And in other news.....!

My post on the Prefontaine Classic (See previous post!)  became too long----too many GREAT records & marks to report!---so I decided to split all my material into TWO posts---one for the Pre meet, and the other for all the "other" stuff!
As they say in the TV news biz....."And in other news.....!".

The Gotzis meet was interesting as much for what happened BEFORE the meet as for what happened DURING this 2 day Multis Annual.

All the pre-meet talk was about if Ashton Eaton would break his WR Decathlon mark of 9039 points from 2012.
Most felt he COULD---but were split on whether he WOULD!

Well, all we Dec fans never found out the answers to those questions.
Eaton hurt his knee during SP practice a few days earlier----not too bad!----so decided to not chance making it worse, and withdrew.
But being the good guy that he is, he came to the meet (in street clothes!), took the microphone, and told the crowd (many of whom were there to see HIM!) how very sorry he was.
Get well SOON, Ashton!!

Well, when the "worse half" DNS's, the "better half" produces like never before!
(I used those quoted terms in a joking way!  It refers to wives being called the "better half" of married couples!  While I'm digressing all over the place, let me ALSO tell you there used to be a HILARIOUS cartoon---about an always battling married couple!---called "The Better Half".  Check with Amazon to see if they have books of collected cartoons from that.  It's well worth your effort!!)

Anyway, it was Brianne Thiessen-Eaton who became the big star of the meet.
She PR'ed by over 150 points, scoring a HUGE 6808, easily defeating, among others, would be-sprinter Dafne Schippers, who DNF'ed because she opted out of the 800 with a slight niggle

BTE took the National Record of Canada down with her effort.
And she became 16th A-T World!

Several places back was American Barbara Nwaba, who also PR'ed, scoring 6342 points.
She moves up one place on the A-T US list, from 14th to 13th.

On the Men's side---besides Eaton---Damian Warner of Canada also withdrew, weakening the field somewhat, as the winner scored less than 8600 points!

But American Jeremy Taiwo PR'ed.
His 8303 point total makes him 19th A-T US!!

The current format---East and West Regionals (or "prelims"....or "qualifiers"!)---to choose who makes it to the NCAA Championship meet, is a weird and, IMHO, a DEMENTED way to create a final entry list for the NCAA's!
Look at the complete results (aside from the VERY FEW highlights I'm reporting here!!) and tell me THIS is the "best" way to do it!
It's NOT!!
Times in ALL the races were invariably slow----and some VERY slow!!---and some of the field events saw qualifiers produce marks that HS kids do in dual meets!!
Okay, my "rant" is finished (for today!!), so let's see what those "highlights" were!

The East Women's 3000SC was FAST!

Leah O'Connor's PR of 9:35.33 won it over Colleen Quigley's solid (but NOT a PR!) 9:38+.
However, O'Connor stays where she was on both the Collegiate (5th A-T) and US (16th A-T) lists!

Also in the East version, Kyra Jefferson was SUPER in the 200, racing to a time of 22.26!
She moves WAY up on the All-Time Collegiate list---from 15th to 4th!!

Pushed OFF that list were 4 gals with some history to them!!
Sorry for forgetting a couple of their first names, but the 4--all of whom were tied at the bottom with times of 22.49---were....
E. Jones from 1990
Davis (That's her last name!) from 1987.
Hill (Ditto!) from 1996.
And Gwen Torrence, also from 1987!

The two (East & West) Women's 4X400 Relay races produced some list-making marks.

In the East, Ohio State won it in 3:28.37.
This makes them the 16th fastest School.

Second to Ohio State was Clemson, whose time of 3:28.59 makes them the 18th fastest School!

The West was won (Don't get me started!!  LOL) by---Who else?---USC.
Their time of 3:27.86 improves their School best time of 3:28.08----dating from before anyone on the current team was BORN!!!---but they remain as 14th fastest School on my list!

Daina Levy hit a good PR in the Hammer Throw, her 226-5 making her 14th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other.

Turning to some HS marks---other than those that happened in Eugene (See my earlier post!!)---we'll go first with Grant Fisher.

In a meet in Michigan, in what was SUPPOSED to be (and WAS, in fact!!) a 1600 meter race, Fisher ran the MILE in a PR of 4:01.66.

Let me say that again.
In what was.....a 1600 meter race.....Fisher ran the MILE in 4:01.66.

Got that?
If not, here's a truncated (and totally hearsay!) version of what took place.

Apparently, knowing how fast Fisher was, officials took it upon themselves to set up ANOTHER finish line----9.344 meters AFTER the finish line of the 1600!
Normally, in Mile races run on metric tracks----which ALL tracks are nowadays!!---the race is started those extra 9+ meters BEFORE the normal finsh line----not after it!!!

But in this case----apparently---officials put the FINISH line for the Mile BEYOND the "FINISH line!!!
Just for this HS dude named Grant Fisher
(If only everyone had that kind of influence over officials!!  LOL)

All that said, Fisher's MILE time of 4:01.66 moves him from 16th to 12th on the A-T HS list.
BTW, his "official" 1600 time was 4:00.27!!

One maybe really stupid question!
I'm not sure of how far it is from "normal" finish lines to the beginning of the curve, but might it be possible that the "special" finish line in that Michigan meet was ON the curve??
Or did they ignore the normal topagraphic outlay of the track and set it up as in a 100 meter race--straight ahead?

Okay, enough of this!

Speaking of fast 1600's, Great Oaks (CA) star Destiny Collins soloed to a fast time of 4:40.34.
You might want to compare this to that HS Mile at the Prefontaine meet!  (See my earlier post!)

The HS Women's SP finally has a "Raven Saunders-ish" type mark.
Elena Bruckner sent the ball out 53-5.50 from the ring, making her 8th A-T HS!!

Sorry for the big delay in reporting on the meet in Ostrava last week, but a few marks from there are worth noting.
(The delay was mainly caused by my being HEAVILY involved in ANOTHER sort of list-making.  Without going into too much detail, it involves moving my list of EVERY movie I've ever seen  (about 4900 of them!!) from two notebooks to loose sheets of notebook paper---and MUCH better organized than I had them!!.
It's already taken me about 30 hours---and will probably take another 15 to 20 MORE hours before I'm done!!)

Anyway, here's that "old" news.

Sharika Nelvis nabbed the Ostrava Meet Record in the 100H with her time of 12.55.
It misses her PR by just 0.01 seconds!
(She had to battle a MINUS 1.7 wind!!)

Julius Yego----that oddball Kenyan who throws the Javelin, of all things!!---threw the Javelin (sic!) 285-0 in Ostrava.
This breaks his own National Record.
But he's still over 4 feet short of making my World Top 24 list!

Mark English didn't win the 600, but his time of 1:16.14 nabbed the National Record of Ireland for himself.

The winner was Adam Kszczot, whose 1:16.02 is the Ostrava Meet Record.
Of course, this was the first time that meet held the 600 meter race!

Christian Taylor's winning TJ of 57-6 is the new Ostrava Meet Record.

A few other interesting results from that Ostrava meet:

Bogdan Bondarenko won the HJ, which isn't shocking.
But his winning mark of just 2.24 (7-4.25) IS!!
What caused him to stop there?

Suzana Hejnova won the 400H in what I believe was her season opening time of 55.13.

Kori Carter finished just 7th in that race, running 58.24.

Anezka Drahotova easily won the Women's 3000 meter Walk, walking (sic!!) a time of 11:52.38.
She won by 19 seconds!

Asafa Powell won the 100 (against a wind of 0.4) in 10.04.

Marcin Lewandowski took a significant scalp, in the name of one Asbel Kiprop (!!), in the 1000 meter race, his winning time being 2:17.25.

A couple of JT SUPERstars had a bad day at the office in Ostrava,.

Mariya Abakumova finished in 4th place.
Barbora Spotakova finished in 5th!!

BTW, Spotakova continued her poor streak of throwing at the Pre meet, finishing way back in the field.
Kara Winger took 2nd there, behind Christine Obergfoll!
That hasn't happened very often lately, but Winger is, um, winging (HAHA!!) her way back to being a potential medal contender in Beijing!!

And last but certainly NOT least----Mr Lightning BOLT hisself made an appearance in Ostrava.
He used up 20.13 seconds of our valuable time to win the Ostrava 200!
Another day at the office!

Anyway, there you have it.

Two posts in one day!
Hope you've enjoyed them both!

And being the sole "owner" of this blog, allow me to advertise a couple of earlier posts!

I strongly recommend you read my take on the possible reasons Mary Cain left NOP to go home to Bronxville in "That Bronxville Girl".

I also suggest it might be fun (??) to see how many of my "predictions" I got WRONG in my "Pre Meet Preview" post.
(I did.  I read it over AFTER the meet was done----and I did pretty good, if I do say so myself!!  NOT perfect, by any means, but more than just a passing grade!  That is, given all the no shows etc that no one has control over!!)

ADDITIONS & CORRECTIONS (added many hours later):

As I just did in my Pre meet post, allow me to make a few additions & corrections to the above....instead of waiting until next week's post to do so!!

CORRECTION:  The Men's winner at Gotzis scored less than 8500 points, NOT 8600, as I stated above.  (Although I guess, in a sense, my initial statement was correct, as 8400+ is under BOTH 8500 AND 8600!!  LOL)

ADDITION:  Bogdan Bondarenko did NOT end his competition after winning in 7-4.25 at Ostrava.  He made 3 attempts at 2.34 (7-8), but missed all three!

NEW MARKS:  I came across two new records in the latest eTN, which I decided to add here, rather than wait until next week!

In a home meet in Cuba, Pablo Pichardo Triple Jumped 59-4, adding an inch to his National Record.
But he remains in 3rd place on the A-T World list!

Also, in the same meet, Roberto Janet threw the Hammer 256-0 for a new Cuban National Record!

See you soon!