Happy July 4th (In Paris??)

Yes, in Paris!
Just ask Evan Jager, who crushed his American Record--on Parisian soil.
And we will get to that in a minute.

The Paris Diamond League meet truly met the high standards expected of it.
But much of the energy was created not in any great outpouring of Records and Marks--though there are many to report--but in the shocks caused by some, well, shocking results.

The first indication this day would be different came when the Omega Results system broke down!
I (and everyone else!) went through the entire meet unable to see the results posted after (and even during) each event.
(That's one reason my report is a bit later than planned.)

But it was on the Field---in the Shot Put ring, to be exact--where the first earthquake hit!

Valerie Adams was entered in her first post-surgery meet, with her 56 meet winning streak on the line.
The Streak is over!
She finished fifth!
Her 61-8 throw---not bad for mere mortals!--couldn't overcome Christine Schwanitz's domination of the event.
But Queen Val is back!
(With about 7 more weeks to rev her engine for the WC's!)

The Men's 110H produced the best race of 2015.
Cuban ex-patriate Orlando Ortega ran down David Oliver, as both went sub-13.

Ortega's 12.94 moves him from 21st A-T World, tied with 1 other, all the way to 10th, tied with 2 others!

Oliver ran 12.98, but no PR or any Records.

In 3rd was Russian Sergey Shubenkov, whose 13.06 breaks his own Russian National Record.

Next in line was Aleec Harris, whose 13.11 was an 0.03 PR.
He moves from 23rd to 20th A-T US.

The announced World Record attempt by Genzebe Dibaba failed.
Actually "failed" is too harsh a word for her 14:15.41 win over Almaz Ayana.
It was hot--around 90?--but it was more the heat produced by the race's weird pacing that might have caused the "failure".
(Or was it that, when push came to shove, one Ethiopian woman felt beating another Ethiopian woman was more important than a Record.)
Check out this lap-by-lap account.

A rabbit took them through about 1200 meters in 3:28.5.
But even her pacing was off.
Those 3 laps were timed in 65.9, then 72.9, then 69.7.
(Thanks to T&FN website for all the splits!)
Seeing the WR was off the rails, Ayana took control, pushing through a 66.8, followed by a 63.7.
(Reminded me of when Gerry Lindgren tried to break the Russians in the 1964 US-USSR dual meet's 10000 with a 63 second lap!  He won that race!)
I don't know if they agreed to share the lead, but then Dibaba took over--and slowed things down!
Laps led by Genzebe were in 70.7, then 73.9.
No way, Woman!
So Ayana again crushes a 66.0, then a 68.8.
They had to stay in the mid 60's in order to get the WR.
They couldn't do it.
Ayana's next laps were 70.1 and 70.9, before Dibaba went ahead, going all out the final 600, hitting 64.8, then her last 200 in 31.3.

It's the Paris Meet Record.
(Formerly held by sister Tirunesh!)
She remains 4th A-T World.
She doesn't get the Age 24 Record, which is Meseret Defar's 14:12.88 from 2008!
But she does become the Number One Combined 1500 & 5000 runner!
Her times of 3:57.54 and 14:15.41 add to 18:12.95.

Ayana's time of 14:21.97 becomes the best-ever 2nd place mark!

Seabere Teferi ran 14:36.44 in 5th place.
That's the best-ever for that place!

And Mercy Cherono's 14:34.10--about a 1 second PR--misses my World DDD by just 1.26 seconds!

Another July 4th explosion came in the Men's 400.
Kirani James was considered the odds-on favorite.

But don't tell that to South African, and recent 44.24 man, Wayde van Niekerk!
He ran 43.96, outgunning James's 44.17 for the win.
It broke his own National Record.
And it makes him 10th A-T World!

The Women's 800 was a great race--pretty much all the way down the line, as 5 broke the 2:00 barrier!
While Eunice Sum won it with a shining 1:56.99, it was the 3rd through 5th place runners who glowed brightest.

Selina Buchel ran 1:57.95 to set a new National Record of Switzerland.

Molly Ludlow (formerly Beckwith) had said, in her pre-race interview, that her goal was to PR---in 1:58---this summer.
Well, she didn't wait long to produce just that!
Her 1:58.68 in 4th makes her 22nd A-T US!

Pushed OFF my Top 24 US list was Laura Roesler, who is MIA from the racing wars recently.
Hope she's okay.
(I've seen tweets from her, but nothing about her running recently.)

In 5th place was Chanelle Price, whose 1:59.10 was also a PR.
But she misses the US list by just 0.10 seconds!

The Women's 400H was interesting.
Back at the head of the class---at least in the Eastern Hemisphere!--is Zuzana Hejnova.
She won it in 53.76, just missing Shamier Little's World Leader of 53.74 from the NCAA's.

In second was another of those Paris shockers.
(Except this woman is from Denmark!)

Sara Petersen is having quite a year!
Coming in to 2015, her PR was 55.68 from 2012.
She's set new PR's in just about every race she's run this year.
And she'd broken the NR of Denmark in her previous 3 races, with her best pre-Paris time being still in the 55.1 range.
So her 53.99 behind Hejnova was definitely in the "shock" category!
And yet another National Record!

Speaking of NR's, both of Greece's Pole Vault NR's were broken here.

Konstantino Filippidis took care of the Men's side with his NR of 19-4.75 (5.91).

And Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou continued her attack on her own NR with her height of 15-10 (4.83).
She moves from 10th A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 6th, also tied with 1 other.

The 100's were FAST!
Both of them.

With Usain Bolt's withdrawal due to a seemingly minor injury problem, it was left for a Jamaican countryman to show the way.
And Asefa Powell did just that, sprinting away from Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut with a solid 9.81.
He didn't break any records, but a great time nonetheless.

Vicaut, however, did break a Record!
He took down Chris LeMaitre's NR of France, running 9.86 in 2nd.
He becomes 16th A-T World, tied with 5 others!

For me, I also enjoyed the fact that Vicaut's entrance ON my DDD removed 4 guys FROM it.
No longer on my World Top 24 are the 9.88's of....
Ryan Bailey from 2012
Michael Frater from 2011
Walter Dix from 2010
and Shawn Crawford from 2004.

SAFP---aka Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce--sprinted a 10.74, beating the 10.80 of Blessing Okagbare.
(BTW, Okagbare must have recently married, because she's listed with a hyphened last name.  I won't type it here, as it's length makes it too long for this blog!  Just kidding!  I'm not printing it---yet---because we all know her as Okagbare, and so, for the time being, she shall remain!)

Anyway, back to SAFP.
Her time of 10.74 became the new Paris Meet Record!

English Gardner, who recently ran 10.79, ran 10.97 for third.

The Men's High Jump was a massive DUD!
Even with 2 or 3 (or 4?) 2.40 men present, the winning height was just 2.32 (7-7.25).
Mutaz Barshim could jump only 7-6 (2.29) for 5th place!

But not to worry, because the Men's 3000 Steeplechase saved the day.

Even hours after the race, I still don't understand why a LOT of educated folks are calling Evan Jager's American Record a "failure".
WHAT?

Okay, so he COULD have gone well under 8 minutes if he hadn't stumbled off the final hurdle (NOT the water jump--the last of the "regular" hurdles!).

I didn't see the race--no livestream was available to me here in WA state!--but from all the descriptions I read on Twitter and elsewhere, Jager was LEADING Jairus Birech of Kenya at that final barrier.
A male American Steepler---I indicate his gender, since female Emma Coburn did the same in 2014!--was going to BEAT the Kenyans at their own prized game!

Then he fell.
He got back up, sprinting to the finish in a big PR time of 8:00.45.
He remains number 1 on the US list, of course!
And he moves from 24th to 13th on the A-T World list!!

One more thing.
Jager's Combined 3000 flat and 3000SC time is now 15:35.61 (7:35.16 & 8:00.45).
My Combined Times list for that category ends with times of under 15:35.00.
But he's so close, and he's almost guaranteed to run faster very soon, that I decided to add him to my list.
He's thus 8th on that list!

And BTW, Birech's non-PR time of 7:58.83 is still the new Paris Meet Record!

That does it for Gay Paree.
(Is it still okay to call it that, in these days of Gay and Lesbian marriage being so much in the news?)

But I do have a few more VERY interesting items to report.

The newest--or maybe the 2nd newest?--is the High School Record Pole Vault by Lexi Weeks.

First reports came via Twitter from her twin sister Tori.
She said that Lexi had Vaulted the OUTdoor HSR height of 14-7.50, nipping Desiree Freier's 2014 mark by one-quarter inch!
And soon came the expected Arkansas Vault Club video to prove it!
I absolutely LOVE those videos--which they've provided for ALL of the Weeks's several Record vaults!

I've found out that her sequence of bars started at 13-1, then went to 13-6 and 14-1.25.
She missed her first try at the HSR, but cleared it cleanly on her 2nd try.
At its highest apogee, her body was clear of the bar by a good 4 or 5 inches!
To me, this means that a 15 footer isn't far in her future.

Sadly, sister Tori, who recently broke the INdoor HSR with her 14-4 jump, No-Heighted here.
But upon Lexi's clearance, she ran to her and gave her a big hug!
The Weeks Dynasty?
(It's interesting too that they'll join Freier as Arkansas teammates when they start college there in a couple of months!)

In the Records Department, besides the HSR, she gets the Senior Class Record as well.
She moves from 3rd to 1st on the A-T HS list.
If she'd been a Razorback now, her mark would rank her 13th A-T Collegiate, tied with 1 other!
She misses the US A-T list by just 1.50 inches!

Algerian star Tuoufik Mikhloufi ran the fastest 1000 of this century.
His 2:13.08--a winner by about 2 seconds--broke Noureddine Morceli's National Record of 2:13.73 by 0.65 seconds.
It's the Age 27 record.
And he now ranks 4th A-T World.
(He ran 3:30.50 in the Paris 1500 a few days later!)

Another new mark just came in from the British Championships.
Isabel Pooley HJ'ed 6-5.50 (1.97) to get the National Record of Great Britain.

The ongoing USATF Youth Championships has produced a few notable marks.

The best is probably Sydney McLaughlin's 55.28 in the 400H.
She breaks her own Soph Class record!
She remains A-T number 2 on the HS list.
If this were about 2 years in the future---assuming she doesn't turn Pro before that!--her time would miss my A-T Collegiate list by a mere 0.16 seconds!

Rylee Bowen, also a Soph in HS, may have a future in the Steeplechase!
In her FIRST race over hurdles and the water pit, she ran a startling 6:41.26.
She has the speed, being a sub-4:50 Miler.
With more experience going over hurdles, the HSR in the 3K Steeple might be hers before she graduates.
That said, it missed the Soph Class record of 6:37.27, set by Amy Eloise-Neale in 2011.
She'll have another chance to break that mark at the Pan Am Juniors later this month!

Alexis Duncan ran the 100H in 13.24, moving from 19th A-T HS, tied with 2 others, to 12th.
An earlier heat time of 13.32 had moved her from 21st to 19th, both places being tied with 2 others.

Josephus Lyles, Noah's brother, won the 400 in 45.77.
He missed my HS DDD by just 0.03 seconds!

Sammy Watson won the 800 in 2:04.27 (61 and 63 laps).
This HS Soph--soon a Junior--is now 21st A-T HS.

Back to Almaz Ayana for a minute.
Going through my 2015 Athletics Annual (Peter Matthews, Editor), I discovered that she belongs on my 3000-3000SC Combined Events list.
Her times of 8:24.58 and 9:22.51 total 17:47.09.
This places her 4th on that list!

Another A-A discovery was about Isaac Makwala.
I saw he has a 10.20 time in the 100.
Added to his 200 and 400 times of 19.96 and 44.01, his Combined events time of 1:14.17 moves him from 9th to 5th in that category!

Another discovery---also with the assistance of Matthews's great book--is that Christina Casandra is the Age 37 Record holder in the 3000SC.
Her time was 9:51.40, run in 2014!
Her PR of 9:16.85 dates from 2008.

Finally, I have 2 corrections to make from my previous post.

I'd stated that Queen Harrison had NOT made the USATF final.
She did!
But she finished 4th, not making the WC team!

The other error was me saying that Casimir Loxsom had run his first sub-1:45 800 in losing to Nick Symmonds at USATF.
It wasn't Loxsom's first.
It was Eric Sowinski's first sub-1:45.

However, Loxsom ALSO got his first sub-1:45 at USATF.
But it was in the semi, not the final!

Well, there's another DL meet coming soon.
Lausanne's version will be on July 9th.
My next post will probably be immediately after that meet's close.
(Unless I get an idea for another of my RANTS before then!  LOL)

See you then!
And I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July!

In Paris...or wherever you are!