Following is my FULL and DETAILED report on today's Stockholm Diamond League meet.
("blank space")
Thank you!
I thought my report was pretty good too!
And therein is the basis for this post.
You see, not even ONE Meet Record fell today, for either Men or Women.
But we should ask, Are MR's the sole criteria for the success (or failure) of a DL meet?
And what exactly IS the DL?
And HAVE DL's ruined Track and Field's summers (and springs, in the case of the first few meets!)?
I'll try to answer those questions here.
The DL system grew out of the Golden League system, which had begun in 1998.
The Diamonds began in 2010.
It seems the main source of excitement was MEANT to be from athletes vying for DL points, with the winner of each event winning a prize, and with the overall points winner winning a HUGE prize!
There are supposedly 16 events contested--8 each for Men and Women.
In some cases, an "event" can be one of TWO events, as in the case of meets holding EITHER a 3000 OR a 5000, but not both.
Each "event" is held in 7 of the 14 meets.
To win all 7 of your event is considered amazing---and rare!
(In fact, to COMPETE in all 7 is amazing---and rare!)
The 14 meets now consist (in varying order, but pretty close to this list) of Doha, Shanghai, Eugene (Pre), NY, Rome (Golden Gala), Birmingham, London (Sainsbury), Paris, Lausanne, Monaco (Herculis), Oslo (Bislett), Stockholm (DN Galan), Brussels (Van Damme), and Zurich (Weltklasse).
Many of these meets have MUCH longer histories than just their DL existence.
I think of Pre (over 40 years), Rome, Paris, Monaco, Oslo, Stockholm, Brussels, and Zurich, all of whom have been going for decades!!
And in my opinion, they were better meets BEFORE they got hooked in to the DL circuit!
Let's take a closer look.
I'll do this in 4 parts.
1. Meet Records
2. Events held (or not!)
3. The Athletes (Who shows, who doesn't, how they perform)
4. Conclusion
Meet Records
Which of the 14 has the best set of MR's?
I wrote down (separately from my T&F Record Book) all of the MR's for 11 of the 14 meets, omitting the Stockholm, Brussels, and Zurich DL's.
I omitted those meets because A) today's meet didn't produce any MR's, and B) Brussels and Zurich will be in September.
In the Men's 100, MR's range from 9.69's for Lausanne and Shanghai to 9.80 for Pre.
All great times, and all the 11 meets are consistent in range.
The 200's vary from 19.58's in NY and Lausanne, to just 20.02 in Doha.
Seven of the 11 meets represented here have 400's of under 44.00.
The slowest of these is the 44.49 from Birmingham.
Only NY and Paris have sub-1:42 800's.
Birmingham has the slowest, at 1:43.93.
Rome has the WORLD Records in the 1500 and Mile!
In contrast, 4 of the meets have times ranging from 3:30.82 to 3:33.29 in the 1500.
Only 6 of these 11 meets even HAVE a Mile MR!
Five meets have sub-7:30 times for 3000 meters.
Birmingham, Pre, and London have MR's for the Two Mile!
Three meets--Shanghai, Birmingham, and NY have yet to see a sub-13:00 5000!
Paris has the fastest 5K, at 12:40.18.
But just Rome joins Paris in the sub-12:50 category!
Monaco's 7:53.64 leads the 3000SC MR's, with Birmingham's 8:07.80 pulling up the rear!
Just 4 of the MR's are sub-8:00!
The 110H MR's are VERY consistent, ranging from 12.88's in Paris and Lausanne, to 12.97 for Shanghai, with just 2 meets serving as outliers--Rome (13.20) and Oslo (13.12).
The entire 400H event is going through a slump right now, but even so, just 2 meets have MR's slower than 48.00!
The vertical jumps--PV and HJ--are fairly consistent in their MR's.
The HJ ranges from 7-9.75 to 7-11.25.
Paris and Oslo don't have HJ Meet Records---or at least I don't know of them!
Five PV MR's are over 19-8, but none are over 20-0!
The lowest is Doha's 19-1.
Eight meets have SP MR's of over 72-0, with six of those ranging from 73-1.25 to 74-0.25
The Discus, Javelin, and Hammer Throws have been held less and less in these meets--especially the HT.
So I won't compare these marks, except to say that just 2 meets have JT's of over 300 feet, and just 3 meets have DT's of over 230 feet!
Including only these events--100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000, 5000, 110H, 400H, HJ, LJ, TJ, PV SP--Lausanne has the most MR leaders (although 1 is a tie--the 100) with 5.
Next is Paris and Monaco with 3 each.
Pre, NY, and Rome has 2 leaders each.
Shanghai and Doha have one each--although Shanghai's is shared with Lausanne!
With ZERO MR leaders are Birmingham, London, and Oslo!
Now let's look at the Women's side.
(The same 11 meets are considered.)
The 100's range from 10.70 at Pre to 10.92's for both Doha and Shanghai.
Six meets have MR's of 10.77 or faster, while 3 are either 10.91 or 10.92.
The 200's are all over the place!
Monaco's 21.77 is the fastest, while 5 meets range from 22.07 to 22.36!
The 400's are pretty consistent--ranging only from 49.05 to 50.00!
The latter is Shanghai's MR, and is the only one in the 50.00 category.
The 800's are also solid in range, going from 1:54.97 to 1:58.58.
I know that's 3.61 seconds differential, but at least there's no times slower than 1:59!
With the exception of that Outlier of Outliers--Genzebe Dibaba's recent WR of 3:50.07 in Monaco--the 1500's range from 3:55.68 (Paris) to 3:58.60 (Lausanne).
There's 2 at 4:00+--NY at 4:00.13, and London the slowest at 4:00.67.
Out of the 10 meets that have 3K MR's (Shanghai doesn't have a 3000 MR!), five of them range from the 8:31's to the 8:34's!
But 4 meets have MR's of under 8:24!!
Oslo's MR for the 5000 is also the WORLD Record!!
But the slowest is still fairly fast--London's 14:33.65.
In the 3000SC, there's also good consistency, with times ranging from the 9:10.64 of London to the 9:17.43 of Birmingham.
Only Oslo has a time faster than London's, at 9:07.14.
As with the Men, the 100H MR's are VERY narrow in range, going only from 12.35 (Doha) to 12.49 (Oslo).
However, just Doha's and Rome's are sub-12.40!
The 400H are also consistent, ranging from 52.63 (Monaco) to Birmingham's 53.78, with Doha's 54.27 serving as outlier, the only time above 54.
The Women's HJ, TJ, and PV are fairly consistent.
Except for New York's low of 6-5.50, the other 10 meets range is less than 2 inches apart, going from 6-7 (Paris) to the 6-8.75s of Doha, London, and Oslo!
And except for Doha's TJ MR of 47-9.25, the other 9 (NY doesn't have a TJ Meet record!) range from 48-10.25 (Shanghai) to 50-3.50 for Lausanne..
Rome, London, and Monaco join Lausanne in the 50+ area.
Nine of the 11 meets have PV MR's of at least 15-11, with SIX of them being at least 16-0!!
The SP marks range from 67-6 to 69-0, with just Oslo and Pre being under 67 feet.
The "worst" DT mark is London's 223-2.
But just Shanghai's 231-5 is longer than 228-11.
The JT's range from 216-9 to 227-11, with Shanghai's 210-2 serving as the outlier on the low end.
Including the same events as the Men (the 100H, however, not the 110's!!), here's the leaders in MR's.
Monaco has five MR leaders (ties included).
Oslo and Doha have 3 each.
Lausanne and London have 2 each.
Eugene, Rome, and Paris have one apiece.
But Shanghai, NY, and Birmingham have ZIP!!
Events held (or not)
This is where much of my criticism enters the picture.
Of the WC/OG events, the Walks, Marathon, Multi's, and the 10000 are ignored!
Now, I don't expect invitational meets (and the DL's should be considered invitationals!!) to hold the Walks, Marathon, or Multi's.
But the 10K?
Or ANYthing "different" than the usual line-up of suspects??
Look at the Pre meet.
On their Friday night portion, they've held 10000's, and even a 30,000!!!
On the TRACK!!
That's ONE HUNDRED laps total!!
Only the Bislett Games of Oslo have held 10K's besides Pre!
But only Pre continues to do so, even if it's held separately from the DL portion of the meet!
A few meets have held Two Mile races, usually in lieu of the 3000.
And the One Mile?
Just 5 of the 11 meets have Mile MR's!!
Oh, BTW, that's for Men only!!
NO DL meet has a Mile MR for Women!!
NONE!!
There's been a 1000 and 2000 held, and even a 600.
But how often?
Not very!
THIS is why the DL concept MUST change!
But is it always the Meet Director's fault, or even the fault of the IAAF, under whose umbrella these meets were created?
No.
Sometimes----even MANY times!---it's the fault of the athletes themselves!!
If the monetary (and celebrity) aspects of being a Diamond League winner aren't enough to lure an athlete to compete, what will?
In fact, the overall winner even gets a bye to the next WC!
Yet too many times, you see a major star's name missing from the entry lists.
Except for injury, pregnancy, drug bans, retirement, what could be the reason one is a no-show?
I mean, it just necessitates competing in SEVEN of the 14 meets!
So why not make those 7 the focus of your season, outside of the Championship meets?
Here's one example.
Genzebe Dibaba was said to be entered in the 5000 for today's Stockholm meet.
There's a news item--dated June 15th--on the meet's website that said so!
(It was still there just before the meet!!)
Yet not only didn't she run the 5000, there wasn't even a 5000 on the schedule!!
Merely fraudulent advertising?
Or an athlete SAYING one thing, but DOING (or NOT doing, in this case!) another?
And there's dozens, if not 100's more such examples!
And not all of them turn out to be legit--with a valid reason for not appearing!
Then there's the Bolt Factor!
How many seats would be filled if Usain Bolt runs in a meet?
EVERY seat, that's how many!!
And even more to the point, how many seats would be filled if BOTH Bolt AND Justin Gatlin were to be in the same race?
SRO, folks, SRO!!
And WHEN they appear, why do they run tactical races--sometimes even when there's a rabbit setting a super fast pace??
Okay, bad weather sometimes interferes.
Too hot, humid, windy, or wet.
But what about when the weather is perfect, or nearly so?
What's their excuse then?
The sprint hurdlers--Men and Women--face each other often!
Win or lose, they always come back for more.
You always see the same set of SP'ers, or HJ'ers, and even female PV'ers.
(Lavillenie's the only one that really counts among the men!! LOL)
So why haven't we seen Galen Rupp this season?
Or Mo Farah more often than he's appeared?
Because of the Salazar/NOP scandal?
Maybe.
But I think it's more a part of the entire list of athletes' reasoning about DL meets.
And I truly DON'T know what that is!
Short of the IAAF ordering them to appear---or else!!---what's the solution?
My conclusion.
The Diamond League concept HAS ruined our Track and Field summers.
Garry Hill has touched on the DL schedule as being harmful to the sport.
After today's DL, there aren't any for almost 5 weeks!
I know, August has the 9 day long WC's!
But even so--especially if you read my post where I compared Mo Farah to Lasse Viren--you know that this hasn't always been the case.
Where are the meets where a Lasse Viren can break the 2 Mile WR just DAYS before the Olympic Games begin??
Portland will be holding a track 10000 on August 9th.
But from the sound of it---and I might be wrong!--it's going to feature mainly--or only!!--American runners!!
Why doesn't Farah or some Kenyans or Ethiopians come over for it?
(And will Portland have a separate 10K for Women? Doesn't sound like it!!)
I can understand why the DL's are popular.
The money, the fame, the possible bye to the WC's!
And the idea of fighting for points is very American!
But if the latter is true, then why don't more athletes fight for those points by competing in ALL SEVEN of their event's meets??
The more meets you score points, the better.
Right?
And why not GO for a fast time---especially when you SAY you're going to??
I know you can't run at top speed all the time, but why not, say, in 3 or 4 of those 7 meets?
Viren did it.
Ron Clarke certainly did it!
I think--as an entity of the sport--the DL's have a place on the stage.
But, with all their problems, they must remain only that---ONE entity on the stage!!
That's why I'm happy we have "specialty" meets for distances, for throws, for the PV and HJ.
And, because the HT has been totally expunged from the DL program, we now have the World Hammer Challenge!!
From dirt, flowers grow.
In every evil, there is good.
From the "ruins" of the DL system, maybe stands the future of our sport!
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Corrections & Additions
If you read my previous post--about the Pan American Games and the London Diamond League meet--then you know I GOOFED!
As I was re-reading my post AFTER first releasing it to Twitter and Facebook, I found a couple of minor errors, so decided to correct them--as I often do.
BUT I must have hit a wrong key on my keyboard, or moved my mouse where I shouldn't have, because suddenly my page turned BLUE!
I don't know what that's called, or how it happens, but when I went to remove the blue color, I ALSO removed a large chunk of my text.
As I explained in a note at the bottom of my previous post, the text was lost from the middle of Elaine Thompson's name (!!) to the sentence about Usain Bolt and "hedging one's bets" against him!
In other words, almost the ENTIRE text from the London meet report was suddenly GONE!!
And though I tried, I couldn't retrieve it!
So my only solution was to try to remember what I'd written---including my rambling rant against Salazar's handling of Mary Cain---and try to REWRITE it---from memory!
For the most part, I succeeded.
But in rereading my post AFTER releasing it (AGAIN!!) to the social media network, I discovered I'd left out a couple of items I'd had in my original post, and I also discovered---with the great help of today's eTN from T&FN!!--a few errors of fact.
Long story short, that's the reason I'm writing this!
I want to get this out of the way before any NEW news comes in.
(Don't forget, the Stockholm DL meet is just 3 days away!)
Here's the items I omitted from my rewritten post.
In the London meet, I spoke of the poor distance races--relatively speaking!
The parts I lost were about the Men's 3000SC and the Women's 5000.
The Steeple was fairly slow (8:09+ for the winner), but American Andy Bayer continued his good 2015, running a super PR time of 8:18.08.
This makes him 17th A-T US!
The Women's 5K was a duel between Mercy Cherono and Molly Huddle, as Almaz Ayana had withdrawn prior to the meet!
Gabe Grunewald rabbited the first 3000 in 9:02.
Then Molly took the reins, building a lead of as much as 50 meters in the next few laps.
Then, with just 400 to go, Cherono--who had closed the gap--went ahead.
Huddle tried to stay with her, but Cherono's kick prevailed, and she won in 14:54+ by 3 seconds!
Good race!
Okay time.
As long-time readers of this blog know, I rely on my metric conversions (from or to feet and inches!) on my own T&F Record Book's collection of converted marks
For the most part, these were gotten from the pages of T&FN magazine.
But not ALL of the possible marks had converted numbers available.
So I ESTIMATED these numbers, and placed them on my personal list!
But not to worry--help is on the horizen!
I just ordered The Big Gold Book from T&FN.
It has---I've heard!!--a complete list of metric conversions!
When I receive that book---in a few days, I hope!--I'll throw away my own "conversions chart".
Until then, I rely on my eTN to inform me of any errors I made.
And I DID make some significant errors in my recent post!
Here are the corrections!
Shawn Barber's 5.93 make in the London PV translates to 19-5.50, NOT 19-5.25 as I said.
This changes quite a bit!
First, it changes his Canada National Record to 19-5.50.
Second--and most importantly--it moves him ONto the World Top 24 Performers list!
(I'd said previously that he missed that list by 0.25 inches!)
So Barber is now 24th A-T World, tied with 2 others!
In the same vein, I reported Anzhelika Sidorova's mark in London as 15-8.75.
Nope!
It's 15-8.50!
However, there is no change in her World list status!
Another conversion error came with my report on O'Dayne Richards's SP in Toronto.
I'd said it was 71-3.25--as his metric mark was 21.69.
And that's what MY Book had!
But according to the eTN, 21.69 converts to "just" 71-2--NOT 71-3.25!
And so I'm going with that!
Thus, his Jamaica National Record is now 71-2.
And he is now 10.75 inches away from being 24th A-T World--not 9.50 inches, as I said in my last post!
The other errors came in my reporting on the Women's sprints in the Pan Am's!
Two were about Ecuador's Angela Tenorio.
First, her 22.59 semi was wind-aided (a 2.6 wind!).
So it's NOT a PR!!
The second came in the 100.
Tenorio's 10.99 Ecuador National Record did not come as winner of the final!
She was 2nd to winner Sherone Simpson's 10.95!!
Lastly, I omitted some important information from my report on Kaylin Whitney's great Pan Am meet.
My "new" information makes her experience there even GREATER!!
There were THREE rounds in the Women's 200, not just the two I reported.
In the heats, she finished 3rd in 22.88 to qualify for the semi.
Then she won her semi in 22.68.
And of course she won Gold in the final with her 22.65 run.
(Then she won another Gold with her anchor of the 4X100 Relay in Meet Record time!! And she ran the heats--as anchor!--there too!)
I again apologize for my stupid mistake---whatever it was!!---that caused that "blue page" to disappear!
With my rewritten previous post---and this one of corrections and additions---I hope my report is more satisfying now!
See you in THREE days!!
Oh, I almost forgot!
(No, I DID forget!! LOL)
I have a bit more to report!
Raphael Holzdeppe improved his PV best to 19-5.75
This makes him 23rd A-T World!
Nick Miller threw the Hammer 254-5 for the National Record of Great Britain.
Cuba's Roberto Skyers ran the 200 in a National Record 20.02 in Toronto.
Also at the Pan Am's, Kurt Felix's 2nd place mark in the Decathlon of 8269 is the new National Record of Grenada!
Finally, I missed the best LEGAL mark from Jeff Henderson's series in the Pan Am LJ.
His best legal mark of 27-11.50 is a PR.
He's now 8th A-T US, tied with 1 other.
On the World list, he's now 17th, tied with 1 other!
A bit of non-marks/records news.
It's been confirmed that Raven Saunders is transferring to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), following her former SIU coaches, John and Connie Price-Smith!
Also, it SEEMS that Southern Illinois HT'er DeAnna Price is remaining at SIU for her Senior year!
It had been rumored that she also would follow the Smith's to Ole Miss!
Will update if she says anything different!
And, as noted in my previous post, Mary Cain is listed as an entrant in the Stockholm 3000.
But there's ALSO a 5000 for Women!
And guess who is now listed on the entry list?
Her first name starts with "G", and her last name starts with "D".
I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks!!
LOL
ADDED TEN MINUTES LATER!!!
I just checked the Stockholm DL's website to see what the latest entry lists looked like.
And surprise!---Mary Cain is no longer listed in the 3000!!
She WAS, but no longer!
Also, the website has a NEWS STORY saying Genzebe Dibaba (Sorry for filling in those above blanks!! LOL) would be racing the 5000 in Stockholm on July 30th!
BUT the schedule of events does NOT show a 5000!!
The 3000 is listed---with latest entries---but no 5000!!
As of now, I'll go with the news story as the truth.
But I guess we'll have to wait and see.
As I was re-reading my post AFTER first releasing it to Twitter and Facebook, I found a couple of minor errors, so decided to correct them--as I often do.
BUT I must have hit a wrong key on my keyboard, or moved my mouse where I shouldn't have, because suddenly my page turned BLUE!
I don't know what that's called, or how it happens, but when I went to remove the blue color, I ALSO removed a large chunk of my text.
As I explained in a note at the bottom of my previous post, the text was lost from the middle of Elaine Thompson's name (!!) to the sentence about Usain Bolt and "hedging one's bets" against him!
In other words, almost the ENTIRE text from the London meet report was suddenly GONE!!
And though I tried, I couldn't retrieve it!
So my only solution was to try to remember what I'd written---including my rambling rant against Salazar's handling of Mary Cain---and try to REWRITE it---from memory!
For the most part, I succeeded.
But in rereading my post AFTER releasing it (AGAIN!!) to the social media network, I discovered I'd left out a couple of items I'd had in my original post, and I also discovered---with the great help of today's eTN from T&FN!!--a few errors of fact.
Long story short, that's the reason I'm writing this!
I want to get this out of the way before any NEW news comes in.
(Don't forget, the Stockholm DL meet is just 3 days away!)
Here's the items I omitted from my rewritten post.
In the London meet, I spoke of the poor distance races--relatively speaking!
The parts I lost were about the Men's 3000SC and the Women's 5000.
The Steeple was fairly slow (8:09+ for the winner), but American Andy Bayer continued his good 2015, running a super PR time of 8:18.08.
This makes him 17th A-T US!
The Women's 5K was a duel between Mercy Cherono and Molly Huddle, as Almaz Ayana had withdrawn prior to the meet!
Gabe Grunewald rabbited the first 3000 in 9:02.
Then Molly took the reins, building a lead of as much as 50 meters in the next few laps.
Then, with just 400 to go, Cherono--who had closed the gap--went ahead.
Huddle tried to stay with her, but Cherono's kick prevailed, and she won in 14:54+ by 3 seconds!
Good race!
Okay time.
As long-time readers of this blog know, I rely on my metric conversions (from or to feet and inches!) on my own T&F Record Book's collection of converted marks
For the most part, these were gotten from the pages of T&FN magazine.
But not ALL of the possible marks had converted numbers available.
So I ESTIMATED these numbers, and placed them on my personal list!
But not to worry--help is on the horizen!
I just ordered The Big Gold Book from T&FN.
It has---I've heard!!--a complete list of metric conversions!
When I receive that book---in a few days, I hope!--I'll throw away my own "conversions chart".
Until then, I rely on my eTN to inform me of any errors I made.
And I DID make some significant errors in my recent post!
Here are the corrections!
Shawn Barber's 5.93 make in the London PV translates to 19-5.50, NOT 19-5.25 as I said.
This changes quite a bit!
First, it changes his Canada National Record to 19-5.50.
Second--and most importantly--it moves him ONto the World Top 24 Performers list!
(I'd said previously that he missed that list by 0.25 inches!)
So Barber is now 24th A-T World, tied with 2 others!
In the same vein, I reported Anzhelika Sidorova's mark in London as 15-8.75.
Nope!
It's 15-8.50!
However, there is no change in her World list status!
Another conversion error came with my report on O'Dayne Richards's SP in Toronto.
I'd said it was 71-3.25--as his metric mark was 21.69.
And that's what MY Book had!
But according to the eTN, 21.69 converts to "just" 71-2--NOT 71-3.25!
And so I'm going with that!
Thus, his Jamaica National Record is now 71-2.
And he is now 10.75 inches away from being 24th A-T World--not 9.50 inches, as I said in my last post!
The other errors came in my reporting on the Women's sprints in the Pan Am's!
Two were about Ecuador's Angela Tenorio.
First, her 22.59 semi was wind-aided (a 2.6 wind!).
So it's NOT a PR!!
The second came in the 100.
Tenorio's 10.99 Ecuador National Record did not come as winner of the final!
She was 2nd to winner Sherone Simpson's 10.95!!
Lastly, I omitted some important information from my report on Kaylin Whitney's great Pan Am meet.
My "new" information makes her experience there even GREATER!!
There were THREE rounds in the Women's 200, not just the two I reported.
In the heats, she finished 3rd in 22.88 to qualify for the semi.
Then she won her semi in 22.68.
And of course she won Gold in the final with her 22.65 run.
(Then she won another Gold with her anchor of the 4X100 Relay in Meet Record time!! And she ran the heats--as anchor!--there too!)
I again apologize for my stupid mistake---whatever it was!!---that caused that "blue page" to disappear!
With my rewritten previous post---and this one of corrections and additions---I hope my report is more satisfying now!
See you in THREE days!!
Oh, I almost forgot!
(No, I DID forget!! LOL)
I have a bit more to report!
Raphael Holzdeppe improved his PV best to 19-5.75
This makes him 23rd A-T World!
Nick Miller threw the Hammer 254-5 for the National Record of Great Britain.
Cuba's Roberto Skyers ran the 200 in a National Record 20.02 in Toronto.
Also at the Pan Am's, Kurt Felix's 2nd place mark in the Decathlon of 8269 is the new National Record of Grenada!
Finally, I missed the best LEGAL mark from Jeff Henderson's series in the Pan Am LJ.
His best legal mark of 27-11.50 is a PR.
He's now 8th A-T US, tied with 1 other.
On the World list, he's now 17th, tied with 1 other!
A bit of non-marks/records news.
It's been confirmed that Raven Saunders is transferring to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), following her former SIU coaches, John and Connie Price-Smith!
Also, it SEEMS that Southern Illinois HT'er DeAnna Price is remaining at SIU for her Senior year!
It had been rumored that she also would follow the Smith's to Ole Miss!
Will update if she says anything different!
And, as noted in my previous post, Mary Cain is listed as an entrant in the Stockholm 3000.
But there's ALSO a 5000 for Women!
And guess who is now listed on the entry list?
Her first name starts with "G", and her last name starts with "D".
I'll leave it to you to fill in the blanks!!
LOL
ADDED TEN MINUTES LATER!!!
I just checked the Stockholm DL's website to see what the latest entry lists looked like.
And surprise!---Mary Cain is no longer listed in the 3000!!
She WAS, but no longer!
Also, the website has a NEWS STORY saying Genzebe Dibaba (Sorry for filling in those above blanks!! LOL) would be racing the 5000 in Stockholm on July 30th!
BUT the schedule of events does NOT show a 5000!!
The 3000 is listed---with latest entries---but no 5000!!
As of now, I'll go with the news story as the truth.
But I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Meet Records--Pan Am's 14, London 4
It's probably unfair to compare a single Diamond League meet to an every-4th-year regional extravaganza.
But my title makes a couple of key points.
1. This DL season has seen more "downs" than "ups" re quality of meets.
2. This edition of the Pan American Games was one of the best!
I'm putting my thoughts together for an upcoming "extra" post, which will take an in-depth look at the entire DL concept.
But let's see why this Pan Am was so good!
This meet only started in 1951.
Canada has now held it 3 times, with the other 2 both in Winnipeg (1967 & 1999).
The US has held it just twice, in Chicago in 1959, and in Indianapolis in 1987.
This being the 17th edition, breaking Meet Records becomes tougher each time.
So taking down 14 of them--6 for the Men, 8 for the Women--puts this right up there with other long-time "regionals" best editions.
Anyway, let's take a look at these MR's.
(In chronological order.)
Gladys Tejeda won the Women's Marathon, running a MR time of 2:33:03.
The 1st three finishers all broke the previous MR!
Women's 100
Barbara Pierre ran 10.92 in her heat for the first sprint MR.
Shawn Barber easily won the Men's PV with his MR of 19-0.25.
(He actually TIED the MR first set by Cuba's Lazaro Borges in 2011.)
See below for more on Barber!!
Jamaica's O'Dayne Richards got two for the price of one.
His SP winner measuring 71-3.25 got the Pan Am Meet Record, as well as his own Jamaica National Record!
However, he still misses my World DDD list by 9.50 inches!
Queen Harrison destroyed the field in the Women's 100H with her MR of 12.52.
Yarisley Silva of Cuba took down the Pan Am MR with her PV of 15-11.
And it wasn't easy, as the field included Jenn Suhr, Demi Payne, and Fabiana Murer!
BTW, she got her own MR!
And she added the Age 28 Record!
Andre De Grasse was EXPECTED to be the one to break the Pan American Games MR in the Men's 200.
And he DID win the event, running 19.88.
That broke his own National Record of Canada, as he became Canada's first-ever sub-20.00 man!
BUT.....he didn't break the Meet Record.
That was accomplished in the semis by a virtual unknown from Jamaica's Sprint Factory.
His name is Richard Dwyer, and his MR time was 19.80.
This ranks him 17th A-T World, tied with 1 other!
Shoved OFF my World list were 3 men, two of whom can be considered legends of the sport!
Isaiah Young's 19.86 (from 2012) is OFF my list.
So are the 19.86's of the iconic Maurice Greene (from 1997) and Don Quarrie (from 1971!!).
The first distance MR to fall was in the Women's 10000.
Brenda Flores ran 32:41.23 to defeat Desiree Linden for the MR.
(The Women's 5000 was also an easy target (15:30+), but survived.)
One of the most impressive MR's was broken by Damian Warner's Decathlon score of 8659 points!
His previous best, dating from the 2012 Olympics, was 8512.
It's the new National Record of Canada.
And it ranks him 23rd A-T World!
David Oliver's MR of 13.07 in the Men's 110H didn't come easy!
It wasn't that his competition was so great (although it wasn't so bad!).
It was that he had to run the race TWICE!!
Someone false started, but either the gun to recall the runners didn't go off soon enough, or Oliver just didn't hear it.
So he wound up running the entire distance "winning" in 13.18.
The officials scheduled a second race for a half hour later!
In THAT one is where Oliver ran his 13.07 MR!!
Another distance MR to fall came from Ashley Higginson in the Women's 3000SC.
Her time of 9:48.12 beat Shalaya Kipp by a second or so.
The Men's 4X100 Relay produced the MR in the heats!
Antigua (somewhat surprisingly!) was the team to do it, running a National Record of 38.14.
(That turned out to be the fastest of the meet, as the final was won in 38.27 by the US in a race that saw 1 team not finish, and TWO get DQ'ed, including the "winner"!!)
Antigua's time makes them the 15th fastest Nation!
Two other National Records fell in that heat!
Barbados ran 38.65 for their fastest time.
And the Dominican Republic followed with theirs in 38.67.
(Neither team's marks make my Top 24 World list!)
The US Women's 4X100 Relay team not only won the race, but broke the MR (dating from 1999!) with their 42.58.
The team was anchored by 17 year old HS PRO Kaylin Whitney!
She took the baton even with Jamaica's team, ran side by side for 40 meters, then shot ahead in the final 30.
It appeared she was running at sub-11.00 speed!!
She also won the Women's 200, in 22.65, after also winning her semi in 22.88.
A busy woman, as she also ran the Relay heats, anchoring that one too!
The last of Pan Am's 14 MR's was gained in the Women's Heptathlon.
Yorgelis Rodriguez scored 6332 points for the win.
One more mark of note from the Pan Am's before moving from Toronto to London.
Angela Tenorio, one of the stars of the 2014 World Junior Championships, ran the 100 in 10.99 for the National Record of Ecuador.
She also ran her 200 heat in 22.59, a PR.
(But was beaten by Whitney in the final!)
Rain pelted down the first of the two days of the London DL meet.
In fact, the Men's PV was pushed to the 2nd day, as it was raining too hard on Friday!
Opening the 2nd day, the event didn't disappoint!
Renaud Lavillenie won with the MR height of 19-9.25.
He then missed his 3 tries at 6.10, or 20-0.25!!
But Shawn Barber made things interesting.
He made 19-5.25 on his 3rd try for a new Canada National Record--breaking his own mark!
But he JUST misses making the World Top 24---by one quarter inch!!!
Both Demi Payne and Jenn Suhr, who had competed at the Pan Am's on Thursday, were on the entry list, but didn't compete in the Saturday London event!
In fact--though I'm not certain--I don't think they even left North America!
But Anzhelika Sidorova PR'ed, her 15-8.75 moving her from 14th A-T World, tied with 2 others, to 12th!
Shara Proctor LJ'ed 22-10.75 for the win.
It also gets her the National Record of Great Britain!
Jasmin Stowers won the (always!) loaded Women's 100H, running 12.47--her fastest since her springtime 12.3's and 12'4's!--for another London Meet Record!
The 3rd London MR came in the Women's 4X100 Relay, where the US team ran 42.32.
In fact, the Women sprinters performed well in the open races too.
Elaine Thompson continues to prove her emergence on the world scene isn't a fluke.
She won the London 200 in a fast 22.10.
Second was Tori Bowie's 22.32.
Thompson's mark is the 4th London Meet Record!
The Women's 100 produced some good marks.
Dina Asher-Smith won her heat in the time of 10.99, which is also the new National Record of Great Britain.
It's (obviously!) the first sub-11.00 run by a Brit also!
But it was Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands who won the final.
Her 10.92 is a new National Record.
(Asher-Smith ran 11.06 in the final.)
The distance races were mostly FLOPS!
One prime example was the Men's 3000, won by Mo Farah in 7:34-ish. (Rhymes with Whore-ish!! LOL)
While his London Mo Farah Fan Club didn't think so, jogging the first 2600 is NOT the best way to demonstrate your star-power!
Bernard Lagat had a busy two days in LondonTown!
In "Mo's" 3000, he finished just 7th, but ran 7:42.78, coming within 0.03 seconds of his own Age 40 Record!
The Men's mile was another HUGE Flop!
There was talk before the meet of a possible World Record attempt, but that quickly fizzled.
The race was won in 3:54-ish (See above remark!) by someone--fill in the name!
But back in 13th place was Mr Lagat!
His 3:57.91 broke Tony Whiteman's old Age 40 mark
So now Lagat holds BOTH the INdoor and OUTdoor Age 40 Records for the Mile--as well as a slough of other Age 40 Records!!
The Women's 1500 was won by Laura Weightman in 4:06.10 over a good field.
Bur young Mary Cain had another poor race, finishing next to LAST--in 13th place in 4:12.89.
So her lousy 2015 continues.
I tend to ignore those who blame her bad year on "Freshman Blues", or homesickness, or on her gaining weight, or even because she has a boyfriend!
No, I believe there's just one reason she's suffering, and HIS name is Alberto Salazar!
His insane training methods have ruined her!
Looking back, her fantastic 2013 season can be at least 98% attributed to a natural teenage progression.
Her connection to Salazar hadn't yet made enough of an indent to despoil that natural rhythm.
And even her INdoor season of 2014 could be seen more as continuing that natural progression of a teenager, rather than because of anything Salazar did, regarding form corrections, etc.
But after that, Salazar's INSANE training methods began Cain's downfall.
What might be good for Galen Rupp, or anyone else, might NOT be okay for Mary Cain!
SOMEthing needs to change!
I strongly suggest she LEAVE Salazar (and NOP)--the sooner the better!
There's 3 groups that I think would fit her needs.
Mike Hickey's little enclave, which includes the vastly improved McKayla Fricker, and that "other" teenage middle distance phenom, Alexa Efraimson, who's ALSO having a pretty good 2015!!
Or the New Balance group where Abbey D'Agostino landed.
It's much closer to her NY home, and she's spoken of her admiration for Abbey, and even friendship with her!
Then there's Oiselle, which is a group that nurtures the emerging female runner, focusing on their strengths, and NOT trying to change them!
Wherever she might go, she really needs to think long and hard about continuing with Salazar!
And I'm NOT saying this because of any possible connection to the Salazar drug scandal.
In no way, shape, or form am I connecting Cain to that!
(Although I think she might be being psychologically burdened by what's happening with him, and that's something she doesn't need!)
BTW, her next scheduled race is in the Stockholm DL 3000--this Thursday!
But the 3000??!!
Sorry for the little detour!
Back to London!
And to USAIN BOLT!!
Yes, he actually showed up in London!
Yes, he really raced there too!
And YES, he's BAAAACCKK!!!!!
He ran his heat 100 in 9.87, by far his best mark of 2015!
Second was Mike Rodgers in 9.92.
And this was AGAINST a wind of 1.2.
He won the final in the same time--9.87--also against a wind!
(And Rodgers finished 2nd again, this time in 9.90!)
So maybe it's time you reconsider Mr Bolt's standing in the sprint wars.
And start placing your bets---or hedging them??---for Beijing!
Another popular person entertained the London (sold-out) crowds.
Her name is Jessica Ennis-Hill.
She competed well in 4 events.
But as of late yesterday, she was still undecided about competing in Beijing's Heptathlon!
Although, IMHO, she seemed to be leaning towards competing!
I have some "old" marks I missed from the World Youth Championships.
Josephus Lyles ran the 400 in 45.46.
This makes him 16th A-T HS.
I made an error on Chris Taylor's time in the 400.
I reported it as being 45.30.
It was actually 45.27.
He's 15 years old!
Lynna Irby's winning 51.79 in the Women's (Girl's??) 400 makes her 17th A-T HS.
Alexis Duncan ran a fantastic time in the 100H.
I'm pretty sure the hurdle heights in the Youth meet were the same as for US HS's.
The eTN reported it as seeming so!
Thus, her time of 12.95 ties Candy Young's Junior Class Record!
(But misses Dior Hall's HSR by 0.03 seconds!)
It also moves her from 18th A-T HS to 2nd, where she's tied with Young!
Brittley Humphrey also ran well in the 100H, her 13.22 making her 11th A-T HS.
In the Women's 400H, finishing behind Sydney McLaughlin was Brandee Johnson, whose 57.47 moves her up 3 spots on the A-T HS list, from 20th to 17th.
Finally (!!), there's the LJ mark of Tara Davis.
Her leap of 21-0.50 makes her 13th A-T HS.
As I noted above, the Stockholm DL is the next "major" meet on the calendar.
Based on this year's history of previous DL's, we'll have to wait and see if it's worth an in-depth report!
See you soon!
ADDED 15 MINUTES LATER!
I want to add some important news that's not related to Records and Marks---at least not directly.
Connie Price-Smith (and husband John), the coaches at Southern Illinois, have moved on to become the coaches at Ole Miss!!
This has major ramifications, already set in motion!
Raven Saunders, who improved from under 57 feet in the SP to over 61 feet under their direction, has gotten her release from SIU, and almost certainly will follow the Smiths to Ole Miss!
Other notable transfers that were tweeted about over the weekend involved a sprinter and an 800 woman.
The sprinter is Hannah Cunliffe, who has said she's transferring from Oklahoma to the Oregon Ducks!
Following her---and in fact becoming Cunliffe's roommate at Oregon!--is Brooke Feldmeier, who ran well in the 600 INdoors and the 800 OUTdoors this year!
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Because of a bad technical mistake I made, a large portion of my original post was LOST to the Cyber Void!
I was forced to rewrite that portion of this post.
The loss began where I mentioned Elaine Thompson's 22.10 run.
From that sentence to where I talked about "hedging one's bets" on Usain Bolt was COMPLETELY LOST!!
So what you just read above is a fairly close approximation of what I'd written earlier---but NOT EXACT!!
I apologize for that, and hope I never make that same mistake again!!
(I'm really a rookie when it comes to computers---even after being on them for over 6 years!!)
See you soon!
But my title makes a couple of key points.
1. This DL season has seen more "downs" than "ups" re quality of meets.
2. This edition of the Pan American Games was one of the best!
I'm putting my thoughts together for an upcoming "extra" post, which will take an in-depth look at the entire DL concept.
But let's see why this Pan Am was so good!
This meet only started in 1951.
Canada has now held it 3 times, with the other 2 both in Winnipeg (1967 & 1999).
The US has held it just twice, in Chicago in 1959, and in Indianapolis in 1987.
This being the 17th edition, breaking Meet Records becomes tougher each time.
So taking down 14 of them--6 for the Men, 8 for the Women--puts this right up there with other long-time "regionals" best editions.
Anyway, let's take a look at these MR's.
(In chronological order.)
Gladys Tejeda won the Women's Marathon, running a MR time of 2:33:03.
The 1st three finishers all broke the previous MR!
Women's 100
Barbara Pierre ran 10.92 in her heat for the first sprint MR.
Shawn Barber easily won the Men's PV with his MR of 19-0.25.
(He actually TIED the MR first set by Cuba's Lazaro Borges in 2011.)
See below for more on Barber!!
Jamaica's O'Dayne Richards got two for the price of one.
His SP winner measuring 71-3.25 got the Pan Am Meet Record, as well as his own Jamaica National Record!
However, he still misses my World DDD list by 9.50 inches!
Queen Harrison destroyed the field in the Women's 100H with her MR of 12.52.
Yarisley Silva of Cuba took down the Pan Am MR with her PV of 15-11.
And it wasn't easy, as the field included Jenn Suhr, Demi Payne, and Fabiana Murer!
BTW, she got her own MR!
And she added the Age 28 Record!
Andre De Grasse was EXPECTED to be the one to break the Pan American Games MR in the Men's 200.
And he DID win the event, running 19.88.
That broke his own National Record of Canada, as he became Canada's first-ever sub-20.00 man!
BUT.....he didn't break the Meet Record.
That was accomplished in the semis by a virtual unknown from Jamaica's Sprint Factory.
His name is Richard Dwyer, and his MR time was 19.80.
This ranks him 17th A-T World, tied with 1 other!
Shoved OFF my World list were 3 men, two of whom can be considered legends of the sport!
Isaiah Young's 19.86 (from 2012) is OFF my list.
So are the 19.86's of the iconic Maurice Greene (from 1997) and Don Quarrie (from 1971!!).
The first distance MR to fall was in the Women's 10000.
Brenda Flores ran 32:41.23 to defeat Desiree Linden for the MR.
(The Women's 5000 was also an easy target (15:30+), but survived.)
One of the most impressive MR's was broken by Damian Warner's Decathlon score of 8659 points!
His previous best, dating from the 2012 Olympics, was 8512.
It's the new National Record of Canada.
And it ranks him 23rd A-T World!
David Oliver's MR of 13.07 in the Men's 110H didn't come easy!
It wasn't that his competition was so great (although it wasn't so bad!).
It was that he had to run the race TWICE!!
Someone false started, but either the gun to recall the runners didn't go off soon enough, or Oliver just didn't hear it.
So he wound up running the entire distance "winning" in 13.18.
The officials scheduled a second race for a half hour later!
In THAT one is where Oliver ran his 13.07 MR!!
Another distance MR to fall came from Ashley Higginson in the Women's 3000SC.
Her time of 9:48.12 beat Shalaya Kipp by a second or so.
The Men's 4X100 Relay produced the MR in the heats!
Antigua (somewhat surprisingly!) was the team to do it, running a National Record of 38.14.
(That turned out to be the fastest of the meet, as the final was won in 38.27 by the US in a race that saw 1 team not finish, and TWO get DQ'ed, including the "winner"!!)
Antigua's time makes them the 15th fastest Nation!
Two other National Records fell in that heat!
Barbados ran 38.65 for their fastest time.
And the Dominican Republic followed with theirs in 38.67.
(Neither team's marks make my Top 24 World list!)
The US Women's 4X100 Relay team not only won the race, but broke the MR (dating from 1999!) with their 42.58.
The team was anchored by 17 year old HS PRO Kaylin Whitney!
She took the baton even with Jamaica's team, ran side by side for 40 meters, then shot ahead in the final 30.
It appeared she was running at sub-11.00 speed!!
She also won the Women's 200, in 22.65, after also winning her semi in 22.88.
A busy woman, as she also ran the Relay heats, anchoring that one too!
The last of Pan Am's 14 MR's was gained in the Women's Heptathlon.
Yorgelis Rodriguez scored 6332 points for the win.
One more mark of note from the Pan Am's before moving from Toronto to London.
Angela Tenorio, one of the stars of the 2014 World Junior Championships, ran the 100 in 10.99 for the National Record of Ecuador.
She also ran her 200 heat in 22.59, a PR.
(But was beaten by Whitney in the final!)
Rain pelted down the first of the two days of the London DL meet.
In fact, the Men's PV was pushed to the 2nd day, as it was raining too hard on Friday!
Opening the 2nd day, the event didn't disappoint!
Renaud Lavillenie won with the MR height of 19-9.25.
He then missed his 3 tries at 6.10, or 20-0.25!!
But Shawn Barber made things interesting.
He made 19-5.25 on his 3rd try for a new Canada National Record--breaking his own mark!
But he JUST misses making the World Top 24---by one quarter inch!!!
Both Demi Payne and Jenn Suhr, who had competed at the Pan Am's on Thursday, were on the entry list, but didn't compete in the Saturday London event!
In fact--though I'm not certain--I don't think they even left North America!
But Anzhelika Sidorova PR'ed, her 15-8.75 moving her from 14th A-T World, tied with 2 others, to 12th!
Shara Proctor LJ'ed 22-10.75 for the win.
It also gets her the National Record of Great Britain!
Jasmin Stowers won the (always!) loaded Women's 100H, running 12.47--her fastest since her springtime 12.3's and 12'4's!--for another London Meet Record!
The 3rd London MR came in the Women's 4X100 Relay, where the US team ran 42.32.
In fact, the Women sprinters performed well in the open races too.
Elaine Thompson continues to prove her emergence on the world scene isn't a fluke.
She won the London 200 in a fast 22.10.
Second was Tori Bowie's 22.32.
Thompson's mark is the 4th London Meet Record!
The Women's 100 produced some good marks.
Dina Asher-Smith won her heat in the time of 10.99, which is also the new National Record of Great Britain.
It's (obviously!) the first sub-11.00 run by a Brit also!
But it was Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands who won the final.
Her 10.92 is a new National Record.
(Asher-Smith ran 11.06 in the final.)
The distance races were mostly FLOPS!
One prime example was the Men's 3000, won by Mo Farah in 7:34-ish. (Rhymes with Whore-ish!! LOL)
While his London Mo Farah Fan Club didn't think so, jogging the first 2600 is NOT the best way to demonstrate your star-power!
Bernard Lagat had a busy two days in LondonTown!
In "Mo's" 3000, he finished just 7th, but ran 7:42.78, coming within 0.03 seconds of his own Age 40 Record!
The Men's mile was another HUGE Flop!
There was talk before the meet of a possible World Record attempt, but that quickly fizzled.
The race was won in 3:54-ish (See above remark!) by someone--fill in the name!
But back in 13th place was Mr Lagat!
His 3:57.91 broke Tony Whiteman's old Age 40 mark
So now Lagat holds BOTH the INdoor and OUTdoor Age 40 Records for the Mile--as well as a slough of other Age 40 Records!!
The Women's 1500 was won by Laura Weightman in 4:06.10 over a good field.
Bur young Mary Cain had another poor race, finishing next to LAST--in 13th place in 4:12.89.
So her lousy 2015 continues.
I tend to ignore those who blame her bad year on "Freshman Blues", or homesickness, or on her gaining weight, or even because she has a boyfriend!
No, I believe there's just one reason she's suffering, and HIS name is Alberto Salazar!
His insane training methods have ruined her!
Looking back, her fantastic 2013 season can be at least 98% attributed to a natural teenage progression.
Her connection to Salazar hadn't yet made enough of an indent to despoil that natural rhythm.
And even her INdoor season of 2014 could be seen more as continuing that natural progression of a teenager, rather than because of anything Salazar did, regarding form corrections, etc.
But after that, Salazar's INSANE training methods began Cain's downfall.
What might be good for Galen Rupp, or anyone else, might NOT be okay for Mary Cain!
SOMEthing needs to change!
I strongly suggest she LEAVE Salazar (and NOP)--the sooner the better!
There's 3 groups that I think would fit her needs.
Mike Hickey's little enclave, which includes the vastly improved McKayla Fricker, and that "other" teenage middle distance phenom, Alexa Efraimson, who's ALSO having a pretty good 2015!!
Or the New Balance group where Abbey D'Agostino landed.
It's much closer to her NY home, and she's spoken of her admiration for Abbey, and even friendship with her!
Then there's Oiselle, which is a group that nurtures the emerging female runner, focusing on their strengths, and NOT trying to change them!
Wherever she might go, she really needs to think long and hard about continuing with Salazar!
And I'm NOT saying this because of any possible connection to the Salazar drug scandal.
In no way, shape, or form am I connecting Cain to that!
(Although I think she might be being psychologically burdened by what's happening with him, and that's something she doesn't need!)
BTW, her next scheduled race is in the Stockholm DL 3000--this Thursday!
But the 3000??!!
Sorry for the little detour!
Back to London!
And to USAIN BOLT!!
Yes, he actually showed up in London!
Yes, he really raced there too!
And YES, he's BAAAACCKK!!!!!
He ran his heat 100 in 9.87, by far his best mark of 2015!
Second was Mike Rodgers in 9.92.
And this was AGAINST a wind of 1.2.
He won the final in the same time--9.87--also against a wind!
(And Rodgers finished 2nd again, this time in 9.90!)
So maybe it's time you reconsider Mr Bolt's standing in the sprint wars.
And start placing your bets---or hedging them??---for Beijing!
Another popular person entertained the London (sold-out) crowds.
Her name is Jessica Ennis-Hill.
She competed well in 4 events.
But as of late yesterday, she was still undecided about competing in Beijing's Heptathlon!
Although, IMHO, she seemed to be leaning towards competing!
I have some "old" marks I missed from the World Youth Championships.
Josephus Lyles ran the 400 in 45.46.
This makes him 16th A-T HS.
I made an error on Chris Taylor's time in the 400.
I reported it as being 45.30.
It was actually 45.27.
He's 15 years old!
Lynna Irby's winning 51.79 in the Women's (Girl's??) 400 makes her 17th A-T HS.
Alexis Duncan ran a fantastic time in the 100H.
I'm pretty sure the hurdle heights in the Youth meet were the same as for US HS's.
The eTN reported it as seeming so!
Thus, her time of 12.95 ties Candy Young's Junior Class Record!
(But misses Dior Hall's HSR by 0.03 seconds!)
It also moves her from 18th A-T HS to 2nd, where she's tied with Young!
Brittley Humphrey also ran well in the 100H, her 13.22 making her 11th A-T HS.
In the Women's 400H, finishing behind Sydney McLaughlin was Brandee Johnson, whose 57.47 moves her up 3 spots on the A-T HS list, from 20th to 17th.
Finally (!!), there's the LJ mark of Tara Davis.
Her leap of 21-0.50 makes her 13th A-T HS.
As I noted above, the Stockholm DL is the next "major" meet on the calendar.
Based on this year's history of previous DL's, we'll have to wait and see if it's worth an in-depth report!
See you soon!
ADDED 15 MINUTES LATER!
I want to add some important news that's not related to Records and Marks---at least not directly.
Connie Price-Smith (and husband John), the coaches at Southern Illinois, have moved on to become the coaches at Ole Miss!!
This has major ramifications, already set in motion!
Raven Saunders, who improved from under 57 feet in the SP to over 61 feet under their direction, has gotten her release from SIU, and almost certainly will follow the Smiths to Ole Miss!
Other notable transfers that were tweeted about over the weekend involved a sprinter and an 800 woman.
The sprinter is Hannah Cunliffe, who has said she's transferring from Oklahoma to the Oregon Ducks!
Following her---and in fact becoming Cunliffe's roommate at Oregon!--is Brooke Feldmeier, who ran well in the 600 INdoors and the 800 OUTdoors this year!
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Because of a bad technical mistake I made, a large portion of my original post was LOST to the Cyber Void!
I was forced to rewrite that portion of this post.
The loss began where I mentioned Elaine Thompson's 22.10 run.
From that sentence to where I talked about "hedging one's bets" on Usain Bolt was COMPLETELY LOST!!
So what you just read above is a fairly close approximation of what I'd written earlier---but NOT EXACT!!
I apologize for that, and hope I never make that same mistake again!!
(I'm really a rookie when it comes to computers---even after being on them for over 6 years!!)
See you soon!
Monday, July 20, 2015
Away from Monaco....!
While the Monaco DL (and one particular event) gained most of the headlines this past weekend, there were several important meets AWAY from Monaco that greatly altered my T&F Record Book.
(For my full detailed report on Monaco--and Genzebe Dibaba's historic run--read my previous post!)
If you thought Monaco had ALL the great Records and Marks last week, you'd be wrong.
And here's the many reasons.
Candace Hill might well become the next High Schooler to go the Professional route BEFORE graduation, but until or unless she does, she is busy rewriting the "amateur" HS Records!
No HSR's this time, but Hill ran a VERY similar double to what Kaylin Whitney ran at last year's USATF Junior Champs (the qualifier for the WJC's last summer).
In 2014, Whitney broke the HSR in the 100 with her 11.10.
She also became the 2nd fastest HS 200 woman with her victorious 22.49.
She was 16 years old then.
At the World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, Hill's winning times were 11.08 and 22.43.
She of course has the HSR of 10.98, run at the Brooks PR meet, but that 11.08 is still the 2nd fastest HS 100 ever run!
(Legal, that is, as Whitney has a 5.4 wind-aided mark of 11.01.)
Her 200 is the new Soph Class Record, erasing Whitney's time!
It also moves her quite a ways up the A-T HS list, from 23rd, tied with 1 other, to 2nd!
Two other American HS girls made my lists in those races.
Khalifa St Fort ran 11.19 behind Hill, making her 12th A-T HS, tied with one other.
And Lauren Rain Williams took 2nd to Hill in the 200, her 22.90 making her 11th A-T HS, tied with 1 other!
Chris Taylor of Jamaica continues to amaze.
He's just 15--so would probably be a freshman in the US HS system--but his 45.30 PR in the 400 was a very ADULT time!!
Sammy Watson won the 800 in Cali in 2:03.54.
This moves her from 21st to 14th on the A-T HS list!
The Pole Vault continues as a VERY strong event this year---on ALL levels!
And I have the marks to prove it!
In Cali, HS Frosh Mondo Duplantis--competing for Sweden, but he's an American HS'er--broke his own Frosh Class Record---AGAIN!!
He added a half inch to his old mark, jumping 17-4.50.
Just graduated from Arkansas, and a "newbie" on the Pro circuit, Sandi Morris is showing the World that she belongs with the very best!
She lost to Anzhelika Sidorova on fewer misses, but both were successful at 15-7.25 in the Heusden-Zolder PV.
Morris's PR moves her from 4th to 3rd on the A-T US list.
Only Jenn Suhr and Stacy Dragila are ahead of her!!
On the World list, she moves from 18th A-T, tied with 2 others, to 14th, also tied with 2 others.
Sidorova's make places her also at 14th on the A-T World list, also tied with 2 others (one of whom is Morris, obviously!).
In another meet, Morris had won with a 15-5.50 leap, which then was just 0.25 inches from her PR.
She missed 2 tries at 15-9.25, passing on her 3rd attempt.
Lauren Johnson got her Beijing Q in the deep Heusden-Zolder (Belgium) 1500.
Her 4:04.17 makes her 24th A-T US.
Ben True didn't PR in the H-Z 5000, but he ran 13:06+ for his Beijing Q.
Abbey D'Agostino led the H-Z 5000 at 3000 in about 8:56, but couldn'st stay with 2 Africans, and finished 3rd in a PR of 15:03.85.
This makes her 18th A-T US.
But maybe more significantly, it tosses a LEGEND OFF the list!
Gone is Suzy Favor Hamilton's 15:06.48 from 2000.
In the Men's 5000, Eric Jenkins got an 11 second PR, his 13:07.33 (behind True) making him 11th A-T US!
(And faster than former Oregon teammate Ed Cheserek!!)
Another "legend" was axed from my list here.
Bill McChesney's mark from 1982 is gone.
(As is McChesney himself, who tragically died a few years later!)
Two World University Games Meet Records were broken.
Yekaterina Sokolenko ran the MR time of 9:25.77 in the 3000SC.
And Akani Simbina sprinted the 100 in the MR time of 9.97.
Anne Zagre is the new Belgium National Record holder in the 100H with her 12.71.
Several good marks came from the meet in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Wayde Van Niekerk, one of the latest sub-44.00 400 men, broke the National Record of South Africa in the 200 also, running 19.94.
He's just 0.08 seconds from making my World Top 24 list!
Lopez Lomong won a 3000 in 7:42.19, but didn't PR.
Neither was Bernard Lagat's 7:42.75 in 2nd.
But it IS the new Age 40 Record---by about 18 seconds (over Lagat's own mark!).
Other good marks came from Asafa Powell, who won the 100 in 9.87.
Queen Harrison took the 100H in 12.62.
And Charonda Williams PR'ed in the 200 in 22.32.
That misses my US DDD by just 0.09 seconds.
I have 3 older marks to report.
(Better late than never, eh?)
Kristin Smith threw the Hammer 226-0.
This makes her 22nd A-T US, tied with 1 other.
A couple of HS'ers improved their HT distances.
Adam Kelly got a PR of 243-1.
He moves from 9th to 8th on the A-T HS list.
And Haley Showalter improved to 194-1, also gaining one spot on the A-T HS list, moving from 7th to 6th.
With all that happened in Monaco, this makes for quite a week's tally of great Records and Marks.
So what's next?
Would you believe another LOADED Diamond League meet?
This one is a 2 day affair--July 24th and 25th--and is called the Sainsbury Anniversary Games!
(It's actually a THREE day meet, but the 3rd day is all para-olympics events.)
There's also a one day meet next weekend--the Morton Games in Dublin!
Haven't seen the Morton entry list, but they always have several top names!
Also coming this week is the T&F portion of the Pan Am Games, being held in Toronto this time around!
One thing's for certain!
After the Sainsbury's 2nd day is done, I will report ALL the significant marks from both meets!!
(And whatever else I happen to come across!)
One more item.
My T&F Record Book's biggest sections are my DDD's, or Top 24 Performers lists for the World, US, Collegiate, and HS.
(I keep completely separate lists for INdoors, but here we're talking only OUTdoors!!)
Anyway, for long-time readers of this blog, you know I keep a running account of the number of marks from the latest year that are on my DDD's.
Well, I did a "mid-season" count on July 17th---BEFORE the Monaco DL!!
Here's the numbers I came up with!
(Remember, NONE of the Monaco marks were included in my count!!)
Also keep in mind that the Collegiate list is a FINAL one, as no marks count made after the NCAA Championships!
(HS'ers can still make the list through August 31st!)
HS--Men have 34 marks from 2015. Women have 56 so far.
Collegiate--Men finished with 33 marks from 2015. Women have 69.
US--Currently (as of July 17th), the Men have just 29 marks from 2015, while the Women have 69 here too.
World--Both genders have done fairly poorly---as of July 17th!--with the Men tallying 24 2015 marks, with the Women having just 21.
Grand Totals are: Men--120, Women--215 (Total of 335)
But of course we know that Monaco CHANGED those numbers!
As will the last 4 or 5 DL meets---AND the World Championships!!
See you in 5 days!
(For my full detailed report on Monaco--and Genzebe Dibaba's historic run--read my previous post!)
If you thought Monaco had ALL the great Records and Marks last week, you'd be wrong.
And here's the many reasons.
Candace Hill might well become the next High Schooler to go the Professional route BEFORE graduation, but until or unless she does, she is busy rewriting the "amateur" HS Records!
No HSR's this time, but Hill ran a VERY similar double to what Kaylin Whitney ran at last year's USATF Junior Champs (the qualifier for the WJC's last summer).
In 2014, Whitney broke the HSR in the 100 with her 11.10.
She also became the 2nd fastest HS 200 woman with her victorious 22.49.
She was 16 years old then.
At the World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, Hill's winning times were 11.08 and 22.43.
She of course has the HSR of 10.98, run at the Brooks PR meet, but that 11.08 is still the 2nd fastest HS 100 ever run!
(Legal, that is, as Whitney has a 5.4 wind-aided mark of 11.01.)
Her 200 is the new Soph Class Record, erasing Whitney's time!
It also moves her quite a ways up the A-T HS list, from 23rd, tied with 1 other, to 2nd!
Two other American HS girls made my lists in those races.
Khalifa St Fort ran 11.19 behind Hill, making her 12th A-T HS, tied with one other.
And Lauren Rain Williams took 2nd to Hill in the 200, her 22.90 making her 11th A-T HS, tied with 1 other!
Chris Taylor of Jamaica continues to amaze.
He's just 15--so would probably be a freshman in the US HS system--but his 45.30 PR in the 400 was a very ADULT time!!
Sammy Watson won the 800 in Cali in 2:03.54.
This moves her from 21st to 14th on the A-T HS list!
The Pole Vault continues as a VERY strong event this year---on ALL levels!
And I have the marks to prove it!
In Cali, HS Frosh Mondo Duplantis--competing for Sweden, but he's an American HS'er--broke his own Frosh Class Record---AGAIN!!
He added a half inch to his old mark, jumping 17-4.50.
Just graduated from Arkansas, and a "newbie" on the Pro circuit, Sandi Morris is showing the World that she belongs with the very best!
She lost to Anzhelika Sidorova on fewer misses, but both were successful at 15-7.25 in the Heusden-Zolder PV.
Morris's PR moves her from 4th to 3rd on the A-T US list.
Only Jenn Suhr and Stacy Dragila are ahead of her!!
On the World list, she moves from 18th A-T, tied with 2 others, to 14th, also tied with 2 others.
Sidorova's make places her also at 14th on the A-T World list, also tied with 2 others (one of whom is Morris, obviously!).
In another meet, Morris had won with a 15-5.50 leap, which then was just 0.25 inches from her PR.
She missed 2 tries at 15-9.25, passing on her 3rd attempt.
Lauren Johnson got her Beijing Q in the deep Heusden-Zolder (Belgium) 1500.
Her 4:04.17 makes her 24th A-T US.
Ben True didn't PR in the H-Z 5000, but he ran 13:06+ for his Beijing Q.
Abbey D'Agostino led the H-Z 5000 at 3000 in about 8:56, but couldn'st stay with 2 Africans, and finished 3rd in a PR of 15:03.85.
This makes her 18th A-T US.
But maybe more significantly, it tosses a LEGEND OFF the list!
Gone is Suzy Favor Hamilton's 15:06.48 from 2000.
In the Men's 5000, Eric Jenkins got an 11 second PR, his 13:07.33 (behind True) making him 11th A-T US!
(And faster than former Oregon teammate Ed Cheserek!!)
Another "legend" was axed from my list here.
Bill McChesney's mark from 1982 is gone.
(As is McChesney himself, who tragically died a few years later!)
Two World University Games Meet Records were broken.
Yekaterina Sokolenko ran the MR time of 9:25.77 in the 3000SC.
And Akani Simbina sprinted the 100 in the MR time of 9.97.
Anne Zagre is the new Belgium National Record holder in the 100H with her 12.71.
Several good marks came from the meet in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Wayde Van Niekerk, one of the latest sub-44.00 400 men, broke the National Record of South Africa in the 200 also, running 19.94.
He's just 0.08 seconds from making my World Top 24 list!
Lopez Lomong won a 3000 in 7:42.19, but didn't PR.
Neither was Bernard Lagat's 7:42.75 in 2nd.
But it IS the new Age 40 Record---by about 18 seconds (over Lagat's own mark!).
Other good marks came from Asafa Powell, who won the 100 in 9.87.
Queen Harrison took the 100H in 12.62.
And Charonda Williams PR'ed in the 200 in 22.32.
That misses my US DDD by just 0.09 seconds.
I have 3 older marks to report.
(Better late than never, eh?)
Kristin Smith threw the Hammer 226-0.
This makes her 22nd A-T US, tied with 1 other.
A couple of HS'ers improved their HT distances.
Adam Kelly got a PR of 243-1.
He moves from 9th to 8th on the A-T HS list.
And Haley Showalter improved to 194-1, also gaining one spot on the A-T HS list, moving from 7th to 6th.
With all that happened in Monaco, this makes for quite a week's tally of great Records and Marks.
So what's next?
Would you believe another LOADED Diamond League meet?
This one is a 2 day affair--July 24th and 25th--and is called the Sainsbury Anniversary Games!
(It's actually a THREE day meet, but the 3rd day is all para-olympics events.)
There's also a one day meet next weekend--the Morton Games in Dublin!
Haven't seen the Morton entry list, but they always have several top names!
Also coming this week is the T&F portion of the Pan Am Games, being held in Toronto this time around!
One thing's for certain!
After the Sainsbury's 2nd day is done, I will report ALL the significant marks from both meets!!
(And whatever else I happen to come across!)
One more item.
My T&F Record Book's biggest sections are my DDD's, or Top 24 Performers lists for the World, US, Collegiate, and HS.
(I keep completely separate lists for INdoors, but here we're talking only OUTdoors!!)
Anyway, for long-time readers of this blog, you know I keep a running account of the number of marks from the latest year that are on my DDD's.
Well, I did a "mid-season" count on July 17th---BEFORE the Monaco DL!!
Here's the numbers I came up with!
(Remember, NONE of the Monaco marks were included in my count!!)
Also keep in mind that the Collegiate list is a FINAL one, as no marks count made after the NCAA Championships!
(HS'ers can still make the list through August 31st!)
HS--Men have 34 marks from 2015. Women have 56 so far.
Collegiate--Men finished with 33 marks from 2015. Women have 69.
US--Currently (as of July 17th), the Men have just 29 marks from 2015, while the Women have 69 here too.
World--Both genders have done fairly poorly---as of July 17th!--with the Men tallying 24 2015 marks, with the Women having just 21.
Grand Totals are: Men--120, Women--215 (Total of 335)
But of course we know that Monaco CHANGED those numbers!
As will the last 4 or 5 DL meets---AND the World Championships!!
See you in 5 days!
Friday, July 17, 2015
Simply the Finest--Monaco DL
This is a blog that honors and specializes in Records and (Top 24) Marks.
And today, in the tiny Principality called Monaco, Track and Field history was made.
A World Record--though many deny its legality or existence by excluding it from their lists--once believed to be invincible, and even of an Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz/White Rabbit-type nature--has been broken!
Genzebe Dibaba, a stunningly beautiful Ethiopian woman, finally took down one of "those" records set by a group of Chinese women in both 1993 and 1997.
Say goodbye to Ms Qu Yunxia, who ran an absolutely unbelievable WR in 1993--a 1500 meter time of 3:50.46, which is basically equivalent to a Mile of around 4:07.
Dibaba's pace was set by rabbit Chanelle Price, who ran a startling 60.31 first 400, with both Dibaba and Sifan Hassan right behind, followed by the top 2 Americans, Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury.
Simpson was aiming at Mary Slaney's American Record, set back in 1983, of 3:57.12.
It's telling that it took a runner with a 1:59 credential to be the rabbit for Dibaba.
She did a great job, but was a second off the asked-for 2:03, hitting the 800 in 2:04.62.
(There supposedly was a second rabbit--from the Ukraine??--but I didn't even see her in the video.
It was Chanelle, Genzebe, and Sifan through 800.)
When someone runs as smoothly and effortlessly as Dibaba does (a trait she shares with sister Tirunesh!), it's hard to tell she's picking up the pace.
But after those laps of 60.31 and 64.21, Dibaba ran a stunning 60.10, bringing her to 1200 in 3:04.62.
Her final 300 was 45.45, and her final 400 was estimated at 60 even.
For the Record, which again is what this blog is about, Dibaba's run did the following.
Besides the World Record and the National Record of Ethiopia, she also got the Age 24 Record.
It's the Monaco Meet Record.
She moves from 9th A-T World to 1st.
And she improves her times on 2 Combined Events lists.
On the Combined Events list for 1500 and 3000, her 3:50.07 and 8:26.21 add to 12:16.28.
This moves her from 7th to 5th on that list.
On the Combined Events list for 1500 and 5000, her times of 3:50.07 and 14:15.41 add to 18:05.48.
This merely widens her gap to the 2nd person on the list to about 9 seconds.
Jenny Simpson did NOT break Slaney's AR.
She came close, however.
Her time of 3:57.30 is her 2nd best, just 0.08 back from her PR, and 0.18 behind Slaney.
No, Jenny did not break that record.
But Shannon Rowbury did!!
I'm not totally shocked by this, as Rowbury's 2014 showed she was becoming America's best all-around runner on the track.
(If you included the Roads, you'd have to give that prize to Molly Huddle, and maybe historically, to Shalane Flanagan.)
But if one were to place bets today, their money would have been on Simpson to get the record!
From what I could see on the video---and the camera mostly was on Dibaba--Simpson led Rowbury throughout the first 1200, but only by a few hairs.
So it was somewhere on the final lap that she passed Simpson, and took the AR that "belonged" to Jenny!
Something tells me we won't have to wait another 32 years for THIS record to go!
(Maybe not even ONE year!!)
Besides the American Record, Rowbury nabbed the Age 30 Record, which was Svetlana Masterkova's 3:57.11 from 1998.
This makes her 19th A-T World.
And she moves from 5th to 1st on the US list!
But Rowbury didn't beat 2nd placer Sifan Hassan!
Hassan got the National Record of the Netherlands.
She now ranks 16th A-T World.
And she got one of two Age Records!
What?
You see, I don't know her exact birthdate.
Athletics Annual only has it listed as being in 1993--no month or day.
So she's either 21 or 22.
On a positive note, her 3:56.05 would break either one!
If I can find an exact birthdate, I'll let you know!
Others ran well in this amazing race too.
Laura Muir finally broke 4:00, becoming Great Britain's 2nd fastest ever, time of 3:58.66.
Maureen Koster of the Netherlands also broke 4:00, running 3:59.79
Ethiopians (except for Genzebe!!) don't run the 1500 very often, it seems, so Besu Sado's time of 4:00.65 probably ranks VERY high on their A-T list.
Treniere Moser and Kerri Gallagher had decent races, but finished far back!
Sarah Brown was actually last, in 14th place, and she ran 4:09.17!
Cut OFF my World DDD were two oldies.
Nadezhda Raldugina and Yekaterina Podkopayeva both had times from 1984.
And the Men's 1500 wasn't bad either!
(Someone on the T&FN Message Board said today was the greatest day in 1500 history!
Not totally sure about that, but it definitely was VERY much near the top!!)
No WR, but Asbel Kiprop is edging ever closer to that almost-apocryphal 3:26.00 of the legendary Hicham El Guerrouj!
Kiprop won over a deep field, timed in 3:26.69.
The pace was almost as insane as in the women's race, as they hit the "quarters" in 53, 57, and 55.
But after the rabbit left, it was all Kiprop, as 2nd finished about 2 seconds back.
Numerous Place Records were broken, as were several other records.
Let's take a look.
Kiprop got the Monaco Meet Record.
He improved his leading 800-1500 Combined Events time to 5:09.84 (1:43.15 and 3:26.69).
But he did NOT get Kenya's National Record.
That still belongs to FORMER Kenyan Bernard Lagat, when he ran 3:26.34 in 2001.
And he moves from 5th to 3rd on the A-T World list.
Taoufik Makhloufi was 2nd, running 3:28.75.
He's now 7th A-T World.
Abdelaati Iguider was 3rd in 3:28.79.
He's now 8th A-T World.
In 4th was Mo Farah!
And he nabbed the best-ever 4th Place mark to prove it!
Despite not getting a PR, he did get the Age 32 Record with his 3:28.93.
In fact, he's the oldest sub-3:30 man ever!
Nick Willis's 3:29.66 is now the best 5th Place mark!
It also breaks his own New Zealand National Record.
And it makes him 24th A-T World.
Just 0.01 behind Willis, in 3:29.67, came Elijah Manangir.
It's the best-ever 6th Place mark.
But he misses the World list by that same 0.01 seconds!!
Robert Biwott got the Age 19 record with his 3:30.10.
(It's not the fastest teenage time, as that belongs to Ronald Kwemboi's 3:28.81 from last year, when he was 18.)
The best 8th and 9th Place times were run by Aman Wote (8th in 3:30.29) and Collins Cheboi (9th in 3:30.34).
After giving up his best-ever 9th Place mark to Cheboi, Matthew Centrowitz "gained" the best-ever 10th Place mark with his PR of 3:30.40.
Imagine running 3:30.40...and finishing TENTH!!
Wow!!
Besides that somewhat dubious reward, a more positive result was that Centro's time moves him from 7th to 3rd on the A-T US list!
Four runners were 86'ed FROM my World DDD list.
Steve Cram's 3:29.67 from 1985 is gone.
So are the 3:29.77's of Nixon Chepseba (2012), Sydney Maree (1985), and a person who MIGHT be the next President of the IAAF, Mr Sebastian Coe!!
His 3:29.77 dates from 1986.
In one of the opening field events of the meet, Joe Kovacs EXPLODED out to 74-0.25 (22.56) in the Shot Put in the 2nd round, which is the best throw in a dozen years!
It's the Monaco Meet Record.
And the Age 26 Record.
He moves from 8th to 4th on the A-T US list.
And from 12th to 8th on the A-T World list.
My DDD for the SP includes the marks of Randy Barnes and Kevin Toth, even though their marks came DURING years when they were each busted for drugs!
The FAST Annual and Athletics Annual both list their marks, albeit with an asterisk!
T&FN doesn't list them, as their "rule" is that ALL marks from a drug bust year are excluded from record or list consideration!
I disagree.
The Men's 800 and the Women's 3000SC were productive for my Record Book.
Amel Tuha of Bosnia was the surprise winner of a pretty good---and deep---race!
His time of 1:42.51 is the new National Record of Bosnia.
And it makes him 11th A-T World.
Ayanleh Souleiman ran a PR of 1:42.97, improving his total time on my Combined Events list for the 800 and 1500.
His times of 1:42.97 and 3:29.58 add to 5:12.55.
He moves from 9th to 7th, tied with 1 other, on that list.
It also breaks his own National Record of Djibouti.
Boris Berian continues to amaze.
(Or maybe not! Consistency doesn't amaze!)
He improved his PR by half a second, to 1:43.34.
He moves from 10th A-T US, tied with 1 other, to 5th.
In the Women's Steeple, it was Habiba Ghribi's 9:11.28 leading a solid field.
No PR for her, but it did set a new Monaco Meet Record.
Hyvin Jepkemoi Kiyang ran 9:12.51 for a PR.
She moves from 19th to 13th on the A-T World list.
Former rabbit-turned-stud Virginia Nyambura improved to 9:13.85.
She moves up 2 spots on the A-T World list, from 20th to 18th.
Salimi El Quali Alami's 9:20.64 broke her own National Record of Morocco.
It just wasn't Emma Coburn's day...or even DAYS!
She apparently became ill in the days before the race, so her 9:23.91 in 10th place should be looked at as an anomaly.
The sprints--both 4X100 Relays, and the Men's 100 and Women's 200--produced good marks....and interesting results.
The Relays started things off in the Sprint Department.
The US Women divided into 2 teams, and took the first 2 spots against a team from Spain.
The "A" team, composed of English Gardner, Allyson Felix, Jenna Prandini, and somewhat surprisingly, HS PRO Kaylin Whitney on anchor, ran 41.96.
The "B" team ran a good 42.27.
For the Men, Trayvon Bromell handed off to Justin Gatlin (somewhat shakily, I've heard!), who handed off to Tyson Gay, followed by Mike Rodgers..
They ran "just" 37.87.
(Probably caused by that one poor hand-off!)
Neither team got the Meet Record.
Gatlin again had his way with the mere mortals, which included Gay and Bromell.
Well, Bromell False Started, and didn't get to race!
Gatlin's time was an average---for HIM!!--9.78.
(Gay followed in 9.97.)
A somewhat surprising Women's 200 winner was Candyce McGrone, who seems to be having her best year yet!
Her PR time of 22.08 just edged out Dafne Masters, who ran 22.09.
Dafne MASTERS???
Well, that's the way the Entry list had her name before the race.
I asked about it, and someone on the T&FN MB said "masters" in Dutch means "skipper" as in a boat's Captain!!
So that's how SCHIPPERS translates!!
Good old IAAF!!
LOL
Anyway, McGrone's time of 22.08 is rated 12th A-T US.
Jeneba Tarmoh also PR'ed, her 22.23 making her 23rd A-T US, tied with 1 other!
The 17 year old Whitney had a busy day.
Just about one hour after her Relay anchor, she finished 5th in the 200 with a good---but not a PR!--22.54.
Actually, she originally was dubbed as being 6th.
But Blessing Okagbare was DQ'ed, so Whitney moved up a place, to 5th.
Christian Taylor TJ'ed 58-3, which is the Monaco Meet Record.
He beat Senor PPPP, aka Pablo Pedro etc Pichardo.
Finishing off my Monaco report, we turn to the Men's 3000 meters.
It wasn't super fast--the winner being Caleb Ndiku in 7:35+--but it produced 3 marks of note.
Ali Kaya's 7:38.65 is the National Record of Turkey.
Garrett Heath's 7:37.97 and Ben Blankenship's 7:38.08 both made the A-T US list.
Heath is now 13th A-T US, while Blankenship is 15th.
I have other material---from other meets---but I've decided to save that for a couple of days, as there's some meets that are still ongoing, and another "lesser" European meet or two that will fill up the next couple of days.
So no later than Monday, I'll have another post, with ALL the noteworthy Marks and Records that occur.
Until then, savor what Genzebe Dibaba did for the sport of Track and Field today in Monaco!
And let's congratulate both Shannon Rowbury and Jenny Simpson for keeping their spirits and dreams alive, and for providing us with a FANTASTIC quest for the American Record!!
And today, in the tiny Principality called Monaco, Track and Field history was made.
A World Record--though many deny its legality or existence by excluding it from their lists--once believed to be invincible, and even of an Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz/White Rabbit-type nature--has been broken!
Genzebe Dibaba, a stunningly beautiful Ethiopian woman, finally took down one of "those" records set by a group of Chinese women in both 1993 and 1997.
Say goodbye to Ms Qu Yunxia, who ran an absolutely unbelievable WR in 1993--a 1500 meter time of 3:50.46, which is basically equivalent to a Mile of around 4:07.
Dibaba's pace was set by rabbit Chanelle Price, who ran a startling 60.31 first 400, with both Dibaba and Sifan Hassan right behind, followed by the top 2 Americans, Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury.
Simpson was aiming at Mary Slaney's American Record, set back in 1983, of 3:57.12.
It's telling that it took a runner with a 1:59 credential to be the rabbit for Dibaba.
She did a great job, but was a second off the asked-for 2:03, hitting the 800 in 2:04.62.
(There supposedly was a second rabbit--from the Ukraine??--but I didn't even see her in the video.
It was Chanelle, Genzebe, and Sifan through 800.)
When someone runs as smoothly and effortlessly as Dibaba does (a trait she shares with sister Tirunesh!), it's hard to tell she's picking up the pace.
But after those laps of 60.31 and 64.21, Dibaba ran a stunning 60.10, bringing her to 1200 in 3:04.62.
Her final 300 was 45.45, and her final 400 was estimated at 60 even.
For the Record, which again is what this blog is about, Dibaba's run did the following.
Besides the World Record and the National Record of Ethiopia, she also got the Age 24 Record.
It's the Monaco Meet Record.
She moves from 9th A-T World to 1st.
And she improves her times on 2 Combined Events lists.
On the Combined Events list for 1500 and 3000, her 3:50.07 and 8:26.21 add to 12:16.28.
This moves her from 7th to 5th on that list.
On the Combined Events list for 1500 and 5000, her times of 3:50.07 and 14:15.41 add to 18:05.48.
This merely widens her gap to the 2nd person on the list to about 9 seconds.
Jenny Simpson did NOT break Slaney's AR.
She came close, however.
Her time of 3:57.30 is her 2nd best, just 0.08 back from her PR, and 0.18 behind Slaney.
No, Jenny did not break that record.
But Shannon Rowbury did!!
I'm not totally shocked by this, as Rowbury's 2014 showed she was becoming America's best all-around runner on the track.
(If you included the Roads, you'd have to give that prize to Molly Huddle, and maybe historically, to Shalane Flanagan.)
But if one were to place bets today, their money would have been on Simpson to get the record!
From what I could see on the video---and the camera mostly was on Dibaba--Simpson led Rowbury throughout the first 1200, but only by a few hairs.
So it was somewhere on the final lap that she passed Simpson, and took the AR that "belonged" to Jenny!
Something tells me we won't have to wait another 32 years for THIS record to go!
(Maybe not even ONE year!!)
Besides the American Record, Rowbury nabbed the Age 30 Record, which was Svetlana Masterkova's 3:57.11 from 1998.
This makes her 19th A-T World.
And she moves from 5th to 1st on the US list!
But Rowbury didn't beat 2nd placer Sifan Hassan!
Hassan got the National Record of the Netherlands.
She now ranks 16th A-T World.
And she got one of two Age Records!
What?
You see, I don't know her exact birthdate.
Athletics Annual only has it listed as being in 1993--no month or day.
So she's either 21 or 22.
On a positive note, her 3:56.05 would break either one!
If I can find an exact birthdate, I'll let you know!
Others ran well in this amazing race too.
Laura Muir finally broke 4:00, becoming Great Britain's 2nd fastest ever, time of 3:58.66.
Maureen Koster of the Netherlands also broke 4:00, running 3:59.79
Ethiopians (except for Genzebe!!) don't run the 1500 very often, it seems, so Besu Sado's time of 4:00.65 probably ranks VERY high on their A-T list.
Treniere Moser and Kerri Gallagher had decent races, but finished far back!
Sarah Brown was actually last, in 14th place, and she ran 4:09.17!
Cut OFF my World DDD were two oldies.
Nadezhda Raldugina and Yekaterina Podkopayeva both had times from 1984.
And the Men's 1500 wasn't bad either!
(Someone on the T&FN Message Board said today was the greatest day in 1500 history!
Not totally sure about that, but it definitely was VERY much near the top!!)
No WR, but Asbel Kiprop is edging ever closer to that almost-apocryphal 3:26.00 of the legendary Hicham El Guerrouj!
Kiprop won over a deep field, timed in 3:26.69.
The pace was almost as insane as in the women's race, as they hit the "quarters" in 53, 57, and 55.
But after the rabbit left, it was all Kiprop, as 2nd finished about 2 seconds back.
Numerous Place Records were broken, as were several other records.
Let's take a look.
Kiprop got the Monaco Meet Record.
He improved his leading 800-1500 Combined Events time to 5:09.84 (1:43.15 and 3:26.69).
But he did NOT get Kenya's National Record.
That still belongs to FORMER Kenyan Bernard Lagat, when he ran 3:26.34 in 2001.
And he moves from 5th to 3rd on the A-T World list.
Taoufik Makhloufi was 2nd, running 3:28.75.
He's now 7th A-T World.
Abdelaati Iguider was 3rd in 3:28.79.
He's now 8th A-T World.
In 4th was Mo Farah!
And he nabbed the best-ever 4th Place mark to prove it!
Despite not getting a PR, he did get the Age 32 Record with his 3:28.93.
In fact, he's the oldest sub-3:30 man ever!
Nick Willis's 3:29.66 is now the best 5th Place mark!
It also breaks his own New Zealand National Record.
And it makes him 24th A-T World.
Just 0.01 behind Willis, in 3:29.67, came Elijah Manangir.
It's the best-ever 6th Place mark.
But he misses the World list by that same 0.01 seconds!!
Robert Biwott got the Age 19 record with his 3:30.10.
(It's not the fastest teenage time, as that belongs to Ronald Kwemboi's 3:28.81 from last year, when he was 18.)
The best 8th and 9th Place times were run by Aman Wote (8th in 3:30.29) and Collins Cheboi (9th in 3:30.34).
After giving up his best-ever 9th Place mark to Cheboi, Matthew Centrowitz "gained" the best-ever 10th Place mark with his PR of 3:30.40.
Imagine running 3:30.40...and finishing TENTH!!
Wow!!
Besides that somewhat dubious reward, a more positive result was that Centro's time moves him from 7th to 3rd on the A-T US list!
Four runners were 86'ed FROM my World DDD list.
Steve Cram's 3:29.67 from 1985 is gone.
So are the 3:29.77's of Nixon Chepseba (2012), Sydney Maree (1985), and a person who MIGHT be the next President of the IAAF, Mr Sebastian Coe!!
His 3:29.77 dates from 1986.
In one of the opening field events of the meet, Joe Kovacs EXPLODED out to 74-0.25 (22.56) in the Shot Put in the 2nd round, which is the best throw in a dozen years!
It's the Monaco Meet Record.
And the Age 26 Record.
He moves from 8th to 4th on the A-T US list.
And from 12th to 8th on the A-T World list.
My DDD for the SP includes the marks of Randy Barnes and Kevin Toth, even though their marks came DURING years when they were each busted for drugs!
The FAST Annual and Athletics Annual both list their marks, albeit with an asterisk!
T&FN doesn't list them, as their "rule" is that ALL marks from a drug bust year are excluded from record or list consideration!
I disagree.
The Men's 800 and the Women's 3000SC were productive for my Record Book.
Amel Tuha of Bosnia was the surprise winner of a pretty good---and deep---race!
His time of 1:42.51 is the new National Record of Bosnia.
And it makes him 11th A-T World.
Ayanleh Souleiman ran a PR of 1:42.97, improving his total time on my Combined Events list for the 800 and 1500.
His times of 1:42.97 and 3:29.58 add to 5:12.55.
He moves from 9th to 7th, tied with 1 other, on that list.
It also breaks his own National Record of Djibouti.
Boris Berian continues to amaze.
(Or maybe not! Consistency doesn't amaze!)
He improved his PR by half a second, to 1:43.34.
He moves from 10th A-T US, tied with 1 other, to 5th.
In the Women's Steeple, it was Habiba Ghribi's 9:11.28 leading a solid field.
No PR for her, but it did set a new Monaco Meet Record.
Hyvin Jepkemoi Kiyang ran 9:12.51 for a PR.
She moves from 19th to 13th on the A-T World list.
Former rabbit-turned-stud Virginia Nyambura improved to 9:13.85.
She moves up 2 spots on the A-T World list, from 20th to 18th.
Salimi El Quali Alami's 9:20.64 broke her own National Record of Morocco.
It just wasn't Emma Coburn's day...or even DAYS!
She apparently became ill in the days before the race, so her 9:23.91 in 10th place should be looked at as an anomaly.
The sprints--both 4X100 Relays, and the Men's 100 and Women's 200--produced good marks....and interesting results.
The Relays started things off in the Sprint Department.
The US Women divided into 2 teams, and took the first 2 spots against a team from Spain.
The "A" team, composed of English Gardner, Allyson Felix, Jenna Prandini, and somewhat surprisingly, HS PRO Kaylin Whitney on anchor, ran 41.96.
The "B" team ran a good 42.27.
For the Men, Trayvon Bromell handed off to Justin Gatlin (somewhat shakily, I've heard!), who handed off to Tyson Gay, followed by Mike Rodgers..
They ran "just" 37.87.
(Probably caused by that one poor hand-off!)
Neither team got the Meet Record.
Gatlin again had his way with the mere mortals, which included Gay and Bromell.
Well, Bromell False Started, and didn't get to race!
Gatlin's time was an average---for HIM!!--9.78.
(Gay followed in 9.97.)
A somewhat surprising Women's 200 winner was Candyce McGrone, who seems to be having her best year yet!
Her PR time of 22.08 just edged out Dafne Masters, who ran 22.09.
Dafne MASTERS???
Well, that's the way the Entry list had her name before the race.
I asked about it, and someone on the T&FN MB said "masters" in Dutch means "skipper" as in a boat's Captain!!
So that's how SCHIPPERS translates!!
Good old IAAF!!
LOL
Anyway, McGrone's time of 22.08 is rated 12th A-T US.
Jeneba Tarmoh also PR'ed, her 22.23 making her 23rd A-T US, tied with 1 other!
The 17 year old Whitney had a busy day.
Just about one hour after her Relay anchor, she finished 5th in the 200 with a good---but not a PR!--22.54.
Actually, she originally was dubbed as being 6th.
But Blessing Okagbare was DQ'ed, so Whitney moved up a place, to 5th.
Christian Taylor TJ'ed 58-3, which is the Monaco Meet Record.
He beat Senor PPPP, aka Pablo Pedro etc Pichardo.
Finishing off my Monaco report, we turn to the Men's 3000 meters.
It wasn't super fast--the winner being Caleb Ndiku in 7:35+--but it produced 3 marks of note.
Ali Kaya's 7:38.65 is the National Record of Turkey.
Garrett Heath's 7:37.97 and Ben Blankenship's 7:38.08 both made the A-T US list.
Heath is now 13th A-T US, while Blankenship is 15th.
I have other material---from other meets---but I've decided to save that for a couple of days, as there's some meets that are still ongoing, and another "lesser" European meet or two that will fill up the next couple of days.
So no later than Monday, I'll have another post, with ALL the noteworthy Marks and Records that occur.
Until then, savor what Genzebe Dibaba did for the sport of Track and Field today in Monaco!
And let's congratulate both Shannon Rowbury and Jenny Simpson for keeping their spirits and dreams alive, and for providing us with a FANTASTIC quest for the American Record!!
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Opinions on T&F History & Culture--Part 2
And here's the second part.
(Have you read the 1st part yet?)
In the 1st part, I argued who was best--Lasse Viren or Mo Farah.
Also, Who was or is the Best High School PRO T&F Athlete?
Finally, I gave a list of my CURRENT picks for the AOY Top 10's for the World and US.
In THIS part, I will tell you--IMHO--which are the Best T&F or Running-related Movies.
And which are the Best T&F & Running-related Books.
These lists will be formed from MY opinion, not from Awards won, Who the actors or authors are, or from any other measurement of whether they're the "Best"!!
I will list the Books in 3 categories--Statistical works and Histories, Biographies, and Fiction (Novels).
In the Movies section, I will cover Movies I OWN on DVD.
Anyway, I'll begin with Books.
Statistical and Historical T&F Books
Track and Field News & Track Newsletter
This is NOT a book--it's a magazine.
But I've read EVERY word of EVERY issue since January 1957--as well as the OG issue of 1956.
(1957 through 1961 was read retrospectively--through those years's Bound Volumes.)
It has lists, results, interviews, meet stories, gossip, news briefs, injury updates, Letters to the Editor, and on and on.
Athletics Annual & FAST Annual & HS Track
These 3 annuals are invaluable, and should be on EVERY stat freaks bookshelf!
HS Track (Jack Shepard, Ed.) comes out around December every year.
A-A (Peter Matthews, Ed.) and FAST (Tom Casacky, Ed.) arrive around May or June.
Shepard's book covers HS Track (AND Field, sic!) like no other!
Results of the year's major HS meets (NBN, NBIN, Golden West, etc), deep year lists (Top 40 or 50 in most events), and A-T lists.
He covers both OUTdoor and INdoor T&F the same!
Also offers HS Age Records (14-18), and Class Records.
Matthews's book is over 600 pages of all kinds of stuff.
Year lists, A-T lists, athlete statistical biographies, a long diary of the past year, FULL results from the major meets of the past year, XC and Road results, lists of T&F people who died , interesting articles on various subjects about our sport, and on and on and ON!!
(Oh yes, it also includes THAT year's INdoor lists! So the 2015 book, out in June, includes the lists from the 2015 INdoor season!!)
FAST is--in SOME ways--similar to A-A, in that it has deep lists from the past year.
But it's BEST section--IMO--is its Index!
It has year-by-year progressions (over ALL the events that person competes in!) of over 2000 athletes!!
Of its 606 pages, the Index covers about 340 of them!
An EXCELLENT source of sometimes obscure information!
(The Index changes from year to year, but includes everyone who made the Top 40 or so in an event in the past year! And it includes ALL the years of an athletes career, even going back to their PRE-HS years, in some cases!!)
The R L Quercetani Histories
There's 4 or 5 of them, I believe, but I own 2--Athletics: History of T&F 1860-2000, and A World History of Long Distance Running 1880-2002.
The former covers EVERY event of both Track and Field, while the latter covers mainly the 5000 and 10000 meter TRACK events (not the Road versions!).
It has detailed stories of races (with splits!), what an athlete did before and after the OG or WC, lots of photos and "sidebar" bios and features on many athletes, plus a solid appendix with many interesting lists and facts.
"Athletics" goes back to ancient times, exploring the very birth of our sport!
Both are MUST HAVE's for your T&F library!
Other interesting Stats and Historical books are:
World Record Breakers in T&F
It's by Gerald Lawson, and dates from 1997.
It tells the story of EVERY WR holder in most events, since the first WR's were kept!
It also predicts what the WR's would be in 15 or 20 years.
You can check to see if Lawson was right!
The 100 Greatest T&F Battles of the 20th Century.
This book, by Jeff Hollobaugh, has stories on--in HIS opinion!--the greatest races, duels, etc of the past century.
And he RANKS them, 1 through 100, in inverse order, so you get to count them down.
(Don't peek!!)
Runners and Races: 1500 and Mile
The late Cordner Nelson's great history of this famed event.
And it is COMPLETE---through 1984.
Every year, every important race, all the great "milers", going back to the 19th century, INdoors and OUTdoors!
Now on to Biographies (and Auto-Bios, Memoirs).
I'm a distance person (although I love the ENTIRE sport!!), so the following list are mainly about middle and long distance runners.
The Gerry Lindgren Story and Gerry Lindgren's Book on Running.
The former is a short work put out by Runner's World.
They did a few of those--others are about Jack Foster and Frank Shorter--and they're great.
The GL work has his complete running career detailed, with photos, etc.
Lindgren's "memoir" is, um, interesting!
As is the man himself.
My first running "hero", these books are all GERRY!
Ron Clarke Talks Track and The Unforgiving Minute
(See my Clarke eulogy post for more details on these. But both are GREAT!)
The Four Minute Mile, by Roger Bannister.
The Jim Ryun Story, by Cordner Nelson.
No Bugles, No Drums, by Peter Snell.
Three memoirs or biographies by or about 3 Milers.
All "strongly recommended", as they say!
PRE!, by Tom Jordan.
THE book on Steve Prefontaine.
His (too short) life story, his (too short) athletic career, with lots of photos, an appendix with a list of ALL his races, from HS on!
Anyone who has NOT read this (and OWN a copy!) is NOT a legit T&F fan!!
My opinion.
Running Tide, by Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Finding Their Stride, by Sally Pont.
The Silence of Great Distance, by Frank Murphy.
Three books by or about FEMALE runners!
And they're all unique--as is every woman I've ever known!
LOL
Joanie's memoir dates from 1985, but it covers her fabulous "elite runner" career.
(Of course, she continues as an "elite" runner today. She intends to run within 30 minutes of her 1985 Chicago Marathon time of 2:21:21 in this year's Chicago race--on that year's 30th Anniversary!!)
Pont's book is probably similar to the current movie, "McFarland USA" (which I haven't seen yet, but fully intend to!).
She was the coach of a girl's XC team back east (Pennsylvania??) in the 90's.
They were an "average" "rag tag" group of young girls, with dreams and aspirations like all other HS athletes.
It tells the complete story of one of their XC seasons, race by race!
Murphy's book is another MUST HAVE for anyone female, or who follow and appreciate the female side of our sport!
Its main focus is on Stephanie Herbst, former Collegiate Record holder in the 10000, of Wisconsin.
A secondary focus is on a race she had with Kathy Ormsby, who took a potentially fatal leap off a bridge DURING the 1986 NCAA 10K race--which Herbst won in CR time (See above!).
But it's so much more!
It goes through almost the entire Post-Title IX history of Women's Middle and Long Distance Running--meaning from the early 70's onward.
It features stories (and detailed historical accounts) about such greats as Kazankina, Heritage, Larrieu, and Slaney, and Suzy Favor Hamilton.
It also delves into the psychological musings of women while they run.
Can't recommend this book enough!!
And then there's the latest bio/memoir I've read!
It's "Life Outside the Oval Office" by Nick Symmonds.
This guy is full of himself--and full of shit!
But he's also a FASCINATING dude!!
As they say, you won't be able to put this one down!!
(Beware: It's R-rated--for Cussing, Sexual Content, and Beer Mile stories!)
As for Fictional Books?
Here's a few I've enjoyed.
Random Walk, by Lawrence Block, is NOT about Race Walking!
It's basically about a guy who starts walking from his home one day, and doesn't stop, gathering a group of fellow pedestrians along the way.
(Think Forrest Gump's long run!)
The Miler, by Cordner Nelson.
This late co-founder of T&FN wrote some EXCELLENT books!
(See some listed above!)
This is a novel about a boy Miler---maybe inspired by Jim Ryun?
Others in the male runner category are...
The Front Runner, by Patricia Warren
Pain, by Dan Middleman
Once a Runner, by John Parker
(For those who MIGHT be offended, Warren's novel is about a gay runner! But I hope you're NOT offended! It's a GREAT novel!!)
Middleman's book has a great sense of humor.
(Read the back cover quotes about the book! Hilarious!)
The Games, by Hugh Atkinson
This book dates from 1970, and is a fictional account of an Olympic Games Decathlon.
It's in the Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace tradition, so beware!
But it IS riveting--as they say!
Another--much newer!--in the same tradition is Hal Higdon's "Marathon".
Higdon wrote another book with the same title, but THAT one was a "how to" on running the 26.2.
This one--dated from 2007, I believe--is a novel about the final 72 hours leading up to a MAJOR Big City Marathon (in Higdon's case, the "Lake City" Marathon!), and the race itself, practically minute-by-minute.
Like Hailey's "Airport" or "Hotel", this is a multi-character novel.
It even has a LIST of all the characters in the front of the book, with a brief description of their role in the book!!
I THOUGHT I wouldn't like it.
But I was RIVETED!
It's one of those novels that, once you start reading, you can't put it down until the last page!!
STRONGLY recommended!!
Another good novel is Pepper in the Blood, by Brian Tyson.
It's about DRUGS!!
A very "modern" novel---sad to say!--but written about 30 or so years ago!!
Signs Unseen, Sounds Unheard, by Carol Norris.
The Chain, by----ME!!
Norris was a friend of mine from Humboldt County in California.
I liked her book, not just because I knew her, but because it's a good story of a deaf runner, and it has GREAT descriptions of locations and events in Humboldt County, where I lived (and RAN!!) for 15 years!!
MY novel will NEVER be published.
But after I die, and if it's not destroyed, please come here and CLAIM it from whomever!
It's also located in Humboldt County, and was written over the 3 months of Summer 1977.
It describes the relationship between Blaine Rincon (me) and Martha Dean (Marilyn Taylor, my real-life friend and runner, who actually RAN in the initial Olympic Trials Marathon in 1984!!).
She's a runner at HSU, and I'm a "slacker" student/runner there of sub-elite status.
I become her unofficial coach, and she becomes the....well, I won't give it away.
It describes actual races that take place in Humboldt County--the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, and the Trinidad-Clam Beach Race.
It also has scenes from Eugene's Hayward Field!
One UNIQUE aspect of the novel?
It tells the story of an attempted BOYCOTT of the 1980 Moscow OG--but this fictional one if driven by a British female marathoner, in the Grete Waitz mold.
Martha Dean, and a few other characters, becomes involved in "Marietta McCormack's" boycott attempt.
Remember, this book was written in 1977--3 years before the ACTUAL boycott of the Russian Games--albeit for different reasons!!
Before we turn to Movies, I'll list the titles of a few Books I've either begun reading, or INTEND to start reading! (I own all of them, but for one reason or another, haven't read them yet, or finished reading them!)
American Women's Track and Field, by Louise Tricard.
This is actually TWO books!
They're divided by time--the first covering the years 1895 to 1980, and the sequel covering the years 1981 to 2000.
These are EXTREMELY detailed accounts of meets, races, events dating from the 1800's forward.
It includes Women's results from 19th Century College meets between "Women's Colleges", stories from the Millrose Games and the US Nationals, as well as numerous other meets!
All--and I mean ALL!!--of the names, places, races--are included here.
A History of INdoor T&F: 1849-2013, by Grant Birkinshaw.
He's from New Zealand, but this covers the ENTIRE WORLD's history of the INdoor side of the sport!
Like Tricard's works, this is FULLY detailed, with tons of photos, lists, results, stories, etc, etc!
And it goes through the 2013 INdoor season, so includes a bit of stuff on Mary Cain's phenomenal season!
Bowerman (and the Men of Oregon), by Kenny Moore
The Chicago Marathon, by Andrew Suozzi
Kings of the Road, by Cameron Stracher
Moore's book is a lengthy biography of the famed UO coach, and all the athletes he brought to greatness.
Suozzi's book is a history of this great race.
Stracher's is about the 70's "running boom", inspired by the exploits of Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, and---Alberto Salazar!!
But it features these 3 A-T greats!!
Now we'll move on to---Movies!
Here's a few I recommend--for different reasons.
This is NOT a complete list, nor does it include all the "usual suspects".
In fact, 1 or 2 of them you might not have even HEARD of!!
Two documentaries are Fire On the Track and We Grew Wings.
"Fire" is, of course, the GREAT doc on Prefontaine!
If you haven't seen it, please DO!!
"Wings" is another doc about some University of Oregon Ducks--but these are all Women!
The movie was released in 2011, I believe, and covers two seasons in UO's women athletes's history--1985 and 2011.
So you see and hear such A-T greats as Claudette Groenendaal and LeAnn Warren and Kathy Hayes from 1985, and English Gardner, Melissa Gergel, and Jordan Hasay from their 2011 squad!
Good doc!
Personal Best, starring Mariel Hemingway, and some REAL elite athletes playing "fictional" roles, dates from 1982.
Warning!
This one is about lesbian athletes, and includes swearing, sex, and nudity.
Without Limits, starring Billy Crudup as Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland as Bill Bowerman.
There were TWO Pre flicks released in the 90's.
The other is "Prefontaine", starring Jared Leto as Pre.
I STRONGLY recommend "Limits".
It's by FAR the better of the 2.
Besides, Sutherland as Bowerman MAKES that movie!!
Wild and Tracks.
They're similar---and they're not!
Wild is the best known, probably because the book of the same name (by Cheryl Strayed) is a MONSTER best seller!
And because Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl.
Well done flick, but a bit disjointed, with several flashback scenes.
Laura Dern's portrayal of Strayed's dying mother is FANTASTIC!!
But Reese does a great job too!
(Cussing, drugs, sex, and nudity.)
Tracks is basically an Australian woman's version of Strayed's story, and is also auto-biographical!
And IMHO, a better movie, with at least equally good acting.
Both are "riveting", to say the least!
Running Inside Out
This is a "sleeper".
It's really an AWFUL movie--in its acting and dialogue especially.
It's basically a "Christian" movie, and has a few scenes wherein religion becomes the focus.
But overall, religion stays on the sidelines.
It tells the story of a young college girl who runs---she's NOT an elite athlete---she's one of those 4-hour marathoner types--who becomes pregnant after starting a great job shortly after graduation.
She was just starting to train for a marathon when she got the news.
What to do?
Well, since this is a movie with Christ as a "character", we can imagine how it ends.
Her "salvation"---in life, and in running---is based on a true story!
I liked it---and watch it often!!
Then there's Fast Girls.
You've probably seen it, or at least heard of it.
It's one of those "so bad it's good" movies.
At least, that's what the critics said upon its release in 2012.
It's about a fictional British Women's 4X100 Relay team hoping to win the "2011 London World Championships".
The featured "athletes" are a white snobbish sprinter controlled by her domineering father, and a black girl from the London "ghetto" who has a wild (and even hilarious!) fight with the white girl.
It includes blaring hip-hop music (or is it Rap??), and "amateur" acting, and pretty BAD running scenes!
But you know what?
WATCH IT!!
(I have-----MANY times!!)
Finally, there's a NON-running movie I'll include here---for 3 reasons.
1. It stars the late and great John Candy!
2. It somewhat reminds me that Lolo Jones became a Winter Olympics Boblsledder!
3. It's about a WINTER Olympics Boblsed team from----JAMAICA!!!
Of course, I speak of "Cool Runnings".
Hey, it has the word "running(s)" in the title!!
LOL
See you next after Monaco!!
(Have you read the 1st part yet?)
In the 1st part, I argued who was best--Lasse Viren or Mo Farah.
Also, Who was or is the Best High School PRO T&F Athlete?
Finally, I gave a list of my CURRENT picks for the AOY Top 10's for the World and US.
In THIS part, I will tell you--IMHO--which are the Best T&F or Running-related Movies.
And which are the Best T&F & Running-related Books.
These lists will be formed from MY opinion, not from Awards won, Who the actors or authors are, or from any other measurement of whether they're the "Best"!!
I will list the Books in 3 categories--Statistical works and Histories, Biographies, and Fiction (Novels).
In the Movies section, I will cover Movies I OWN on DVD.
Anyway, I'll begin with Books.
Statistical and Historical T&F Books
Track and Field News & Track Newsletter
This is NOT a book--it's a magazine.
But I've read EVERY word of EVERY issue since January 1957--as well as the OG issue of 1956.
(1957 through 1961 was read retrospectively--through those years's Bound Volumes.)
It has lists, results, interviews, meet stories, gossip, news briefs, injury updates, Letters to the Editor, and on and on.
Athletics Annual & FAST Annual & HS Track
These 3 annuals are invaluable, and should be on EVERY stat freaks bookshelf!
HS Track (Jack Shepard, Ed.) comes out around December every year.
A-A (Peter Matthews, Ed.) and FAST (Tom Casacky, Ed.) arrive around May or June.
Shepard's book covers HS Track (AND Field, sic!) like no other!
Results of the year's major HS meets (NBN, NBIN, Golden West, etc), deep year lists (Top 40 or 50 in most events), and A-T lists.
He covers both OUTdoor and INdoor T&F the same!
Also offers HS Age Records (14-18), and Class Records.
Matthews's book is over 600 pages of all kinds of stuff.
Year lists, A-T lists, athlete statistical biographies, a long diary of the past year, FULL results from the major meets of the past year, XC and Road results, lists of T&F people who died , interesting articles on various subjects about our sport, and on and on and ON!!
(Oh yes, it also includes THAT year's INdoor lists! So the 2015 book, out in June, includes the lists from the 2015 INdoor season!!)
FAST is--in SOME ways--similar to A-A, in that it has deep lists from the past year.
But it's BEST section--IMO--is its Index!
It has year-by-year progressions (over ALL the events that person competes in!) of over 2000 athletes!!
Of its 606 pages, the Index covers about 340 of them!
An EXCELLENT source of sometimes obscure information!
(The Index changes from year to year, but includes everyone who made the Top 40 or so in an event in the past year! And it includes ALL the years of an athletes career, even going back to their PRE-HS years, in some cases!!)
The R L Quercetani Histories
There's 4 or 5 of them, I believe, but I own 2--Athletics: History of T&F 1860-2000, and A World History of Long Distance Running 1880-2002.
The former covers EVERY event of both Track and Field, while the latter covers mainly the 5000 and 10000 meter TRACK events (not the Road versions!).
It has detailed stories of races (with splits!), what an athlete did before and after the OG or WC, lots of photos and "sidebar" bios and features on many athletes, plus a solid appendix with many interesting lists and facts.
"Athletics" goes back to ancient times, exploring the very birth of our sport!
Both are MUST HAVE's for your T&F library!
Other interesting Stats and Historical books are:
World Record Breakers in T&F
It's by Gerald Lawson, and dates from 1997.
It tells the story of EVERY WR holder in most events, since the first WR's were kept!
It also predicts what the WR's would be in 15 or 20 years.
You can check to see if Lawson was right!
The 100 Greatest T&F Battles of the 20th Century.
This book, by Jeff Hollobaugh, has stories on--in HIS opinion!--the greatest races, duels, etc of the past century.
And he RANKS them, 1 through 100, in inverse order, so you get to count them down.
(Don't peek!!)
Runners and Races: 1500 and Mile
The late Cordner Nelson's great history of this famed event.
And it is COMPLETE---through 1984.
Every year, every important race, all the great "milers", going back to the 19th century, INdoors and OUTdoors!
Now on to Biographies (and Auto-Bios, Memoirs).
I'm a distance person (although I love the ENTIRE sport!!), so the following list are mainly about middle and long distance runners.
The Gerry Lindgren Story and Gerry Lindgren's Book on Running.
The former is a short work put out by Runner's World.
They did a few of those--others are about Jack Foster and Frank Shorter--and they're great.
The GL work has his complete running career detailed, with photos, etc.
Lindgren's "memoir" is, um, interesting!
As is the man himself.
My first running "hero", these books are all GERRY!
Ron Clarke Talks Track and The Unforgiving Minute
(See my Clarke eulogy post for more details on these. But both are GREAT!)
The Four Minute Mile, by Roger Bannister.
The Jim Ryun Story, by Cordner Nelson.
No Bugles, No Drums, by Peter Snell.
Three memoirs or biographies by or about 3 Milers.
All "strongly recommended", as they say!
PRE!, by Tom Jordan.
THE book on Steve Prefontaine.
His (too short) life story, his (too short) athletic career, with lots of photos, an appendix with a list of ALL his races, from HS on!
Anyone who has NOT read this (and OWN a copy!) is NOT a legit T&F fan!!
My opinion.
Running Tide, by Joan Benoit Samuelson.
Finding Their Stride, by Sally Pont.
The Silence of Great Distance, by Frank Murphy.
Three books by or about FEMALE runners!
And they're all unique--as is every woman I've ever known!
LOL
Joanie's memoir dates from 1985, but it covers her fabulous "elite runner" career.
(Of course, she continues as an "elite" runner today. She intends to run within 30 minutes of her 1985 Chicago Marathon time of 2:21:21 in this year's Chicago race--on that year's 30th Anniversary!!)
Pont's book is probably similar to the current movie, "McFarland USA" (which I haven't seen yet, but fully intend to!).
She was the coach of a girl's XC team back east (Pennsylvania??) in the 90's.
They were an "average" "rag tag" group of young girls, with dreams and aspirations like all other HS athletes.
It tells the complete story of one of their XC seasons, race by race!
Murphy's book is another MUST HAVE for anyone female, or who follow and appreciate the female side of our sport!
Its main focus is on Stephanie Herbst, former Collegiate Record holder in the 10000, of Wisconsin.
A secondary focus is on a race she had with Kathy Ormsby, who took a potentially fatal leap off a bridge DURING the 1986 NCAA 10K race--which Herbst won in CR time (See above!).
But it's so much more!
It goes through almost the entire Post-Title IX history of Women's Middle and Long Distance Running--meaning from the early 70's onward.
It features stories (and detailed historical accounts) about such greats as Kazankina, Heritage, Larrieu, and Slaney, and Suzy Favor Hamilton.
It also delves into the psychological musings of women while they run.
Can't recommend this book enough!!
And then there's the latest bio/memoir I've read!
It's "Life Outside the Oval Office" by Nick Symmonds.
This guy is full of himself--and full of shit!
But he's also a FASCINATING dude!!
As they say, you won't be able to put this one down!!
(Beware: It's R-rated--for Cussing, Sexual Content, and Beer Mile stories!)
As for Fictional Books?
Here's a few I've enjoyed.
Random Walk, by Lawrence Block, is NOT about Race Walking!
It's basically about a guy who starts walking from his home one day, and doesn't stop, gathering a group of fellow pedestrians along the way.
(Think Forrest Gump's long run!)
The Miler, by Cordner Nelson.
This late co-founder of T&FN wrote some EXCELLENT books!
(See some listed above!)
This is a novel about a boy Miler---maybe inspired by Jim Ryun?
Others in the male runner category are...
The Front Runner, by Patricia Warren
Pain, by Dan Middleman
Once a Runner, by John Parker
(For those who MIGHT be offended, Warren's novel is about a gay runner! But I hope you're NOT offended! It's a GREAT novel!!)
Middleman's book has a great sense of humor.
(Read the back cover quotes about the book! Hilarious!)
The Games, by Hugh Atkinson
This book dates from 1970, and is a fictional account of an Olympic Games Decathlon.
It's in the Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace tradition, so beware!
But it IS riveting--as they say!
Another--much newer!--in the same tradition is Hal Higdon's "Marathon".
Higdon wrote another book with the same title, but THAT one was a "how to" on running the 26.2.
This one--dated from 2007, I believe--is a novel about the final 72 hours leading up to a MAJOR Big City Marathon (in Higdon's case, the "Lake City" Marathon!), and the race itself, practically minute-by-minute.
Like Hailey's "Airport" or "Hotel", this is a multi-character novel.
It even has a LIST of all the characters in the front of the book, with a brief description of their role in the book!!
I THOUGHT I wouldn't like it.
But I was RIVETED!
It's one of those novels that, once you start reading, you can't put it down until the last page!!
STRONGLY recommended!!
Another good novel is Pepper in the Blood, by Brian Tyson.
It's about DRUGS!!
A very "modern" novel---sad to say!--but written about 30 or so years ago!!
Signs Unseen, Sounds Unheard, by Carol Norris.
The Chain, by----ME!!
Norris was a friend of mine from Humboldt County in California.
I liked her book, not just because I knew her, but because it's a good story of a deaf runner, and it has GREAT descriptions of locations and events in Humboldt County, where I lived (and RAN!!) for 15 years!!
MY novel will NEVER be published.
But after I die, and if it's not destroyed, please come here and CLAIM it from whomever!
It's also located in Humboldt County, and was written over the 3 months of Summer 1977.
It describes the relationship between Blaine Rincon (me) and Martha Dean (Marilyn Taylor, my real-life friend and runner, who actually RAN in the initial Olympic Trials Marathon in 1984!!).
She's a runner at HSU, and I'm a "slacker" student/runner there of sub-elite status.
I become her unofficial coach, and she becomes the....well, I won't give it away.
It describes actual races that take place in Humboldt County--the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, and the Trinidad-Clam Beach Race.
It also has scenes from Eugene's Hayward Field!
One UNIQUE aspect of the novel?
It tells the story of an attempted BOYCOTT of the 1980 Moscow OG--but this fictional one if driven by a British female marathoner, in the Grete Waitz mold.
Martha Dean, and a few other characters, becomes involved in "Marietta McCormack's" boycott attempt.
Remember, this book was written in 1977--3 years before the ACTUAL boycott of the Russian Games--albeit for different reasons!!
Before we turn to Movies, I'll list the titles of a few Books I've either begun reading, or INTEND to start reading! (I own all of them, but for one reason or another, haven't read them yet, or finished reading them!)
American Women's Track and Field, by Louise Tricard.
This is actually TWO books!
They're divided by time--the first covering the years 1895 to 1980, and the sequel covering the years 1981 to 2000.
These are EXTREMELY detailed accounts of meets, races, events dating from the 1800's forward.
It includes Women's results from 19th Century College meets between "Women's Colleges", stories from the Millrose Games and the US Nationals, as well as numerous other meets!
All--and I mean ALL!!--of the names, places, races--are included here.
A History of INdoor T&F: 1849-2013, by Grant Birkinshaw.
He's from New Zealand, but this covers the ENTIRE WORLD's history of the INdoor side of the sport!
Like Tricard's works, this is FULLY detailed, with tons of photos, lists, results, stories, etc, etc!
And it goes through the 2013 INdoor season, so includes a bit of stuff on Mary Cain's phenomenal season!
Bowerman (and the Men of Oregon), by Kenny Moore
The Chicago Marathon, by Andrew Suozzi
Kings of the Road, by Cameron Stracher
Moore's book is a lengthy biography of the famed UO coach, and all the athletes he brought to greatness.
Suozzi's book is a history of this great race.
Stracher's is about the 70's "running boom", inspired by the exploits of Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, and---Alberto Salazar!!
But it features these 3 A-T greats!!
Now we'll move on to---Movies!
Here's a few I recommend--for different reasons.
This is NOT a complete list, nor does it include all the "usual suspects".
In fact, 1 or 2 of them you might not have even HEARD of!!
Two documentaries are Fire On the Track and We Grew Wings.
"Fire" is, of course, the GREAT doc on Prefontaine!
If you haven't seen it, please DO!!
"Wings" is another doc about some University of Oregon Ducks--but these are all Women!
The movie was released in 2011, I believe, and covers two seasons in UO's women athletes's history--1985 and 2011.
So you see and hear such A-T greats as Claudette Groenendaal and LeAnn Warren and Kathy Hayes from 1985, and English Gardner, Melissa Gergel, and Jordan Hasay from their 2011 squad!
Good doc!
Personal Best, starring Mariel Hemingway, and some REAL elite athletes playing "fictional" roles, dates from 1982.
Warning!
This one is about lesbian athletes, and includes swearing, sex, and nudity.
Without Limits, starring Billy Crudup as Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland as Bill Bowerman.
There were TWO Pre flicks released in the 90's.
The other is "Prefontaine", starring Jared Leto as Pre.
I STRONGLY recommend "Limits".
It's by FAR the better of the 2.
Besides, Sutherland as Bowerman MAKES that movie!!
Wild and Tracks.
They're similar---and they're not!
Wild is the best known, probably because the book of the same name (by Cheryl Strayed) is a MONSTER best seller!
And because Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl.
Well done flick, but a bit disjointed, with several flashback scenes.
Laura Dern's portrayal of Strayed's dying mother is FANTASTIC!!
But Reese does a great job too!
(Cussing, drugs, sex, and nudity.)
Tracks is basically an Australian woman's version of Strayed's story, and is also auto-biographical!
And IMHO, a better movie, with at least equally good acting.
Both are "riveting", to say the least!
Running Inside Out
This is a "sleeper".
It's really an AWFUL movie--in its acting and dialogue especially.
It's basically a "Christian" movie, and has a few scenes wherein religion becomes the focus.
But overall, religion stays on the sidelines.
It tells the story of a young college girl who runs---she's NOT an elite athlete---she's one of those 4-hour marathoner types--who becomes pregnant after starting a great job shortly after graduation.
She was just starting to train for a marathon when she got the news.
What to do?
Well, since this is a movie with Christ as a "character", we can imagine how it ends.
Her "salvation"---in life, and in running---is based on a true story!
I liked it---and watch it often!!
Then there's Fast Girls.
You've probably seen it, or at least heard of it.
It's one of those "so bad it's good" movies.
At least, that's what the critics said upon its release in 2012.
It's about a fictional British Women's 4X100 Relay team hoping to win the "2011 London World Championships".
The featured "athletes" are a white snobbish sprinter controlled by her domineering father, and a black girl from the London "ghetto" who has a wild (and even hilarious!) fight with the white girl.
It includes blaring hip-hop music (or is it Rap??), and "amateur" acting, and pretty BAD running scenes!
But you know what?
WATCH IT!!
(I have-----MANY times!!)
Finally, there's a NON-running movie I'll include here---for 3 reasons.
1. It stars the late and great John Candy!
2. It somewhat reminds me that Lolo Jones became a Winter Olympics Boblsledder!
3. It's about a WINTER Olympics Boblsed team from----JAMAICA!!!
Of course, I speak of "Cool Runnings".
Hey, it has the word "running(s)" in the title!!
LOL
See you next after Monaco!!
Opinions on T&F History & Culture--Part 1
A BAD title!
But I couldn't fit ALL that follows into a workable (& short!) title!
Anyway, lots to cover, so as one of my favorite people, Carrie Tollefson, always says, "Let's get after it"!
This will be a LONG post, but will be divided into 5 sections.
1. Who's better, Lasse Viren or Mo Farah?
2. Who is the Best HS PRO?
3. My CURRENT Projections for World & US Top 10 choices for AOY's.
4. Best T&F & Running Books (Stats, Bios, Novels)
5. Best T&F & Running Movies (Fictional, Bio-pics, Documentaries)
(I decided to divide this into TWO posts. Just too much to cover, and I want to give enough space to each section! So the first 3 sections (see above) will be in THIS post, the Books & Movies sections in the 2nd post!)
Who's Better, Lasse Viren or Mo Farah?
Mo Farah's double Gold in both the 2012 Olympics and the 2013 World Championships has led people to say he's the Greatest of All Time (GOAT)---at least in Distance Running.
But is he?
Or could it be Lasse Viren, who won double Golds in TWO Olympics?
Let's take a look.
It was 43 years ago that Lasse Viren became famous beyond his native Finland.
He won both the 5000 and 10000 in the 1972 Munich OG.
Then he repeated that feat in the 1976 Montreal Olympics!
(There were no World Championships in those days, just several Regional Champs, such as the Euros, Commonwealth Games, and Pan Am Games.)
It was the 2012 London Olympics that made "MO" a household word--at least in running circles!
He also won double Gold in those London Games.
And while Rio isn't here yet, Farah did win double Gold in the 2013 Moscow WC's, to "match" Viren's feat--at least as far as Medals are concerned!
But let's take a closer look.
In both 1972 and 1976, there were heats AND the final in both of Viren's events.
That meant 30K of racing in each Games.
(In the '76 Games, he added the Marathon's 42.2K, thus he raced 72.2K in Montreal!!)
In both the 2012 OG and the 2013 WC, Farah had "just" 20000 meters of racing at each venue, as there were no 10K heats!
Viren's winning 10000 time in 1972 was a World Record, cutting 1 second from Ron Clarke's venerable 27:39.4 from 1965.
His 5000 time in '72 was about 10 seconds slower than Clarke's WR.
In 1976, Viren won the 10K in 27:40.4, two seconds slower than in 1972, but the WR was just 27:30+ then, so he was also 10 seconds off from that!
His 5K splits in that '76 10K were 14:09 and 13:31!
He won the '76 5000 in 13:24.6, about 11 seconds from the WR at that time!
Mo's times, in both the OG of '12 and the WC of '13 were FAR off the WR's!
Looking at their Records & Marks outside of the Major meets, we see some interesting stats.
Viren's last weeks leading up to the Munich Games were BUSY!
(If you read my post about Clarke, you know that those pre-Professional years saw LOTS more racing by the Distance people than we see today!)
In late July, he ran a 5000 in 13:19.0, then 3rd A-T.
He followed that 2 days later with a BIG PR over 3000, a 7:43.2.
In early August, he ran a National Record 10000 in 27:52.4.
This was soon followed by a World Record over 2 Miles, time of 8:14.0.
Then, just 4 days after the Games ended, he set a WR in the 5000, running 13:16.4.
(Okay, so he broke it by just 0.2, but he BROKE it!)
In the 1976 Games, he tried a TRIPLE, running the Marathon just one day after the 5000 final!
He finished 5th--after being in 3rd through 25K!--in the time of 2:13:11.
In addition to his 2012 and 2013 exploits, Farah had a lot of WC experiences!
He ran in the 2007, 2009, and 2011 WC's also.
He was 6th in the 2007 5K.
He was 7th two years later in the 5K.
Then, in 2011, he was much more successful, almost emulating his later successes, winning the 5K after taking Silver in the 10K.
If you look at Farah's set of PR's, his times were obviously faster than Viren's, given about 35-40 years between their careers!
But were they BETTER?
I noted Viren's WR's, and how close to (or far from!) the WR's of back then he was.
But Farah?
Counting OUTdoor times only (as I did with Viren), Mo's best PR's are in the 1500 and 2 Mile.
His 3:28.81 is far better than Viren's!
(But Farah's Mile best is just 3:56+, worth just a 3:39+ 1500!!)
His 8:07.85 Deuce is just 6.15 seconds faster than what Viren did 42 years earlier!
Mo's 5K and 10K are nowhere near the WR's, being about 16 and 29 seconds slower, respectively..
My decision?
Lasse Viren WINS!!
Easily!
Who's the Best High School PRO?
This question, by virtue of the reality of this particular situation, is limited to 4 Women.
Allyson Felix and Ajee Wilson both turned Pro after HS graduation, and never competed in College.
But Alana Hadley, Mary Cain, Alexa Efraimson, and Kaylin Whitney all signed as Professionals while still ATTENDING High School!!
For whatever reason(s), Male HS'ers haven't gone the Pro route while in HS---yet!!
So who's the Best HS PRO?
(Cain's 2015 season doesn't count, as she was a College Frosh! Only her HS Pro years are considered!)
This question is a bit difficult, as the 4 ladies compete(d) in basically 3 different sets of events.
Cain and Efraimson were/are both mainly 800-1500 runners.
Hadley runs mostly Half and Full Marathons.
And Whitney is a Sprinter.
Let's look first at "Honors Won", which is T&FN's top criteria for their AOY selections!
Cain was 6th in the 2012 World Junior Championships.
She finished 10th in the 2013 Moscow WC's 1500.
She won the 3000 in the '14 WJC's.
Efraimson won Bronze in the 2013 World Youth Championships.
She was 6th in the 2014 WJC's.
She failed to make this year's WC team for Beijing.
Whitney won the 200, while taking 3rd in the 100 in the '14 WJC's.
(She'd won both in the WJC "Trials".)
And Hadley won the 2014 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, after finishing as 2nd Woman the year before.
My blog is more concerned with Times than "Honors Won".
And this particular post's question is concerned with these Women's PRO accomplishments ONLY!
So most of those "Honors Won" are left OUT of consideration!
When did they turn Pro?
As best I could decipher, Hadley was first, signing on 1 week AFTER her 2013 Monumental race.
However, she then accepted prize money from that race, so she must be considered as being Pro on the day she ran that race!
Cain became a Pro on November 20, 2013.
She was then about 2 months into her Senior year of HS.
Efraimson turned Pro on September 20, 2014, when she was just starting her Senior year.
And Whitney was the last of the 4 to go Pro, connecting her signing to her 17th Birthday celebration.
(She was born March 9, 1998.)
Hadley's Marathon PR is 2:38:34, which is about 4 minutes slower than Cathy Schiro (O'Brien's) HSR.
In 2014, that time was just 30th best on the US list!
Her 2:41:55 from 2013 was just 47th on the US list!
I don't know where her 1:16:41 Half PR stands on the HS list, but I'm guessing it's Number ONE, as the Half is a mostly-21st Century event.
But it probably doesn't matter, as I think she ran that while still an amateur!
Ditto with her 34:59.38 Track 10K best from 2012, which remains the Frosh Class Record!
Cain's best times mainly came BEFORE she went the Pro route!
Should I count them?
Sorry, but no!
So what are we looking at, then?
Her best OUTdoor marks in 2014 (her ONLY Pro HS year!) were not her best!
Her 8:58+ winning time in the WJC that year is maybe the LEAST impressive of her Professional High School PR's!
She also ran the 800 in 2:01.67 and the 1500 in 4:06.34, which I consider her finest PRO mark!
Efraimson will be considered a HS'er through August 31st, so all of her OUTdoor times from this year are considered.
Her bests (thus far!) are 2:01.13 over 800, 4:03.39 for 1500, and a 16:09+ 5000.
Whitney's 2015 times are getting better with each race, it seems!
Through today, her HS PRO bests are 11.37 for the 100 (and a heavily--5.4 worth!--wind-aided 11.01) and a PR of 22.47 in the 200.
And we should consider that Whitney, being the youngest of the four, has ANOTHER full year as a HS PRO!!
Since it's hard to compare times over different distances, I'm going to admit "Honors Won" into my criteria.
Hadley WON her PR race (and was 2nd the previous year), but her times were so far down the US list that THAT factor takes away from her placings.
Whitney failed to make the WC team at the USATF meet (the WC "Trials").
But she later PR'ed in the 200!
She also had one race where she took 2nd to Veronica Campbell-Brown in a 200.
And she admittedly is the FASTEST of the 4---as the only Sprinter!
No contest there!
With Cain and Efraimson, the judgment becomes easier, as they were/are in the same events, for the most part.
And here, taking ONLY HS Professional times into consideration, Efraimson wins this "race"---hands down!!
In the 800, she wins, 2:01.13 to 2:01.67.
And Alexa has some solid back-up 800's!
In fact, she took 2nd in a meet in Belgium just yesterday, running 2:01.33 behind the winner, Jenny Meadows.
(And she beat several good runners!)
But it's in the 1500 where Efraimson takes the Grand Prize.
Cain's best PRO mark was 4:06.34.
Efraimson has TWO times better than that, and her fastest--4:03.39--is almost 3 whole seconds faster.
So who is (or in Cain's case, WAS!) the Best HS PRO T&F Athlete?
1. Alexa Efraimson
2. Kaylin Whitney (by a VERY slim margin over Hadley!)
3. Alana Hadley (See Whitney comments! But here, her WINNING her race added some weight!)
4. Mary Cain (If she had turned Pro one year earlier--right after Alberto Salazar became her coach!--it would have been a CLEAR Cain win here!! Also, if I had given ANY weight to INdoor times, Cain's 2014 INdoor PRO season would have given HER 1st place!)
Finally---for THIS already-lengthy post--I will name some names who right NOW must be considered the most likely World and US Athletes of the Year finalists!
For lack of space, I will just list the names---in the order I believe they'd finish in the AOY decision.
But remember, THE Meet of the Year--the World Championships--is still about 6 weeks away.
And there's several more Diamond League meets yet to happen.
And at least 3 MAJOR Marathons--Berlin, Chicago, and New York--yet to be run!
A LOT can---and most certainly WILL--happen that might drastically change my list!!
All that said, here's my list, as of right NOW!
World--Men
1. Justin Gatlin
2. Pablo (or PPPP) Pichardo
3. Eliud Kipchoge
4. Jairus Birech
5. Pawel Fajdek
6. Ayanleh Souleiman
7. David Storl
8. Orlando Ortega
9. Evan Jager
10. Choose from Mutaz Barshim, Renaud Lavillenie, Trey Hardee, Julius Yego, Christian Taylor, and Mo Farah.
US--Men
1. Gatlin
2. Jager
3. Taylor
4. Hardee
5. Joe Kovacs
6. Eric Kynard
7. Trayvon Bromell
8. Marquis Dendy
9. Bershawn Jackson
10. Bernard Lagat (For his Age Records!!)
World--Women
1. Genzebe Dibaba
2. Brrianne Theissen-Eaton
3. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
4. Almaz Ayana
5. Allyson Felix
6. Shaunae Miller
7. Virginia Nyambura
8. Anita Wlodarczyk (Her 261-11 "WR" over a river was NOT considered!!)
9. Sharika Nelvis
10 Choose from among Jasmine Stowers, Eunice Sum, Shamier Little, Christina Schwanitz, Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou, and Tianna Bartoletta.
US--Women
1. Felix
2. Nelvis
3. Stowers
4. Little
5. Bartoletta
6. Barbara Nwaba
7. Jenny Simpson
8. Vashti Cunningham
9. English Gardner
10. Choose from among Emma Coburn, Dawn Harper-Nelson, Jenn Suhr, Michelle Carter, and Kara Winger.
Stick around for Part 2.
That will be my list of the Best Books and Movies about T&F and Running.
Should be posted in 2 or 3 hours!
But I couldn't fit ALL that follows into a workable (& short!) title!
Anyway, lots to cover, so as one of my favorite people, Carrie Tollefson, always says, "Let's get after it"!
This will be a LONG post, but will be divided into 5 sections.
1. Who's better, Lasse Viren or Mo Farah?
2. Who is the Best HS PRO?
3. My CURRENT Projections for World & US Top 10 choices for AOY's.
4. Best T&F & Running Books (Stats, Bios, Novels)
5. Best T&F & Running Movies (Fictional, Bio-pics, Documentaries)
(I decided to divide this into TWO posts. Just too much to cover, and I want to give enough space to each section! So the first 3 sections (see above) will be in THIS post, the Books & Movies sections in the 2nd post!)
Who's Better, Lasse Viren or Mo Farah?
Mo Farah's double Gold in both the 2012 Olympics and the 2013 World Championships has led people to say he's the Greatest of All Time (GOAT)---at least in Distance Running.
But is he?
Or could it be Lasse Viren, who won double Golds in TWO Olympics?
Let's take a look.
It was 43 years ago that Lasse Viren became famous beyond his native Finland.
He won both the 5000 and 10000 in the 1972 Munich OG.
Then he repeated that feat in the 1976 Montreal Olympics!
(There were no World Championships in those days, just several Regional Champs, such as the Euros, Commonwealth Games, and Pan Am Games.)
It was the 2012 London Olympics that made "MO" a household word--at least in running circles!
He also won double Gold in those London Games.
And while Rio isn't here yet, Farah did win double Gold in the 2013 Moscow WC's, to "match" Viren's feat--at least as far as Medals are concerned!
But let's take a closer look.
In both 1972 and 1976, there were heats AND the final in both of Viren's events.
That meant 30K of racing in each Games.
(In the '76 Games, he added the Marathon's 42.2K, thus he raced 72.2K in Montreal!!)
In both the 2012 OG and the 2013 WC, Farah had "just" 20000 meters of racing at each venue, as there were no 10K heats!
Viren's winning 10000 time in 1972 was a World Record, cutting 1 second from Ron Clarke's venerable 27:39.4 from 1965.
His 5000 time in '72 was about 10 seconds slower than Clarke's WR.
In 1976, Viren won the 10K in 27:40.4, two seconds slower than in 1972, but the WR was just 27:30+ then, so he was also 10 seconds off from that!
His 5K splits in that '76 10K were 14:09 and 13:31!
He won the '76 5000 in 13:24.6, about 11 seconds from the WR at that time!
Mo's times, in both the OG of '12 and the WC of '13 were FAR off the WR's!
Looking at their Records & Marks outside of the Major meets, we see some interesting stats.
Viren's last weeks leading up to the Munich Games were BUSY!
(If you read my post about Clarke, you know that those pre-Professional years saw LOTS more racing by the Distance people than we see today!)
In late July, he ran a 5000 in 13:19.0, then 3rd A-T.
He followed that 2 days later with a BIG PR over 3000, a 7:43.2.
In early August, he ran a National Record 10000 in 27:52.4.
This was soon followed by a World Record over 2 Miles, time of 8:14.0.
Then, just 4 days after the Games ended, he set a WR in the 5000, running 13:16.4.
(Okay, so he broke it by just 0.2, but he BROKE it!)
In the 1976 Games, he tried a TRIPLE, running the Marathon just one day after the 5000 final!
He finished 5th--after being in 3rd through 25K!--in the time of 2:13:11.
In addition to his 2012 and 2013 exploits, Farah had a lot of WC experiences!
He ran in the 2007, 2009, and 2011 WC's also.
He was 6th in the 2007 5K.
He was 7th two years later in the 5K.
Then, in 2011, he was much more successful, almost emulating his later successes, winning the 5K after taking Silver in the 10K.
If you look at Farah's set of PR's, his times were obviously faster than Viren's, given about 35-40 years between their careers!
But were they BETTER?
I noted Viren's WR's, and how close to (or far from!) the WR's of back then he was.
But Farah?
Counting OUTdoor times only (as I did with Viren), Mo's best PR's are in the 1500 and 2 Mile.
His 3:28.81 is far better than Viren's!
(But Farah's Mile best is just 3:56+, worth just a 3:39+ 1500!!)
His 8:07.85 Deuce is just 6.15 seconds faster than what Viren did 42 years earlier!
Mo's 5K and 10K are nowhere near the WR's, being about 16 and 29 seconds slower, respectively..
My decision?
Lasse Viren WINS!!
Easily!
Who's the Best High School PRO?
This question, by virtue of the reality of this particular situation, is limited to 4 Women.
Allyson Felix and Ajee Wilson both turned Pro after HS graduation, and never competed in College.
But Alana Hadley, Mary Cain, Alexa Efraimson, and Kaylin Whitney all signed as Professionals while still ATTENDING High School!!
For whatever reason(s), Male HS'ers haven't gone the Pro route while in HS---yet!!
So who's the Best HS PRO?
(Cain's 2015 season doesn't count, as she was a College Frosh! Only her HS Pro years are considered!)
This question is a bit difficult, as the 4 ladies compete(d) in basically 3 different sets of events.
Cain and Efraimson were/are both mainly 800-1500 runners.
Hadley runs mostly Half and Full Marathons.
And Whitney is a Sprinter.
Let's look first at "Honors Won", which is T&FN's top criteria for their AOY selections!
Cain was 6th in the 2012 World Junior Championships.
She finished 10th in the 2013 Moscow WC's 1500.
She won the 3000 in the '14 WJC's.
Efraimson won Bronze in the 2013 World Youth Championships.
She was 6th in the 2014 WJC's.
She failed to make this year's WC team for Beijing.
Whitney won the 200, while taking 3rd in the 100 in the '14 WJC's.
(She'd won both in the WJC "Trials".)
And Hadley won the 2014 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, after finishing as 2nd Woman the year before.
My blog is more concerned with Times than "Honors Won".
And this particular post's question is concerned with these Women's PRO accomplishments ONLY!
So most of those "Honors Won" are left OUT of consideration!
When did they turn Pro?
As best I could decipher, Hadley was first, signing on 1 week AFTER her 2013 Monumental race.
However, she then accepted prize money from that race, so she must be considered as being Pro on the day she ran that race!
Cain became a Pro on November 20, 2013.
She was then about 2 months into her Senior year of HS.
Efraimson turned Pro on September 20, 2014, when she was just starting her Senior year.
And Whitney was the last of the 4 to go Pro, connecting her signing to her 17th Birthday celebration.
(She was born March 9, 1998.)
Hadley's Marathon PR is 2:38:34, which is about 4 minutes slower than Cathy Schiro (O'Brien's) HSR.
In 2014, that time was just 30th best on the US list!
Her 2:41:55 from 2013 was just 47th on the US list!
I don't know where her 1:16:41 Half PR stands on the HS list, but I'm guessing it's Number ONE, as the Half is a mostly-21st Century event.
But it probably doesn't matter, as I think she ran that while still an amateur!
Ditto with her 34:59.38 Track 10K best from 2012, which remains the Frosh Class Record!
Cain's best times mainly came BEFORE she went the Pro route!
Should I count them?
Sorry, but no!
So what are we looking at, then?
Her best OUTdoor marks in 2014 (her ONLY Pro HS year!) were not her best!
Her 8:58+ winning time in the WJC that year is maybe the LEAST impressive of her Professional High School PR's!
She also ran the 800 in 2:01.67 and the 1500 in 4:06.34, which I consider her finest PRO mark!
Efraimson will be considered a HS'er through August 31st, so all of her OUTdoor times from this year are considered.
Her bests (thus far!) are 2:01.13 over 800, 4:03.39 for 1500, and a 16:09+ 5000.
Whitney's 2015 times are getting better with each race, it seems!
Through today, her HS PRO bests are 11.37 for the 100 (and a heavily--5.4 worth!--wind-aided 11.01) and a PR of 22.47 in the 200.
And we should consider that Whitney, being the youngest of the four, has ANOTHER full year as a HS PRO!!
Since it's hard to compare times over different distances, I'm going to admit "Honors Won" into my criteria.
Hadley WON her PR race (and was 2nd the previous year), but her times were so far down the US list that THAT factor takes away from her placings.
Whitney failed to make the WC team at the USATF meet (the WC "Trials").
But she later PR'ed in the 200!
She also had one race where she took 2nd to Veronica Campbell-Brown in a 200.
And she admittedly is the FASTEST of the 4---as the only Sprinter!
No contest there!
With Cain and Efraimson, the judgment becomes easier, as they were/are in the same events, for the most part.
And here, taking ONLY HS Professional times into consideration, Efraimson wins this "race"---hands down!!
In the 800, she wins, 2:01.13 to 2:01.67.
And Alexa has some solid back-up 800's!
In fact, she took 2nd in a meet in Belgium just yesterday, running 2:01.33 behind the winner, Jenny Meadows.
(And she beat several good runners!)
But it's in the 1500 where Efraimson takes the Grand Prize.
Cain's best PRO mark was 4:06.34.
Efraimson has TWO times better than that, and her fastest--4:03.39--is almost 3 whole seconds faster.
So who is (or in Cain's case, WAS!) the Best HS PRO T&F Athlete?
1. Alexa Efraimson
2. Kaylin Whitney (by a VERY slim margin over Hadley!)
3. Alana Hadley (See Whitney comments! But here, her WINNING her race added some weight!)
4. Mary Cain (If she had turned Pro one year earlier--right after Alberto Salazar became her coach!--it would have been a CLEAR Cain win here!! Also, if I had given ANY weight to INdoor times, Cain's 2014 INdoor PRO season would have given HER 1st place!)
Finally---for THIS already-lengthy post--I will name some names who right NOW must be considered the most likely World and US Athletes of the Year finalists!
For lack of space, I will just list the names---in the order I believe they'd finish in the AOY decision.
But remember, THE Meet of the Year--the World Championships--is still about 6 weeks away.
And there's several more Diamond League meets yet to happen.
And at least 3 MAJOR Marathons--Berlin, Chicago, and New York--yet to be run!
A LOT can---and most certainly WILL--happen that might drastically change my list!!
All that said, here's my list, as of right NOW!
World--Men
1. Justin Gatlin
2. Pablo (or PPPP) Pichardo
3. Eliud Kipchoge
4. Jairus Birech
5. Pawel Fajdek
6. Ayanleh Souleiman
7. David Storl
8. Orlando Ortega
9. Evan Jager
10. Choose from Mutaz Barshim, Renaud Lavillenie, Trey Hardee, Julius Yego, Christian Taylor, and Mo Farah.
US--Men
1. Gatlin
2. Jager
3. Taylor
4. Hardee
5. Joe Kovacs
6. Eric Kynard
7. Trayvon Bromell
8. Marquis Dendy
9. Bershawn Jackson
10. Bernard Lagat (For his Age Records!!)
World--Women
1. Genzebe Dibaba
2. Brrianne Theissen-Eaton
3. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
4. Almaz Ayana
5. Allyson Felix
6. Shaunae Miller
7. Virginia Nyambura
8. Anita Wlodarczyk (Her 261-11 "WR" over a river was NOT considered!!)
9. Sharika Nelvis
10 Choose from among Jasmine Stowers, Eunice Sum, Shamier Little, Christina Schwanitz, Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou, and Tianna Bartoletta.
US--Women
1. Felix
2. Nelvis
3. Stowers
4. Little
5. Bartoletta
6. Barbara Nwaba
7. Jenny Simpson
8. Vashti Cunningham
9. English Gardner
10. Choose from among Emma Coburn, Dawn Harper-Nelson, Jenn Suhr, Michelle Carter, and Kara Winger.
Stick around for Part 2.
That will be my list of the Best Books and Movies about T&F and Running.
Should be posted in 2 or 3 hours!
Thursday, July 9, 2015
GENZEBE!! DL Field Day
In the Lausanne Field & Track DL meet, there was just 1 Meet Record from the "Oval Office".
I wasn't joking calling this a "Field & Track" meet.
Let's face it, the field eventers had a (pun intended!) field day!!
Only question is, Who ruled the day?
I'll take the Triple Jump duel between Cuban PPPP (the new acronymous name for Pablo Pichardo) and Christian Taylor.
Pichardo led with a 17.99 non-PR jump.
That is, until Taylor burst open with a PR jump of 59-3 (18.06).
So we saw TWO Lausanne Meet Records in this one event!
PPPP's 17.99 became the first.
But the MR will stand as Taylor's.
He remains 2nd A-T US.
But he moves from 5th to 4th on the World list!
Oh yes, and he nabs the Age 25 record too!
Keshorn Walcott threw the Javelin out 295-9 (90.16) for the win, and the Lausanne Meet Record.
He also broke his own National Record of Trinidad.
He's 13th A-T World!
Two others went over 87 meters, but no Place marks were broken.
David Storl completed the Lausanne Field Day with another Meet Record.
His 72-10 PR in the Shot Put is also the Age 24 record.
He's 16th A-T World, tied with 1 other (who happens to be John Godina!).
Yes, the Field events saved the day in Lausanne, which, overall, wasn't the worst DL ever, but certainly wasn't one of the best either!
However, one race--no, one woman!--in a relatively minor meet in Barcelona---sent shockwaves around the world (of T&F) with less than four minutes of running time.
Her name is GENZEBE.
If she keeps producing spectacular times like these (either OUTdoors or INdoors), we might soon relegate older sister Tirunesh to relative obscurity.
At least for the past 18 months, Tirunesh is on the "back burner" of the Dibaba family stove.
Genzebe Dibaba ran the 1500 Meters in 3:54.11 in a minor meet in Barcelona.
The WAY she ran it makes it the best OUTdoor middle distance race of the 21st Century.
She ran VERY even splits.
(All splits courtesy of T&FN!)
The pacer took her through the first 700 meters.
Her first 400 was 61.1.
She then ran 64.2, for an 800 in 2:05.3.
But then she ran the next 200 in 31.8, for a 1000 time of 2:37.1.
Her next 200 was even faster--31.6..
So her 1200 was 3:08.7.
Her final 300 was 45.4, as part of a final 400 of 61.1---which matched her rabbit-paced opening 400!!
Here's my take on this amazing run.
1. If she continued at the same pace, her Mile time would be about 4:10.0, but no slower than 4:10.5. A WR!
2. She had an 18 second (!!) margin of victory! In her 3 INdoor WR's of 2014, her margins were 13 seconds in her 1500, 13 seconds in her 3000, and 21 seconds in the 2 Mile. In her 14:18 INdoor WR 5000 from this year, she cleared the field by about one MINUTE!!
3. She actually ran FASTER without the rabbit in the race, as her final 800 (2:04.9) was faster than her first 800 (2:05.3), most of which was rabbited!
On the T&FN MB, I said Dibaba CAN (not WOULD!!) run the following times:
800--1:54 to 1:56
1000--2:28 to 2:30
1 Mile (4:10 to 4:12)
3000--8:10 to 8:12
2 Mile--8:44 to 8:48
5000--13:55 to 14:00
10000--29:00 to 29:20
Wait and see!
(First, she'd need to be in TOP shape! Then, she'd have to make a SERIOUS attempt!)
She's just 24 years old.
Those Chinese "outliers" may not be long for this world!
Almost forgot!
Here's what she did to my T&F Record Book!
It's the Age 24 record.
It's the Ethiopia National Record.
She is now 9th A-T World.
But 3rd A-T if you eliminate the Chinese times from 1993 and 1997.
She improves her Combined Events status in 2 categories.
In the Combined 1500-3000, she becomes 7th A-T, with times of 3:54.11 and 8:26.21 adding to 12:20.32.
(This is for OUTdoor times only!)
In the Combined 1500-5000, she remains in 1st place, but her total time improves to 18:09.52 (3:54.11 and 14:15.41).
Before returning to Lausanne, there was one other mark of note from Spain.
Ayanleh Souleiman won a good 800 in 1:43.08.
(Two others dipped under 1:44!)
He breaks his own Djibouti National Record.
On my Combined Events tally for the 800-1500, he now ranks 9th.
His times of 1:43.08 and 3:29.58 add to 5:12.66.
But he misses my World DDD by 0.24 seconds!
Third in this 800 was Abdulleleh Balla of Qatar, whose 1:43.82 is his country's new National Record.
Sandra Perkovic lost another DT competition!
She hasn't been as perfect as Valerie Adams was (before her 1st loss last week after 56 straight wins!), but it seems that way.
This time, she lost to Yaimi Perez, 220-3 to 220-0.
The only Lausanne track event to break the MR was the Women's 3000SC.
And it wasn't Emma Coburn who broke it.
The record was relatively weak, but as I've often said, a Record's a Record!
That woman who began this season as a rabbit (!!) is now one of the more dominant Steeplers, and a definite medal threat in Beijing.
Virginia Nyambura's new MR is 9:16.99.
Coburn was 3rd in 9:20+.
(In her first Professional race, Colleen Quigley ran 9:42+, finishing way back. Leah O'Connor didn't start.)
Jenny Simpson finished only 3rd in the 1500.
The times were slow, in the 4:02-4:04 range.
Shaunae Miller upset Sanya Richards-Ross in the 400.
But it was really no contest, not only between those 2, but between Miller and the entire field!
She PR'ed with her first sub-50 (49.92), with SRR ending in 51.12.
(SRR doubled back later in the 200 when Blessing Okagbare decided to withdraw from her 2nd event, after finishing just 4th in the Long Jump!)
The Women's 200 had a GREAT field, but Allyson Felix had no problem winning.
Finishing hard, she JUST missed the 1995 Meet Record of Merlene Ottey by 0.02 seconds!
Felix ran 22.09, beating Dafne Schippers's 22.29.
The Men's 100 was supposed to be "controversial"--because 3 "drug cheats" were the favorites.
I don't see it that way.
They did the crime, and paid the time!
They WERE drug cheats!
Not NOW!
Anyway, Justin Gatlin also had no problem eating up Tyson Gay and Asefa Powell, both of whom ran 9.92's to Gatlin's 9.75.
Wind was legal.
But the 3rd section of the Women's "B" 100--a non-DL event, was VERY windy!
The first 2 sections had aiding winds of 2.2 and 0.8.
Then a gust hit the stadium.
That wind of plus-5.4 (!!) helped English Gardner to the win in 10.76.
(Probably worth close to 11.00 with legal wind.)
In 3rd came 17 year old HS PRO Kaylin Whitney, whose 11.01 translates to about 11.27, according to someone who knows these things from the T&FN Message Board!
Still, if she'd run 11.27, it would have been her 2015 PR.
Before the Lausanne meet, there were 3 other European meets where Americans got some business taken care of.
Top of that list belongs to USATF 3rd placer in the 1500, Kerri Gallagher of Oiselle.
Coming to Lignano, Italy, with a PR of 4:08.70 (her time in the semi at USATF!), she had to deal with cool and windy weather, as well as a resurgent Alexa Efrasimson and Bernard Lagat's little sister, Violah.
There's a funny story about Violah.
Alberto Stretti tweeted the results from the race, showing Viola KIBIWOT finishing 2nd in 4:04.10.
So Bernard tweeted a reply, saying there was a mistake, that Kibiwot didn't run there, his sister did!
Stretti tweeted back, "You mean it WASN'T Kibiwot, it was your sister?".
Lagat replied, "YES! It was a mistake! It was my sister Violah Lagat!".
(BTW, Kibiwot DID race this week, but she was in the Lausanne 1500, where she wasn't in the running, so to speak.)
Anyway, confusion set aside, Violah Lagat DID run 4:04.10 in 2nd, a PR for her.
In 3rd came Alexa Efraimson, who returned to form with her 2nd best ever time of 4:05.83.
Here's how the race went.
A rabbit took them through 800 in 2:10, with even 65 splits.
She departed at 900 meters, where Gallagher took the reins, followed closely by Lagat and Efraimson.
They came through 1100 in 2:59 (with the 2 in back maybe a second slower.).
With about 250 to go, Efraimson came into 2nd, close behind Gallagher's shoulder.
Then, at the end of the final curve, Efraimson came alongside her, just inching ahead.
That is, until Kerri put "pedal to the metal", and she was gone.
Her time of 4:03.56 gave her her needed Beijing Q.
It also makes her 21st A-T US.
Eric Jenkins won the 3000 in Lignano.
His time of 7:41.79 misses my US Top 24 list by 0.19 seconds!
In a meet in Hungary, Kaylin Whitney ran her fastest 100 of 2015 (See my Lausanne report above, about her wind-aided "best".).
She ran 11.37 in 6th place, with the winner being Veronica Campbell-Brown in 10.99.
In Cork (Ireland), in windy and cool weather, Abbey D'Agostino raced Mary Cain in what, in Cain's better days, might have been a whole different story.
As it was, they ran in a small pack (with Rachel Schneider) for the first 2000 of the 3000 meter race.
Surprisingly, after the rabbit dropped out at 1000, Cain took the lead, ending 2000 in 6:07, a much slower pace than expected.
Then Abbey D started her powerful finishing drive (reminiscent of Molly Huddle at her best!), ending the "race" with a final K of 2:51.
Her 8:58.39 is an OUTdoor PR.
But considering her INdoor best is 8:51 and change, and she just ran a 5000 in 15:06, she has a lot more in the tank for this distance.
Schneider passed the fading Cain, their times being 9:05.08 and 9:05.68.
It might have been a good time for Cain---IF she hadn't had those sensational years in 2012 and 2013 (and INdoors in 2014).
In other news, Kenneth Mungara is making a habit of breaking my Age 40 (and over) record by just 2 seconds in the Marathon.
He first ran 2:08:44, reducing the previous record of 2:08:46.
This time, he ran 2:08:42.
Isaac Makwala is becoming a MAJOR contender for Gold in Beijing AND Rio!
His latest shocker came in the 400, as he smashed his previous best (and Botswana National Record) of 44.01 with a great time of 43.72.
This happens to be 2015's fastest thus far!
He moves from 12th to 5th on the A-T World list.
And he moves from 5th to 3rd on my Combined Events list for the 100-200-400.
His times of 10.20, 19.96, and 43.72 add to 1:13.88.
Finishing behind Makwala was Abdelleleh Haroun, whose 44.27 set the new National Record of Qatar.
Two other National Records fell.
Henricho Bruntjes ran a South Africa NR in the 100 with a time of 9.97.
And Steve Gardiner took care of the Bahamas Icon Chris Brown's 400 NR of 44.40 with his 44.27.
Brown's time dated from 2008.
Finally, Adam Kelly slightly improved his HT distance, hitting 241-11.
But he remains 9th A-T HS.
Not sure when my next post will be.
Could be soon, as there's a few meets ongoing this week.
The next DL meet is Monaco, on July 17th.
See you then, if not before!
I wasn't joking calling this a "Field & Track" meet.
Let's face it, the field eventers had a (pun intended!) field day!!
Only question is, Who ruled the day?
I'll take the Triple Jump duel between Cuban PPPP (the new acronymous name for Pablo Pichardo) and Christian Taylor.
Pichardo led with a 17.99 non-PR jump.
That is, until Taylor burst open with a PR jump of 59-3 (18.06).
So we saw TWO Lausanne Meet Records in this one event!
PPPP's 17.99 became the first.
But the MR will stand as Taylor's.
He remains 2nd A-T US.
But he moves from 5th to 4th on the World list!
Oh yes, and he nabs the Age 25 record too!
Keshorn Walcott threw the Javelin out 295-9 (90.16) for the win, and the Lausanne Meet Record.
He also broke his own National Record of Trinidad.
He's 13th A-T World!
Two others went over 87 meters, but no Place marks were broken.
David Storl completed the Lausanne Field Day with another Meet Record.
His 72-10 PR in the Shot Put is also the Age 24 record.
He's 16th A-T World, tied with 1 other (who happens to be John Godina!).
Yes, the Field events saved the day in Lausanne, which, overall, wasn't the worst DL ever, but certainly wasn't one of the best either!
However, one race--no, one woman!--in a relatively minor meet in Barcelona---sent shockwaves around the world (of T&F) with less than four minutes of running time.
Her name is GENZEBE.
If she keeps producing spectacular times like these (either OUTdoors or INdoors), we might soon relegate older sister Tirunesh to relative obscurity.
At least for the past 18 months, Tirunesh is on the "back burner" of the Dibaba family stove.
Genzebe Dibaba ran the 1500 Meters in 3:54.11 in a minor meet in Barcelona.
The WAY she ran it makes it the best OUTdoor middle distance race of the 21st Century.
She ran VERY even splits.
(All splits courtesy of T&FN!)
The pacer took her through the first 700 meters.
Her first 400 was 61.1.
She then ran 64.2, for an 800 in 2:05.3.
But then she ran the next 200 in 31.8, for a 1000 time of 2:37.1.
Her next 200 was even faster--31.6..
So her 1200 was 3:08.7.
Her final 300 was 45.4, as part of a final 400 of 61.1---which matched her rabbit-paced opening 400!!
Here's my take on this amazing run.
1. If she continued at the same pace, her Mile time would be about 4:10.0, but no slower than 4:10.5. A WR!
2. She had an 18 second (!!) margin of victory! In her 3 INdoor WR's of 2014, her margins were 13 seconds in her 1500, 13 seconds in her 3000, and 21 seconds in the 2 Mile. In her 14:18 INdoor WR 5000 from this year, she cleared the field by about one MINUTE!!
3. She actually ran FASTER without the rabbit in the race, as her final 800 (2:04.9) was faster than her first 800 (2:05.3), most of which was rabbited!
On the T&FN MB, I said Dibaba CAN (not WOULD!!) run the following times:
800--1:54 to 1:56
1000--2:28 to 2:30
1 Mile (4:10 to 4:12)
3000--8:10 to 8:12
2 Mile--8:44 to 8:48
5000--13:55 to 14:00
10000--29:00 to 29:20
Wait and see!
(First, she'd need to be in TOP shape! Then, she'd have to make a SERIOUS attempt!)
She's just 24 years old.
Those Chinese "outliers" may not be long for this world!
Almost forgot!
Here's what she did to my T&F Record Book!
It's the Age 24 record.
It's the Ethiopia National Record.
She is now 9th A-T World.
But 3rd A-T if you eliminate the Chinese times from 1993 and 1997.
She improves her Combined Events status in 2 categories.
In the Combined 1500-3000, she becomes 7th A-T, with times of 3:54.11 and 8:26.21 adding to 12:20.32.
(This is for OUTdoor times only!)
In the Combined 1500-5000, she remains in 1st place, but her total time improves to 18:09.52 (3:54.11 and 14:15.41).
Before returning to Lausanne, there was one other mark of note from Spain.
Ayanleh Souleiman won a good 800 in 1:43.08.
(Two others dipped under 1:44!)
He breaks his own Djibouti National Record.
On my Combined Events tally for the 800-1500, he now ranks 9th.
His times of 1:43.08 and 3:29.58 add to 5:12.66.
But he misses my World DDD by 0.24 seconds!
Third in this 800 was Abdulleleh Balla of Qatar, whose 1:43.82 is his country's new National Record.
Sandra Perkovic lost another DT competition!
She hasn't been as perfect as Valerie Adams was (before her 1st loss last week after 56 straight wins!), but it seems that way.
This time, she lost to Yaimi Perez, 220-3 to 220-0.
The only Lausanne track event to break the MR was the Women's 3000SC.
And it wasn't Emma Coburn who broke it.
The record was relatively weak, but as I've often said, a Record's a Record!
That woman who began this season as a rabbit (!!) is now one of the more dominant Steeplers, and a definite medal threat in Beijing.
Virginia Nyambura's new MR is 9:16.99.
Coburn was 3rd in 9:20+.
(In her first Professional race, Colleen Quigley ran 9:42+, finishing way back. Leah O'Connor didn't start.)
Jenny Simpson finished only 3rd in the 1500.
The times were slow, in the 4:02-4:04 range.
Shaunae Miller upset Sanya Richards-Ross in the 400.
But it was really no contest, not only between those 2, but between Miller and the entire field!
She PR'ed with her first sub-50 (49.92), with SRR ending in 51.12.
(SRR doubled back later in the 200 when Blessing Okagbare decided to withdraw from her 2nd event, after finishing just 4th in the Long Jump!)
The Women's 200 had a GREAT field, but Allyson Felix had no problem winning.
Finishing hard, she JUST missed the 1995 Meet Record of Merlene Ottey by 0.02 seconds!
Felix ran 22.09, beating Dafne Schippers's 22.29.
The Men's 100 was supposed to be "controversial"--because 3 "drug cheats" were the favorites.
I don't see it that way.
They did the crime, and paid the time!
They WERE drug cheats!
Not NOW!
Anyway, Justin Gatlin also had no problem eating up Tyson Gay and Asefa Powell, both of whom ran 9.92's to Gatlin's 9.75.
Wind was legal.
But the 3rd section of the Women's "B" 100--a non-DL event, was VERY windy!
The first 2 sections had aiding winds of 2.2 and 0.8.
Then a gust hit the stadium.
That wind of plus-5.4 (!!) helped English Gardner to the win in 10.76.
(Probably worth close to 11.00 with legal wind.)
In 3rd came 17 year old HS PRO Kaylin Whitney, whose 11.01 translates to about 11.27, according to someone who knows these things from the T&FN Message Board!
Still, if she'd run 11.27, it would have been her 2015 PR.
Before the Lausanne meet, there were 3 other European meets where Americans got some business taken care of.
Top of that list belongs to USATF 3rd placer in the 1500, Kerri Gallagher of Oiselle.
Coming to Lignano, Italy, with a PR of 4:08.70 (her time in the semi at USATF!), she had to deal with cool and windy weather, as well as a resurgent Alexa Efrasimson and Bernard Lagat's little sister, Violah.
There's a funny story about Violah.
Alberto Stretti tweeted the results from the race, showing Viola KIBIWOT finishing 2nd in 4:04.10.
So Bernard tweeted a reply, saying there was a mistake, that Kibiwot didn't run there, his sister did!
Stretti tweeted back, "You mean it WASN'T Kibiwot, it was your sister?".
Lagat replied, "YES! It was a mistake! It was my sister Violah Lagat!".
(BTW, Kibiwot DID race this week, but she was in the Lausanne 1500, where she wasn't in the running, so to speak.)
Anyway, confusion set aside, Violah Lagat DID run 4:04.10 in 2nd, a PR for her.
In 3rd came Alexa Efraimson, who returned to form with her 2nd best ever time of 4:05.83.
Here's how the race went.
A rabbit took them through 800 in 2:10, with even 65 splits.
She departed at 900 meters, where Gallagher took the reins, followed closely by Lagat and Efraimson.
They came through 1100 in 2:59 (with the 2 in back maybe a second slower.).
With about 250 to go, Efraimson came into 2nd, close behind Gallagher's shoulder.
Then, at the end of the final curve, Efraimson came alongside her, just inching ahead.
That is, until Kerri put "pedal to the metal", and she was gone.
Her time of 4:03.56 gave her her needed Beijing Q.
It also makes her 21st A-T US.
Eric Jenkins won the 3000 in Lignano.
His time of 7:41.79 misses my US Top 24 list by 0.19 seconds!
In a meet in Hungary, Kaylin Whitney ran her fastest 100 of 2015 (See my Lausanne report above, about her wind-aided "best".).
She ran 11.37 in 6th place, with the winner being Veronica Campbell-Brown in 10.99.
In Cork (Ireland), in windy and cool weather, Abbey D'Agostino raced Mary Cain in what, in Cain's better days, might have been a whole different story.
As it was, they ran in a small pack (with Rachel Schneider) for the first 2000 of the 3000 meter race.
Surprisingly, after the rabbit dropped out at 1000, Cain took the lead, ending 2000 in 6:07, a much slower pace than expected.
Then Abbey D started her powerful finishing drive (reminiscent of Molly Huddle at her best!), ending the "race" with a final K of 2:51.
Her 8:58.39 is an OUTdoor PR.
But considering her INdoor best is 8:51 and change, and she just ran a 5000 in 15:06, she has a lot more in the tank for this distance.
Schneider passed the fading Cain, their times being 9:05.08 and 9:05.68.
It might have been a good time for Cain---IF she hadn't had those sensational years in 2012 and 2013 (and INdoors in 2014).
In other news, Kenneth Mungara is making a habit of breaking my Age 40 (and over) record by just 2 seconds in the Marathon.
He first ran 2:08:44, reducing the previous record of 2:08:46.
This time, he ran 2:08:42.
Isaac Makwala is becoming a MAJOR contender for Gold in Beijing AND Rio!
His latest shocker came in the 400, as he smashed his previous best (and Botswana National Record) of 44.01 with a great time of 43.72.
This happens to be 2015's fastest thus far!
He moves from 12th to 5th on the A-T World list.
And he moves from 5th to 3rd on my Combined Events list for the 100-200-400.
His times of 10.20, 19.96, and 43.72 add to 1:13.88.
Finishing behind Makwala was Abdelleleh Haroun, whose 44.27 set the new National Record of Qatar.
Two other National Records fell.
Henricho Bruntjes ran a South Africa NR in the 100 with a time of 9.97.
And Steve Gardiner took care of the Bahamas Icon Chris Brown's 400 NR of 44.40 with his 44.27.
Brown's time dated from 2008.
Finally, Adam Kelly slightly improved his HT distance, hitting 241-11.
But he remains 9th A-T HS.
Not sure when my next post will be.
Could be soon, as there's a few meets ongoing this week.
The next DL meet is Monaco, on July 17th.
See you then, if not before!
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