marks<\/a> turned in at this meet, none more so than Curtis Mitchell\u2019s (USA) 19.99 200 meters in his semi final. The mark was no fluke as he returned to run 20.06w in the final as he dominated both his semi and the final \u2013 second place 20.46. Mitchell was a key to Texas A&M\u2019s national championship run this year and had already run 20.23 and 20.27 during the collegiate season. He\u2019s one of the bright young American sprint hopes sitting on the horizon and based on his sub 20 could make an impact over the next couple of seasons. <\/p>\nAnother superlative individual mark was turned in by Ronnie Ash (USA). Ash was the collegiate leader all season until he hit a blip at nationals finishing second in what was a very sub par race for him. Since then he has run well internationally finishing high among the elite\u2019s and bringing his PR down to 13.19. He showed what could be a glimpse of the near future at this meet with a 12.98w clocking over the hurdles. Although the race was wind aided, it made him only the 13th person in history to run under 13 seconds under any conditions. Like Mitchell, Ash appears to be in position to make an international impact, sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
The other outstanding mark at NACAC was the 4×4 relay mark turned in by the young US team. These \u201ckids\u201d turned in a world leading mark of 2:58.83 on the legs of LaJerald Betters (44.6), O\u2019Neal Wilder (45.5), Joey Hughes (44.53) and Tavaris Tate (44.23). Only seven countries outside of the United States have ever run a faster time! We look to be well set for 4×4 legs for quite some time to come. <\/p>\n
The other mark that I was remiss in mentioning happened just a couple of days ago in Paris. While extolling on some of the fine races that occurred in Paris I didn\u2019t comment on the men\u2019s 800. In part because Abubaker Kaki (SUD) really didn\u2019t bring anything to the table remotely looking capable of challenging David Rudisha who is taking the event in another direction. Behind Kaki in 4th, however, was Andrew Wheating, running his first international 800 meter race. Wheating went into the race with a PR of 1:45.03, and a season\u2019s best of 1:45.69. He had, however, recently set a PR in the mile of 3:51.74 and looked ready to improve upon his 800. That he did in fine fashion in Paris running 1:44.62 in his first Diamond League race. More importantly he outran Nick Symmonds (1:44.93) and looks ready to assume the mantle of America\u2019s top middle distance runner \u2013 something we desperately need heading into the upcoming championship cycle.<\/p>\n
As I said it\u2019s been a busy week in the sport, but I didn\u2019t want to miss these efforts, as all bode well for US fortunes going forward. With the World Jr Championships on tap beginning tomorrow and the Diamond League\u2019s Monaco meet this week, there will be a lot more to discuss. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past week or so results have been flying in so fast and deep that there have a few things that I have overlooked mentioning as I\u2019ve tried to comment on various competitions. One of the biggest was the results of the NACAC Under 23 competition held last weekend \u2013 a regional (North and Central America) meet highlighting the areas youngsters. There were lots of sterling marks turned in at this meet, none more so than Curtis Mitchell\u2019s (USA) 19.99 200 meters in his semi final. The mark was no fluke as he returned to run 20.06w in the final as he dominated both his semi and the final \u2013 second place 20.46. Mitchell was a key to Texas A&M\u2019s national championship run this year and had already run 20.23 and 20.27 during the collegiate season. He\u2019s one of the bright young American sprint hopes sitting on the horizon and based on his sub 20 could make an impact over the next couple of seasons. Another superlative individual mark was turned in by Ronnie Ash (USA). Ash was the collegiate leader all season until he hit a blip at nationals finishing second in what was a very sub par race for him. Since then he has run well internationally finishing high among the elite\u2019s and bringing his PR down to 13.19. He showed what could be a glimpse of the near future at this meet with a 12.98w clocking over the hurdles. Although the race was wind aided, it made him only the 13th person in history to run under 13 seconds under any conditions. Like Mitchell, Ash appears to be in position to make an international impact, sooner rather than later. The other outstanding mark at NACAC was the 4×4 relay mark turned in by the young US team. These \u201ckids\u201d turned in a world leading mark of 2:58.83 on the legs of LaJerald Betters (44.6), O\u2019Neal Wilder (45.5), Joey Hughes (44.53) and Tavaris Tate (44.23). Only seven countries outside of the United States have ever run a faster time! We look to be well set for 4×4 legs for quite some time to come. The other mark that I was remiss in mentioning happened just a couple of days ago in Paris. While extolling on some of the fine races that occurred in Paris I didn\u2019t comment on the men\u2019s 800. In part because Abubaker Kaki (SUD) really didn\u2019t bring anything to the table remotely looking capable of challenging David Rudisha who is taking the event in another direction. Behind Kaki in 4th, however, was Andrew Wheating, running his first international 800 meter race. Wheating went into the race with a PR of 1:45.03, and a season\u2019s best of 1:45.69. He had, however, recently set a PR in the mile of 3:51.74 and looked ready to improve upon his 800. That he did in fine fashion in Paris running 1:44.62 in his first Diamond League race. More importantly he outran Nick Symmonds (1:44.93) and looks ready to assume the mantle of America\u2019s top middle distance runner \u2013 something we desperately need heading into the upcoming championship cycle. As I said it\u2019s been a busy week in the sport, but I didn\u2019t want to miss these efforts, as all bode well for US fortunes going forward. With the World Jr Championships on tap beginning tomorrow and the Diamond League\u2019s Monaco meet this week, there will be a lot more to discuss.<\/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-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-5S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":253,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=253","url_meta":{"origin":364,"position":0},"title":"Final Look Back at 2009","author":"CHill","date":"December 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"With only a couple of weeks left in 2009, it's time to take a final look back on a very interesting season. Despite being a World Championship season, many events seemed to spur only average performances. But, as happens with regularity in this sport, there were those athletes and events\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"12th IAAF World Athletics Championships - Day Four","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/1\/b\/e\/e\/12th_IAAF_World_367c.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1262,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1262","url_meta":{"origin":364,"position":1},"title":"Early Weekend Results – Oslo \/ NCAA","author":"CHill","date":"June 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's only Friday, but we've already had enough track to fill a weekend - and we're just getting started! The early results are in, and while Oslo wasn't quite as hot as I had hoped, the \"kids\" we definitely ahead of expectations at the NCAA Championships! Let's start with Oslo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Adams\"","block_context":{"text":"Adams","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=adams"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pearson","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Pearson_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1359,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1359","url_meta":{"origin":364,"position":2},"title":"Trials Day 6 – Prelude to the Weekend","author":"CHill","date":"June 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There were only two finals today, as the bulk of today's activity involved heats and semis that will lead to the crescendo that is the final two days of the Trials. So let's talk about those finals then move on to the day\u2019s action. The women's shot was one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Camarena Williams\"","block_context":{"text":"Camarena Williams","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=camarena-williams"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emma Cooburn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Emma-Cooburn_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2743,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=2743","url_meta":{"origin":364,"position":3},"title":"Budapest Was As Good As Advertised","author":"CHill","date":"August 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Prior to the start of Budapest 2023, I foresaw this as potentially one of the greatest championships ever. The losses of several top athletes didn't deter me from this thought. Now that the meet has been run and the results are in, I would say that my original assessment was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Benjamin\"","block_context":{"text":"Benjamin","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=benjamin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/8B001528-F1AD-4A25-9251-85E8B3ABAC57_1_102_o-150x150.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1731,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1731","url_meta":{"origin":364,"position":4},"title":"2012 100m Rankings for 2012 – Men\/Women","author":"CHill","date":"December 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m going to try something different this year, in that I\u2019m going to go five deep for events as I rank them and present both the men & women simultaneously. Five Deep because in general that\u2019s really where the top athletes are in any given event. After that things usually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bailey\"","block_context":{"text":"Bailey","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=bailey"},"img":{"alt_text":"Usain Bolt","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Usain-Bolt_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1575,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1575","url_meta":{"origin":364,"position":5},"title":"Aries Merritt Best in Berlin","author":"CHill","date":"September 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"He doesn't get the biggest headlines - those seem to be reserved for Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. He hasn't had the greatest individual performance this season - that was easily David Rudisha's barrier breaking 1:40.91 800 in London. And he didn't have the greatest performance we've seen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Berlin\"","block_context":{"text":"Berlin","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=berlin"},"img":{"alt_text":"Aries Merritt","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Aries-Merritt_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","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=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}