\n| Men\u2019s LJ<\/td>\n | WL: 27\u2019 4.75\u201d, Alain Bailey – JAM<\/td>\n | Best Entry: 27\u2019 4\u201d, Chris Noffke – AUS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Here\u2019s an event that should be ultra competitive. Noffke joined the 27 foot club with his 27\u2019 4″ last month \u2013 joining what has become a very talented group of long jumpers in Australia. Among them is Fabrice Lapierre. A legal 27\u2019 4.75\u201d jumper who blasted a huge 28\u2019 1.5\u201d mark last year \u2013 albeit windy (+3.5). Both will get the opportunity to prove themselves against two of the best the event has seen in the last decade as Dwight Philips (USA) and Irving Saladino (PAN) have won every available championship since 2003 and sit =5th (Philips, 28\u2019 8.25\u201d) and 8th (Saladino, 28\u2019 7.75\u201d) all time. Philips seems to have gotten a second wind to his career the past couple of seasons as he\u2019s been jumping better than ever. He enters this competition as the favorite in my mind. Saladino has been less consistent at the higher levels, but still has the ability to bring it on the day. Watch for Lapierre, however. He was very consistent last year and has become a very strong competitor \u2013 and has shown that he is capable of hitting something big.<\/p>\n The above should produce the best match ups on the day. There are two other events that bear watching, not so much for their competitiveness as to see how well two athletes will perform. <\/p>\n One is the men\u2019s pole vault. Aussie Steven Hooker has already vaulted 19\u2019 4.75\u201d outdoors this season. Doing so back in February. Indoors, however, he vaulted a huge 19\u2019 8.5\u201d at Worlds and is on a mission this year for the 20 foot barrier. Being very consistent at well over 19 feet this year, any venue could produce a huge vault given good conditions. His competitions are something to watch as he attempts to join the great Sergei Bubka over 20 feet. <\/p>\n The other man to watch will be Usain Bolt. Bolt is entered in the 200 here and has already gone 19.56 this season. He ran 9.86 earlier in the week in Daegu after watching Tyson Gay run 19.41 in this event on the straight in Birmingham. With no head to head\u2019s between the two, we will have to compare notes as they compete in separate venues. So Shanghai will give us the next salvo in the Bolt v Gay lead up to a showdown.<\/p>\n With no one else in the field having a PR under 20.39, this will be a solo run for Bolt, but he could lead two interesting entrants to new PR\u2019s. One is young sprinter Ryan Bailey (USA) who has been compared to Bolt as both are very tall sprinters. Bailey got his first win on foreign soil last week winning the 200 in Daegu which should help his confidence going into this race. The other that I expect to PR is 400 hurdler Angelo Taylor. Taylor is the second fastest entrant in the race having run 20.39 earlier this season. Angelo has been using this \u201coff year\u201d to run a bit of everything and appears to be in stellar shape. It will be interesting to see just how fast both he and Bailey will run. I suspect that Bolt will run somewhere near 19.40 so if either can attempt to stay close early they could get caught up in the race and get near 20.00. <\/p>\n Should be a good set of competitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The second of the 14 meet Diamond League meets will be run tomorrow in Shanghai China. Overall Shanghai has a solid set of fields as the series seems to be hitting it\u2019s stride. We should be getting a Liu Xiang sighting tomorrow and a feel for how well his comeback is coming. But while the hurdles have been the highlight of the meet in the past, taking on Diamond League status this year has brought several strong fields to China. Following are the events that I think bring the best set of match ups to Shanghai. Women\u2019s 100 WL: 10.94, Carmelita Jeter – USA Best Entry: 10.94, Carmelita Jeter – USA Perhaps the best early season sprint matchup of the season \u2013 men or women \u2013 as #2 all time Jeter goes head to head with current World and Olympic champion Shelly Ann Fraser (JAM). Jeter ran her PR 10.64 on this same track late last season, so we know the track is capable of delivering a fast time. Fraser set her PR of 10.73 while winning gold in Berlin. The race will be a contrast in styles as Fraser is a classic starter, and Jeter a classic finisher. We should see Fraser burst from the blocks and separate early with Jeter kicking in the jets mid race. The race will come down to who can execute their weakness better \u2013 can Jeter stay close early and can Fraser maintain form late. Fraser has yet to run a 100 this year while Jeter has already run under 11.00. Advantage Jeter, who should run under 10.90 tomorrow. Women\u2019s 400H WL: 54.02, Lashinda Demus – USA Best Entry: Lashinda Demus – USA This race features the current world leader, Demus against reigning World and Olympic champion Melaine Walker (JAM) and sub 53.00 performer Sheena Tosta (USA). Walker has won her titles with a very strong finishing kick in the final stretch \u2013 a kick that found her running past a fading Demus last year in Berlin. 2009 was Demus\u2019 first back from maternity leave, so we will see if having a full season and off season under her belt will help late in the race. Even though this is the first race for both Walker and Tosta, both are more than capable of coming in and running fast. Demus should be the first half leader. How well all three run the final turn should have a strong bearing on the outcome of this race. Watch for stumbles over hurdles down the stretch as all three should pressure each other. Demus has the advantage having already competed this year, but Walker is tough when close late. Men\u2019s 400 WL: 44.81, Calvin Smith – USA Best Entry: 44.86 \u2013 Ben Offereins – AUS This race could tell us a lot about the immediate future of this event with all eyes focused on Jeremy Wariner. Jeremy opened his season earlier this month with a narrow loss to David Neville \u2013 who is also in this race. Wariner\u2019s time was a pedestrian (for him) 45.47. With Lashawn Merritt gone from the event, Wariner should immediately be declared King. But with sub par performances all last season, and starting this season with a loss to a sprinter he would have beaten easily in past seasons, there are questions about where Wariner is at this stage of his career. The race will also tell us just how good Offereins is. He ran very fast very early, having run sub 45 way back in February \u2013 dropping his PR from 45.69 all the way down to 44.86. Will we see further improvement or a reversion back into the 45\u2019s? Another 44 and he could emerge from China as a serious contender in this event. Britain\u2019s Michael Bingham could also stake a claim as a contender in this race. He has a best of 44.74 run last year and his 45.14 run just over a week ago is both close to the 45sec barrier and better than both Wariner and Neville so far this season. This event is waiting for someone to take charge. I think that the winner here could have a lot to say about who controls the rest of the season. Men\u2019s LJ WL: 27\u2019 4.75\u201d, Alain Bailey – JAM Best Entry: 27\u2019 4\u201d, Chris Noffke – AUS Here\u2019s an event that should be ultra competitive. Noffke joined the 27 foot club with his 27\u2019 4″ last month \u2013 joining what has become a very talented group of long jumpers in Australia. Among them is Fabrice Lapierre. A legal 27\u2019 4.75\u201d jumper who blasted a huge 28\u2019 1.5\u201d mark last year \u2013 albeit windy (+3.5). Both will get the opportunity to prove themselves against two of the best the event has seen in the last decade as Dwight Philips (USA) and Irving Saladino (PAN) have won every available championship since 2003 and sit =5th (Philips, 28\u2019 8.25\u201d) and 8th (Saladino, 28\u2019 7.75\u201d) all time. Philips seems to have gotten a second wind to his career the past couple of seasons as he\u2019s been jumping better than ever. He enters this competition as the favorite in my mind. Saladino has been less consistent at the higher levels, but still has the ability to bring it on the day. Watch for Lapierre, however. He was very consistent last year and has become a very strong competitor \u2013 and has shown that he is capable of hitting something big. The above should produce the best match ups on the day. There are two other events that bear watching, not so much for their competitiveness as to see how well two athletes will perform. One is the men\u2019s pole vault. Aussie Steven Hooker has already vaulted 19\u2019 4.75\u201d outdoors this season. Doing so back in February. Indoors, however, he vaulted a huge 19\u2019 8.5\u201d at Worlds and is on a mission this year for the 20 foot barrier. Being very consistent at well over 19 feet this year, any venue could produce a huge vault given good conditions. His competitions are something to watch as he attempts to join the great Sergei Bubka over 20 feet. The other man to watch will be Usain Bolt. Bolt is entered in the 200 here and has already gone 19.56 this season. He ran 9.86 earlier in the week in Daegu after watching Tyson Gay run 19.41 in this event on the straight in Birmingham. With no head to head\u2019s between the two, we will have to compare notes as they compete in separate venues. So Shanghai will give us the next salvo in the Bolt v Gay lead up to a showdown. With no one else in the field having a PR under 20.39, this will be a solo run for Bolt, but he could lead two interesting entrants to new PR\u2019s. One is young sprinter Ryan Bailey (USA) who has been compared to Bolt as both are very tall sprinters. Bailey got his first win on foreign soil last week winning the 200 in Daegu which should help his confidence going into this race. The other that I expect to PR is 400 hurdler Angelo Taylor. Taylor is the second fastest entrant in the race having run 20.39 earlier this season. Angelo has been using this \u201coff year\u201d to run a bit of everything and appears to be in stellar shape. It will be interesting to see just how fast both he and Bailey will run. I suspect that Bolt will run somewhere near 19.40 so if either can attempt to stay close early they could get caught up in the race and get near 20.00. Should be a good set of competitions.<\/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-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-5k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":597,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=597","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":0},"title":"2011 in Review \u2013 Women\u2019s 100 Meters","author":"CHill","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The women\u2019s 2011 season couldn\u2019t have been more different than the men\u2019s season if it had been scripted that way. The top women all had marks on the board by early May as defending World champion Shelly Ann Fraser (JAM) opening up over 200 with a 22.69 (Apr 16) &\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"100\"","block_context":{"text":"100","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=100"},"img":{"alt_text":"Carmelita Jeter Gold medalist Carmelita Jeter of United States celebrates on the podium with her medal for the women's 100 metres during day four of the 13th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Daegu Stadium on August 30, 2011 in Daegu, South Korea.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www1.pictures.zimbio.com\/gi\/Carmelita%2BJeter%2B13th%2BIAAF%2BWorld%2BAthletics%2BzCmfUINIHhTl.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1189,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1189","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":1},"title":"Liu (12.97) and Dibaba (3:57.77) in Shanghai","author":"CHill","date":"May 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Doha Diamond League event set a standard that may be difficult to match. And it didn't help that the weather wasn't very cooperative in Shanghai, as it was rainy throughout, keeping performances down.That made the world leading races by Genzebe Dibaba (ETH) and Liu Xiang (CHN) that much more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Dibaba\"","block_context":{"text":"Dibaba","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=dibaba"},"img":{"alt_text":"Liu Xiang ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Liu-Xiang-_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=331","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":2},"title":"Hurdlers Oliver and Demus Highlight Shanghai","author":"CHill","date":"May 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Solid results in the recently completed Shanghai leg of the Diamond League though not as \u201chot\u201d as many were anticipating. Glancing around the internet many are decrying the Shanghai track as \u201cslow\u201d because of many of the marks. However, this is the same track that produced 10.64 for Carmellita Jeter\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":235,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=235","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":3},"title":"100’s Sizzle in Shanghai – Gay 9.69, Jeter 10.64","author":"CHill","date":"September 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The season is supposed to be winding down, but a couple of sprinters that didn't have the success they had hoped for in Berlin seem to be trying to make a point lately.The promoters of the Shanghai Grand Prix wanted desperately to have Usain Bolt compete in this meet. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"12th IAAF World Athletics Championships - Day Two","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/4\/a\/9\/2\/12th_IAAF_World_6781.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1855,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1855","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":4},"title":"Kirani James’ 44.02 Highlights Shanghai DL","author":"CHill","date":"May 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Perhaps Doha raised the bar a bit high, but I didn't come away from Shanghai with the same WOW factor that I had following the Diamond League opener. A nice set of marks were turned in, but that special something was missing in most of the events on the track.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Fraser\"","block_context":{"text":"Fraser","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=fraser"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kirani James","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Kirani-James_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1852,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1852","url_meta":{"origin":330,"position":5},"title":"Shanghai Preview","author":"CHill","date":"May 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Borlee\"","block_context":{"text":"Borlee","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=borlee"},"img":{"alt_text":"Placeholder","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Placeholder_thumb1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","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=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |