With OUTdoors already upon us, let's not forget the past 4 months we spent INdoors watching History unfold.
In this post, I'll select my Athletes of the Year, Performances of the Year, the Events of the Year, as well as present assorted trivia from my T&F Record Book---all centered on the 2015 INdoor Season.
Athletes of the Year--Men
World
MO FARAH--Because I put most value on Records, and because there was just one Individual World Record broken this year, my AOY is Mo Farah. His 8:03.40 Two Mile WR was not only superior solo running, but look whose record he broke! Ken Bekele's 8:04.35 was a much-respected mark! And Farah negative splitting it---4:03.9-3:59.5---with no rabbit the second half---was distance racing at its very best!
US
BERNARD LAGAT--This was a toughie! Trayvon Bromell ran two fast 200's in 2 days. Marquis Dendy had a great LJ-TJ double with World Class marks. Michael Lihrman rewrote the WT record book. Matt Centrowitz had a great year. But with the only AR being the 600 mark by Casimir Loxsom, I gave extra weight to "lesser" records. And with Lagat breaking FOUR Age 40 records (1500, 1 Mile, 3000, 2 Mile)---actually more, since he broke the 3000 mark 3 times!!--I have to hand my AOY to the Grand Old Man of Track.
Collegiate
SHAWN BARBER--Again, there was stiff competition for this award. All the ones noted above--Lihrman, Bromell, Dendy, and Omar McLeod--were serious candidates. But as with Lagat, it was the NUMBER of CR's broken by Barber that impressed me the most. And he made some serious attempts at the Lavillenie-esque 6.00 meter mark!
HS
MONDO DUPLANTIS--What? Huh? How can you give the AOY to a guy whose best Vault was more than a FOOT less than the HSR setter, Deakin Volz? Or even Pauli Benavides? And what about Noah Lyles, who is the best HS sprinter, even though he's still an 11th Grader? Again, it's what he accomplished at HIS level!! Just a Freshman, he smashed the Frosh Class record at least 4 times! He took it from 15-6 up to 16-9.50. The Frosh record is now higher than the Soph record!
Athletes of the Year--Women
World
GENZEBE DIBABA--Repeating from last year, Dibaba broke "just" one WR in 2015, but it being the ONLY Individual WR broken by a Woman, my award goes to Ms Dibaba. And what an amazing run it was! As with Farah's 2 Mile, Genzebe ran most of the race without rabbiting! Second place was almost a minute behind! Sister Tirunesh better come back STRONG---or "Baby Baby" just might become THE Dibaba we remember most! SOME consideration was given to Katerina Johnson-Thompson. If she'd broken the WR, I might have given it to her!
US
JENNY SIMPSON--As with Ms Dibaba, Simpson's INdoor 2015 "season" was a "one and done". But when the year before, your witty and humble self-deprecating take on your lap miscount is seen as a positive, and then you announce that THIS time you'll COUNT the laps---and then proceed to do so, smashing the American Record in the 2 Mile---well, who else could this award go to? If Shannon Rowbury had broken
4:20--or if Demi Payne hadn't NH'ed at the NCAA's--things MIGHT have been different. Then again, Simpson is such a wonderful representative of our sport!!
Collegiate
RAVEN SAUNDERS--This SHOULD have gone to Kendell Williams! She broke her own CR in the Pentathlon, beating a very strong field! Or this SHOULD have gone to Demi Payne, that sparkling new Mom who blasted her way into WORLD CLASS PV'ing! And what about Emily Sisson, Jenna Prandini, or even Payne's arch-rival, Sandi Morris? Yet the ravenous RAVEN impressed me the most! And she sustained her power throughout the entire INdoor season, saving her best for last!
HS
RYEN FRAZIER--Here's another one where my AOY did NOT break any "major" records! (i.e. WR, AR, CR, HSR). Lexi Weeks did. Kamryn McIntosh did. So did Anna Rohrer! So why Frazier? Because of her OVERALL season of great--though maybe not record-breaking--marks. Remember, her 4:44.20 Mile opened this INdoor season way back in November! She improved to 4:41.56. Her 2 mile of 10:02.86 is FAST--and she won the race by 18 seconds! Then she ran that fast 5000, tenaciously tagging after Rohrer, but not being able to find that final little kick. Doesn't matter! Her season as a whole wins her my AOY!
Performance of the Year--Men
World
Mo Farah's 8:03.40 Two Mile. No contest. I just wish he'd run his WC and OG races the same way!!
US
Trayvon Bromell's 20.19. Or even his heat time of 20.23. Just 19, he ran the number's 2 and 3 fastest Collegiate times in history!! And with Canadian Andre De Grasse running 20.26 in the final, it wasn't a runaway! Some consideration was given to Lagat's Mile at Millrose, but Lagat lost that race! And what's more impressive than running the 3rd best time in the WORLD--EVER??
Collegiate
Bromell's 20.19. But in the closed world of Collegiate T&F, Bromell had some great competition! Michael Lihrman's 83-11.75 WT. Omar McLeod's 7.45 60H--as a Soph! Barber's CR. (If he'd made that 6.00 bar....!!)
HS
Noah Lyles 20.83 200. It smashed the Junior Class record, and I believe it's the Age 17 record too! Volz's PV HSR just wasn't high enough! (Spoiled by too many great PV records these past couple of years!)
Performance of the Year--Women
World
Genzebe Dibaba's 5000. Come on, what else?? (Again, if KJT had scored just 14 more points...!!)
US
Jenny's 9:18.35. As with Dibaba's run, it's the WAY she ran it that mattered most. Strong powerful front-running---with no rabbit---and making people believe you could have gone a LOT faster!
Collegiate
Raven Saunders 61-1.25. She'd already PR'ed in the series---at 59-9.50. Then Tori Bliss showed her stuff. And that brought out the BEAST inside Ms Saunders. She shattered that old PR by over 15 inches--making Miss Bliss's own PR look like child's play!!
HS
Lexi Weeks's HSR in the PV--14.3.25. Leaving twin sister Tori behind at season's end, she showed talent far beyond mere genetic benevolency! If Anna Rohrer had cut 10 more seconds off the 5000 HSR, I might have given it to her. But HSR's for Women in the 5000 are becoming commonplace at the NBIN!
The EVENT of the Year?
The Distance Medley Relay--or DMR.
Yes, I'm calling it for a RELAY!!
With the US Men and the US (NB) Women both smashing the WR, this was the Event of the Year.
The 5000 was the best Individual Event.
You had Dibaba's WR and Sisson's CR, as well as Rohrer's HSR.
Bronze goes to the Two Mile, with Farah's WR and Simpson's AR getting the nod!
Homorable Mention should go to the Pentathlon for Women.
You had KJT's great mark---and that whole European Championships competition.
And you had Kendell William's CR, and another fabulous competition at the NCAA's!
I'll close this post with some T&F Record book trivia.
Early in the season, I selected 17 HS events (60, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1 Mile, 3000, 60H, HJ, LJ, TJ, PV, SP, and WT) for comparison between the 2014 and 2015 INdoor seasons.
Using my HS Track book and the lists on the T&FN website as my sources, I then chose marks for each of the 17 events, seeing how many either met or surpassed those minimal marks.
I tried to be reasonable, but also tough.
Here's my results.
Listed below, left to right for each gender, are the event, Minimal Mark, Number who made that mark in 2014, then in 2015. Men are on the left, Women on the right.
60 (6.80) 6 6 (7.40) 3 5
200 (21.50) 3 7 (24.00) 4 2
300 (34.00) 5 7 (38.00) 1 1
400 (48.00) 6 6 (54.00) 1 1
500 (1:04.00) 1 1 (1:15.00) 2 5
600 (1:20.00) 1 3 (1:33.00) 7 4
800 (1:52.00) 4 9 (2:10.00) 3 6
1000 (2:27.00) 5 4 (2:50.00) 3 7
1 Mile (4:10.00) 2 6 (4:45.00) 3 3
3000 (8:28.00) 3 5 (9:40.00) 4 1
60H (7.90) 4 9 (8:40) 5 6
HJ (7-0) 4 2 (5-10) 2 1
LJ (24-0) 5 4 (20-0) 2 2
TJ (50-0) 4 3 (41-0) 3 5
PV (17-0) 3 4 (13-4) 4 8
SP (64-0) 1 3 (50-0) 4 1
WT (75-0) 3 3 (60-0) 2 2
TOTALS 60 82 53 60
Summary
As you can see, the Men did MUCH better in 2015 than in 2014 in those events using those minimum standards.
The Women just barely beat last year's athletes.
The Men really stepped things up in the 200, 800, 1 mile, and 60H.
The Women did better this year in the 500, 1000, and the PV.
Finally, remember last year I said 395 marks were added to my DDD's during the INdoor season of 2014?
There were 177 for the Men, and 218 for the Women.
Well, here's my counts for the 2015 season.
There's 373 marks dated 2015 on my 4 INdoor DDD's.
That's 176 for the Men, and 197 for the Women.
The Men remained almost exactly the same, while the Women's total fell by 21.
The 4 groups broke down this way:
World
Men--28
Women--30
US
Men--44
Women--65
Collegiate
Men--48
Women--60
HS
Men--56
Women--42
Summary:
On the World level, there was almost no difference.
The women reigned supreme in the USA.
Collegiate Women were dominant.
And HS Men ruled over their Female counterparts.
(Which is demonstrated somewhat by the previous chart!)
Overall, I found the 2015 INdoor T&F season to be fully worthy of my time, energy, and interest.
Even though I fell sick just before its biggest weekend, it was still thrilling for me to follow----and to blog about.
I look forward to doing the same over the next six months during the 2015 OUTdoor season!!
Hope you'll come along for the ride!!
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