"Quiet" Week Quite Noisy

Well, well, well--
T&FN got it wrong!
They predicted a "quiet" week for this past weekend, in the week prior to the major Collegiate Conferences and the USATF meet!
I guess they didn't pay much heed to Yomif Kejelcha declaring he'd be chasing down the 1500 World Record of Hicham El Guerrouj's at the Birmingham meet!

Heh.

I guess Samuel Tefera ALSO wasn't paying heed to Kejelcha's bit of braggadocio either!

In fact, Kejelcha was ahead of pace after a 1:53 half!
When the rabbit left, there were Kejelcha and Tefera in the lead.
As the final lap began, coming off the first curve, Tefera passed Kejelcha on the outside, then cut in coming onto the straight!
From there, it was a battle royal (and no place better than Royal crazy England for that!!  LOL)--that is, until the gap widened, and it was Tefera, not Kejelcha, with the World Record!

His 3:31.04 is also the Age 19 Record, and the Birmingham Meet Record, and the Ethiopia National Record!!

Kejelcha shouldn't feel shame, as his 3:31.58 breaks his own Age 21 Record, and moves him from 7th A-T World to 3rd!!
Far back in 3rd came Stewart McSweyn of Australia!
His 3:35.10 gave him his National Record!
(BTW, the record he broke was held by Ryan Gregson, who was in the same race!!)

The other key event from B'ham was the Women's Mile, which highlighted UK's fave, Laura Muir!
And the tough Vet came through, speeding to a 4:18.75 British National Record!!

She also gets the B'ham Meet Record, and is now 3rd A-T World!!
And she got another GB National Record in the 1500, as her enroute time of 4:01.83 broke her own mark!
She moves from 20th A-T World to 16th!!
Winnie Nanyondo ran 4:29.40 for the National Record of Uganda!!

The Women's PV was the best field event there!
And it saw Ekaterina Stefanidi relegated to 4th!!
Home Girl Holly Bradshaw wowed the crowd in winning with a height of 15-9.25!
In fact, that same height was recorded by Katie Nageotte and Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou in 2nd and 3rd!
Stef's 4th place mark was a decent 15-5.50!

The time wasn't up to her double OG Champion status, but Elaine Thompson's 7.13 gave her the 60 win in her first race after a year off for surgery!!

Evonne Britton ran the 60H in 7.91 for the W.

In the German Championships, Konstanze Klosterhalfen won the 3000 in 8:32.47--off of a 61.5 final 400!!
She broke her own National Record, and moves from 22nd A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 15th!

In the Russian Champs, Anna Chicherova's HJ of 6-7.50 broke her own Age 36 Record!

Christina Schwanitz, Bralon Taplin, and Steven Gardiner all took over World leads!!
For Schwanitz, she reached 64-2.25 in the SP at the German Champs!
Taplin ran 45.26 for the 400 lead!
And Gardiner ran the 300 in 32.26 for the lead there!!
In the latter's case, the Bahamas stud moves from 17th A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 10th!!

Genzebe Dibaba ran the 1000 in 2:37.40, not a PR!
Mujinga Kambundji (Don't you just LOVE her name??!!) ran a quick 60--7.08--for a World Lead tie!

Tyrell Richard ran a 400 in 45.39, making him 22nd A-T Collegiate, tied with 3 others!

Kortnei Johnson sped a Collegiate leading 60 time of 7.14.
This makes her 13th A-T Collegiate, tied with 3 others!

Also on the Collegiate front came news of Payton Otterdahl's WT mark of 78-11.25!
He moves from 15th A-T Collegiate to 4th!
From 20th A-T US to 12th, tied with 1 other!
And it makes him 14th A-T World, tied with 1 other!

Tre Hinds won a 600 in 1:15.78, making him 19th A-T World!

The Men's Collegiate PV remains an event of some interest, mainly because of the presence of Mondo Duplantis!
And guess what?

Monda had to SHARE the week's leading Collegiate mark with KC Lightfoot!
Lightfoot's 18-7.50 was matched by Mondo's mark at the LSU meet!
(KC was in another meet!)
Lightfoot is now 20th A-T Collegiate, tied with 3 others!
But only Mondo took 3 shots at a Collegiate Record 19-5.25!!

Before we move to the HS crowd, reports of TWO Road World Records came in!!
(The IAAF only began making Road marks (other than the Marathon) official WR's last year!
Since I don't keep records of these Road distances, I'm not sure if there were faster "World Bests" prior to 2018!

Suffice to say, Julien Sanders's 5000 of 13:29, and Sifan Hassan's 14:44 were mighty impressive--especially the latter!!
The race was in Monaco!

The High Schoolers turned on the gas in some events!
(With one series of marks tragically to be ignored!!  See below!)

Topping the list is Trey Knight exploding out to 86-7.50 in the WT!!
He moves from 5th A-T HS to 2nd!
But he needs to add another 15 inches to get the Junior Class Record!
(And about 6 feet 9 inches for the HSR, which I still consider one of the best HSR's, IN or OUT!!)
He may take another shot at the NBIN!!

Tamari Davis took over a pair of HS leads with her 60 mark of 7.27, and her 200 mark of 23.41!
Neither is a PR, but the 60 gives her the Soph Class Record!

Male sprinters went wild also!
Lance Lang's 6.62 in the 60 makes him 4th A-T HS, tied with 1 other!
And Micah Williams's 6.64 moves him from 19th A-T HS, tied with 2 others, to 8th, tied with 6 others!!

Marlena Preigh's 800 time of 2:06.80 makes her 17th A-T HS!

Above, I said I had some HS marks that tragically must be ignored!
I speak of some 3200 times in a Women's race!!

Get this---
Katelynn Hart won the race in 10:02.46!
Second went to Ericka VanderLende's 10:02.81.
In 3rd came Abbie Vanderkooi's 10:04.18.
And in 4th came Zofia Gudek's 10:07.03.
What do they have in common??
They would ALL make my Top 15 (I said 15!!) HS Performers list for INdoors---
IF--IF the race had been extended another 18,688 meters!!
Yes, my INdoor TWO MILE list would've been mightily revised!!
Let's hope all 4 show up at the NBIN and run a REAL Deuce!!
(And a 5000!!  LOL)

While I'm ranting, let me say I'm ALSO ignoring a series of fast DMR's run by several Universities last weekend!!
BUT they were run on Seattle's and Notre Dame's Oversize Tracks!

I've said it before---many times!!--and I'll say it again--
Times run on OT's should NOT be allowed to qualify for the NCAA Championships!!
The NCAA must change that ruling!!
It's not fair!!

Okay, friends, that's a wrap!
Next post should be my USATF preview!!

See you soon!!