Don't ask me to choose my Performance of the Meet yet.
Seems with EVERY event a new contender emerges.
Or make that contenderS--as in multiple!!
As I did with my initial 3 day reports, these are divided by gender, with ALL of the MEN's events---Finals, Semi's, Heats, Field Event Qualifying--here, with my complete WOMEN's report from August 25th, 26th, and 27th set to follow a few short hours after this one's posted.
Also, as with my initial reports, I'm presenting the events in the basic order they were held---NOT by how great and/or shocking they were!
Onward!
I really sympathize with you young folks who missed the great LJ battles of the last decades of the 20th century!
This event seems to be in a real slump.
While a few good marks happened here, the years of multiple 28+ footers (and a few 29+ ones!!) seem to be over.
That said, Greg Rutherford continues as the dominant LJ'er of the past few years, winning in Beijing with a leap of 27-7.25.
A surprise 2nd was Frenchman Fabrice LaPierre, who leaped 27-0.50.
The nominal pick for Gold, Jeff Henderson, finished 9th!
Mike Hartfield never got a legal jump--fouling 3 times!
The 200 Heats--unlike the 100 Heats--started this event off quietly.
Ramil Guliyev led the Q's for the Semi's with 20.01.
BTW, that's the National Record for Turkey!!
The Big Boys?
They "jogged" their Heats in 20.28 (Usain Bolt) and 20.19 (Justin Gatlin).
Isaiah Young didn't qualify, and Wallace Spearmon was a DNS.
As with the LJ, another weak event of late has been the 400H.
But Kenyan (!!) Nicholas Bett may be ready to lead a resurgence.
He won with the first sub-48 time in a couple of years (3 years??), hitting the line in 47.79.
Bett misses my World DDD list by just 0.07 seconds!
But it was 2nd placer Denis Kudryavtsev's 48.05 that set a new National Record for Russia!
And 3rd placer Jeff Gibson of the Bahamas also got a National Record, running 48.17.
(He broke his own mark set in the Heats!)
Favored Michael Tinsley finished dead last, running just 50.14.
Kerron Clement was 4th in 48.18.
The 800 Final was one of those bloodless (and IMHO, boring!) tactical affairs.
It isn't often you see 800's run with heavy negative splitting!
But here, David Rudisha split 54.17 and 51.67 for an easy 1:45.84 win over Adam Kszczot's 1:46.08 (54.34 and 51.74)!
What happened to the Rudisha of first laps in 48.5??
The 5000 Heats were a classic study in Heat running.
The first of 2 was won in a flat-out sprint, with everybody surrounding the winner, who won in 13:45.80.
That set the stage for Heat 2, who knew EXACTLY what they needed to run to qualify, and COULD have jogged THEIR race too.
But for some unknown reason, they decided to get in a solid tempo workout, with the leading time being 13:19.38.
All 3 Americans moved on to the Final, but NOP Canadian Cam Levins didn't!
The TJ Qualifying went mostly according to the guidebook, with PPPP having the leading mark of 57-2.25.
But the real shockers came with both Will Claye and Marquis Dendy NOT making the Final!
Not much to sweat about in the 110H Heats either, with David Oliver leading the Q's with a workaday 13.15.
Ronnie Ash, however, False Started out of the race, and Eddie Lovett failed to move on.
You've heard the term "the calm before the storm"?
Well, those "calm" events I just reported led us into a quite STORMY one in the Javelin Throw!
Julius Yego made us all go---WHOA!!!---when he unleashed his spear, letting it fly through the majestic Bird's Nest 304.2, missing the WC Meet Record by a mere 3 inches!!
BTW, that's 92.72 metric!
Yego nabs his own Kenya National Record.
And he gets the Age 26 record as well.
Not to mention becoming 3rd A-T World!!
Antti Ruuskanen's 285-10 becomes the best 5th Place mark ever!
The 200 Semi's fueled the lively (and much over-extended!!) debate of who would win the Final, Bolt or Gatlin.
Though they ran in separate heats, Gatlin "won" this round with his 19.87 over Bolt's 19.95.
Both eased up well before the line.
They ran the only sub-20's in this round, but Femi Ogunode's 20.05 broke his own National Record of Qatar.
Among those not making the Final were Churandy Martina, Warren Weir, and Chris Lemaitre.
If the JT Final was a "storm", then the 400 Final was a Level 5 Hurricane!!
We talk of the "Year of the Vault", but for the Men, this may well be the "Year of the 400".
Remember those wild Heats, with those sub-44's?
Well, 3 more happened here!!
THREE!!
And when the smoke cleared, it was Wayde Van Niekerk holding his South Africa flag proudly!
His 43.48 clocking blew away LaShawn Merritt's PR of 43.65, with Kirani James's 43.78 getting Bronze.
Left behind was a not-so-shabby 44.11, run by Liguelin Santos!
Van Niekerk broke the South Africa National Record.
He misses Jeremy Wariner's Age 23 record by just 0.03 seconds!
He moves from 13th to 4th on the A-T World list.
(There's more on this guy to follow shortly!)
Merritt's 43.65 is the best 2nd Place mark.
It's also the Age 29 record, beating venerable Michael Johnson's time of 43.75 from 1997.
However, he remains 6th A-T World, and 5th A-T US.
Kirani James's 43.78 becomes the best 3rd Place mark!
Sent OFF my World DDD was Samson Kitur's 44.18 from 1992.
But 4th placer Liguelin Santos also did some damage to my Record Book!
His 44.11 is the best 4th Place mark!
He breaks his own Dominican Republic National Record--set earlier in the Heats!
He becomes 19th A-T World!
Merritt and Van Niekerk both made inroads on my Combined Events list for the 100-200-400.
Merritt's times of 10.47, 19.98, and 43.65 adds to 1:14.10.
He moves from 6th to 5th on that list.
But then we add Van Niekerk's times of 10.15, 19.94, and 43.48, and his combined time of 1:13.57 moves him into 2nd, thus moving Merritt back down to 6th!
WHEW!!
After that Records blitz, we needed sedation.
And we got it with the Discus Throw Qualifying!
Fedrick Dacres led the Q's with his 215-9.
Zoltan Kivago and Ehsan Hadadi didn't make the Final, nor did the 3 Americans.
But that's not really news!
The 1500 Heats were DEEP, but not spectacularly fast.
Silas Kiplagat's 3:38.13 led the troops.
And what an Army followed!!
There were 11 times under 3:39.
And 18 under 3:40!
Which means less than 2 seconds separated a total of 18 runners!
Those included all 3 Americans.
But they did NOT include Henrik Ingebrigtsen.
Neither did it count in Ayanleh Souleiman, who was hurt, and was carried from the track as a DNF!
The 110H Semi's showed that needing an immediate kidney transplant doesn't necessarily slow one down!
Aries Merritt, who will receive his sister's kidney soon after this meet is over, had the fastest time, a 13.08.
In a separate heat, Sergey Shubenkov ran 13.09.
Aleec Harris and Andrew Riley didn't advance!
You know how one Hurricane is soon followed by another?
Well, that 400 storm was soon followed by the Triple Jump!
Or maybe I should give a NAME to this Hurricane!
Let's call it Christian Taylor!!
And his GIANT 6th round Hop, Step, and Jump measuring 59-9 (18.21) left the massive Bird's Nest crowd in utter stupefaction!
It not only left behind ANOTHER huge "storm", Senor Pedro Pablo etc Pichardo, who measured out to "only" 58-2 in 2nd, but he also destroyed the old United States National Record, Kenny Harrison's 59-4.25 from the Atlanta Olympics of 1996!!
He also broke his own Age 25 Record, set earlier this summer!
He moves from 2nd to 1st on the US A-T list.
And from 4th to 2nd on the A-T World list!!
Nelson Evora (57-5.75) and Omar Craddock (57-0) also reached 57 feet.
The final event of this 2nd three day period was maybe (one of) the most anticipated!
Surely, after the 100, it was probably the most TALKED about (Make that ARGUED about!!) Men's events of the entire meet!
Usain Bolt, the Good Guy, vs Justin Gatlin, the Ne'er-Do-Well!!
Yep, it was The Lone Ranger vs the Cattle Rustler.
Clint Eastwood against the whole freakin' city of San Francisco!!
Well, you get the picture!
(If you don't, you haven't been reading Twitter, Facebook, Let's Run, the T&FN MB, and probably anywhere else controversy lives and breathes!)
The Race!
Mr Bolt CLEANED Mr Gatlin's CLOCK!!
Times were 19.55 for the rejuvenated Jamaican, and 19.74 for the steady-as-she-goes American.
Who really cares about the 19.87's run by both Anasa Jobodwana and Alonso Edwards, or the 20.02 PR of Darnel Hughes?!
Edwards's 19.87 got him the best 4th Place mark.
(Nickel Ashmeade's 20.33 nabbed the best 8th Place mark!)
Jobodwana's 19.87 broke Wayde Van Niekerk's National Record of South Africa!
But he misses my World DDD list by a mere 0.02 seconds!!
Bolt?
He gets the Age 29 record!
Well, friends, that's a wrap for my 2nd of 3 MEN's results reports from the Beijing WC's!
But before I go, let's review those 3 days---briefly!
Obviously, the 400 stands alone on the Track, DESPITE the antics and talents of Monsieur's Bolt & Gatlin!
What a race that "quarter" was!!
And even the one-,lapper-with-hurdles wasn't bad, letting us see the first sub-48 time in awhile!
Of course, on the Field, one man stood alone---Christian Taylor.
(Can't remember exactly what he said, but paraphrased, WR holder Jonathan Edwards tweeted Taylor, saying something like "WHEW!!".)
There were a few upsets, a few "sure bets" NOT making it to the next rounds!
But overall, these past 3 days continued offering us fans a steady supply of thrills and chills, and whetted our appetites for the NEXT 3 days!!
I'll have my WOMEN's report up in 2 to 3 hours!!
(Meanwhile, check out my MEN's Preview posts to see how close to the mark I've been so far!)
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