Sandra Perks Up Pro Side

Pardon my penchant (addiction?) to "original" titles.
Just can't help myself!
But the title DOES express the gist of what happened as the Shanghai Diamond League meet opened its gates!
In strode Miss Sandra Perkovic--who seems to LOVE explosive early season DT tosses.
If a 232-6 (70.88) throw doesn't PERK-ovic things up, I don't know what will!
Her 4th round throw gives her the Age 25 record.
And she breaks her own Shanghai Meet Record.
Dani Samuels came close to her PR to beat Dania Caballero for 2nd.

Faith Kipyegon is steadily improving, her 3:56.82 winning 1500 time the latest proof.
While 2 others broke 4:00, it was all Kipyegon on the last lap.
Her 58.54 closer---with the final 300 in about 43.5--took care of Helen Obiri's 3:59.34 and Dawit Seyaum's 3:59.87.
For Kipyegon, it's the Shanghai Meet Record (Old record held by one Genzebe Dibaba!!!), as well as her own National Record of Kenya!
She misses the World DDD by 0.20 seconds!!
Besu Sado of Ethiopia ran 4:00.08 in 4th, while Jenny Simpson's 4:04.56 US leader got her 6th!

The Women's 3000SC went out FAST!!
A 2:59 first K gave fans hope of a possible World Record, and when they came by 2K in 6:03, it wasn't just hope.
Alas, things slowed a bit, yet Hyvia Kiyeng (Jepkemoi)'s 9:07.42 still cut the 2016 leader by almost 20 seconds!
It gave her the Shanghai Meet Record, as well as the Age 24 record!
She moves from 11th A-T World to 8th!

Second place went to precocious Ruth Jebet, who's been a teenage star for a couple of years.
In fact, her 9:15.98 time is the Age 19 record!!
It also breaks her own National Record of Bahrain, and makes her 21st A-T World!
Remember in my last post I mentioned a new NR for India in this event, run by Lalita Babar?
Well, Babar ran fast here too, but was beaten by her countrywoman Sudha Singh, whose 9:26.55 took down Babar's record!
In 3rd came Sofia Assefa in 9:21.07, followed by Virginia Nyambura's 9:21.15.

Bogdan Bondarenko returned to the HJ wars, but his 2.28 clearance wasn't the reminder of past glories we'd been looking for!
He missed 3 times at 2.34.
The Women HJ'ers didn't do much better.
Without the CLEAN Russians (Anna Chicherova & Mariya Kuchina) in the game, and missing stalwarts Ruth Beitia and Blanka Vlasic, the event just isn't the same.
That said, LaVern Spencer continued her solid 2016 with a 6-4.25 win, with Nadezhda Dusanova getting the same height in 2nd.

Justin Gatlin easily took the 100 in 9.94.
Femi Ogunode was 2nd in 10.07.

Shaunae Miller cruised to a 400 win in 50.45.
Stephanie McPherson followed in 50.98, with Natasha Hastings in 3rd with 51.10.

The Women's 200 was won by vet Murielle Ahoure's 22.72.
SUPER vet Veronica Campbell-Brown took 2nd in 22.82, with newbie Pro Kaylin Whitney's 23.39 beating Candyce McGrone's 23.53 back in 6th and 8th!

Muktis Edris's 12:59.96 in the Men's 5000 led a deep field of Africans to the line!
For Edris, it's the Shanghai Meet Record.
Joshua Cheptegei's 13:00.60 was 2nd, with Tom Longosiwa's 13:01.69 taking 3rd.

An upset of sorts took place in the Men's Pole Vault.
The INdoor World Record holder, Renaud Lavillenie, was beaten!!
His conquerer was American rising star Sam Kendricks, whose 19-3.50 moves him from 20th A-T US, tied with 2 others, to 12th!
Lavillenie's "off day" still gave him 19-1.50.

China's own National 4X100 Relay team got another Shanghai Meet Record!
Bingtian Su ran 3rd leg on their 38.71 winner!

There were 2 controversial races in this 2nd DL meet of the Olympic year!
And in the opinion of most observers, it had mostly (if not entirely!!) to do with fucked up officiating, to be a bit blunt!
First, in the Men's 110H, a classy field was ready to fly, including new kidney owner Aries Merritt, as well as new Spain resident Orlando Ortega!
Well, first Ortega False Started.
Okay, shit happens!
But then, on the very next attempted start, Merritt gets the red card!
And that's when the shit hit the fan!
TWO false starts---one after the other---both against very fast, and very popular, runners??
Uh oh, what's up with THAT??
(I forgot to mention in my Doha post that Ortega's 13.12 there was the National Record of Spain!!)

Then in the Men's 800, it got even worse!!
No false starts, per se, but a very FALSE start!!
Let me TRY to explain!!

Seems David Rudisha--who had said he's ready for a 1:43 time--saw someone on, or too close to, the track, and tried to signal an official to tell him to delay the start.
That official, in lane 9, noted Rudisha's signals, and tried to tell another official to hold off on the start, but either they didn't speak the same language, or he just didn't hear him.
So, with Rudisha standing there calmly, hands on hips, that other official shot the gun to start the race.
But only half of the field took off, the other half---seeing Rudisha standing there calmly--also hesitated starting their race.
INCLUDING the supposed RABBIT!!!
Thus, the "win" by Ferguson Rotich in 1:45.68 should be taken for what it was.
And that goes for Rudisha's eventual 5th place finish in 1:46.24.
Not sure if the Americans were affected by this, but Erik Sowinski's 8th and Run Gum's tattoo auctioneer Nick Symmonds's 10th shouldn't be taken too seriously!!

BTW, the winner of the 110H was Omar McLeod in 12.98.
Hansle Parchment was 2nd in 13.12, while David Oliver was just 5th in 13.38.

Three other Pro meets produced some quality marks!
The Adidas affair in Germany (at Adidas headquarters!) was supposed to have Meseret Defar going for a sub-30:00 10000, but she backed out at the last minute with a "small injury".
The other women did their best, however, running the year's fastest time.
Netsanet Gudeta chugged off 73 and 74 second laps, heading to a 30:56.26 win over Genet Yalew's 30:58.26.
Juliet Bottorf was lapped 3 times, not even breaking 35 minutes!
The Men also ran 2016 leaders, with Leal Gebresilassie winning in 27:19.71.

The Women's 5000 was a solo effort by Sembere Teferi, her 14:46.61 another 2016 leader!
Tori Bowie continued her hot season, winning the 100 in 10.91 over Michelle Lee-Ahye's 11.07.
Yohan Blake took his 100 in 10.03.
Willy Tarbei's 1:44.84, and Tigist Assefa's 2:02.28 took the 800's.
Nixon Chepseba took the 1500 in 3:39.18.

The Caymen's and Guadeloupe were 2 other meets worth noting.
Before I get to those, let me note that an earlier Jamaican meet saw Kim Collins DESTROY the 40 & over 100 Age record with his 10.09!!
Previous best had been Troy Douglas's 10.29!!
And he finished just 6th in that race!

Also--before moving to the Caymen's et al!!--I have to fill in some missing data from my Doha report!
Ekaterina Stefanidi PV'ed 15-6.25 there.
This moved her from 24th A-T World, tied with 2 others, to 21st, tied with 1 other!
But more importantly--at least for her fans!--Demi Payne was REMOVED from that list by Stefanidi's move up!

The Guadeloupe meet saw a GREAT Men's Long Jump!
Marquis Goodwin took off, then landed 27-8.75 down the line.
He became 18th A-T US.
He misses the World list by just 1.50 inches!!
But pushed OFF the US list was an iconic name, better known as a sprinter!
Leroy Burrell, father of Cameron, had LJ'ed 27-5.50 in 1989!
That mark is GONE!!
Mike Hartfield took 2nd with 27-4.50!!

The Women's 100H saw Kristi Castlin's 12.69 beating the 12.76's of Sharika Nelvis and Queen Harrison in 2nd and 3rd!

The Caymens affair gave newbie Pro Jenna Prandini two chances to strut her stuff.
Which she did, winning the 100 and 200 in 11.16 and 22.63.

Speaking of fast American 100H Women--as I just did!--Kendra Harrison blazed a 12.42 to win easily.
It wasn't a PR, however.
Phyllis Francis took the 400 in 50.71.

Guadeloupe and the Caymens had sort of a "Jamaica stand-off" in their Men's 100's.
In the former, Asafa Powell's 10.04 won easily.
But MISTER Jamaica---aka Usain Bolt--won HIS 100 in 10.05.
Various descriptions had him "suffering a cramp" to "jogging" in his race!!
While Clara Bow was once the "IT" girl of Hollywood, Mr Bolt is assuredly the "IT" man of T&F!!
No matter what he runs---or how slow or fast---every eye is on HIM!!
(But Denterius Locke took 2nd behind Bolt in 10.12!)

In Guadeloupe, Kirani James won a fast 400 in 44.15, with Bralon Taplin 2nd in the mid-44's.
English Gardner's 11.04 won the 100, while LaShawn Merritt won the 200 in 20.15.

I said at the onset that this post was about the Professional side of things.
But, wanting to have my next post ALL about the Collegiate Conferences, I'll share my High School data with you here.
And I've got quite a bit!!

In the Texas state meet, Freshman Jasmine Moore had quite a day.
She won both the horizontal jumps, her TJ of 42-1.75 giving her the Freshman Class record!!
That record had been held by one of the best HS'ers ever, Ychlindria Spears, who remains 4th A-T HS in that event OUTdoors!
She'd set the mark back in 1999!!
But Moore misses my HS DDD by less than 6 inches!
She also LJ'ed a non-PR 19-10!

Some High Hurdlers ran fast.
Tia Jones's 13.20 in the 100H was just 0.02 seconds off the Frosh Class record held by Dior Hall!!
It moves her from 20th A-T HS, tied with 1 other, to 10th, also tied with 1 other!
Trey Cunningham's 13.42 in the 110H makes him 18th A-T HS, tied with 1 other.
Alexis Duncan's 13.22 in the 100H makes her 15th A-T HS, tied with 1 other.

Sub-4:00 HS Miler Michael Slagowski showed some 800 wheels, his 1:48.36 now the leading mark of 2016!
It also makes him 17th A-T HS!!

A HS Junior, Shamon Ehiemus, ran the 200 in 20.62, missing the DDD by 0.04 seconds!

Elena Bruckner continued her break-out season, her SP mark of 54-7 moving her from 8th to 4th on the A-T HS list!!

Vernon Turner became the 2016 HJ leader, his 7-4 making him 16th A-T HS, tied with 6 others!

Jordan Geist had a non-PR in the Shot Put, mark of 72-6.50.

Noah Lyles also had a non-PR mark---running the 200 in 20.33.

And comebacking-from-surgery HSR holder Madison Wiltrout threw the Javelin 150-5, her best of 2016---so far!!

Before I close, I have 3 more marks from Shanghai.
Ivana Spanovic's opening LJ measured 22-9.75, which stood up for the win AND the Shanghai Meet Record!!

Michael Tinsley won the 400H in 48.90.

Kurt Roberts took the SP with a lob of 70-2.50!

Stephen Mozia's recent SP mark of 68-0.25 is the National Record of Nigeria.

In Road Race news, the USATF 25K Championship (That's about 15.6 Miles, BTW!!) races were won by Chris Landry and Alphine Bolton.
Landry's 1:15:32 beat Jared Ward's 1:15:44 and Jake Riley's 1:15:57.
(Extended to a full Marathon, that pace would give you about a 2:07:00!!)
Bolton's 1:25:24 easily beat early leader Lindsey Scherf's 1:27:03 and Clara Santucci's 1:27:53.
(Bolton's pace would give her a Marathon of about 2:24:00!!)

In Minnesota's USATF Road Mile Championship, Queen of the Road Mile Heather Kampf lived up to her nicknamed moniker, winning in 4:34.2 over Christy Cazzola's 4:37.2 and Gabe Grunewald's 4:39.0.
Bearded Ben Blankenship won the Men's race in 3:55.8, with MoBot conquerer Garrett Heath 2nd in 3:59.7!

A MAJOR announcement came from Genzebe Dibaba's camp!!
She will be making TWO attempts at World Records in June!!
(And we all know what happens when Genzebe says she wants a WR---she GETS a WR!!)
She'll go after the OUTdoor Mile mark of Svetlana Masterkova--her 4:12.56 from 1996.--at the June 9th Bislett Games.
Then, one week later, she'll try to become the first woman to run a sub-3:50 in the 1500, chasing her own WR of 3:50.07!
She'd said previously that she felt capable of a 3:47!!!

One more bit of news.
Besides Defar backing out of the Adidas race, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce withdrew from Shanghai and Allyson Felix backed out of the Guadeloupe race, both citing "small" or "minor" injuries!!

See you either later tonight, or early Monday morning with my Collegiate Conferences report!!
And it's going to be a doozy!!!