{"id":621,"date":"2011-12-09T18:03:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-10T02:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=621"},"modified":"2011-12-22T13:33:22","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T21:33:22","slug":"the-best-performers-of-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":"The Best Performers of 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a>December is already a third gone \u2013 not much time left in this year. As a matter of fact the indoor season is already getting started! My how time flies when you\u2019re having fun!<\/p>\n

So before the month gets away, and Baby New Year shows up, I want to give out some kudos to athletes that I feel really got the job done in 2011. I\u2019m going to call them \u201cThe Best of 2011\u201d. Some categories are a bit nontraditional \u2013 Best Start for example – while others will probably be seen on other lists \u2013 like Best Performance.<\/p>\n

Just a bit of fun as we wind down the year, and a chance to hand out a little praise. So without further ado let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Start, Male \u2013 Asafa Powell<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

He may have difficulty holding the true studs off at the finish, but Powell is still the fastest man out of the blocks. It wasn\u2019t an easy win this year though. Countryman Steve Mullings was vying to take over the title, but his suspension takes him out of the running. Ditto Mike Rodgers who has a great get away, but fell to the testers a la Mullings. The man who may take the title in earnest next year however, is Jamaica\u2019s Nesta Carter. The relay leadoff man is my #2 and rising.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Start, Female \u2013 English Gardener<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This was a tough one to decide. Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce still has a nice getaway, but it was not as dominant as in the past. And in the hurdles it was Sally Pearson ahead at the first hurdle and never looking back. But the woman that simply blazed out of the blocks in 2011 was Oregon frosh English Gardener. The Powell\/Carter of the women\u2019s 100, the gun goes off and Gardener is meters up on her opponents before they come out of drive phase! A little finishing strength and she could be the surprise of 2012!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Finish, Male \u2013 Kirani James<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I know, some were probably expecting Usain Bolt or Yohan Blake \u2013 and both were in the running. And Ngoni Makusha\u2019s come from behind win to take the NCAA 100 title had Carl Lewis written all over it. For me, however, James invoked visions of Lee Evans and Butch Reynolds \u2013 power down the straight while reeling cats in, over and over! And the stretch run between James and Merritt in Daegu was vintage track and field.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Finish, Female \u2013 Carmelita Jeter<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Take off the \u201cer\u201d and you have \u201cJet\u201d and that\u2019s just what Carmelita was in full flight \u2013 a jet. She ran 10.70 and 10.78 from behind \u2013 as she did when she ran 10.64 & 10.67 in \u201909. Only VCB (Veronica Campbell Brown) is in her league over the final 50 of the 100 \u2013 and \u201cJet\u201d put that to bed in Daegu! Now if she can just develop a semblance of a consistent start, to go with that last 60 overdrive could we see FloJo challenged?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Track Performance, Male \u2013 Yohan Blake, 19.26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m still in awe of anyone that runs under 1:42 in the 800 \u2013 that\u2019s just a stud\u2019s performance. And David Rudisha did it again with his 1:42.33 \u2013 simply awesome. But as they would have said back in the day, \u201c19.2 ain\u2019t no joke\u201d! As a matter of fact it\u2019s the #2 performance ever. And to top it off he did it from behind while beating a 19.56. Just a few years ago 19.32 was the stuff of legend. Now? Nuff said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Track Performance, Female \u2013 Vivian Cheruiyot, 14:20.87<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This was another tough call for me. Sally Pearson\u2019s 12.28 is literally WR territory in my mind \u2013 as only 3 Eastern Bloc athletes have run faster. This on the heels of a 12.36 semi \u2013 only Gail Devers among Western women has run faster. But after much internal debate I\u2019m giving the nod to Cheruiyot coming as it did as the second half of a 10,000\/5000 double. Both women performed their best on the brightest stage, but Vivian gave an all time performance over 5000 after running a quality 10,000.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Field Performer, Male \u2013 Christian Taylor, 17.96m\/58\u2019 11.25\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is actually one of my favorite events, and it\u2019s great to see a lot of young talent coming forward. The best of these appears to be Mr. Taylor. For starters he\u2019s made a habit of finding his best jumps late in the competition. And none was any better than this one, as it was in response to a 58 foot jump by defending champion Idowu. Taylor kept his composure and bounded out to the #9 performance in history to become the #5 all-time performer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Best Field Performer, Female \u2013 Betty Heidler, 79.42m\/260\u2019 6.75\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A WR trumps all, and that\u2019s what Heidler produced in 2011. She didn\u2019t just break the record however; she smashed it by a whopping 1.12m\/3\u2019 8\u201d! Now that\u2019s leaving your mark. While others are trying desperately to get into WR territory in various events, she hit this one out of the park.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most Improved, Male \u2013 Mo Farah<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In a world dominated by Ethiopian and Kenyan distance runners, Farah moved to the head of the class in 2011. His British Record 12:53.11 lead the world over 5000 meters, and he backed it up with gold in the event in Daegu. He took an oh so close silver at Worlds in the 10,000, though he showed even more improvement there on the clock \u2013 dropping his pre 2011 best from 27:28.86 down to a stunning 26:46.57! He could be the big \u201chome crowd\u201d medal winner with the Olympic Games being in London in 2012!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most Improved, Female \u2013 Morgan Uceny<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet another tough one for me to sort out \u2013 and one I may get some argument on. Heidler got consideration \u2013 you have to when you set a WR. But the WR was a big outlier for her. It really came down to Pearson & Uceny. Pearson dropped to 12.28 from a pre-2011 best of 12.50, and she was the picture of perfection time after time. Uceny dropped to 4:00.06 (tantalizingly close to sub4) from a pre-2011 best of 4:02.40, while running textbook perfect races repeatedly. At the end of the day, I decided that the improvement Uceny\u2019s race \u2013 both in terms of becoming one of the best \u201ctactician\u2019s\u201d on the circuit, as well as her improvement in times \u2013 slightly outweighed Pearson\u2019s improvement in consistency. Slightly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s my list. I\u2019m sure there may be some disagreement \u2013 means we have more stars in this sport than we spend time talking about! And that\u2019s a good thing. I have a few more things I want to look back on before Christmas gets . Much to look at before we close the door on 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December is already a third gone \u2013 not much time left in this year. As a matter of fact the indoor season is already getting started! My how time flies when you\u2019re having fun! So before the month gets away, and Baby New Year shows up, I want to give out some kudos to athletes […]<\/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":[13,14,17,10,16,11,12,9,15,18],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blake","tag-cheruiyot","tag-farah","tag-gardener","tag-heidler","tag-james","tag-jeter","tag-powell","tag-taylor","tag-uceny"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-a1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","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=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}