Best and Worst of Track and Field 2014

Well, they said this was an "off year" in T&F.
Really?

Well, as you'll read here, there WERE some "off" happenings, but there were at least as many "on" moments as well!

Let's start with the Best Season.
Yes, I said "season"!
As you all know, I totally separate the INdoor season from the OUTdoor season.
(Although this Best and Worst will cover BOTH seasons!)

It was INdoors!
You had Renaud Lavillenie removing Sergey Bubka from the record books.
You had Genzebe Dibaba crushing 3 WR's!
You had Galen Rupp getting 2 American Records.
Mary Cain, still then 17, won races and ran fast times against quality fields.

This doesn't mean OUTdoors was the "Worst" season.
It just means that INdoors was better!

What were the Best Events this year?
In no particular order, they were the Men's and Women's Pole Vault, the Men's High Jump, the Women's 1500 and 1 Mile, the Women's 3000 and 2 Mile, and the Women's Discus Throw.
PV records were broken in several categories--the Men's WR, the Women's INdoor Collegiate, the Men's and Women's INdoor HS, and the Women's OUTdoor HS.
While the Men's HJ WR survived several great battles, just the fact that the best 3-6 jumpers met OFTEN, and were almost always at the top of their game gave much entertainment to fans everywhere.
The Women's 1500 and 1 Mile produced several exciting races, and some shocking upsets!
(Well, maybe Jenny Simpson's great year wasn't "shocking"!  LOL)
With Genzebe Dibaba's 3:55.17 solo effort, and Cain's wins and times INdoors added to the mix, it made for a long thrilling year for Middle Distance buffs.
Same can be said for the Women's 3000 and 2 Mile.
You had a good INdoor battle between Sally Kipyego and Simpson, WR's at both distances (in separate races!) INdoors by Dibaba.
Then you had 2 or 3 GREAT 2 Mile races, in the US and Europe, with VERY deep fields!
Finally, you saw TWO losses by the "unbeatable" Sandra Perkovic to Gia Lewis-Smallwood, who, at 35, had her best year, shattering the AR!

So what were the WORST events?
I pick the Men's 5000, as no one ran really fast OUTdoors, and most races were WALK, then sprint the last 300.  BORING!!
Add the Men's 400H.  No fast races, and no real standout.
Although it WAS interesting watching the progress of 400H rookie Ashton Eaton!
This last event might seem to not fit here.
I choose the Women's Shot Put!
Yes, Valerie Adams dominated, adding to a legendary winning streak.
But that's why I chose it!
She had NO competition!
They were pretty much just a series of exhibitions, and the marks weren't that impressive, even for Adams!

Best Shockers?
How about Emma Coburn beating most of the Africans, and sometimes ALL of them, and getting the AR to boot?
There was also the aforementioned wins by GLS over Perkovic.
And while you maybe expected it to happen---eventually!---finding out Lavillenie broke Bubka's WR was a mind-bending moment!

The WORST shockers?
How about ANY drug bust?!

So, what was the WORST transition from INdoors to OUTdoors?
I'll pick Dibaba!
After THREE WR's INdoors, she did almost nothing OUTdoors!
She ran okay, but after what she did INdoors, expectations were super high for her continuing her record rampage OUTdoors!
BIG disappointment!
Other poor transitions were by Lavillenie and Mary Cain!
Renaud performed well, but where were those OUTdoor 20 footers?
Cain had an okay excuse (finishing her life as a High Schooler, starting college), but really, couldn't she have kept her word, and raced in Stockholm and Zurich?

Best Book Title?
Easily, Nick Symmonds's "Life Outside the Oval Office".

Best T&F Movie not released yet?
There are 2--though 1 is coming VERY shortly!
There's Alexi Pappas STARRING in her own movie, Tracktown!
She plays a---runner!  (Well, duh!!)
Then there's Kevin Costner's McFarland USA, in which he coaches a XC team of misfits!
Both are MUCH anticipated!!

Best new blogger?
Have you read the five (so far!) posts on Morolake Akinosun's new blog?
Please do!
She's a fascinating person, and a wonderful writer!!

Did you read my last post, called Morality of T&F Message Boards?
I wrote about the T&FN MB and the Forum on Let's Run.

Well, here's both the Best AND Worst feature of the latter's MB.
Freedom of Speech!!
(And I ain't joking!!)

About T&FN's website, here's my picks for Best and Worst features of the site.
The Best is having access to the Archives of the eTN (Track Newsletter).
Of course, you have to pay for it, but I can tell you, if you're into marks, you can't find better research material!  (More on that a bit later!  LOL)
The TN's go from January 2002 to the latest issue!
I also like their front page news articles.
You discover lots of great info there....sometimes before you see it on Twitter!  LOL
Lastly, I'd choose their INdoor lists!
NOT their "absolute" lists, which contain BOTH INdoor and OUTdoor marks, leading to CONFUSION!!!

T&FN's Worst features on their website?
The above-noted combining of the INdoor and OUTdoor lists is Numero Uno!!
Their MB, as I said in my previous post, IS better than Let's Run's, BUT....it's not perfect!!
Lastly, the site has technical problems way too often!
(Other NON-T&F-related sites don't have nearly as many tech problems!)

I know injury played a factor, but the Worst 1st Year of college was Sarah Baxter's!
She came to the University of Oregon, supposed to be a MAJOR player in her Freshman year.
Especially in Cross Country, where she was a HS LEGEND for her 4 years at Simi Valley HS (CA), going undefeated....until that iconic race at NXN against Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny.
But for some reason, she never ran XC at UO this fall!
(Hope she comes back for track!)

Speaking of Cranny, I pick her's as the BEST first year as a college athlete!
She was first Frosh at NCAA's, and she won or placed high in all of her races over longer distances than her normal Mile!

What was the Best Meet of 2014?
World Relays, hands down!
A new concept, great atmosphere, and some World Records (and National Records!).

And being a distance fan mostly, I also choose the Payton Jordan meet, where you had EIGHT hours of non-stop quality races between 800 and 10000 meters!

The Worst Meets?
There were 2 DL's--Rome and Stockholm--whose "diamonds" didn't shine this year!
Also, the World Indoor Championships were less than they should have been, given that it's a WC!!

Best Crash to the Track?
That award goes to......Shannon Rowbury!
Okay, so Jenny Simpson ALSO crashed to the track, but watch that video again!
I CRINGE every time I see it.
I'm just happy Shannon survived!!

Speaking of videos, my pick for the Best T&F Video goes to ESPN's "Catching Kayla".
Please watch that!
Even Shalane Flanagan was moved to tears by it, and said she was greatly inspired by it!
(I'll be reporting any marks I find from Kayla's Frosh year at Tennessee's Lipscomb College!)

Still on videos---of a sort--- let's pick the Best and Worst that Flotrack had to offer us in 2014.
The Best was the livestream of those 8 hours of Payton Jordan!
It worked perfectly, the announcing was decent, and it cost me just $19.99, the price of a month of Flotrack.
(How much would you have paid if you WENT to the meet?)
The Worst was their Beer Mile!
Come on, guys and gals, do you really think people want to watch some noted athletes vomiting after their "race"??
I didn't watch it, but I caught a couple of brief recaps of it to convince me it was THE worst, on MANY levels!

While we're at it, let's call that Beer Mile T&F's Most Embarrassing Moment of 2014!
(Especially knowing that lots of otherwise "sane" people actually LOVED it!!  Jeez!!)

Best Scandal in our favorite sport?
Pick from among the Rita Jeptoo drug bust, the USATF INdoor Championships fiasco (and its lengthy aftermath!), and IAAF's choosing Doha as the site of the 2019 WC's over....Eugene!!

The Best Bomb thrown at USATF??
Lauren Fleshman's, of course!
Please Google her BEAST of an article!
It'll fire you up all over again!!
Thank you, Lauren, for Speaking Truth to Power!!

2014's Most JOYFUL moment?
I pick Alysia Montano "racing" the 800 at USATF while 34 weeks pregnant!!
She ran 2:32.13 for the 800, which is FASTER than the pace run by Paula Radcliffe in her 2:15:25 WR Marathon!!
And yes, she wore a flower in her hair!
(And just weeks later, had a beautiful baby born!)

Getting to the end, so let';s finish with a bit of "humor"!

The Best NON-Running news?
Mary Cain has a boyfriend!!

The Worst NON-Running news?
Lolo Jones is still a virgin!!

And last but certainly not least?
The Best Blog about T&F Records and Marks?

Well, duhhhhhhh!!!  LOL