As readers of my last post know, the Stockholm DL meet gave us ZERO Meet Records.
Well, folks, the drought is over!
For we not only have numerous Meet Records (from the American Track League meet in Atlanta), but Vashti Cunningham broke her own HSR in the HJ, and Anita Wlodarczyk DESTROYED her own World Record in the Hammer Throw!!
People got excited when Wlodarczyk threw her Hammer across a river to a distance of 261-11 awhile back.
(It probably won't be ratified, but it doesn't matter now!!)
Well, those were truly SMALL potatoes!!
For the first time ever, a woman threw the Hammer past 80 meters.
And 81 meters!
Wlodarczyk's new WR is an amazing 81.08 meters, or 266-0 in English measure.
This puts this achievement in the same general territory as Bob Beamon's 29-2.50 in 1968, Ron Clarke's 27:39.4 10000 in 1965, or more recently, the PV's over 5 meters by Jenn Suhr and Yelena Isinbayeva.
It's also, obviously, the National Record of Poland, and the Age 29 record.
(She turns 30 on August 8th!)
She remains 1st on the World DDD.
Not to be outdone, but on a somewhat lower level, 17 year old 11th Grader Vashti Cunningham broke her own High School Record in the High Jump, adding 0.75 inches to her previous best.
Her 6-5 ties the Age 17 record, held by 3 others.
It's the Junior Class record.
And it moves her from 22nd A-T US (Yes, that's A-T United States!!) to 14th, where she's tied with 2 others!
And to think she's NOT going to the WC's!!
No records were set by Sam Crouser, except for Personal Records (PR's), but I'm sure he doesn't mind, as his latest DOES put him on the plane to Beijing!
He first PR'ed at 266-9.
That moved him from 20th to 19th on the A-T US list.
Then he increased that to 267-11, but he remained in 19th place.
Finally, in a different meet, he threw the Javelin out to 273-4.
And with that throw, he moved up to 10th A-T US!
The Javelin has another couple of marks worthy of note.
Antti Ruuskanen threw the spear 291-11.
This makes him 19th A-T World.
And Yuleimis Aguilar got the Age 18 record with her throw of 209-6.
A couple of National Records fell.
Andrei Gag (How is that pronounced??) got the NR of Romania with his Shot Put of 68-9.25.
And Gianmarco Tamberi HJ'ed 7-9.25 for the National Record of Italy.
(He misses the World list by one-half inch!)
What about those Meet Records that were missing from the Stockholm DL??
Not to worry.
The ONLY American Track League meet of 2015 produced no fewer than ELEVEN Meet Records!!
A bit of explanation about these ATL MR's.
If you remember my reports on the several ATL meets from 2014, you know I didn't have MR's for each venue.
My MR's covered the entire series of ATL meets, with the individual meet's date added to the year.
Thus, the following MR's broke the American Track League SERIES MR's, not just the Atlanta version of it.
And what's interesting--and maybe somewhat amazing--is that ALL of the 6 Men's events produced MR's!!
The MR's.
Jeff Gibson ran 400H in 48.72, breaking the old mark of 48.76.
LaShawn Merritt ran what might be his best race of 2015, breaking the 300 meter MR by a whopping 0.91 seconds with his 31.53.
Omar McLeod ran 13.28 in the 110H for the MR.
(Ronnie Ash held the old mark with his 13.35.)
Andy Wheating continued his winning streak with a 1500 MR time of 3:39.17.
In the 400, Ashton Eaton finished 2nd to Steven Gardiner's MR of 45.11 with his PR of 45.55.
Eaton beat Jeremy Wariner, Mike Berry, and Deon Lendore, among others!!
And Asafa Powell--who held the banner as "STAR" of the meet, won the 100 in a so-so (for him!!) 10.01.
BUT....there's a slight caveat!
You see, they held heats.
And Powell, being the STAR, was allowed to take a "bye", moving straight to the final!
Is that legit?
Isn't there an IAAF (not to mention every other acronym'd ruling group!!) rule that says you must run the heat (and semi's, if any) in order to qualify for the final??
Well, this is the ATL, and I guess THEIR rules say an athlete CAN bypass the heats!
Thus, I'll also accept Powell's 10.01 as the ATL Meet Record!
The Women fared pretty well too.
Veronica Campbell-Brown nabbed both the 100 and 200 MR's with her times of 11.22 and 22.82.
Melinda Owen-Withrow continues her good year, winning the PV (over Sandi Morris and Mary Saxer!) with her 15-1 MR.
(The old mark was 14-5.25!)
Demi Payne was also supposed to compete, but she tweeted that she suffered a "bug" in the days prior, so couldn't compete.
She said she's okay now!
Maggie Vessey outsprinted Melissa Bishop, getting the 800 MR with her 2:00.30.
In a new event, a MR was set by Nicole Sifuentes's 4:06.44 in the 1500.
(And yes, they had a band or two and attractive cheerleaders! But NOT Lolo Jones, who was the "STAR" of all of last year's ATL affairs!)
A few more marks to report.
Yarisley Silva might have become the favorite for Gold in Beijing with her PV of 4.91 (16-1.25)
She broke her own National Record of Cuba.
She also broke her own Age 28 record.
She remains 3rd A-T World.
Norman Grimes, who ran a recent 49.11 with the junior size 400H, ran a solid 50.10 over the International heights.
He moves from 23rd to 13th on the A-T HS list.
Finally, although the list is just 11 deep, Alexandra Harris's 10:31.79 3000SC became number 6 A-T HS!!
So yeah, who NEEDS Diamond League meets to break records?
While I'm on the subject, I need to clarify a couple of things from my "editorial".
The numerous MR's I listed in my last post were NOT all from when the particular meet was held as a DL.
Several were the OVERALL Meet Record from a particular meet, and were set BEFORE the meet became part of the DL set-up.
With the examples set by the Records & Marks I reported today, it's pretty accurate to say that you do NOT need a DL to break a WR (or HSR or Age or National or Meet Record).
My focus should have been on the generally lackluster performances of some truly record-breaking-caliber athletes.
When records are tough to break---as with, obviously, WR's---or even ones CLOSE to the WR--we shouldn't expect a new WR (or even Top 5 or 10 A-T mark) from every race or field event.
But how about when those records are (relatively) "soft"?
A prime example was when the University of Oregon 4X1Mile Relay team jogged the final mile in this year's Penn Relays event, thus NOT breaking a Collegiate Record they SHOULD have destroyed!
The Women's NCAA Meet Records for both the 5000 and 10000 had high-caliber athletes CAPABLE of breaking both records.
But "tactics" prevailed, and the records remained!
One more complaint.
Almost EVERYONE has praised both World Relays meets to High Heaven....and beyond!
So why are there NO World Relay's meets on the 2016 schedule?
(They'll return in 2017.)
Because of the Olympics?
If that's their excuse, it's a weak one!
The World Championship is considered by T&F connoiseurs to be superior to the T&F portion of the OG, and yet there was a World Relays meet this year, and there will be another in the next WC year!
Enough.
I'll end this post with a "teaser".
This will be the first World Championship meet held since I began my blog.
So look forward to some MAJOR coverage of the meet.
I'll have my usual pre-meet predictions of which MR's might fall.
I might have another "preview" post.
Then, DURING the 9 days, I'm HOPING to post at least THREE times!!
These will include all the Records and great Marks from the previous 2 or 3 days.
Thus, you'll be able to follow the meet as it happens, instead of having to wait until the end for a humongous 2 or 3-part results post!
More on that in my next post.
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