{"id":508,"date":"2011-06-19T08:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T15:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=508"},"modified":"2011-06-19T08:52:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-19T15:52:00","slug":"nationals-preview-the-long-sprints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Preview \u2013 The Long Sprints"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a>\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 100 meters gets the headlines, but there are stars aplenty in the long sprints too. Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards, Jeremy Wariner, Wallace Spearmon and a host of new young talent make their homes here in the sprints above 100 meters. So let\u2019s take a look at how these star filled events should play themselves out. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Men\u2019s 200<\/h4>\n

More than any other sprint, this one will be controlled by the veterans. Tyson Gay has said that he will not run this event here \u2013 and possibly not at all this season. That leaves a quartet of vets that have all at one time or other been under 20.00. Two of them \u2013 Wallace Spearmon & Walter Dix \u2013 make a habit of it annually. On the other hand Justin Gatlin (suspension) & Xavier Carter (injuries\/fitness) haven\u2019t seen that territory for a while.<\/p>\n

Which leaves the door slightly ajar for a couple of youngsters \u2013 Mookie Salaam & Maurice Mitchell \u2013 to potentially slip in and get a ticket to South Korea. Only slightly ajar, however, as Spearmon and Dix are as good as it gets outside of Messrs. Bolt & Gay. Dix being the master of acceleration coming off the turn, Spearmon the ultimate late race king doing most of his damage in the final 50 meters. Look for both to go by the field up the straight with Spearmon edging by Dix in the final meters. <\/p>\n

That leaves the race for the final Daegu ticket between youth (Maurice Mitchell) & experience (Justin Gatlin). If NCAA Champion Mitchell can negotiate the turn here as well as he did in Des Moines, then youth will be served on this outing with Mitchell holding off Gatlin\u2019s late finish.<\/p>\n

The turn will also tell the tale for my 5th & 6th place finishers as any chance of anyone slipping into onto the Daegu team will depend on running a big tune in Eugene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
1.<\/td>\nWallace Spearmon<\/td>\n19.90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/td>\nWalter Dix<\/td>\n19.94<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/td>\nMaurice Mitchell<\/td>\n19.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.<\/td>\nJustin Gatlin<\/td>\n20.02<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/td>\nMookie Salaam<\/td>\n20.07<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6.<\/td>\nXavier Carter<\/td>\n20.09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Men\u2019s 400<\/h4>\n

There are two tales to this event \u2013 one on the track and one off the track. I will talk about the one the track tale today, the off the track tale after the meet. <\/p>\n

On the track this \u201cshould\u201d be Jeremy Wariner\u2019s race to lose. A month ago I would have simply said Wariner\u2019s race, as he started the season looking like his old self. But he\u2019s had a couple of hiccups lately, and I think the race will a bit closer than maybe it should be. Still, if Wariner can find his old self between 200 & 300 meters, then the stretch run should be for the final two tickets to Daegu. I\u2019m guessing that Wariner experiences some sort of flashback around that second turn and heads to South Korea as the US champion. <\/p>\n

Behind him will be a youth movement unlike any the US has seen since the late 80\u2019s. Typically collegians have it rough here, having spent a lot of energy trying to become NCAA champion. The issue here isn\u2019t that they NCAA\u2019s were tough for them, but that there aren\u2019t many one lap super vets around \u2013 especially those not running the 400 meters hurdles. So I\u2019m giving Tony McQuay the nod here, basically because he\u2019s the most rested just getting back to action before the NCAA\u2019s after an early season injury. He\u2019s still peaking and should be the best of the rest here. <\/p>\n

That should leave a battle reminiscent of the NCAA Championships with Berry, Hughes & Roberts all in pursuit of a plane ticket. Berry is the strongest of the three so gets my nod for the final World spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
1.<\/td>\nJeremy Wariner<\/td>\n44.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/td>\nTony McQuay<\/td>\n44.72<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/td>\nMike Berry <\/td>\n44.81<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.<\/td>\nJoey Hughes<\/td>\n44.83<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/td>\nGil Roberts<\/td>\n44.88<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6.<\/td>\nJordan Boase<\/td>\n44.92<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Women\u2019s 200<\/h4>\n

Typically discussion of this race starts and ends with Allyson Felix. But with a bye to Daegu in this event Felix should be running the 400 which will give her more options for Worlds \u2013 i.e. the ability to double should she choose to as well as securing her a spot on the 4×4 squad. <\/p>\n

Without Felix this is a wide open race, sort of. Shalonda Solomon has been waiting around awhile for an opportunity like this. And though her times so far have not been the best, she\u2019s suffered from bad luck with winds, her speed appears sharp and this is her best event in my opinion. The title is not immediately hers, however, as suddenly NCAA champion Kimberlyn Duncan looks to be a very formidable force.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going with experience over youth in this one and giving Solomon the nod \u2013 but a solid turn by Duncan could change that outcome. So could a solid curve by Bianca Knight who actually closed on one Allyson Felix in New York. All three of these women close well, so do the women that I think will make up the top six in this event, as I expect Lauryn Williams, Jeneba Tarmoh and Sanya Richards to join the fray. Williams and Richards should run well, but neither has been as sharp as they could be. I expect to see both much sharper in the Olympic year, but I\u2019m not sure this team is in the cards for either. for the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
1.<\/td>\nShalonda Solomon<\/td>\n22.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/td>\nKimberlyn Duncan<\/td>\n22.14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/td>\nBianca Knight<\/td>\n22.19<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.<\/td>\nLauryn Williams<\/td>\n22.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/td>\nJeneba Tarmoh<\/td>\n22.38<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6.<\/td>\nSanya Richards<\/td>\n22.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Women\u2019s 400<\/h4>\n

While Richards may have a hard time making the 200 team, she does have a bye in this event. And with her out look for Allyson Felix \u2013 already the world leader \u2013 to expert herself here. Felix did not look great in her last outing over this distance \u2013 51.54 in Eugene \u2013 but look for her to rectify that here.<\/p>\n

Behind her, this event could be titled \u201cThe Gangs All Here\u201d as the best of our quarter milers, sans Richards, should be in attendance. Debbie Dunn has been world class the past couple of seasons, I expect to see Francena McCorory & Jessica Beard step into 49-Land and join the truly elite this year \u2013 starting with this meet. <\/p>\n

There should be a lot of jockeying for position in the final stretch of this one, and the parade behind Felix could become jumbled beyond what I have here. Based on individual strength, however, I think this is the most \u201cpredictable\u201d finish that we should see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
1.<\/td>\nAllyson Felix<\/td>\n49.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/td>\nFrancena McCorory<\/td>\n49.70<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/td>\nDebbie Dunn<\/td>\n49.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.<\/td>\nJessica Beard<\/td>\n49.90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/td>\nNatasha Hastings<\/td>\n50.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6.<\/td>\nJoanna Atkins<\/td>\n50.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 100 meters gets the headlines, but there are stars aplenty in the long sprints too. Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards, Jeremy Wariner, Wallace Spearmon and a host of new young talent make their homes here in the sprints above 100 meters. So let\u2019s take a look at how these star filled events should play themselves […]<\/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-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-8c","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","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=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}