to govern the sport are not working in the sport\u2019s favor. <\/p>\n When those in charge of track and field begin to focus on the fact that what the fans really want is head to head competition among the best athletes, and therefore put more emphasis on putting together complete events as opposed to individual names on the marquees, it will have a better chance of success as it attempts to capture the imagination of the world\u2019s sporting fans. Having said that, there are some athletes and match ups in Doha that should be presented\/sold to the public \u2013 and that is what I will focus on. If we\u2019re going to build a fan base we have to build exposure for more athletes. So for my money these are the athletes\/match ups I\u2019m most looking forward to in Doha:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| Men\u2019s 800 Meters<\/td>\n | WL \u2013 1:43.15, David Rudisha, KEN<\/td>\n | Best Entry: 1:43.15, David Rudisha, KEN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Rudisha opened his outdoor season with a 45.50 quarter mile, then took to the track for his 1:43.15 world leader. He should get a good race here from Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (RSA) #2 on the season at 1:45.41. More importantly, however, Mulaudzi has broken 1:43 himself sporting a 1:42.86 PR set last year in Rieti behind Rudisha\u2019s monster 1:42.01. If anyone else hopes to challenge it could be Cuban Yeimer Lopez who has a PR of 1:43.07. The real excitement of this race should be in the race against the clock, as Rudisha has shown the ability to run below 1:42. The question that I have for this race is just how close will he get to that barrier, as I expect Rudisha to move past Sebastian Coe (1:41.73) into the #2 all time position this year \u2013 and possibly challenge Wilson Kipketer\u2019s 1:41.11 WR. Definitely an athlete to keep an eye on this year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| Women\u2019s 400 Meters<\/td>\n | WL \u2013 50.32, Novlene Mills, JAM<\/td>\n | Best Entry: 50.32, Novlene Mills, JAM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The excitement of this race lies in the entry of Allyson Felix the three time world champion over 200 who looks to be making a serious foray into the 400 this year. She\u2019s going to be strongly tested in Doha with Olympic Champion Christine Ohuruogu (GBR), current world leader Novlene Mills (JAM), and World Indoor Champion Debbie Dunn (US) heading a strong field. Felix won this race last year (50.75) as part of her preparation for the 200. The aforementioned trio should make things a bit tougher this time around. Watch the final surge down the straight as Mills, Ohuruogu and Felix all tend to finish strongly. Hard to bet against Felix if she\u2019s close, however. If the weather cooperates we should see the season\u2019s first 49 second run. A win here could set Felix on a collision course with Sanya Richards for 400 supremacy this season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| Men\u2019s 400 Hurdles<\/td>\n | WL \u2013 47.72, Javier Culson, CUB<\/td>\n | Best Entry: 48.16, Angelo Taylor, USA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The majority of men in this race have seen Olympic and World Championship competition. Angelo Taylor (US) is a two time Olympic gold medalist and Kerron Clement (US) a two time World Champion. I\u2019m sure they, and the rest of the field, have had time to digest Javier Culson\u2019s world leader from last weekend and should be out to show that they are still in that league! Taylor\u2019s SB of 48.16 came two weeks ago as part of a 400\/400H double (45.05\/48.16) with less than an hour between. With a 20.39 also on the books this season, he\u2019s my favorite to win here. It won\u2019t be easy however, as Bershawn Jackson always brings his \u201cA\u201d game, and if Kerron Clement can navigate the final three hurdles clearly he will be tough down the final straight. While the head to heads in the 100 meters are rare, these guys go at it with regularity. If only we could get this kind of top level activity in more events. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| Women\u2019s Pole Vault<\/td>\n | WL \u2013 14\u2019 9.5\u201d, Kylie Hutson, USA<\/td>\n | Best Entry: 14\u2019 8\u201d, Lacy Janson, USA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n No the current marks are not that great. But I\u2019m including this event because of the presence of Anna Rogowska (POL) and the lack of Yelena Isinbayeva\u2019s presence in the event this year. Rogowska won last year\u2019s World Championships, defeating Isinbayeva. The only blemish on what was otherwise a perfect season for Yelena. Isinbayeva is not competing this year, however, taking something akin to a sabbatical from the sport. So having finally ascended to the top of the food chain after several years of hard work, I\u2019m looking to see how Rogowska does in the role of #1 without the almighty Yelena breathing down her neck. Doha could go a long way towards determining if she\u2019s now ready to become queen, or if the event has suddenly become wide open. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| Men\u2019s Shot Put<\/td>\n | WL \u2013 71\u2019 2.75\u201d, Ryan Whiting, USA<\/td>\n | Best Entry: 71\u2019 2\u201d, Christian Cantwell, USA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n I\u2019ve been a Cantwell fan<\/a> for some time and it was nice to see him finally exercise his demons in Berlin and get that elusive gold medal. Now that he has become a \u201cchampion\u201d he seems to be more relaxed out there \u2013 which could mean trouble for his competition and the all time lists. Cantwell\u2019s PR is a huge 73\u2019 11.5\u201d set during the 2004 season. He also threw 73\u2019 7.75\u201d in \u201806 \u2013 the last \u201coff year\u201d without a major championship. Only four men in history have thrown over 75 feet \u2013 Brian Oldfield, USA (75\u2019 0\u201d), Alessandro Andrei, ITA (75\u2019 2\u201d), Ulf Timmerman, GER (75\u2019 7.75\u201d) and WR holder Randy Barnes, US (75\u2019 10.25\u201d). I believe Cantwell has the ability to join that group. He should get a good push in that direction in Doha from Reese Hoffa (73\u2019 7\u201d) and Tomas Majewski (72\u2019) two men with huge PR\u2019s of their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally we get the start of the long awaited Diamond League. Fourteen meetings that begin in Asia, move to Europe, travel to the US, then journey back to Europe. The full schedule is as follows: Doha, Qatar Friday, May 14 Shanghai, China Sunday, May 23 Oslo, Norway Friday, June 4 Rome, Italy Thursday, June 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-5e","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","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=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} | | | | | |