The two hour three minute barrier has fallen!
Dennis Kimetto of Kenya broke every known Men's Marathon record in the just-finished Berlin race.
His time of 2:02:57 breaks the "legal" WR of 2:03:23 by Wilson Kipsang.
It also breaks the best-ever mark of 2:03:02, set by Geoff Mutai in the 2011 Boston race.
His average mile was approximately 4:42.2.
That's about 70.6 per 400, or 105 laps (plus 195 meters extra) at that pace!
Oh, and Kimetto also gets the Age 30 record, as well as the Kenya National record.
He moves from 5th A-T World up into 1st.
Second in 2:03:13 was Emmanuel Mutai.
Because I accept Boston times in my Record Book, Mutai's time does not eclipse Moses Mosop's 2:03:06 second place mark in that 2011 race.
(Nor does he get the Age 29 record, which belongs to the other Mutai with his 2:03:02.)
But he moves from 6th A-T World up into 4th!
Shalane Flanagan sadly did not break Deena Kastor's American Record in the Women's Marathon in Berlin.
But she did run the 2nd fastest marathon in American Woman's history!
Her time of 2:21:14 moves her from 3rd A-T US into 2nd.
The winner was Terfi Tsegaye, her 2:20:18 making her 20th A-T World.
Feysi Tadese's 2:20:27 makes her 21st A-T World.
No Cross Country report this time, except to mention that Shelby Houlihan beat Emma Bates in a shoot-out at the Roy Griak Invitational.
Now for my wrap-up on the 2014 Collegiate Outdoor season.
As always, I'll begin with the men.
The Collegiate Record Department was thrown a no-hitter this year!
Not even one CR broken!!
But there were 5 Collegiate Class Records erased.
And FOUR of those were done by Freshmen!!
Ed Cheserek nabbed 2 of them, the 5000 (13:18.71) and the 1500 (3:36.50).
Trayvon Bromell got the Frosh Class record in the 100 (9.97).
Devon Allen's 13.16 got the Frosh 110H record.
And Aleec Harris's 13.18 time in the 110H was a Senior Class mark.
Only 31 marks made my Top 24 lists this year.
The leading event in that category was the Distance Medley Relay.
Five schools are listed from 2014.
With 3 marks each were the 110H, the SP, and the 4X100 Relay.
My Men's Collegiate Athlete of the Year Award goes to....
Ed Cheserek!
His 2 Class records as a Frosh were good for any class.
Both Trayvon Bromell and Devon Allen are tied as runners-up.
Bromell's 9.97 gets the Performance of the Year.
It's not only the Frosh Class mark, but the Age 18 record too!
Allen's 13.16 in the 110H and Cheserek's 13:18.71 in the 5000 share the runner-up spot.
The Collegiate Women's scene was somewhat better than the men, but not by very much!
One CR was broken.
Courtney Okolo's 400 of 50.03 was the lone Women's CR.
Class Records went to....
Kendell Baisden's 50.46 as a Frosh.
Okolo's 50.03 as a Soph.
Kendell Williams got 6018 Heptathlon points for the Frosh mark.
And Aisling Cuffe's 15:11.13 serves as the 5000 Junior Class record.
The women got 56 marks on the DDD lists.
I know Okolo got the only CR, but she doesn't get the AOY.
That goes to....
Kendell Williams.
Her marks (and victories) in the 7-eventer deserve it.
But that 50.03 gives Ms Okolo the Performance of the Year.
I'll give Cuffe's 5K the runner-ip spot.
The busiest event in 2014 for my DDD's was the PV.
Eight marks date from this year.
With 6 each were the JT and the 3000SC.
The 5000 has 5 marks.
And with 3 each were the 400, 10000, DT and HT.
The World and US 2014 wrap-ups won't be until December 31st!
The next post might not happen for 2 or even 3 weeks!
(Haven't you had enough of my ramblings these past 10 months?? LOL)
Hopefully by then, I'll have a better sense of who might be the Indoor stars of 2015.
If I have any news to report to that end, I will.
And maybe even a line or two about XC.
Until then, enjoy the break!
ADD: I decided to add ONE item from XC before my "vacation".
Just discovered that brand new Pro, Alexa Efraimson, has run her first Professional race!!
She finished 3rd in the College/Open division at Stanford yesterday.
The winner was Abby Regan of Washington State, who ran 20:31.
Alexa's time was 20:46.
Most, if not all, of her competition were collegians!
Alexa just began her senior year of high school!
Efraimson apparently was leading until the final kilometer, when she faded.
In an interview on Flotrack, she said she wasn't disappointed with her race, as it was her first race at the 6000 meter distance!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
2014 Outdoor Season--High School
Time to wrap up the 2014 Outdoor High School season.
(The 2014 Indoor season was wrapped up in my post from March 19th!)
Before I do, I've adopted a new rule.
I'll call it my "Pro-Am Rule", for want of a better name!
From now on, I've decided to go along with the general consensus about High Schoolers who turn Professional before graduation.
Mary Cain was the first to do so, but now Alexa Efraimson has followed suit.
There could be more in the future!
The only records, either overall HSR's or Class Records, affected thus far were/are held by Cain.
And most of these were from the 2014 Indoor season.
Here's the list:
Indoors
1000--Cain's 2:35.80 is now the Pro HSR, as well as the Pro Senior Class record! Sarah Bowman's 2:43.40 from 2005 is back as the official HSR, as well as the official Senior Class record!
1500. Cain's 4:11.72 from 2013 is still the overall HSR. But her 4:06.63 from 2014 is now just the Pro Senior Class record. The Senior Class record reverts back to Lynn Jennings's 4:18.9 from 1978.
1 Mile--The overall HSR is now Cain's 4:28.25 from 2013. (The Pro HSR is Cain's 4:24.11 from 2014.) The Senior Class mark is now owned by Jennings, with her 4:39.0 from 1978.
Outdoors:
The only record affected was the 3000.
The Pro HSR is held by Cain, with her 8:58.48.
The official HSR reverts back to Lynn Bjorklund's 9:08.6 from 1975.
Also, Bjorklund again owns the Senior Class record.
This all means that Ms Efraimson, now a Pro, can chase ONLY Cain's Pro HSR's and Pro Senior Class records, NOT the "amateur" records!!
Now, onto the 2014 Outdoor season!
Men
There were two HSR's set.
Trentavis Friday ran the 100 in 10.00.
Bailey Roth ran the 3000SC in 8:47.04.
Six Class Records were set:
Darryl Haraway ran 10.20 as a Soph.
Friday's 10.00 was as a Senior.
Noah Lyles ran 20.71 as a Soph.
Andrew Hunter ran the 3000 in 8:16.31 as a Soph.
Bailey Roth ran the 3000SC in 8:47.04 as a Senior.
And Brandon Bray PVed 17-8.50 as a Junior.
Twenty six marks from 2014 are on my HS DDD list from Outdoors.
The HS Athlete of the Year is Trentavis Friday.
He broke the HS 100 record, and ran the 2 fastest 200's, but both of them were wind-aided!
Bailey Roth is runner-up, breaking the 3000SC record...twice!!
Friday's 10.00 gets the Performance of the Year.
(He beat Trayvon Bromell in that race, while Roth's SC records were in races where he finished far back!)
Now on to the.....
Women
Women set 7 HSR's!
Cain set a Pro HSR. (See new rule above!)
Kaylin Whitney ran 11.10.
Cain's 8:58.48 3000 is the new Pro HSR.
(The "amateur" HSR belongs to Lynn Bjorklund's 9:08.6 from 1975.)
Bethan Knights ran the 2 Mile in 9:53.54.
Dior Hall got the 100H HSR with her 12.92.
Desiree Freier PV'ed 14-7.25.
Raven Saunders threw the SP 56-8.
The 4X200 Relay team from St Thomas Aquinas ran 1:33.43.
Columbia TC set the Sprint Medley HSR with their 3:50.82.
Fifteen Class Records were set!
Whitney got the Soph Class 100 & 200 records with her 11.10 and 22.49.
Elise Cranny got the HS Senior Class 1500 mark with her 4:10.95.
Cain, as noted, set the new Pro HS Senior Class 3000 mark with her 8:58.48.
Knights's 9:53.54 2 Mile was as a Senior.
Rylee Bowen ran the 3000SC in 10:50.92 as a Frosh.
Alexis Duncan ran the 100H in 13.33 as a Soph.
Dior Hall's 12.92 was as a Senior.
Sydney McLaughlin's 55.63 400H was as a Frosh.
Vashti Cunningham HJ'ed 6-3 as a Soph.
Lexi Weeks PVed 14-0 as a Junior.
Freier's 14-7.25 was as a Senior.
Saunders's SP of 56-8 was as a Senior.
Kiana Phelps threw the Discus 179-7 as a Soph.
And Hannah DeBalsi ran 2 Miles in 9:55.05 as a Soph.
There were 48 marks made in 2014 that are on my DDD list!
The HS Athlete of the Year award goes to Kaylin Whitney.
She broke the 100 HSR, and ran the fastest non-altitude 200 ever!
This was such a spectacular year for Women's HSR's, that I've selected 3 women to share the Runner-up position.
Raven Saunders destroyed Michelle Carter's SP record.
Dior Hall broke the 35 year old 100H record.
And Desiree Freier continued her outstanding year outdoors with yet another HSR.
As for the Performance of the Year?
I'm giving that, by a VERY slim margin, to.....
Dior Hall's 12.92 in the 100H.
It was the AGE of the old record (35 years) that tilted it in her favor!
Right behind were the 56-8 SP of Raven Saunders, as well as the 11.10 100 of Kaylin Whitney.
Although now relegated to the new Pro HS Record division, I must also honor Mary Cain's 8:58.48!
Looking back, I must say this was one of the best-ever years for High Schoolers that I can remember!
The girls, in particular, were just phenomenal.
How many other years do you remember SEVEN (8, if you include Cain's 3000!) HSR's broken by one gender?
(Add the 2 Men's HSR's, and you've got 9 (10, with Cain's!) altogether!
Plus all those Class Records!!
The best event was probably the PV, with Indoor HSR holders Devin King and Desiree Freier continuing their fabulous year outdoors!
But not far behind was the Women's SP and 2 Mile.
The sprints, for both genders, were dominant outdoors too, with BOTH HSR's in the 100 going down, plus some spectacular 200 times (windy and legal) being run.
The other big change came with the decision by Alexa Efraimson to turn Professional, following Mary Cain, who did so about 1 year earlier.
(Will others follow in 2015??)
Before I end this post, a bit of news from the Road Racing and Cross Country fronts!
41 year old Deena Kastor broke the Masters (Age 40 or over!) WORLD Record for the Half-Marathon, with her 1:09:35 in the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half earlier today.
Also finishing well were comebacking Kara Goucher, who ran 1:11:40.
And Laura Thweatt, whose first-ever Half was run in 1:11:02.
In the USATF 5000 race today, Molly Huddle won easily in 15:10.
But surprisingly, it was Birthday Girl (She turned 23 today!) Jordan Hasay who finished second, in 15:25.
Mary Cain was a far back 6th, in 15:53, slower than her track HSR of 15:45, from 2013!
Also noted was Natosha Rogers return to the racing wars, though she finished FAR back, with a time closer to 17 minutes than to 16!
Next week will be the attempt by Shalane Flanagan to get Kastor's AR in the Marathon, in Berlin.
In XC, Erin Finn won the Big 10 Preview meet by 40 seconds, with her team easily winning!
As noted in my September 5th post, A big return to the top happened recently, with Finn's old HS rival Wesley Frazier winning her first CC race this year!
And several HS'ers are running well early over hill and dale.
More on all of that next time, and in other future posts.
Next post will wrap up the 2014 Outdoor Collegiate season.
(BTW, I'm doing the HS and Collegiate wrap-ups now because their Outdoor seasons have officially ended, HSers on August 31, and Collegians with the NCAA meet!
The US and World wrap-ups won't be until late December, as their "seasons" continue!
CORRECTION:
When I listed the HSR's (and Class Records) that Mary Cain now holds in the new "Pro HS" division, I didn't list all of them!
Add the following (all Pro HS or Pro HS Senior Class):
Indoors:
800--She ran 2:04.26, which is now the Indoor Pro HSR, as well as the Senior Class Pro HSR.
Outdoors
800--She now is the Pro HSR holder, with her 2:01.67. It's also the Pro Senior Class record outdoors.
1500--Her 4:06.34 is the Pro HS Outdoor record, as well as the Pro Senior Class record.
(As noted above, she also has both records in the 3000.)
I felt it important to list these, as they are the Pro HSR's and Senior Class records that Alexa Efraimson will be chasing, both indoors and outdoors, in HER Senior year as a HS Pro!
(The 2014 Indoor season was wrapped up in my post from March 19th!)
Before I do, I've adopted a new rule.
I'll call it my "Pro-Am Rule", for want of a better name!
From now on, I've decided to go along with the general consensus about High Schoolers who turn Professional before graduation.
Mary Cain was the first to do so, but now Alexa Efraimson has followed suit.
There could be more in the future!
The only records, either overall HSR's or Class Records, affected thus far were/are held by Cain.
And most of these were from the 2014 Indoor season.
Here's the list:
Indoors
1000--Cain's 2:35.80 is now the Pro HSR, as well as the Pro Senior Class record! Sarah Bowman's 2:43.40 from 2005 is back as the official HSR, as well as the official Senior Class record!
1500. Cain's 4:11.72 from 2013 is still the overall HSR. But her 4:06.63 from 2014 is now just the Pro Senior Class record. The Senior Class record reverts back to Lynn Jennings's 4:18.9 from 1978.
1 Mile--The overall HSR is now Cain's 4:28.25 from 2013. (The Pro HSR is Cain's 4:24.11 from 2014.) The Senior Class mark is now owned by Jennings, with her 4:39.0 from 1978.
Outdoors:
The only record affected was the 3000.
The Pro HSR is held by Cain, with her 8:58.48.
The official HSR reverts back to Lynn Bjorklund's 9:08.6 from 1975.
Also, Bjorklund again owns the Senior Class record.
This all means that Ms Efraimson, now a Pro, can chase ONLY Cain's Pro HSR's and Pro Senior Class records, NOT the "amateur" records!!
Now, onto the 2014 Outdoor season!
Men
There were two HSR's set.
Trentavis Friday ran the 100 in 10.00.
Bailey Roth ran the 3000SC in 8:47.04.
Six Class Records were set:
Darryl Haraway ran 10.20 as a Soph.
Friday's 10.00 was as a Senior.
Noah Lyles ran 20.71 as a Soph.
Andrew Hunter ran the 3000 in 8:16.31 as a Soph.
Bailey Roth ran the 3000SC in 8:47.04 as a Senior.
And Brandon Bray PVed 17-8.50 as a Junior.
Twenty six marks from 2014 are on my HS DDD list from Outdoors.
The HS Athlete of the Year is Trentavis Friday.
He broke the HS 100 record, and ran the 2 fastest 200's, but both of them were wind-aided!
Bailey Roth is runner-up, breaking the 3000SC record...twice!!
Friday's 10.00 gets the Performance of the Year.
(He beat Trayvon Bromell in that race, while Roth's SC records were in races where he finished far back!)
Now on to the.....
Women
Women set 7 HSR's!
Cain set a Pro HSR. (See new rule above!)
Kaylin Whitney ran 11.10.
Cain's 8:58.48 3000 is the new Pro HSR.
(The "amateur" HSR belongs to Lynn Bjorklund's 9:08.6 from 1975.)
Bethan Knights ran the 2 Mile in 9:53.54.
Dior Hall got the 100H HSR with her 12.92.
Desiree Freier PV'ed 14-7.25.
Raven Saunders threw the SP 56-8.
The 4X200 Relay team from St Thomas Aquinas ran 1:33.43.
Columbia TC set the Sprint Medley HSR with their 3:50.82.
Fifteen Class Records were set!
Whitney got the Soph Class 100 & 200 records with her 11.10 and 22.49.
Elise Cranny got the HS Senior Class 1500 mark with her 4:10.95.
Cain, as noted, set the new Pro HS Senior Class 3000 mark with her 8:58.48.
Knights's 9:53.54 2 Mile was as a Senior.
Rylee Bowen ran the 3000SC in 10:50.92 as a Frosh.
Alexis Duncan ran the 100H in 13.33 as a Soph.
Dior Hall's 12.92 was as a Senior.
Sydney McLaughlin's 55.63 400H was as a Frosh.
Vashti Cunningham HJ'ed 6-3 as a Soph.
Lexi Weeks PVed 14-0 as a Junior.
Freier's 14-7.25 was as a Senior.
Saunders's SP of 56-8 was as a Senior.
Kiana Phelps threw the Discus 179-7 as a Soph.
And Hannah DeBalsi ran 2 Miles in 9:55.05 as a Soph.
There were 48 marks made in 2014 that are on my DDD list!
The HS Athlete of the Year award goes to Kaylin Whitney.
She broke the 100 HSR, and ran the fastest non-altitude 200 ever!
This was such a spectacular year for Women's HSR's, that I've selected 3 women to share the Runner-up position.
Raven Saunders destroyed Michelle Carter's SP record.
Dior Hall broke the 35 year old 100H record.
And Desiree Freier continued her outstanding year outdoors with yet another HSR.
As for the Performance of the Year?
I'm giving that, by a VERY slim margin, to.....
Dior Hall's 12.92 in the 100H.
It was the AGE of the old record (35 years) that tilted it in her favor!
Right behind were the 56-8 SP of Raven Saunders, as well as the 11.10 100 of Kaylin Whitney.
Although now relegated to the new Pro HS Record division, I must also honor Mary Cain's 8:58.48!
Looking back, I must say this was one of the best-ever years for High Schoolers that I can remember!
The girls, in particular, were just phenomenal.
How many other years do you remember SEVEN (8, if you include Cain's 3000!) HSR's broken by one gender?
(Add the 2 Men's HSR's, and you've got 9 (10, with Cain's!) altogether!
Plus all those Class Records!!
The best event was probably the PV, with Indoor HSR holders Devin King and Desiree Freier continuing their fabulous year outdoors!
But not far behind was the Women's SP and 2 Mile.
The sprints, for both genders, were dominant outdoors too, with BOTH HSR's in the 100 going down, plus some spectacular 200 times (windy and legal) being run.
The other big change came with the decision by Alexa Efraimson to turn Professional, following Mary Cain, who did so about 1 year earlier.
(Will others follow in 2015??)
Before I end this post, a bit of news from the Road Racing and Cross Country fronts!
41 year old Deena Kastor broke the Masters (Age 40 or over!) WORLD Record for the Half-Marathon, with her 1:09:35 in the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half earlier today.
Also finishing well were comebacking Kara Goucher, who ran 1:11:40.
And Laura Thweatt, whose first-ever Half was run in 1:11:02.
In the USATF 5000 race today, Molly Huddle won easily in 15:10.
But surprisingly, it was Birthday Girl (She turned 23 today!) Jordan Hasay who finished second, in 15:25.
Mary Cain was a far back 6th, in 15:53, slower than her track HSR of 15:45, from 2013!
Also noted was Natosha Rogers return to the racing wars, though she finished FAR back, with a time closer to 17 minutes than to 16!
Next week will be the attempt by Shalane Flanagan to get Kastor's AR in the Marathon, in Berlin.
In XC, Erin Finn won the Big 10 Preview meet by 40 seconds, with her team easily winning!
As noted in my September 5th post, A big return to the top happened recently, with Finn's old HS rival Wesley Frazier winning her first CC race this year!
And several HS'ers are running well early over hill and dale.
More on all of that next time, and in other future posts.
Next post will wrap up the 2014 Outdoor Collegiate season.
(BTW, I'm doing the HS and Collegiate wrap-ups now because their Outdoor seasons have officially ended, HSers on August 31, and Collegians with the NCAA meet!
The US and World wrap-ups won't be until late December, as their "seasons" continue!
CORRECTION:
When I listed the HSR's (and Class Records) that Mary Cain now holds in the new "Pro HS" division, I didn't list all of them!
Add the following (all Pro HS or Pro HS Senior Class):
Indoors:
800--She ran 2:04.26, which is now the Indoor Pro HSR, as well as the Senior Class Pro HSR.
Outdoors
800--She now is the Pro HSR holder, with her 2:01.67. It's also the Pro Senior Class record outdoors.
1500--Her 4:06.34 is the Pro HS Outdoor record, as well as the Pro Senior Class record.
(As noted above, she also has both records in the 3000.)
I felt it important to list these, as they are the Pro HSR's and Senior Class records that Alexa Efraimson will be chasing, both indoors and outdoors, in HER Senior year as a HS Pro!
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Outdoors done--Indoors coming
The outdoor 2014 season done?
Well, not quite.
We still have the Talence Multis, plus some Marathons (and a couple of relatively minor regional champs), before we can truly wrap this outdoor season into a nice neat package.
So this post will report a few last good marks, then try to give some sense of where this blog will go until the 2014-15 Indoor season begins.
A couple of Americans had good 3000's in Rieti.
Ryan Hill ran 7:38.64.
He's now 14th A-T US.
Lopez Lomong followed in 7:39.81.
He moves into 19th place on the A-T US list!
Noah Lyles became the HS Soph Class record holder in the 200 with his 20.71.
Minna Nikkanen now holds the National Record of Finland with her 14-10 PV.
Suguru Osaka ran 7:40.09 for 3000.
That's the new Japan National record.
Godfrey Mokoena TJ'ed 56-11 for the National Record of South Africa.
This was at the Continental Cup.
Also at that meet, the Women's 100H produced a couple of good marks.
Dawn Harper-Nelson won in a new Meet Record time of 12.47.
Second to her was England's Tiffany Porter.
Her 12.51 broke Jessica Ennis's National Record.
As you all know, I deal with T&F events run on either 400 meter tracks outdoors, or 200 meter tracks indoors.
Thus, I pay little attention to Road races (except for the Marathon), or to Cross Country.
But I said "little" attention.
I didn't say "no" attention!
So I must report on a great Road Mile, the Fifth Avenue Mile, held yesterday.
Jenny Simpson won it in 4:19.4, just nipping a surging Brenda Martinez, who ran 4:19.6.
Fourteen women broke 4:30.
And 8 of those were Americans!
The NOP women (except for Shannon Rowbury, who finished 2nd in the 1500 at the Continental Cup) were out in full force.
And somewhat shockingly, it wasn't Mary Cain who led that little pack!
Cain finished 10th in 4:25.5.
Not a bad time, considering she's run rarely this entire outdoor season.
You need to race to stay sharp.
No, it was Jordan Hasay who won the "NOP race".
And she did it with a Mile "PR" of 4:23.9.
(Of course, Road times do NOT count as PR's, at least not as TRACK PR's!!)
Treniere Moser was right behind Hasay!
Cain said, in her post-race interview, that she'll be running the USATF Road 5000 Championship next week!
Generally, it's safe to say that the next Indoor season will begin by early December.
You might remember that Abbey D'Agostino, as well as 2 or 3 others, ran good 5000's in early December.
Their times were in the low 15:40's, and Abbey D's time was the best-ever for a December Indoor race!
That means Indoor T&F "starts" in just over 11 weeks!
Until then, here's a general idea of what to expect from this blog.
1. I will, of course, report any marks or records to come from the above-listed events, or anywhere else!
2. I will do my 2014 Outdoor season wrap-ups. This will include choosing my Athletes of the Year in all 4 categories (World, US, Collegiate, and HS).
3. I'll introduce some parts of my T&F Record Book I've only mentioned in passing so far, such as my Combined Events leaders.
4. I'll provide some interesting (??) trivia, from the season, and from my Book!
5. Finally, as Indoors approaches (Starting in November?), I'll do some previews of that upcoming season.
Remember, I only started this blog last December 9th.
(I'll probably look back at that first year around that time!)
So you should also recall that, because it was so late in the year, I had to go back to the 2013 Indoor season, and wrap that up (And basically do the same for the 2013 Outdoor season!), before I could start reporting on the 2013-14 Indoor season!
This year, I won't have to do that.
The 2014 Indoor season has already been covered in full detail!
(Read my first 40 or so posts, all reporting on that Indoor season!)
And this goes, for the most part, with the 2014 Outdoor season as well.
Sorry, but I can't offer any specific dates for these upcoming posts.
The next 2 months or so are pretty much my "vacation from blogging" time.
However, you can rest assured that I'll do what I stated above!
See you all soon!
Well, not quite.
We still have the Talence Multis, plus some Marathons (and a couple of relatively minor regional champs), before we can truly wrap this outdoor season into a nice neat package.
So this post will report a few last good marks, then try to give some sense of where this blog will go until the 2014-15 Indoor season begins.
A couple of Americans had good 3000's in Rieti.
Ryan Hill ran 7:38.64.
He's now 14th A-T US.
Lopez Lomong followed in 7:39.81.
He moves into 19th place on the A-T US list!
Noah Lyles became the HS Soph Class record holder in the 200 with his 20.71.
Minna Nikkanen now holds the National Record of Finland with her 14-10 PV.
Suguru Osaka ran 7:40.09 for 3000.
That's the new Japan National record.
Godfrey Mokoena TJ'ed 56-11 for the National Record of South Africa.
This was at the Continental Cup.
Also at that meet, the Women's 100H produced a couple of good marks.
Dawn Harper-Nelson won in a new Meet Record time of 12.47.
Second to her was England's Tiffany Porter.
Her 12.51 broke Jessica Ennis's National Record.
As you all know, I deal with T&F events run on either 400 meter tracks outdoors, or 200 meter tracks indoors.
Thus, I pay little attention to Road races (except for the Marathon), or to Cross Country.
But I said "little" attention.
I didn't say "no" attention!
So I must report on a great Road Mile, the Fifth Avenue Mile, held yesterday.
Jenny Simpson won it in 4:19.4, just nipping a surging Brenda Martinez, who ran 4:19.6.
Fourteen women broke 4:30.
And 8 of those were Americans!
The NOP women (except for Shannon Rowbury, who finished 2nd in the 1500 at the Continental Cup) were out in full force.
And somewhat shockingly, it wasn't Mary Cain who led that little pack!
Cain finished 10th in 4:25.5.
Not a bad time, considering she's run rarely this entire outdoor season.
You need to race to stay sharp.
No, it was Jordan Hasay who won the "NOP race".
And she did it with a Mile "PR" of 4:23.9.
(Of course, Road times do NOT count as PR's, at least not as TRACK PR's!!)
Treniere Moser was right behind Hasay!
Cain said, in her post-race interview, that she'll be running the USATF Road 5000 Championship next week!
Generally, it's safe to say that the next Indoor season will begin by early December.
You might remember that Abbey D'Agostino, as well as 2 or 3 others, ran good 5000's in early December.
Their times were in the low 15:40's, and Abbey D's time was the best-ever for a December Indoor race!
That means Indoor T&F "starts" in just over 11 weeks!
Until then, here's a general idea of what to expect from this blog.
1. I will, of course, report any marks or records to come from the above-listed events, or anywhere else!
2. I will do my 2014 Outdoor season wrap-ups. This will include choosing my Athletes of the Year in all 4 categories (World, US, Collegiate, and HS).
3. I'll introduce some parts of my T&F Record Book I've only mentioned in passing so far, such as my Combined Events leaders.
4. I'll provide some interesting (??) trivia, from the season, and from my Book!
5. Finally, as Indoors approaches (Starting in November?), I'll do some previews of that upcoming season.
Remember, I only started this blog last December 9th.
(I'll probably look back at that first year around that time!)
So you should also recall that, because it was so late in the year, I had to go back to the 2013 Indoor season, and wrap that up (And basically do the same for the 2013 Outdoor season!), before I could start reporting on the 2013-14 Indoor season!
This year, I won't have to do that.
The 2014 Indoor season has already been covered in full detail!
(Read my first 40 or so posts, all reporting on that Indoor season!)
And this goes, for the most part, with the 2014 Outdoor season as well.
Sorry, but I can't offer any specific dates for these upcoming posts.
The next 2 months or so are pretty much my "vacation from blogging" time.
However, you can rest assured that I'll do what I stated above!
See you all soon!
Friday, September 5, 2014
Two Meets: a WR in Berlin, big final DL in Brussels
Lots of folks have been saying today's DL in Brussels ends the 2014 track and field season.
Hardly!
It only ends the Diamond League group of meets!
In the ISTAF meet in Berlin, Anita Wlodarczyk set a World Record in the Hammer Throw with her toss of 261-1.
While the Women's HT is a relatively new event, thus slightly deflating the worth of a WR, you can't deny the value of a WR!
In addition, she set the ISTAF Meet Record.
Also got the Age 29 record.
And the National Record of Poland. (She broke her own mark!)
She moves from 2nd A-T World into 1st.
Gia Lewis-Smallwood broke the American Record in the DT in the DecaNation meet with her throw of 226-11.
She moves from 4th A-T US into 1st.
This improved the old US record by 4 feet 8 inches!!
However, she missed the Age 35 mark by over a foot!
Bernard Lagat didn't win, but his 13:06.68 5000 at ISTAF shattered the Age 39 record by about 20 seconds.
That record was set by Lagat earlier this season!
Seems like the Age 40 record of 13:43.15 should be a stroll for him next year!
Both Bogdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Barshim cleared 2.40 in the HJ.
But only Barshim was able to jump over 2.43.
That height of 7-11.50 is a Van Damme Meet Record.
It also nabs him the Age 23 record.
He's number 2 A-T World, tied with no one!!
Evan Jager didn't win, but his 8:04.71 in the 3000SC broke his own American Record by over 2 seconds!!
And he finally moves onto my World DDD (Top 24 Performers list) in 23rd place!
The winner of that race was Jairus Birech.
His 7:58.41 moves him from 16th A-T World up into 10th!
Barbara Spotokova and Val Adams dominated their respective throwing events.
Spotokova's Javelin throw of 223-1 got the Meet Record.
As did Adams's 67-7 Shot Put.
Missing Usain Bolt's Meet Record (9.76) by 0.01 was Justin Gatlin.
His 9.77 broke his own Age 32 record.
(He doubled back in the 200, running a fast 19.71, but that mark didn't break any records!)
A race over 1000 meters yielded two National Records.
Adam Kszczot's winning 2:15.72 nabbed the National Record of Poland.
And Mohammed Aman's 2:15.75 broke his own National Record of Ethiopia.
Galen Rupp finished back a ways in the 1500, but he PR'ed at 3:34.15.
This makes him 23rd A-T US.
I'll finish this post with the Women's 3000.
2014 has been a VERY strong year over the 3000-2 Mile distance for women!
(See my detailed reports from earlier this year!)
And today's race was right up there with the earlier races, showing high quality and super depth!
Sixteen runners went 8:39 or faster today!
Mercy Cherono won it in 8:28.95, with Sifan Hassan 2nd, Genzebe Dibaba 3rd, followed by the 2 Americans. (Details to follow!!)
Hassan's 8:29.38 broke the National Record of the Netherlands.
But it was Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury of the United States who made the big headlines today.
Mary Slaney's venerable AR of 8:25.83 survived.
But Simpson shattered her former (outdoor) best over the distance by some 18 seconds!
Her time of 8:29.58 makes her number 2 on the A-T US list.
And it also makes her the 3rd best woman in the WORLD on the Combined 3000-3000SC list!
Her times of 8:29.58 and 9:12.50 add up to 17:42.08.
(If Emma Coburn ever runs a flat 3000 in just 9:08, she'll make that list!)
Avoiding their football tackle-style contact from the Zurich DL, Rowbury finished a few tenths back in a PR of 8:29.93.
No, Rowbury didn't crash to the track at the end of today's race.
But she did FALL!!
Prior to this race, Rowbury's 8:31.38 from 2010 had ranked her 2nd to Slaney's AR.
Not any more!
Because Simpson beat her--thus becoming number two on the US list!!--Rowbury FALLS from 2nd into 3rd place on that list!!
How's THAT for "There's good news and there's bad news!"??!!
Check back to my previous post for some news on upcoming events.
But as a reminder, upcoming is the Continental Cup, the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, and the Fifth Avenue Road Mile in New York City.
The CC meet could produce some good marks, as quite a few top athletes will be there.
Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher will run the Philly Half as tune-ups for their fall marathons.
And it's been announced that the elusive Mary Cain will face Jenny Simpson and a deep elite field on 5th Ave.
This will be Cain's first-ever road race of any distance!!
One more news item.
Remember my early blog (from December or January) where I asked about the status of Natasha Rogers, Cayla Hatton, and Wesley Frazier?
Well, the question about Frazier has been answered, with several of my infamous exclamation points attached!
After a fantastic senior year of HS in 2013, and after finishing 4th in her first race as a Duke frosh a year ago, she basically disappeared, forced out of action by illness and injury.
Well, she's back!
In a tri meet against Florida state and Virginia, Duke won easily, and so did Frazier.
She ran 14:01 for the 4000 meter distance.
So forget those pre-season polls wherein Duke's women (and Frazier) weren't given any respect.
It appears Frazier is ready to REALLY begin her college career at the same level she ended her HS years!
(Wouldn't it be ironic if the NCAA XC meet came down to a duel between Frazier and Michigan's Erin Finn?? Remember their Indoor 5000 race at 2013's NBIN, when Frazier nipped Finn right at the tape by a razor-thin 0.01 seconds? Would love to see that happen again!)
Hardly!
It only ends the Diamond League group of meets!
In the ISTAF meet in Berlin, Anita Wlodarczyk set a World Record in the Hammer Throw with her toss of 261-1.
While the Women's HT is a relatively new event, thus slightly deflating the worth of a WR, you can't deny the value of a WR!
In addition, she set the ISTAF Meet Record.
Also got the Age 29 record.
And the National Record of Poland. (She broke her own mark!)
She moves from 2nd A-T World into 1st.
Gia Lewis-Smallwood broke the American Record in the DT in the DecaNation meet with her throw of 226-11.
She moves from 4th A-T US into 1st.
This improved the old US record by 4 feet 8 inches!!
However, she missed the Age 35 mark by over a foot!
Bernard Lagat didn't win, but his 13:06.68 5000 at ISTAF shattered the Age 39 record by about 20 seconds.
That record was set by Lagat earlier this season!
Seems like the Age 40 record of 13:43.15 should be a stroll for him next year!
Both Bogdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Barshim cleared 2.40 in the HJ.
But only Barshim was able to jump over 2.43.
That height of 7-11.50 is a Van Damme Meet Record.
It also nabs him the Age 23 record.
He's number 2 A-T World, tied with no one!!
Evan Jager didn't win, but his 8:04.71 in the 3000SC broke his own American Record by over 2 seconds!!
And he finally moves onto my World DDD (Top 24 Performers list) in 23rd place!
The winner of that race was Jairus Birech.
His 7:58.41 moves him from 16th A-T World up into 10th!
Barbara Spotokova and Val Adams dominated their respective throwing events.
Spotokova's Javelin throw of 223-1 got the Meet Record.
As did Adams's 67-7 Shot Put.
Missing Usain Bolt's Meet Record (9.76) by 0.01 was Justin Gatlin.
His 9.77 broke his own Age 32 record.
(He doubled back in the 200, running a fast 19.71, but that mark didn't break any records!)
A race over 1000 meters yielded two National Records.
Adam Kszczot's winning 2:15.72 nabbed the National Record of Poland.
And Mohammed Aman's 2:15.75 broke his own National Record of Ethiopia.
Galen Rupp finished back a ways in the 1500, but he PR'ed at 3:34.15.
This makes him 23rd A-T US.
I'll finish this post with the Women's 3000.
2014 has been a VERY strong year over the 3000-2 Mile distance for women!
(See my detailed reports from earlier this year!)
And today's race was right up there with the earlier races, showing high quality and super depth!
Sixteen runners went 8:39 or faster today!
Mercy Cherono won it in 8:28.95, with Sifan Hassan 2nd, Genzebe Dibaba 3rd, followed by the 2 Americans. (Details to follow!!)
Hassan's 8:29.38 broke the National Record of the Netherlands.
But it was Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury of the United States who made the big headlines today.
Mary Slaney's venerable AR of 8:25.83 survived.
But Simpson shattered her former (outdoor) best over the distance by some 18 seconds!
Her time of 8:29.58 makes her number 2 on the A-T US list.
And it also makes her the 3rd best woman in the WORLD on the Combined 3000-3000SC list!
Her times of 8:29.58 and 9:12.50 add up to 17:42.08.
(If Emma Coburn ever runs a flat 3000 in just 9:08, she'll make that list!)
Avoiding their football tackle-style contact from the Zurich DL, Rowbury finished a few tenths back in a PR of 8:29.93.
No, Rowbury didn't crash to the track at the end of today's race.
But she did FALL!!
Prior to this race, Rowbury's 8:31.38 from 2010 had ranked her 2nd to Slaney's AR.
Not any more!
Because Simpson beat her--thus becoming number two on the US list!!--Rowbury FALLS from 2nd into 3rd place on that list!!
How's THAT for "There's good news and there's bad news!"??!!
Check back to my previous post for some news on upcoming events.
But as a reminder, upcoming is the Continental Cup, the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, and the Fifth Avenue Road Mile in New York City.
The CC meet could produce some good marks, as quite a few top athletes will be there.
Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher will run the Philly Half as tune-ups for their fall marathons.
And it's been announced that the elusive Mary Cain will face Jenny Simpson and a deep elite field on 5th Ave.
This will be Cain's first-ever road race of any distance!!
One more news item.
Remember my early blog (from December or January) where I asked about the status of Natasha Rogers, Cayla Hatton, and Wesley Frazier?
Well, the question about Frazier has been answered, with several of my infamous exclamation points attached!
After a fantastic senior year of HS in 2013, and after finishing 4th in her first race as a Duke frosh a year ago, she basically disappeared, forced out of action by illness and injury.
Well, she's back!
In a tri meet against Florida state and Virginia, Duke won easily, and so did Frazier.
She ran 14:01 for the 4000 meter distance.
So forget those pre-season polls wherein Duke's women (and Frazier) weren't given any respect.
It appears Frazier is ready to REALLY begin her college career at the same level she ended her HS years!
(Wouldn't it be ironic if the NCAA XC meet came down to a duel between Frazier and Michigan's Erin Finn?? Remember their Indoor 5000 race at 2013's NBIN, when Frazier nipped Finn right at the tape by a razor-thin 0.01 seconds? Would love to see that happen again!)
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Weltklasse 2014 (and other things)
I'm getting to really love these kinds of DL's (& other "big" meets).
You know, the kind where expectations are sky-high, while the results "crash" to the ground!
Okay, so the Zurich DL wasn't all THAT bad!
Based on its history, wherein most of the Meet Records are comparable to those found in the World Championships and even the Olympics, you really can't expect a huge amount of record-breaking at the Weltklasse.
You take what you can get, and move on.
And that's EXACTLY what I'll be doing here.
I'll report---as I've done throughout this blog's first 9 months---the records broken and the good marks.
And then I'll move forward....and offer some news, opinions, criticism, predictions, and other stuff.
Gia Lewis Smallwood is having her best season at age 35.
She finished about 1 meter behind winner Sandra Perkovic today, tossing the Discus 218-3.
Then I discovered a big OOPS in my T&F Record Book!
I had her PR at 216-5.
So I'd THOUGHT her 218-3 was a PR!
It wasn't.
I looked at T&FN's yearly lists, and found out she'd reached 220-10 in the Glasgow DL!!
How did I miss THAT??
So she moves (or moveD!!) from 4th A-T US into 3rd.
Reese Hoffa won the SP battle with a throw of 71-10.50.
This broke his own Age 36 record!
Sticking to the field events, Keshorn Walcott threw the Javelin 281-5, breaking his own National Record of Trinidad.
And Nicole Buchler didn't win the PV, but her height of 15-3.75 is the new National Record of Switzerland.
Not from Zurich, but Mark Hollis PV'ed 19-1.50.
This moves him from 23rd A-T US, tied with 8 others (!!), up into 19th!
Ruth Jebet ran the 3000 Steeplechase in 9:20.55.
This breaks her own Age 17 record by about 6 seconds!!
It's faster than the Age 18 mark, and falls just 0.18 seconds short of the Age 19 record!
It's also the National Record of Bahrain.
In the final event of the meet, Great Britain's Women's 4X100 Relay team broke their National Record (in beating the US and Jamaica!) with a time of 42.21.
They move from Nation number 10 to number 9 on the A-T World list.
And that's a wrap!!
Really!!
Aside from the above records and marks (and don't get me wrong, I honor and respect these great marks!! ALL records are due this same honor and respect. That's the raison d'etre I started this blog!!) here's some other Weltklasse news, and assorted stuff from other venues.
Can't wait to see the full video from the Women's 1500!!
Jenny Simpson JUST edged Shannon Rowbury, both running 3:59.9's.
(Not often, if at all, you see 2 Americans winning against a field of VERY strong Africans!!)
But the most spectacular moment happened AFTER they crossed the line, both diving for the victory!
And dive they did.
Simpson leaned best and went flying to the track.
In doing so, it APPEARED she (accidentally) clipped Rowbury as Shannon sped past (her kick's momentum driving her past Simpson), and Shannon belly-flopped to the hard surface, crashing arms, legs, belly, and face to the track, looking like she'd been TACKLED by some 300 pound behemoth!!
(Except that Jenny is about one-third that weight!!)
She apparently is okay, suffering just a few abrasions and bruises.
But what a frigging race!!
THAT is the way I would hope ALL distance races were run!!
Take a lesson from these Warrior Women, Galen & Mo!!
Another Warrior Woman is Emma Coburn.
She sped the first 1K of her Steeple in 3:01.
But her attempt to both win the race and break her own American Record fell short.
Nonetheless, many kudos to her for demonstrating how distance races should be run!!
Alexa Efraimson is a Professional runner now, having signed with Ray Flynn and Nike.
She's now starting her senior year of HS, and will attend (a thus far unknown) college, but not as a runner!
No indication of what her next race will be, but she intends to run SOME Cross Country!
Mike Hickey will remain as her coach.
Mary Cain was a no-show in Zurich.
Up to a few days before the meet, she'd been listed as an entrant in the 1500.
(Refer to my last post, where I mentioned that!)
Then her name was gone, and Brenda Martinez was added!
(Martinez ran her fastest of the year, a 4:01+.)
Nothing has come out of the NOP/Salazar/Cain camp about WHY she didn't race.
It's probably school (which started last week).
But she'd said that she would miss the first two weeks.
I guess she decided she didn't want to.....or couldn't!
So this appears to end her VERY brief 2014 outdoor season!
I did a count of the 2014 marks on my 8 Outdoor DDD lists (4 women's and 4 men's).
As of yesterday (BEFORE the Zurich meet!), there were 316 marks from this year.
Here's the breakdown:
On the HS lists, the Women have 49 performers, while the Men score just 26.
Collegiately, the numbers are: Women-56, Men-31.
I combined the separate US and World lists, with the following totals:
Women-100, Men-54.
Thus, the Women outscore the Men, 205 to 111.
That makes 316 performers with marks from 2014.
This is all events (no Walks, and limited Relays).
These numbers will be added again on December 31st!
What can you expect from this blog for the rest of the year?
(Keep in mind I began the blog on December 9th of last year, so I did all the 2013 INDOOR stuff in my first few posts! This year will be different, simply because I've covered this entire year so far, Indoors and Out!)
In the next week or two, you'll get reports from the final DL, in Brussels.
There's also a few smaller European meets that usually produce good marks, such as Rieti, DecaNation, and ISTAF in Berlin.
Then there's the Continental Cup.
I have no idea what to expect from that, but it's getting some play on Twitter and some Message Boards, so I expect it will be interesting.
There's the Berlin, NYC, and Chicago Marathons.
Also some shorter road races.
The first pops up this weekend. (EDIT: The date is actually September 2nd, next Tuesday!)
Molly Huddle will be in the USATF 20000 Championships in New Haven, CT.
Having run the Half in 1:09:04, I see a time of 1:05+ as eminently doable!
Shalane Flanagan will zero in on Deena Kastor's AR in the Marathon on Berlin's flat and fast course.
I think she has an excellent chance!!
(Barring the usual Marathon disasters---injury, weather, bad pacing!!)
Chicago brings us Mr Ken Bekele in just his 2nd Marathon.
He ran 2:05:03 in his first.
He'll have a fair chance to beat that in Chicago.
I'll comment some on what's happening in XC, but mainly on the WHO, not the times!
And December will bring all my "wrap-up" material from 2014 (Athletes of the Year, etc), plus the beginnings of the 2015 Indoor season. (Although, as with last year's early results, I listed them by YEAR, thus making it appear that 2014's early season marks were actually 2013's--which they WERE in actuality!)
See you next week!
You know, the kind where expectations are sky-high, while the results "crash" to the ground!
Okay, so the Zurich DL wasn't all THAT bad!
Based on its history, wherein most of the Meet Records are comparable to those found in the World Championships and even the Olympics, you really can't expect a huge amount of record-breaking at the Weltklasse.
You take what you can get, and move on.
And that's EXACTLY what I'll be doing here.
I'll report---as I've done throughout this blog's first 9 months---the records broken and the good marks.
And then I'll move forward....and offer some news, opinions, criticism, predictions, and other stuff.
Gia Lewis Smallwood is having her best season at age 35.
She finished about 1 meter behind winner Sandra Perkovic today, tossing the Discus 218-3.
Then I discovered a big OOPS in my T&F Record Book!
I had her PR at 216-5.
So I'd THOUGHT her 218-3 was a PR!
It wasn't.
I looked at T&FN's yearly lists, and found out she'd reached 220-10 in the Glasgow DL!!
How did I miss THAT??
So she moves (or moveD!!) from 4th A-T US into 3rd.
Reese Hoffa won the SP battle with a throw of 71-10.50.
This broke his own Age 36 record!
Sticking to the field events, Keshorn Walcott threw the Javelin 281-5, breaking his own National Record of Trinidad.
And Nicole Buchler didn't win the PV, but her height of 15-3.75 is the new National Record of Switzerland.
Not from Zurich, but Mark Hollis PV'ed 19-1.50.
This moves him from 23rd A-T US, tied with 8 others (!!), up into 19th!
Ruth Jebet ran the 3000 Steeplechase in 9:20.55.
This breaks her own Age 17 record by about 6 seconds!!
It's faster than the Age 18 mark, and falls just 0.18 seconds short of the Age 19 record!
It's also the National Record of Bahrain.
In the final event of the meet, Great Britain's Women's 4X100 Relay team broke their National Record (in beating the US and Jamaica!) with a time of 42.21.
They move from Nation number 10 to number 9 on the A-T World list.
And that's a wrap!!
Really!!
Aside from the above records and marks (and don't get me wrong, I honor and respect these great marks!! ALL records are due this same honor and respect. That's the raison d'etre I started this blog!!) here's some other Weltklasse news, and assorted stuff from other venues.
Can't wait to see the full video from the Women's 1500!!
Jenny Simpson JUST edged Shannon Rowbury, both running 3:59.9's.
(Not often, if at all, you see 2 Americans winning against a field of VERY strong Africans!!)
But the most spectacular moment happened AFTER they crossed the line, both diving for the victory!
And dive they did.
Simpson leaned best and went flying to the track.
In doing so, it APPEARED she (accidentally) clipped Rowbury as Shannon sped past (her kick's momentum driving her past Simpson), and Shannon belly-flopped to the hard surface, crashing arms, legs, belly, and face to the track, looking like she'd been TACKLED by some 300 pound behemoth!!
(Except that Jenny is about one-third that weight!!)
She apparently is okay, suffering just a few abrasions and bruises.
But what a frigging race!!
THAT is the way I would hope ALL distance races were run!!
Take a lesson from these Warrior Women, Galen & Mo!!
Another Warrior Woman is Emma Coburn.
She sped the first 1K of her Steeple in 3:01.
But her attempt to both win the race and break her own American Record fell short.
Nonetheless, many kudos to her for demonstrating how distance races should be run!!
Alexa Efraimson is a Professional runner now, having signed with Ray Flynn and Nike.
She's now starting her senior year of HS, and will attend (a thus far unknown) college, but not as a runner!
No indication of what her next race will be, but she intends to run SOME Cross Country!
Mike Hickey will remain as her coach.
Mary Cain was a no-show in Zurich.
Up to a few days before the meet, she'd been listed as an entrant in the 1500.
(Refer to my last post, where I mentioned that!)
Then her name was gone, and Brenda Martinez was added!
(Martinez ran her fastest of the year, a 4:01+.)
Nothing has come out of the NOP/Salazar/Cain camp about WHY she didn't race.
It's probably school (which started last week).
But she'd said that she would miss the first two weeks.
I guess she decided she didn't want to.....or couldn't!
So this appears to end her VERY brief 2014 outdoor season!
I did a count of the 2014 marks on my 8 Outdoor DDD lists (4 women's and 4 men's).
As of yesterday (BEFORE the Zurich meet!), there were 316 marks from this year.
Here's the breakdown:
On the HS lists, the Women have 49 performers, while the Men score just 26.
Collegiately, the numbers are: Women-56, Men-31.
I combined the separate US and World lists, with the following totals:
Women-100, Men-54.
Thus, the Women outscore the Men, 205 to 111.
That makes 316 performers with marks from 2014.
This is all events (no Walks, and limited Relays).
These numbers will be added again on December 31st!
What can you expect from this blog for the rest of the year?
(Keep in mind I began the blog on December 9th of last year, so I did all the 2013 INDOOR stuff in my first few posts! This year will be different, simply because I've covered this entire year so far, Indoors and Out!)
In the next week or two, you'll get reports from the final DL, in Brussels.
There's also a few smaller European meets that usually produce good marks, such as Rieti, DecaNation, and ISTAF in Berlin.
Then there's the Continental Cup.
I have no idea what to expect from that, but it's getting some play on Twitter and some Message Boards, so I expect it will be interesting.
There's the Berlin, NYC, and Chicago Marathons.
Also some shorter road races.
The first pops up this weekend. (EDIT: The date is actually September 2nd, next Tuesday!)
Molly Huddle will be in the USATF 20000 Championships in New Haven, CT.
Having run the Half in 1:09:04, I see a time of 1:05+ as eminently doable!
Shalane Flanagan will zero in on Deena Kastor's AR in the Marathon on Berlin's flat and fast course.
I think she has an excellent chance!!
(Barring the usual Marathon disasters---injury, weather, bad pacing!!)
Chicago brings us Mr Ken Bekele in just his 2nd Marathon.
He ran 2:05:03 in his first.
He'll have a fair chance to beat that in Chicago.
I'll comment some on what's happening in XC, but mainly on the WHO, not the times!
And December will bring all my "wrap-up" material from 2014 (Athletes of the Year, etc), plus the beginnings of the 2015 Indoor season. (Although, as with last year's early results, I listed them by YEAR, thus making it appear that 2014's early season marks were actually 2013's--which they WERE in actuality!)
See you next week!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Two Mile Run--Records, History, Marks, Trivia
You might ask, Where is your report on the Birmingham DL?
And I would reply, Right HERE!!
But while the Birmingham meet was far better than the Stockholm affair, it really was fairly weak.
EXCEPT for 2 Two Mile races.
(I could easily say, but for ONE 2 Mile race, but more on that in a moment!)
To find the "other" Birmingham news, see the bottom of this post!
The TWO MILE RUN
Today's DL gave us TWO 2 Mile races, a Men's and a Women's.
Many people (especially the British!) would say Mo Farah's great run was the highlight of the entire meet.
And I agree, it WAS a great run, but it was NOT the highlight of the meet!
That accolade belongs to the WOMEN'S 2 Mile!!
And here's all the reasons why!
This one race rewrote my T&F Record Book's 2 Mile data in several ways.
Place Records
I keep Place Records for the 2 Mile from 2nd to 10th place.
All 9 of those Place Records date from 2014.
Only one of these came from the Prefontaine 2 Mile.
(Betsy Saina's 8th place mark from Pre.)
The other 8 are from today's race!
DDD's
For those not aware, my DDD's (Double Dandy Dozen) are my Top 24 All-Time Performers lists (World, US, Collegiate, HS).
SIX new names made my World DDD today in the Women's 2 Mile!
And 3 more were already on my World list, but got PR's today.
Fourteen (14!!) of my World Top 24 are from 2014!
And 8 of my USA Top 24 date from 2014!
Finally, to make 24th place on my World list USED to take a 9:38.39.
It now, post-Birmingham, takes a 9:33.47!
Now here's all the data, athlete by athlete!
Mercy Cherono won the race in 9:11.49.
(She passed 3000 meters in about 8:38 and change.
This is the Birmingham DL Meet Record.
It's the new National Record of Kenya.
She moves from 3rd A-T World up to 2nd.
(She doesn't get the Age 23 record, as that belongs to WR holder Meseret Defar!)
Viola Kibiwot finished 2nd in 9:12.59.
This is the best 2nd Place mark ever!
She also broke her own Age 30 record!
Irene Jelagat ran 9:12.90 for 3rd.
It's the best-ever 3rd Place mark.
She nabs the Age 25 record.
She remains in 4th A-T World!
Genzebe Dibaba ran "only" 9:14.28 for the best-ever 4th Place mark.
(Don't forget, she holds the INdoor 2 Mile record at 9:00.48!)
This makes her 7th A-T World.
Betsy Saina ran 9:16.95 for the best-ever 5th Place mark!
It's also the Age 26 record.
And it moves her from 15th A-T World up to 9th!
Alemitu Haroye ran 9:20.81 for 6th place.
It's the best-ever 6th Place mark.
She also gets the Age 19 record.
The old record belonged to Zola (Budd) Pieterse, dating from 1985!!
It makes her 12th A-T World.
Susan Kuijken's 9:23.52 is the best-ever 7th Place mark.
It's also the Netherlands National Record.
And it puts her in 17th A-T World.
Renata Plis ran 9:28.80.
It's the new National Record of Poland.
And it gets her 20th A-T World.
Clemence Calvin ran 9:30.39 for the best-ever 9th place mark.
It's the new National Record of France.
And it puts her 22nd A-T World.
Maryam Jamal ran 9:33.47 in 10th place.
She gets the best-ever 10th Place mark!
It also nails down 24th place on my World DDD list.
And let's not leave out Gabriele Grunewald, whose 9:41.76 in 11th makes her 7th A-T US.
(She was the only American in this race!)
(Hang in there, I'll get to Mo's race in a bit!)
I'm an advocate of the Bring Back the Mile campaign (to replace the 1600 in US HS's.
But I'm even MORE of an advocate to return the TWO Mile to its former glory.
Here's some "trivia" about my favorite distance.
(As a runner, I probably ran more 2 milers, in races and/or training, on a track than ANYbody!! I used to do 4 or 5 two milers in intervals! This was back in the days when tracks were 440 yards!)
In 1972, Lyudmila Bragina set a 3000 Meter WR of 8:53.0.
The current WR for the 218 meter-longer 2 Mile is 8:58.58!
Based on the split given Mercy Cherono today (8:38+), the final 218 meters took her 33+ seconds.
When Sonia O'Sullivan set her 2 Mile WR of 9:19.56 in 1998 (It ranks her 10th A-T World now!), she took just 32.5 for her last 218 meters.
Thus, IF Cherono had continued for another 218 meters in her 8:21.14 (2nd place) run earlier this year, her Two Mile time might have been around 8:53 or 8:54!
(Helen Obiri's 8:20.68 might have gotten her an 8:52+!!)
Think where my DDD's would be if a couple more 2 Mile races were held this year (or next!), but with one featuring most or all of the greatest current American runners over the 1500-5000 spectrum!
Today, Gabe Grunewald did NOT have her best race.
She's capable of running 3000 in the high-8:30's or low-8:40's.
Based on that 32-33 second finish over the final 218 meters, this would make her a potential 9:10-9:12 Two Miler!
Add Jenny Simpson, Shannon Rowbury (With an 8:31+ PR, she can run about 9:03!!), Mary Cain, Emily Infeld, Kim Conley, Jordan Hasay (Her 8:46+ 3000 PR gives her an approximate 2 Mile of 9:18 or 9:19!), Molly Huddle, Abbey D'Agostino, Aisling Cuffe to your field, and you've got the makings of a MASSIVE overhaul of the US Top 24 list!!
(And that's just a FEW names off the top of my head! Heck, you could add HIGH SCHOOLERS to the field (a separate heat!!), and even THEY could make the list. It's a sad state of affairs that it takes HS girls to fill out my current Top 24 A-T US list!! All it takes is 10:05.61 to make the US Top 24!!)
Be it known that I'm talking of OUTdoor 2 Milers here, as I keep my lists for OUT and INdoor completely separate!!
The US record is 9:11.97 by Regina Jacobs
Francie Larrieu's 9:44.2 from 1972 (!!!) still ranks 10th A-T US!!
I strongly urge such distance-oriented American meets as the Mt SAC Relays, Payton Jordan, Portland Track Festival, USATF (formerly Oxy) High Performance, and yes, the Prefontaine DL, which held the first of the two fantastic Women's Two Milers this year, to add an elite Women's Two Mile race to their schedule!
And invite all the above named, plus 2 or 3 dozen others, to race a SERIOUS Two Mile!!
As noted MUCH earlier, the women weren't the only ones to race the 2 Mile distance at the Birmingham DL.
Mo Farah ran what technically should be called a time trial, winning easily in 8:07.85.
(No other times are really worth reporting, as none of them added to or changed the data in my Book!)
Farah's time is the National Record of Great Britain.
He broke the venerable Steve Ovett's time of 8:13.51, run in 1978---the year 400 man Chris Brown and American star Kara Goucher were born!!
It's also the Birmingham DL Meet Record.
He gets the Age 31 record.
And it ranks him 7th A-T World.
Shoved OFF my World DDD were 2 guys you might have heard about.
Ken Bekele ran his 8:13.51 in 2007.
And as noted, the Brit whose NR Farah broke, Mr Ovett, also got booted!!
There were 4 other Meet Records from the Birmingham DL.
Asbel Kiprop won the Mile in 3:51.89.
Fourteen guys broke 4:00!!
Mutaz Barshim won the HJ at 7-9.75 for the MR.
But Bogdan Bondarenko also jumped that height (losing on more misses), but should be credited with the Meet Record too.
Jairus Birech, despite having to use his hands to STRADDLE the final barrier (!!!), ran 8:07.80 for the MR in the 3000 Steeplechase.
And David Rudisha showed sparks of his London WR 800 form in a fast 600.
His time of 1:13.71 rates as 4th best A-T World.
And it's a Meet Record.
(I don't keep OUTdoor 600 records, so I had to look some of this stuff up!! LOL)
There's an old mark I somehow overlooked from a few weeks ago.
Krisztlan Pars threw the Hammer 271-3, moving him from 24th A-T World up to 19th!!
Well, Mary Cain's return to the track wars is scheduled for Zurich's DL, just 4 days from now.
I'll have her results, plus whatever else happens of note, from that meet immediately following its conclusion!
See you then!
And I would reply, Right HERE!!
But while the Birmingham meet was far better than the Stockholm affair, it really was fairly weak.
EXCEPT for 2 Two Mile races.
(I could easily say, but for ONE 2 Mile race, but more on that in a moment!)
To find the "other" Birmingham news, see the bottom of this post!
The TWO MILE RUN
Today's DL gave us TWO 2 Mile races, a Men's and a Women's.
Many people (especially the British!) would say Mo Farah's great run was the highlight of the entire meet.
And I agree, it WAS a great run, but it was NOT the highlight of the meet!
That accolade belongs to the WOMEN'S 2 Mile!!
And here's all the reasons why!
This one race rewrote my T&F Record Book's 2 Mile data in several ways.
Place Records
I keep Place Records for the 2 Mile from 2nd to 10th place.
All 9 of those Place Records date from 2014.
Only one of these came from the Prefontaine 2 Mile.
(Betsy Saina's 8th place mark from Pre.)
The other 8 are from today's race!
DDD's
For those not aware, my DDD's (Double Dandy Dozen) are my Top 24 All-Time Performers lists (World, US, Collegiate, HS).
SIX new names made my World DDD today in the Women's 2 Mile!
And 3 more were already on my World list, but got PR's today.
Fourteen (14!!) of my World Top 24 are from 2014!
And 8 of my USA Top 24 date from 2014!
Finally, to make 24th place on my World list USED to take a 9:38.39.
It now, post-Birmingham, takes a 9:33.47!
Now here's all the data, athlete by athlete!
Mercy Cherono won the race in 9:11.49.
(She passed 3000 meters in about 8:38 and change.
This is the Birmingham DL Meet Record.
It's the new National Record of Kenya.
She moves from 3rd A-T World up to 2nd.
(She doesn't get the Age 23 record, as that belongs to WR holder Meseret Defar!)
Viola Kibiwot finished 2nd in 9:12.59.
This is the best 2nd Place mark ever!
She also broke her own Age 30 record!
Irene Jelagat ran 9:12.90 for 3rd.
It's the best-ever 3rd Place mark.
She nabs the Age 25 record.
She remains in 4th A-T World!
Genzebe Dibaba ran "only" 9:14.28 for the best-ever 4th Place mark.
(Don't forget, she holds the INdoor 2 Mile record at 9:00.48!)
This makes her 7th A-T World.
Betsy Saina ran 9:16.95 for the best-ever 5th Place mark!
It's also the Age 26 record.
And it moves her from 15th A-T World up to 9th!
Alemitu Haroye ran 9:20.81 for 6th place.
It's the best-ever 6th Place mark.
She also gets the Age 19 record.
The old record belonged to Zola (Budd) Pieterse, dating from 1985!!
It makes her 12th A-T World.
Susan Kuijken's 9:23.52 is the best-ever 7th Place mark.
It's also the Netherlands National Record.
And it puts her in 17th A-T World.
Renata Plis ran 9:28.80.
It's the new National Record of Poland.
And it gets her 20th A-T World.
Clemence Calvin ran 9:30.39 for the best-ever 9th place mark.
It's the new National Record of France.
And it puts her 22nd A-T World.
Maryam Jamal ran 9:33.47 in 10th place.
She gets the best-ever 10th Place mark!
It also nails down 24th place on my World DDD list.
And let's not leave out Gabriele Grunewald, whose 9:41.76 in 11th makes her 7th A-T US.
(She was the only American in this race!)
(Hang in there, I'll get to Mo's race in a bit!)
I'm an advocate of the Bring Back the Mile campaign (to replace the 1600 in US HS's.
But I'm even MORE of an advocate to return the TWO Mile to its former glory.
Here's some "trivia" about my favorite distance.
(As a runner, I probably ran more 2 milers, in races and/or training, on a track than ANYbody!! I used to do 4 or 5 two milers in intervals! This was back in the days when tracks were 440 yards!)
In 1972, Lyudmila Bragina set a 3000 Meter WR of 8:53.0.
The current WR for the 218 meter-longer 2 Mile is 8:58.58!
Based on the split given Mercy Cherono today (8:38+), the final 218 meters took her 33+ seconds.
When Sonia O'Sullivan set her 2 Mile WR of 9:19.56 in 1998 (It ranks her 10th A-T World now!), she took just 32.5 for her last 218 meters.
Thus, IF Cherono had continued for another 218 meters in her 8:21.14 (2nd place) run earlier this year, her Two Mile time might have been around 8:53 or 8:54!
(Helen Obiri's 8:20.68 might have gotten her an 8:52+!!)
Think where my DDD's would be if a couple more 2 Mile races were held this year (or next!), but with one featuring most or all of the greatest current American runners over the 1500-5000 spectrum!
Today, Gabe Grunewald did NOT have her best race.
She's capable of running 3000 in the high-8:30's or low-8:40's.
Based on that 32-33 second finish over the final 218 meters, this would make her a potential 9:10-9:12 Two Miler!
Add Jenny Simpson, Shannon Rowbury (With an 8:31+ PR, she can run about 9:03!!), Mary Cain, Emily Infeld, Kim Conley, Jordan Hasay (Her 8:46+ 3000 PR gives her an approximate 2 Mile of 9:18 or 9:19!), Molly Huddle, Abbey D'Agostino, Aisling Cuffe to your field, and you've got the makings of a MASSIVE overhaul of the US Top 24 list!!
(And that's just a FEW names off the top of my head! Heck, you could add HIGH SCHOOLERS to the field (a separate heat!!), and even THEY could make the list. It's a sad state of affairs that it takes HS girls to fill out my current Top 24 A-T US list!! All it takes is 10:05.61 to make the US Top 24!!)
Be it known that I'm talking of OUTdoor 2 Milers here, as I keep my lists for OUT and INdoor completely separate!!
The US record is 9:11.97 by Regina Jacobs
Francie Larrieu's 9:44.2 from 1972 (!!!) still ranks 10th A-T US!!
I strongly urge such distance-oriented American meets as the Mt SAC Relays, Payton Jordan, Portland Track Festival, USATF (formerly Oxy) High Performance, and yes, the Prefontaine DL, which held the first of the two fantastic Women's Two Milers this year, to add an elite Women's Two Mile race to their schedule!
And invite all the above named, plus 2 or 3 dozen others, to race a SERIOUS Two Mile!!
As noted MUCH earlier, the women weren't the only ones to race the 2 Mile distance at the Birmingham DL.
Mo Farah ran what technically should be called a time trial, winning easily in 8:07.85.
(No other times are really worth reporting, as none of them added to or changed the data in my Book!)
Farah's time is the National Record of Great Britain.
He broke the venerable Steve Ovett's time of 8:13.51, run in 1978---the year 400 man Chris Brown and American star Kara Goucher were born!!
It's also the Birmingham DL Meet Record.
He gets the Age 31 record.
And it ranks him 7th A-T World.
Shoved OFF my World DDD were 2 guys you might have heard about.
Ken Bekele ran his 8:13.51 in 2007.
And as noted, the Brit whose NR Farah broke, Mr Ovett, also got booted!!
There were 4 other Meet Records from the Birmingham DL.
Asbel Kiprop won the Mile in 3:51.89.
Fourteen guys broke 4:00!!
Mutaz Barshim won the HJ at 7-9.75 for the MR.
But Bogdan Bondarenko also jumped that height (losing on more misses), but should be credited with the Meet Record too.
Jairus Birech, despite having to use his hands to STRADDLE the final barrier (!!!), ran 8:07.80 for the MR in the 3000 Steeplechase.
And David Rudisha showed sparks of his London WR 800 form in a fast 600.
His time of 1:13.71 rates as 4th best A-T World.
And it's a Meet Record.
(I don't keep OUTdoor 600 records, so I had to look some of this stuff up!! LOL)
There's an old mark I somehow overlooked from a few weeks ago.
Krisztlan Pars threw the Hammer 271-3, moving him from 24th A-T World up to 19th!!
Well, Mary Cain's return to the track wars is scheduled for Zurich's DL, just 4 days from now.
I'll have her results, plus whatever else happens of note, from that meet immediately following its conclusion!
See you then!
Sunday, August 17, 2014
The Euro's---Yawn!
Boy, do I ever hate doing these kinds of blog posts!
You know, the kind when there's so little to report, it doesn't seem worth the time or trouble.
And when even that minimal amount of "noteworthy" marks just aren't that noteworthy.
But the European Championships of 2014 was a major meet, and thus deserves a post, however brief it might be.
So, on with it!
The one WR came in the Men's 50000 meters Walk.
Yohann Dinez walked an astounding time of 3:32:33 to shatter the WR by 1 minute and 41 seconds!
It's also, obviously, an EC Meet Record, as well as the National Record of France.
Another long distance Meet Record was set by Cristelle Daunay of France.
She won a great Marathon battle with Valeria Straneo of Italy.
Her time of 2:25:14 is the new MR.
Anna Wlodarczyk of Poland threw the Hammer 258-5 for the Meet Record.
It's also a new National Record, breaking her own.
She missed the Age 29 record by just 4 inches!!
But she moves from 4th A-T World up into 2nd!
Dafne Schippers is an up-and-coming Heptathlete, but here, she showed even more prowess as a sprinter!
Her winning 200 mark of 22.03 was a PR by 0.31 seconds!!
It's a new Netherlands National Record.
And it misses my Top 24 Performers list by just 0.03 seconds!!
Schippers also won the 100, but didn't break any records.
One who did---a boatload of them!!---was the previously unknown Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland!
In the 100, she set 2 National Records--11.32 in her heat, and 11.20 in the final.
She PR'ed twice in the 200 as well.
First to 23.02, then in the final, she ran 22.83.
Another National Record!
Sandra Perkovic was born 20+ years too late!!
Or maybe I should say her birthdate was perfect!!
Her winning Discus toss of 233-2 is the best mark in the World since 1992!!
She was just 2 years old then!
It's the new National Record of Croatia, breaking her own mark.
And it moves her from 20th A-T World up to 18th.
Ruth Beitia won a good Women's HJ with a jump of 6-7.
This is the new Age 35 record.
BTW, the Women's HJ was far better than the more-anticipated Men's version.
Yet another expectation of multiple 2.40 leaps for the men fell into the junk pile of failure!
There were 4 other National Records at the EC's.
Switzerland's Men's 4X100 Relay team ran 38.54.
They missed getting on my Top 24 Nations list by just 0.02 seconds!
Great Britain's Women's 4X100 Relay team broke their National Record by 0.19 seconds with their 42.24 winning time.
This moves them from Nation number 14 to 10th position!
Balazs Baji ran the 110H in 13.29 for the National Record of Hungary.
And Tatjana Jelaca threw the Javelin 210-8 for the National Record of Serbia.
Not in the European Championships, but Hua Koffi sprinted a 10.05 100 and a 200 in 20.25.
Both of these are National Records of Ivory Coast!
(These happened in the African Championships!)
Out of curiosity, I looked back at the Commonwealth Games Meet Records, to compare them to the just completed Euro's.
For the men, the Commonwealth Games produced 4 Meet Records.
The Euro's?
ZERO!!
(I didn't count the WR---and MR---in the 50K Walk, as the CG's didn't have the Walks this year.)
For the women, the score was 6 to 2, CG's over the EC's in the MR department.
This was caused by 2 reasons, IMHO.
1. Commonwealth athletes are better than European athletes.
2. Several records that should have been broken, weren't!
Of course, the latter reason also served for the CG's!
The next post will cover the next DL, in Stockholm, coming up in 4 days.
I checked the entry lists for Stockholm (as of today), but Mary Cain is NOT listed for the Women's 1500.
She'd said she would be running there (in her WJC interview), so this could mean her season is finished!!
See you all then!
You know, the kind when there's so little to report, it doesn't seem worth the time or trouble.
And when even that minimal amount of "noteworthy" marks just aren't that noteworthy.
But the European Championships of 2014 was a major meet, and thus deserves a post, however brief it might be.
So, on with it!
The one WR came in the Men's 50000 meters Walk.
Yohann Dinez walked an astounding time of 3:32:33 to shatter the WR by 1 minute and 41 seconds!
It's also, obviously, an EC Meet Record, as well as the National Record of France.
Another long distance Meet Record was set by Cristelle Daunay of France.
She won a great Marathon battle with Valeria Straneo of Italy.
Her time of 2:25:14 is the new MR.
Anna Wlodarczyk of Poland threw the Hammer 258-5 for the Meet Record.
It's also a new National Record, breaking her own.
She missed the Age 29 record by just 4 inches!!
But she moves from 4th A-T World up into 2nd!
Dafne Schippers is an up-and-coming Heptathlete, but here, she showed even more prowess as a sprinter!
Her winning 200 mark of 22.03 was a PR by 0.31 seconds!!
It's a new Netherlands National Record.
And it misses my Top 24 Performers list by just 0.03 seconds!!
Schippers also won the 100, but didn't break any records.
One who did---a boatload of them!!---was the previously unknown Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland!
In the 100, she set 2 National Records--11.32 in her heat, and 11.20 in the final.
She PR'ed twice in the 200 as well.
First to 23.02, then in the final, she ran 22.83.
Another National Record!
Sandra Perkovic was born 20+ years too late!!
Or maybe I should say her birthdate was perfect!!
Her winning Discus toss of 233-2 is the best mark in the World since 1992!!
She was just 2 years old then!
It's the new National Record of Croatia, breaking her own mark.
And it moves her from 20th A-T World up to 18th.
Ruth Beitia won a good Women's HJ with a jump of 6-7.
This is the new Age 35 record.
BTW, the Women's HJ was far better than the more-anticipated Men's version.
Yet another expectation of multiple 2.40 leaps for the men fell into the junk pile of failure!
There were 4 other National Records at the EC's.
Switzerland's Men's 4X100 Relay team ran 38.54.
They missed getting on my Top 24 Nations list by just 0.02 seconds!
Great Britain's Women's 4X100 Relay team broke their National Record by 0.19 seconds with their 42.24 winning time.
This moves them from Nation number 14 to 10th position!
Balazs Baji ran the 110H in 13.29 for the National Record of Hungary.
And Tatjana Jelaca threw the Javelin 210-8 for the National Record of Serbia.
Not in the European Championships, but Hua Koffi sprinted a 10.05 100 and a 200 in 20.25.
Both of these are National Records of Ivory Coast!
(These happened in the African Championships!)
Out of curiosity, I looked back at the Commonwealth Games Meet Records, to compare them to the just completed Euro's.
For the men, the Commonwealth Games produced 4 Meet Records.
The Euro's?
ZERO!!
(I didn't count the WR---and MR---in the 50K Walk, as the CG's didn't have the Walks this year.)
For the women, the score was 6 to 2, CG's over the EC's in the MR department.
This was caused by 2 reasons, IMHO.
1. Commonwealth athletes are better than European athletes.
2. Several records that should have been broken, weren't!
Of course, the latter reason also served for the CG's!
The next post will cover the next DL, in Stockholm, coming up in 4 days.
I checked the entry lists for Stockholm (as of today), but Mary Cain is NOT listed for the Women's 1500.
She'd said she would be running there (in her WJC interview), so this could mean her season is finished!!
See you all then!
Friday, August 8, 2014
Records--And why I've compiled a Book of them!
I started a thread on the T&FN Message Board recently to cover all pre-meet topics surrounding the European Championships, which begin August 12th.
In my initial post, I offered my opinion as to which EC Meet Records might be broken.
Why didn't I offer it here?
No good answer.
Just decided not to, and it gave me a subject to start that new topic at T&FN.
However, to sort of even things out a bit, it was a few of the comments I received about my offering that led me to put up this "extra" post here!
Because a few people there basically ridiculed the notion of athletes going for Meet Records.
They said that, in Championship situations, Medals took precedence over records.
(Although at least one acknowledged that a few might consider an All-European record of enough importance to go for it!)
Anyway, that discussion provided the impetus for this post.
I will list EVERY category of records I have in my Book, and tell you why I include them.
And why I felt a blog devoted ENTIRELY to Records (and Top 24 list marks!) was of interest, important, and even necessary.
WORLD Records
These are obvious.
They are the very best there is in any event.
These are a MUST!
COLLEGIATE Records.
Same goes here.
Except this category includes a few caveats.
For example, no marks AFTER the NCAA Championship meet (whether Indoor or Outdoor) are eligible.
For Indoor, no OT marks are included.
Outdoors, no wind-aided marks.
HIGH SCHOOL Records
Again, there are caveats, somewhat different than for the Collegians.
For the nonce, I'm including HSR's set by Pro athletes.
(In that case, I'm speaking currently of just one person, Mary Cain. However, she MIGHT soon be joined by Alexa Efraimson!!)
I obviously thus include marks made by HS athletes competing against Collegians and Professionals!
US Records
These come under the umbrella of NATIONAL Records.
I've singled out the US for special consideration for several reasons.
Number one reason is that I'm an American.
If I were French, I'd probably have a DDD (Top 24 Performers list) for FRANCE!!
(In the case of the Men's Steeplechase and Marathon, my World DDD is ALMOST all Kenya!!)
CLASS Records.
I include all 4 years of both High School and College.
However, it's sometimes difficult to figure out a Collegian's status, because of redshirting and 5th year Seniors!
But these give a good indication of the progress some athletes make while in school.
There HAVE been cases where an athlete held all 4 Class Records in their event.
But NEVER all 8!!
PLACE Records.
I don't consider these super important.
But I DO consider them to be of great interest!!
Why?
Because, isn't it fascinating to see how great a mark is needed for "just" a 6th, or 8th, or 12th place finish in ONE race (or field event)??
Except for the most jaded, some of those "bottom" placers would amaze you!
AGE Records
Here is where I differ quite a bit from many other sources.
Most Records sources (including IAAF and T&FN) keep "Youth", "Junior", and "Masters" records.
I don't.
My Age Records go basically from 17 to 40, without those generic nebulous umbrella designations.
My only deviation from the "17 to 40" age range is that on each end, I label it "0-17" and "40 and over".
The former means that the mark for 0-17 could be set by an athlete of ANY age up to and including Age 17.
Thus, that mark could be by someone 15 or 16 years old!
And for the latter case, the "40 and over" record could be set by someone 41 or 42....or 57!!
I just felt it was too much work to include EVERY age---from 5 to 95----as some sources do.
MOST of the top marks (on ANY of my lists!) come from within that age range!
NATIONAL Records
Here, I was forced (or at least decided!!) to limit this category to really elite marks!
Until just a few months ago, I had VERY strict standards for inclusion here.
A couple of examples were "9.94" for the Men's 100 and "12:51.99" for the Men's 5000.
This limited my Nations list to a VERY few!!
So when I began my blog last December, I decided to loosen my restrictions.
But NOT completely!
I won't include Tongan Island records of 40 minutes for the 10K (if that's what it is!! LOL), or just 5-10 for the Women's HJ from Timbuktu (!!??).
So, within reason (and that designation is QUITE arbitrary!!!), I'm including many more National Records.
(See MOST of my first 76 blogs for all the NATIONAL Records that have been broken in the past 8+ months, both Indoors and Outdoors!)
COMBINED EVENTS Records
This is another category where I greatly (completely!!!) differ from T&FN!
They go by a POINTS system that's been in place for decades, similar to the Points Tables for the Multi events.
In those, points are assigned to a mark to indicate its value.
I say, Bah Humbug!!
Why use (arbitrary) points systems when you can rely solely on the MARKS??
In this category (just for outdoor marks!!), I have the following categories:
100-200
100-200-400
400-800
800-1500
1500-3000
1 Mile-2 Mile
1500-5000
3000-5000-10000
3000-3000SC
5000-10000
110H (or 100H for Women!)-400H
400-400H
I USED to have a couple of field event categories---the LJ-TJ and SP-DT---but discontinued them a few decades ago!)
What I do here is just ADD the times together!!
No points assigned!
One criticism of my method is that it's unfair to some athletes in some of the categories.
For example, in the 3000-5000-10000 category, it's said that the 10K skews the results, as you can add or deduct too many seconds from that one event, whereas in the 3000, you generally only gain a second or two.
Take the case of Daniel Komen, the 3000 WR holder.
He also has a very fast 5000.
But his best track 10K was just 28:12!!
So he doesn't even make my list!
In fact, he doesn't even come CLOSE!!
Yet in T&FN, they recognize Komen as one of the very greatest in that tri-event category!!
(In a future blog post, I'll offer some of these lists---or at least partial lists!)
MEET Records
This is the category that inspired this post!
As with National Records, I HAD very strict standards for inclusion.
And I've greatly loosened them here too!
But I still don't have every meet.
In fact, SOME meets where WORLD Records have been set are NOT included!!
Why?
Because the MEET is just too esoteric, or small!
In several cases, I have meets which are no longer being held.
Why?
Because, at the time, they were considered some of the best meets around, and the MR's are still great today!
But as with National Records, you'll find EVERY MR that's been broken during the past 8+ months---in the meets I include in my Book!!
And THAT is why I considered my opinion on which European Championships MEET Records might be broken next week to be of some import.
(In the minds of those T&FN MB posters, they obviously were NOT considered so!!)
But let me try to answer the title's question---Why did I compile a BOOK of Records??
The simplest answer is that "records are made to be broken".
Too simple!
My answer would be that WORLD Records were given TOO MUCH importance---by sports media, INCLUDING such T&F-specific media experts as T&FN---and by the general fan!
At various times during the past few decades, T&FN (and other sources) have railed against being WR-fixated, stating that they happened too rarely, and were getting rarer by the day!
I agree.
WR's ARE too rare!
As are Collegiate and HS Records!
(Tell that to Mary Cain the past 3 years!!)
So what to do, to continue to promote the sport, MINUS (for the most part!) WR's, or others of the highest significance??
My reply was (decades ago!!!), and still is, to place HIGH VALUE on so called "lesser" records.
Namely, all of the above I named in this post!!
So when a fan goes to a meet, or watches it on TV or online, and EXPECTS or HOPES for a WR, he/she doesn't go away disappointed when that WR attempt ultimately (and almost inevitably) fails!!
He/she is THRILLED when the Meet's announcer states that a MEET or NATIONAL or AGE Record has been broken!
Or "just" that a certain mark is the "8th best ever" or some such.
THAT'S why I have my DDD's!!
To HONOR those marks which make the ALL-TIME Top 24 list in a category!
(Many just list the Top TEN!!)
This allows so much more enjoyment of a meet, or a specific performance, than the "thrill of victory or the agony of defeat".
And that is why I compiled my T&F Record Book.
I just got tired of all those disappointments when a WR-attempt failed.
See you all soon!
In my initial post, I offered my opinion as to which EC Meet Records might be broken.
Why didn't I offer it here?
No good answer.
Just decided not to, and it gave me a subject to start that new topic at T&FN.
However, to sort of even things out a bit, it was a few of the comments I received about my offering that led me to put up this "extra" post here!
Because a few people there basically ridiculed the notion of athletes going for Meet Records.
They said that, in Championship situations, Medals took precedence over records.
(Although at least one acknowledged that a few might consider an All-European record of enough importance to go for it!)
Anyway, that discussion provided the impetus for this post.
I will list EVERY category of records I have in my Book, and tell you why I include them.
And why I felt a blog devoted ENTIRELY to Records (and Top 24 list marks!) was of interest, important, and even necessary.
WORLD Records
These are obvious.
They are the very best there is in any event.
These are a MUST!
COLLEGIATE Records.
Same goes here.
Except this category includes a few caveats.
For example, no marks AFTER the NCAA Championship meet (whether Indoor or Outdoor) are eligible.
For Indoor, no OT marks are included.
Outdoors, no wind-aided marks.
HIGH SCHOOL Records
Again, there are caveats, somewhat different than for the Collegians.
For the nonce, I'm including HSR's set by Pro athletes.
(In that case, I'm speaking currently of just one person, Mary Cain. However, she MIGHT soon be joined by Alexa Efraimson!!)
I obviously thus include marks made by HS athletes competing against Collegians and Professionals!
US Records
These come under the umbrella of NATIONAL Records.
I've singled out the US for special consideration for several reasons.
Number one reason is that I'm an American.
If I were French, I'd probably have a DDD (Top 24 Performers list) for FRANCE!!
(In the case of the Men's Steeplechase and Marathon, my World DDD is ALMOST all Kenya!!)
CLASS Records.
I include all 4 years of both High School and College.
However, it's sometimes difficult to figure out a Collegian's status, because of redshirting and 5th year Seniors!
But these give a good indication of the progress some athletes make while in school.
There HAVE been cases where an athlete held all 4 Class Records in their event.
But NEVER all 8!!
PLACE Records.
I don't consider these super important.
But I DO consider them to be of great interest!!
Why?
Because, isn't it fascinating to see how great a mark is needed for "just" a 6th, or 8th, or 12th place finish in ONE race (or field event)??
Except for the most jaded, some of those "bottom" placers would amaze you!
AGE Records
Here is where I differ quite a bit from many other sources.
Most Records sources (including IAAF and T&FN) keep "Youth", "Junior", and "Masters" records.
I don't.
My Age Records go basically from 17 to 40, without those generic nebulous umbrella designations.
My only deviation from the "17 to 40" age range is that on each end, I label it "0-17" and "40 and over".
The former means that the mark for 0-17 could be set by an athlete of ANY age up to and including Age 17.
Thus, that mark could be by someone 15 or 16 years old!
And for the latter case, the "40 and over" record could be set by someone 41 or 42....or 57!!
I just felt it was too much work to include EVERY age---from 5 to 95----as some sources do.
MOST of the top marks (on ANY of my lists!) come from within that age range!
NATIONAL Records
Here, I was forced (or at least decided!!) to limit this category to really elite marks!
Until just a few months ago, I had VERY strict standards for inclusion here.
A couple of examples were "9.94" for the Men's 100 and "12:51.99" for the Men's 5000.
This limited my Nations list to a VERY few!!
So when I began my blog last December, I decided to loosen my restrictions.
But NOT completely!
I won't include Tongan Island records of 40 minutes for the 10K (if that's what it is!! LOL), or just 5-10 for the Women's HJ from Timbuktu (!!??).
So, within reason (and that designation is QUITE arbitrary!!!), I'm including many more National Records.
(See MOST of my first 76 blogs for all the NATIONAL Records that have been broken in the past 8+ months, both Indoors and Outdoors!)
COMBINED EVENTS Records
This is another category where I greatly (completely!!!) differ from T&FN!
They go by a POINTS system that's been in place for decades, similar to the Points Tables for the Multi events.
In those, points are assigned to a mark to indicate its value.
I say, Bah Humbug!!
Why use (arbitrary) points systems when you can rely solely on the MARKS??
In this category (just for outdoor marks!!), I have the following categories:
100-200
100-200-400
400-800
800-1500
1500-3000
1 Mile-2 Mile
1500-5000
3000-5000-10000
3000-3000SC
5000-10000
110H (or 100H for Women!)-400H
400-400H
I USED to have a couple of field event categories---the LJ-TJ and SP-DT---but discontinued them a few decades ago!)
What I do here is just ADD the times together!!
No points assigned!
One criticism of my method is that it's unfair to some athletes in some of the categories.
For example, in the 3000-5000-10000 category, it's said that the 10K skews the results, as you can add or deduct too many seconds from that one event, whereas in the 3000, you generally only gain a second or two.
Take the case of Daniel Komen, the 3000 WR holder.
He also has a very fast 5000.
But his best track 10K was just 28:12!!
So he doesn't even make my list!
In fact, he doesn't even come CLOSE!!
Yet in T&FN, they recognize Komen as one of the very greatest in that tri-event category!!
(In a future blog post, I'll offer some of these lists---or at least partial lists!)
MEET Records
This is the category that inspired this post!
As with National Records, I HAD very strict standards for inclusion.
And I've greatly loosened them here too!
But I still don't have every meet.
In fact, SOME meets where WORLD Records have been set are NOT included!!
Why?
Because the MEET is just too esoteric, or small!
In several cases, I have meets which are no longer being held.
Why?
Because, at the time, they were considered some of the best meets around, and the MR's are still great today!
But as with National Records, you'll find EVERY MR that's been broken during the past 8+ months---in the meets I include in my Book!!
And THAT is why I considered my opinion on which European Championships MEET Records might be broken next week to be of some import.
(In the minds of those T&FN MB posters, they obviously were NOT considered so!!)
But let me try to answer the title's question---Why did I compile a BOOK of Records??
The simplest answer is that "records are made to be broken".
Too simple!
My answer would be that WORLD Records were given TOO MUCH importance---by sports media, INCLUDING such T&F-specific media experts as T&FN---and by the general fan!
At various times during the past few decades, T&FN (and other sources) have railed against being WR-fixated, stating that they happened too rarely, and were getting rarer by the day!
I agree.
WR's ARE too rare!
As are Collegiate and HS Records!
(Tell that to Mary Cain the past 3 years!!)
So what to do, to continue to promote the sport, MINUS (for the most part!) WR's, or others of the highest significance??
My reply was (decades ago!!!), and still is, to place HIGH VALUE on so called "lesser" records.
Namely, all of the above I named in this post!!
So when a fan goes to a meet, or watches it on TV or online, and EXPECTS or HOPES for a WR, he/she doesn't go away disappointed when that WR attempt ultimately (and almost inevitably) fails!!
He/she is THRILLED when the Meet's announcer states that a MEET or NATIONAL or AGE Record has been broken!
Or "just" that a certain mark is the "8th best ever" or some such.
THAT'S why I have my DDD's!!
To HONOR those marks which make the ALL-TIME Top 24 list in a category!
(Many just list the Top TEN!!)
This allows so much more enjoyment of a meet, or a specific performance, than the "thrill of victory or the agony of defeat".
And that is why I compiled my T&F Record Book.
I just got tired of all those disappointments when a WR-attempt failed.
See you all soon!
Saturday, August 2, 2014
10 Meet Records at Commonwealth Games
Except for the problem of length, I would have added to my title....."and so many others could've been broken, BUT....."
Yet the same things happen at most (all!!) other Championship-level meets, including the Olympics, WC's, Euro Champs, USATF, NCAA and World Juniors!
1. Big-name athletes stay away from the Trials, or choose to not compete.
2. They offer excuses, from injury to it being an "off-year", to just not being in "good enough" shape to give it their all.
3. Bad weather raises its ugly head. (See my comments later on the Women's PV at the CG!)
4. The distance races (from 1500 to 10K) turn strategic, with medals being seen as more important than time, or breaking records.
5. The Marathons don't attract the very best athletes, as $$$$$ are not there in these Championship affairs.
All that said, these Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow (come shine or come RAIN!!) from July 27th through August 2nd, DID produce a pretty good TEN Meet Records!
So let's begin our reportage on them, and other good marks I have to offer.
Since Usain Bolt was the "STAR" of these Games, let's begin with the final event, the Men's 4X100 Relay.
Barring a broken leg or a dropped baton (in the heats or final!), it was a given that Mr Bolt would end this race with a deadly sprint no one on Earth could match.
And this he did!
But BEFORE he did--in fact, before the race even began!--Bolt DANCED!!
There he was, standing in position at the end of the last curve, waiting for the gun to go off, DANCING!!
And a damn good dancer he is!!
Then the race began.
And surprisingly, the British were even with Jamaica, even a slight bit ahead, when Bolt got the stick.
And then he morphed into LIGHTNING Bolt, and he was GONE!!
Bye-bye, all you mere mortals!!
While the time wasn't much (by Jamaica's standards!), it was still a new Meet Record.
37.58. (Cut the old mark by 0.62.)
Two National Records went down in the Men's short relay.
The Bahamas ran 38.52 in the heats, to become the 23rd fastest Nation.
South Africa ran 38.35 in the final, to become Nation number 19 on my World DDD list.
The Jamaican women, anchored by MRS Bolt (if only!!), aka SAFP (Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce), also slashed the old MR.
Their time of 41.83 won by more than a full second (!!), and is the new Meet Record.
(They had tied the old MR of 42.44 in their heat!)
While we're on the Relays, the Jamaican women won the 4X400 in an MR time of 3:23.83.
That was seen as inevitable, since they SWEPT the open 400, with Stephanie McPherson winning that one in non-record time.
Kirani James ran solo in the 400, wiping out his "competition" and the Meet Record with his 44.24.
Blessing Okagbare did pretty much the same as James in the 100, winning by a wide margin in 10.85, a Meet Record!
(SAFP didn't run in the open 100, but Veronica Campbell-Brown did.)
Kim Mickle threw the Javelin 216-5 for the Meet Record, also dominating her event.
One event, the Men's Shot Put, saw TWO guys break the Meet Record!
First up was Tom Walsh, whose 69-8.25 set a new MR.
Then came Jamaica's (??!!) O'Dayne Richards, who crushed Walsh's mark by over 14 inches, his 70-10.75 becoming the ultimate CG Meet Record!
It's also the new Jamaican National Record!
But Jamaica??
In the Shot Put???
The very same can be said for the Men's Javelin Throw winner.
Julius Yego won the event.
And he's from Kenya!!
Kenya??
Winning the Javelin???
BTW, Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad threw 279-9 in qualifying for a new National Record.
Sultana Frizell, the Canadian record holder in the Hammer, and one of the most fascinating personalities in our favorite sport, set THREE Meet Records during her competition!
She threw 226.2 in qualifying, for the MR.
Then broke that with a 231-5.
Then shattered that one with her final MR of 236-1.
(Her National Record is 10 feet farther!!)
Two more National Records were broken.
Jeff Gibson ran the 400H in 48.78 for a new Bahamas National Record.
Julia Ratcliffe was 2nd to Frizell, and nabbed her own New Zealand National Record with her 230-6.
(She's still in college in the US, but this doesn't count for the Collegiate DDD, as it came after the NCAA meet!)
I mentioned (in the beginning) that race strategy, and runner's priorities (medals over time) dictate that most Championship-level distance races are SLOW!!
The Men's Steeplechase, while not a serious blazer, overcame those barriers (pun intended!).
Jonathon Ndiku of Kenya (Where else??) proved too much for the 8:14+ MR, running 8:10.44 to move the MR more toward the 21st Century!!
I also said earlier there were some MR's that came CLOSE to being broken, but weren't.
One that WAS broken was the Women's 1500.
And that came in a HEAT!!
Helen Obiri ran 4:04.43 in her heat for the new MR.
But alas, the final went in "normal" pedestrian style---jog the first 1200, then kick---so Obiri's mark survived.
(Yet she LOST the final, finishing just 4th!!)
But back to those close calls.
The Men's 10000 MR is a softie, just 27:45!
Yet despite having several runners in there fully capable of running MUCH faster, they jogged the first 9200 meters, leaving the record for future CG participants to aim for!
The Women's Steeple MR should've gone, despite its being a good 9:19.51.
So should have the Women's 10000, being just 31:27.83.
The Men's 1500 MR is from THE best race of ANY Commonwealth Games, the 1974 race where Filbert Bayi beat John Walker in a WORLD Record of 3:32.16!!
Yet in this race was 3:28.81 runner, Ronald Kwemoi, and others fully capable of running sub-3:32.
Anyway, enough of this rant.
It won't change anything!
I spoke of the Women's PV being weather-affected.
Quite!!
I don't think it was the (lack of) quality in the field that saw just FOUR women get ANY height in the competition.
It was probably the torrential downpour that turned the trick.
It stopped, and the competition continued (being re-scheduled by a few hours), but by then, just 4 women had cleared 12-5.50.
That's right, 3.80, or 12-5.50!!
That wouldn't have come anywhere NEAR a medal at the recent WJC!!
And yet it came to win Bronze in Glasgow!!
Alana Boyd cleared 14-9 to win, and she tried 3 times for 15-2, which would've been a new MR if she had cleared.
Oh yes, one more race that came close to getting a new MR was the Women's 100H.
Sally Pearson, having weathered a controversy with the Australian Team Coach prior to the race (He was summarily fired, and sent packing!!), ran good.
Her heat was a 12.69, an easy winner.
And her final was 12.67.
But the MR is 12.65.
I spoke earlier of Usain Bolt's dancing ability.
If you watched the webcast, you were privileged to witness ANOTHER pretty fair dancer!
Her name is Michelle Jenneke, and somehow her 13.38 took 6th in Pearson's race!!
I do have several older marks worth noting, so I'll finish off with those.
A VERY old mark is Kaliese Spencer's 50.19 she ran in the 2013 Rieti 400!!
I somehow missed that, but by adding that to her 400H PR of 52.79, you get a Combined Event total (for the 400-400H) of 1:42.98.
This moves her from 8th to 5th on that list!!
(She won the CG 400H, but it wasn't a PR.)
That small High-Performance meet held in conjunction with the WJC produced one good mark.
Aleec Harris won the 110H in 13.14.
This makes him 23rd A-T US.
And it takes OFF my list three old 13.17 times.
Courtney Hawkins ran his time in 1998.
Tonie Campbell ran his in 1988.
And Sam Turner ran his 13.17 in 1983!!
Anzhelika Sidorova PV'ed 15-5 for 23rd A-T World, tied with 3 others.
Hanna Fedusova threw the Javelin 220-9 for 19th A-T World.
It's also the Ukraine National Record.
Nicole Bush ran the Steeple in a PR of 9:24.59.
This moves her from 12th A-T US up to 5th!
I should mention here that new AR holder Emma Coburn ran a 1500 PR of 4:05.78.
This doesn't move her onto my DDD list, but is significant nonetheless.
Jessica Furlan ran a Canada National Record Steeple of 9:33.45.
Will Leer ran a PR of 3:34.26 in the 1500.
This makes him 24th A-T US.
Cindy Billaud tied the National Record of France in the 100H with her 12.56.
And Talryn Montgomery threw the Javelin 163-1.
This moves her from 23rd A-T HS up into 18th.
I'll mention one more mark which MIGHT be another new Age 38 record in the 100 for Kim Collins.
There was a street meet (the straight track--not oval--set up on a London street) held, where Collins ran 9.96.
If this is found to be legal, it would SMASH his own Age 38 mark of 10.10.
But I'm not 100% certain these marks are valid.
T&FN is seemingly accepting them, as they're listed in their Track Newsletter report of the meet....without any asterisk!
We'll see.
I'll happily adjust Mr Collins's record, if it's found to be legit!!
Meanwhile, see you all (??) soon.
Yet the same things happen at most (all!!) other Championship-level meets, including the Olympics, WC's, Euro Champs, USATF, NCAA and World Juniors!
1. Big-name athletes stay away from the Trials, or choose to not compete.
2. They offer excuses, from injury to it being an "off-year", to just not being in "good enough" shape to give it their all.
3. Bad weather raises its ugly head. (See my comments later on the Women's PV at the CG!)
4. The distance races (from 1500 to 10K) turn strategic, with medals being seen as more important than time, or breaking records.
5. The Marathons don't attract the very best athletes, as $$$$$ are not there in these Championship affairs.
All that said, these Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow (come shine or come RAIN!!) from July 27th through August 2nd, DID produce a pretty good TEN Meet Records!
So let's begin our reportage on them, and other good marks I have to offer.
Since Usain Bolt was the "STAR" of these Games, let's begin with the final event, the Men's 4X100 Relay.
Barring a broken leg or a dropped baton (in the heats or final!), it was a given that Mr Bolt would end this race with a deadly sprint no one on Earth could match.
And this he did!
But BEFORE he did--in fact, before the race even began!--Bolt DANCED!!
There he was, standing in position at the end of the last curve, waiting for the gun to go off, DANCING!!
And a damn good dancer he is!!
Then the race began.
And surprisingly, the British were even with Jamaica, even a slight bit ahead, when Bolt got the stick.
And then he morphed into LIGHTNING Bolt, and he was GONE!!
Bye-bye, all you mere mortals!!
While the time wasn't much (by Jamaica's standards!), it was still a new Meet Record.
37.58. (Cut the old mark by 0.62.)
Two National Records went down in the Men's short relay.
The Bahamas ran 38.52 in the heats, to become the 23rd fastest Nation.
South Africa ran 38.35 in the final, to become Nation number 19 on my World DDD list.
The Jamaican women, anchored by MRS Bolt (if only!!), aka SAFP (Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce), also slashed the old MR.
Their time of 41.83 won by more than a full second (!!), and is the new Meet Record.
(They had tied the old MR of 42.44 in their heat!)
While we're on the Relays, the Jamaican women won the 4X400 in an MR time of 3:23.83.
That was seen as inevitable, since they SWEPT the open 400, with Stephanie McPherson winning that one in non-record time.
Kirani James ran solo in the 400, wiping out his "competition" and the Meet Record with his 44.24.
Blessing Okagbare did pretty much the same as James in the 100, winning by a wide margin in 10.85, a Meet Record!
(SAFP didn't run in the open 100, but Veronica Campbell-Brown did.)
Kim Mickle threw the Javelin 216-5 for the Meet Record, also dominating her event.
One event, the Men's Shot Put, saw TWO guys break the Meet Record!
First up was Tom Walsh, whose 69-8.25 set a new MR.
Then came Jamaica's (??!!) O'Dayne Richards, who crushed Walsh's mark by over 14 inches, his 70-10.75 becoming the ultimate CG Meet Record!
It's also the new Jamaican National Record!
But Jamaica??
In the Shot Put???
The very same can be said for the Men's Javelin Throw winner.
Julius Yego won the event.
And he's from Kenya!!
Kenya??
Winning the Javelin???
BTW, Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad threw 279-9 in qualifying for a new National Record.
Sultana Frizell, the Canadian record holder in the Hammer, and one of the most fascinating personalities in our favorite sport, set THREE Meet Records during her competition!
She threw 226.2 in qualifying, for the MR.
Then broke that with a 231-5.
Then shattered that one with her final MR of 236-1.
(Her National Record is 10 feet farther!!)
Two more National Records were broken.
Jeff Gibson ran the 400H in 48.78 for a new Bahamas National Record.
Julia Ratcliffe was 2nd to Frizell, and nabbed her own New Zealand National Record with her 230-6.
(She's still in college in the US, but this doesn't count for the Collegiate DDD, as it came after the NCAA meet!)
I mentioned (in the beginning) that race strategy, and runner's priorities (medals over time) dictate that most Championship-level distance races are SLOW!!
The Men's Steeplechase, while not a serious blazer, overcame those barriers (pun intended!).
Jonathon Ndiku of Kenya (Where else??) proved too much for the 8:14+ MR, running 8:10.44 to move the MR more toward the 21st Century!!
I also said earlier there were some MR's that came CLOSE to being broken, but weren't.
One that WAS broken was the Women's 1500.
And that came in a HEAT!!
Helen Obiri ran 4:04.43 in her heat for the new MR.
But alas, the final went in "normal" pedestrian style---jog the first 1200, then kick---so Obiri's mark survived.
(Yet she LOST the final, finishing just 4th!!)
But back to those close calls.
The Men's 10000 MR is a softie, just 27:45!
Yet despite having several runners in there fully capable of running MUCH faster, they jogged the first 9200 meters, leaving the record for future CG participants to aim for!
The Women's Steeple MR should've gone, despite its being a good 9:19.51.
So should have the Women's 10000, being just 31:27.83.
The Men's 1500 MR is from THE best race of ANY Commonwealth Games, the 1974 race where Filbert Bayi beat John Walker in a WORLD Record of 3:32.16!!
Yet in this race was 3:28.81 runner, Ronald Kwemoi, and others fully capable of running sub-3:32.
Anyway, enough of this rant.
It won't change anything!
I spoke of the Women's PV being weather-affected.
Quite!!
I don't think it was the (lack of) quality in the field that saw just FOUR women get ANY height in the competition.
It was probably the torrential downpour that turned the trick.
It stopped, and the competition continued (being re-scheduled by a few hours), but by then, just 4 women had cleared 12-5.50.
That's right, 3.80, or 12-5.50!!
That wouldn't have come anywhere NEAR a medal at the recent WJC!!
And yet it came to win Bronze in Glasgow!!
Alana Boyd cleared 14-9 to win, and she tried 3 times for 15-2, which would've been a new MR if she had cleared.
Oh yes, one more race that came close to getting a new MR was the Women's 100H.
Sally Pearson, having weathered a controversy with the Australian Team Coach prior to the race (He was summarily fired, and sent packing!!), ran good.
Her heat was a 12.69, an easy winner.
And her final was 12.67.
But the MR is 12.65.
I spoke earlier of Usain Bolt's dancing ability.
If you watched the webcast, you were privileged to witness ANOTHER pretty fair dancer!
Her name is Michelle Jenneke, and somehow her 13.38 took 6th in Pearson's race!!
I do have several older marks worth noting, so I'll finish off with those.
A VERY old mark is Kaliese Spencer's 50.19 she ran in the 2013 Rieti 400!!
I somehow missed that, but by adding that to her 400H PR of 52.79, you get a Combined Event total (for the 400-400H) of 1:42.98.
This moves her from 8th to 5th on that list!!
(She won the CG 400H, but it wasn't a PR.)
That small High-Performance meet held in conjunction with the WJC produced one good mark.
Aleec Harris won the 110H in 13.14.
This makes him 23rd A-T US.
And it takes OFF my list three old 13.17 times.
Courtney Hawkins ran his time in 1998.
Tonie Campbell ran his in 1988.
And Sam Turner ran his 13.17 in 1983!!
Anzhelika Sidorova PV'ed 15-5 for 23rd A-T World, tied with 3 others.
Hanna Fedusova threw the Javelin 220-9 for 19th A-T World.
It's also the Ukraine National Record.
Nicole Bush ran the Steeple in a PR of 9:24.59.
This moves her from 12th A-T US up to 5th!
I should mention here that new AR holder Emma Coburn ran a 1500 PR of 4:05.78.
This doesn't move her onto my DDD list, but is significant nonetheless.
Jessica Furlan ran a Canada National Record Steeple of 9:33.45.
Will Leer ran a PR of 3:34.26 in the 1500.
This makes him 24th A-T US.
Cindy Billaud tied the National Record of France in the 100H with her 12.56.
And Talryn Montgomery threw the Javelin 163-1.
This moves her from 23rd A-T HS up into 18th.
I'll mention one more mark which MIGHT be another new Age 38 record in the 100 for Kim Collins.
There was a street meet (the straight track--not oval--set up on a London street) held, where Collins ran 9.96.
If this is found to be legal, it would SMASH his own Age 38 mark of 10.10.
But I'm not 100% certain these marks are valid.
T&FN is seemingly accepting them, as they're listed in their Track Newsletter report of the meet....without any asterisk!
We'll see.
I'll happily adjust Mr Collins's record, if it's found to be legit!!
Meanwhile, see you all (??) soon.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
WJC: Dramatic Records & Record Drama
It's hard to believe those 6 days of the World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon are over!
Being able to watch the entire meet (for FREE!) on both Universal Sports and USATF-TV feeds made the meet so much more enjoyable, getting to live every dramatic record broken (or those which came sooooo close!) and all the record drama that meets like this bring forth, that those 6 days sped by TOO fast!!
But, speaking of speed, let's take a look AT those 6 days of fierce competition.
Seven Meet Records were broken (though 1 of those was a tie).
And 4 United States HSR's were broken, with one of them being broken TWICE!!
(One of the MR's was also broken twice, which I'll explain in just a minute!)
The event that saw BOTH Meet Records broken were the 10000 Meter Walks.
These took place entirely on Hayward Field's track, so the spectators got to see every step (and mis-step!).
Anezka Drahotova of the Czech Republic took the lead right away, and never gave it up.
She hit 5000 in 21:21, then did 21:26 to get the MR in 42:47.25.
I don't keep Walk records, but this was also a World Junior Record, not to mention the Czech Republic National Record.
Some interesting facts about her:
She's also a runner, qualifying for the 3000SC here. (She didn't run it, as the heats came just a day after her Walk effort!)
And she's a champion bicyclist too!
She has a twin sister, Eliska, who also raced here.
The Men's Walk also produced a Meet Record.
Daisuke Matsunaga of Japan kept a metronomic pace (kept looking at his watch to make sure he was on record pace!), and was successful, clicking off a 39:27.19 for the MR.
(An aside: I really LOVE those Japan team uniform tops!! Great design and colors!)
The 3000SC is rarely run in the USA High School system.
In fact, even the 2000SC isn't a standard event.
So when Colorado's Bailey Roth came to the fore in 2013, it became known that he'd never even SEEN a SC hurdle (or water pit), let alone jumped over one, up to maybe 2-3 weeks before his initial 2000SC race.
But he took to the Steeple like.....heh!.....a fish takes to water!
He ran about 5:45 last year over the 2000 distance.
And this year, at the NBN meet, he lowered that to 5:41.67, the HSR.
Right after that, I tweeted him that, based on his 5:41, he had an excellent chance to take down the HSR over the 3000SC distance.
I won't take credit for his doing so, but he did it.
TWICE!
Coming in with a 9:03 PR (from the WJC Trials earlier this month!), he crushed that mark, AND the HSR of 8:50.1 by Jeff Hess in 1979, with a stunning 8:48.60.
And that was enough to qualify for the final!
He finished 10th, but nipped his own HSR with his time of 8:47.04.
This is, of course, also the HS Senior Class Record!
And it (the first record) moved him from 9th A-T HS up to 1st.....where he remained after the final!
Another "ancient" HSR to fall came in the Women's 100H.
It was clear from the start that the USA's Kendell Williams and Dior Hall would be heavily favored.
However, the Netherlands Nadine Visser made this event more interesting than the pre-meet formsheet indicated.
Visser ran a windy 13.01 in her semi, improving her overall (windy or not) PR by almost two-tenths of a second.
Could she pull off an upset?
Alas, no.
But she DID push the 2 Americans to incredible times!
Williams, who just finished her Freshman year at the University of Georgia, ran a Meet Record time of 12.89.
That record, by Cuba's Aliuska Lopez, was 12.96 from 1988!!
A very close 2nd, Hall ran 12.92, claiming the HSR of 12.95 set by Candy Young way back in...1979!!
(That made TWO 1979 HSR's broken in less than one week!!)
She also, obviously, gets the HS Senior Class Record!
This moves her from 2nd A-T HS into 1st.
But she missed the Age 18 record (by Kristi Castlin) by....0.01 seconds!!
Visser wound up getting a PR with her excellent 12.99!
The MALE version of Kendell Williams ALSO had a pretty fair meet!
To say 9.97 man Trayvon Bromell was the favorite going in would be the understatement of the year!
(Especially after 10.00 guy Trentavis Friday false-started at the Trials!)
So it appeared that Bromell had a clear road ahead to victory.
The only question left was.....How fast could he go?
The answer, sad for him, was not fast enough to win!
Yes, amazingly, Bromell lost, and Williams won!
He'd run a PR of 10.23 in his heat.
This moved him from 23rd A-T HS (tied with 6 others!) up to 15th.
But in the final, he powered to the finish in 10.21, edging out Bromell for the Gold.
This latter time moved him up 3 more spots on my HS DDD list, where he's now 12th, tied with 3 others.
Frenchman Wilhelm Belocian cut through the (invisible) tape in 12.99 in the Men's 110H final.
This too was a Meet Record.
(The race used 39 inch hurdles!)
The overwhelming Men's Triple Jump favorite, Cuba's Lazaro Martinez, just 16 years old (!!), came through as expected.
He didn't PR, but his first jump measured 56-0.50 for the MR.
Then he did it again....for good measure (heh heh, pun intended!!).
His 56-2.50 claimed his own Meet Record!!
He's a pretty big guy physically, and VERY impressive!!
If he stays healthy, and competes a few more years, I could easily see him claiming the World Record someday.
My DDD's for the HS Decathlon is for those using international (adult, professional level) implements (hurdle heights, etc).
The WJC, being a meet for Juniors, obviously used the JUNIOR-size props.
That said, the Czech Republic's Jiri Sykora broke the MR with his 8135 point total.
He's also an impressive looking athlete, and should go on to much success on the Pro circuit.
The two Pole Vaults produced record performances of one kind or another.
And both produced ding-dong battles for places.
While the MR wasn't broken, the Men's vault nabbed a great mark for the USA's Devin King.
Despite getting the same mark as the Silver and Bronze medal winners, King finished just 4th with his PR of 18-0.50!
I want to say this was his first 18 foot vault, but a few days earlier, he'd vaulted 18-0 in a STREET vault!
I don't know (yet) if that mark is acceptable for HS list purposes.
If it is, then THAT was his initial 18 footer.
If not, his WJC mark was.
Whatever the case, his WJC prevailed anyway (by half an inch!).
He moves from 11th A-T HS, tied with 3 others, up to 6th.
And the Women's PV had a humdinger of a battle too.
Russia's Alena Lutkovskaya pulled out the win with her Meet Record-tying height of 14-9.
Two girls got marks of 14-7.25, with America's Desiree Freier prevailing for Silver with her latest HSR.
In fact, she got TWO of those babies in this meet!
The first came when she cleared 14-6.
This was her OUTdoor PR (She'd earlier this season gotten 14-6 INdoors!!), so claimed her own HSR at that height.
She then went higher, her 14-7.25 getting her 2nd place, but 1st place on the A-T HS list.
It's also, of course, the HS 12th Grade Class Record, again breaking her own mark.
AND......it's better than the COLLEGIATE Frosh Class Record!!
This five foot tall (Tall?? LOL) wunderkind misses the United States All-Time Top 24 Performers list by....one-quarter inch!!!
Finally (in the Women's PV), Eliza McCartney claimed the NATIONAL Record (not just the JUNIOR NR, but the OVERALL NR!!) of New Zealand with her Bronze medal-winning height of 14-7.25.
(She had more misses than Freier.)
All 4 Relays were of high quality, but none of them captured the Meet Records.
The closest were the two 4X100's.
The United States won both, missing the Men's MR by a mere 0.04 seconds!
The USA Women won too, but missed the MR by 0.06 seconds!!
In the meet's two closing races, the 4X400 Relays, the MR's weren't threatened, but the USA won both of them fairly easily.
(Japan, however, surprised some by capturing 2nd in the Men's 4X400!!)
Morgan Lake of Great Britain, just 17 years old, won the Heptathlon with her PR of 6148 points.
She HJ'ed a PR of 6-4.25 in that 7-eventer.
She also competed in the Open HJ, winning there with 6-3.
In both jumps, she made 3 attempts each at 6-5.50, which would've been the Age 17 record if she'd succeeded!
Ashlee Moore of the USA scored a PR of 5466 points, but she remains in 5th place on the A-T HS list!
So what happened to the "BIG STAR" of the WJC pre-meet hype?
(aka Mary Cain!)
She did quite well, thank you!
Would you believe she WON the 3000?
And would you also believe she was the first American of either sex to win a distance race in the WJC's??
Not only that, she beat a few Kenyans and Ethiopians while doing so!!
I'll have a post sometime soon about the great depth of HS (and College Frosh) middle and long distance runners on the female side.
In that, I'll speak to the question of whether to accept Cain's marks run AFTER turning Professional as HSR's.
For the nonce, I AM accepting those marks, and including them on my HS DDD's.
Thus, the following should be read with that caveat in mind!!
Mary Cain won the 3000 meters race in 8:58.48.
This broke Lynn Bjorklund's 1975 HSR of 9:08.6.
Finally!!
It also claims the HS Senior Class Record.
And it moves her from 8th A-T HS into 1st.
The race itself was great.
The K splits were a "jogging" 3:03 and 3:04 (6:07 at 2K), with Cain and the Africans in a pack, Cain in 2nd on the inside.
They started to RUN at around 250 or 300 to go, but Cain seemed boxed in.
On the final curve, she tried to break out, but one of the Africans wouldn't let her go.
She actually slowed down, thinking maybe to cut around her from the back.
Then (magically, it seemed to me!!), the African girl ALSO seemed to stop (!!), and Cain sprinted hard into an instant lead, giving it her all the rest of the way, winning by a clear 20 meters!!
This was the Mary Cain of 2013 and Indoors 2014 we all have learned to know and love.
On that final straightaway, I've never seen a better Mary Cain!!
IMHO, she can run 8:35 or thereabouts.
The two "NEXT Mary Cain's", Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny were in the 1500.
They easily made the final, both taking the needed 4th in their heats to qualify.
But they were going up against the much-vaunted Dawit Seyaum of Ethiopia, who had a 3:59 to her credit.
However, their PR's showed them as the 3rd (Efraimson) and 5th (Cranny) fastest runners coming into the final.
It opened a bit fast, but soon became another of those maddening jog-and-kick affairs you see WAY too often in Championship meets.....on any level!!
Both of them ran tactically smart races, with Efraimson sticking closest to the front, Cranny not far back.
This continued through laps of 68 and 69 (2:17 at 800), and they hit the bell (1100 meters) at about 3:08, with the Americans still close.
Could they pull a Cain, and beat these "unbeatable" Africans?
Wish I could say YES!, but alas, it was no.
Alexa tried......really tried.
When Seyaum finally took off, Efraimson sprinted too.
And stuck close for maybe 20 meters.
Then Dawit was GONE!
But she still sprinted, finally running out of gas on the straight, where (somewhat shockingly!), Cranny passed her.
Cranny took 4th, with Efraimson 6th!!
We should remember that in the WJC in Barcelona in 2012, Cain took 6th also, behind Faith Kipyegon's 4:04.96 Meet Record.
A couple of other highly-rated USA High School girls did fairly well, but neither PR'ed.
Raven Saunders got the Silver medal with her final round put.
But TJ'er Keturah Orji just didn't have it here, and didn't medal or PR.
The HSR remains intact, and that 45 foot barrier will have to wait for another prodigy to come along!
The biggest upset of the meet, besides Williams over Bromell in the 100, came in the Women's 800.
Cuban Sahily Diago, despite a PR of 1:57+, was beaten by Margaret Wambui of Kenya!!
Wambui had come in with a PR a full 6 seconds slower than Diago!!
Before I close here, let me report a couple of oddities that occurred!
One was heartWARMING.
The other was heartRENDING!
The latter happened in the heats of the Men's 4X400 Relay.
Nigeria's 2nd man was allowed to cut in after the first turn.
He didn't!!
He continued running the ENTIRE LAP in the FOURTH lane!!!
(I'm not an expert, but my guess is he ran an extra 20 meters!!)
Finally, just before the hand-off, he realized his mistake, sharply cut over to where the 3rd man was waiting for the baton!!
Embarrassing, to say the least!!
I'm sure his Coach and/or the Officials will have to answer for this egregious error!!
The more positive dramatic element took place in the Women's 100 heats.
Angela Tenorio of Ecuador "false-started", and was told to leave the starting line.
She did.....in tears and bewilderment!
Later, it was decided she did NOT false-start!
So the officials created a "race".....just for her.....to see if she would "qualify" for the semi's!
She needed to run at least 11.77 to make it.
She was in her blocks......all by herself.......waiting to get down to her start position, when right in front of her, apparently not knowing she was about to run the most important race of her life, the Kenyan 10000 winner, flag draped over his back, ran past her on his victory lap!!
However, after this amusing, yet much loved delay, she finally ran the race.
In 11.27!!
She was in the semi's, and she finally wound up taking the Silver medal!!
And Ms Tenorio was probably the most popular and beloved Silver winner ever!!
That wraps up my report on the WJC of 2014.
I have a few older marks, plus a few new marks to report, but this is far too long already, so will include them when I do my post (on August 2nd!) at the conclusion of the ongoing Commonwealth Games, happening now in Glasgow!!
Hope you all enjoyed the meet (and were able to see it either in person or online....as I did!).
And hope you enjoyed this report.
If you did, please refer my blog to your friends who want ALL the news on T&F Records and Marks, past, present, and future!!
See you in a few days!
Being able to watch the entire meet (for FREE!) on both Universal Sports and USATF-TV feeds made the meet so much more enjoyable, getting to live every dramatic record broken (or those which came sooooo close!) and all the record drama that meets like this bring forth, that those 6 days sped by TOO fast!!
But, speaking of speed, let's take a look AT those 6 days of fierce competition.
Seven Meet Records were broken (though 1 of those was a tie).
And 4 United States HSR's were broken, with one of them being broken TWICE!!
(One of the MR's was also broken twice, which I'll explain in just a minute!)
The event that saw BOTH Meet Records broken were the 10000 Meter Walks.
These took place entirely on Hayward Field's track, so the spectators got to see every step (and mis-step!).
Anezka Drahotova of the Czech Republic took the lead right away, and never gave it up.
She hit 5000 in 21:21, then did 21:26 to get the MR in 42:47.25.
I don't keep Walk records, but this was also a World Junior Record, not to mention the Czech Republic National Record.
Some interesting facts about her:
She's also a runner, qualifying for the 3000SC here. (She didn't run it, as the heats came just a day after her Walk effort!)
And she's a champion bicyclist too!
She has a twin sister, Eliska, who also raced here.
The Men's Walk also produced a Meet Record.
Daisuke Matsunaga of Japan kept a metronomic pace (kept looking at his watch to make sure he was on record pace!), and was successful, clicking off a 39:27.19 for the MR.
(An aside: I really LOVE those Japan team uniform tops!! Great design and colors!)
The 3000SC is rarely run in the USA High School system.
In fact, even the 2000SC isn't a standard event.
So when Colorado's Bailey Roth came to the fore in 2013, it became known that he'd never even SEEN a SC hurdle (or water pit), let alone jumped over one, up to maybe 2-3 weeks before his initial 2000SC race.
But he took to the Steeple like.....heh!.....a fish takes to water!
He ran about 5:45 last year over the 2000 distance.
And this year, at the NBN meet, he lowered that to 5:41.67, the HSR.
Right after that, I tweeted him that, based on his 5:41, he had an excellent chance to take down the HSR over the 3000SC distance.
I won't take credit for his doing so, but he did it.
TWICE!
Coming in with a 9:03 PR (from the WJC Trials earlier this month!), he crushed that mark, AND the HSR of 8:50.1 by Jeff Hess in 1979, with a stunning 8:48.60.
And that was enough to qualify for the final!
He finished 10th, but nipped his own HSR with his time of 8:47.04.
This is, of course, also the HS Senior Class Record!
And it (the first record) moved him from 9th A-T HS up to 1st.....where he remained after the final!
Another "ancient" HSR to fall came in the Women's 100H.
It was clear from the start that the USA's Kendell Williams and Dior Hall would be heavily favored.
However, the Netherlands Nadine Visser made this event more interesting than the pre-meet formsheet indicated.
Visser ran a windy 13.01 in her semi, improving her overall (windy or not) PR by almost two-tenths of a second.
Could she pull off an upset?
Alas, no.
But she DID push the 2 Americans to incredible times!
Williams, who just finished her Freshman year at the University of Georgia, ran a Meet Record time of 12.89.
That record, by Cuba's Aliuska Lopez, was 12.96 from 1988!!
A very close 2nd, Hall ran 12.92, claiming the HSR of 12.95 set by Candy Young way back in...1979!!
(That made TWO 1979 HSR's broken in less than one week!!)
She also, obviously, gets the HS Senior Class Record!
This moves her from 2nd A-T HS into 1st.
But she missed the Age 18 record (by Kristi Castlin) by....0.01 seconds!!
Visser wound up getting a PR with her excellent 12.99!
The MALE version of Kendell Williams ALSO had a pretty fair meet!
To say 9.97 man Trayvon Bromell was the favorite going in would be the understatement of the year!
(Especially after 10.00 guy Trentavis Friday false-started at the Trials!)
So it appeared that Bromell had a clear road ahead to victory.
The only question left was.....How fast could he go?
The answer, sad for him, was not fast enough to win!
Yes, amazingly, Bromell lost, and Williams won!
He'd run a PR of 10.23 in his heat.
This moved him from 23rd A-T HS (tied with 6 others!) up to 15th.
But in the final, he powered to the finish in 10.21, edging out Bromell for the Gold.
This latter time moved him up 3 more spots on my HS DDD list, where he's now 12th, tied with 3 others.
Frenchman Wilhelm Belocian cut through the (invisible) tape in 12.99 in the Men's 110H final.
This too was a Meet Record.
(The race used 39 inch hurdles!)
The overwhelming Men's Triple Jump favorite, Cuba's Lazaro Martinez, just 16 years old (!!), came through as expected.
He didn't PR, but his first jump measured 56-0.50 for the MR.
Then he did it again....for good measure (heh heh, pun intended!!).
His 56-2.50 claimed his own Meet Record!!
He's a pretty big guy physically, and VERY impressive!!
If he stays healthy, and competes a few more years, I could easily see him claiming the World Record someday.
My DDD's for the HS Decathlon is for those using international (adult, professional level) implements (hurdle heights, etc).
The WJC, being a meet for Juniors, obviously used the JUNIOR-size props.
That said, the Czech Republic's Jiri Sykora broke the MR with his 8135 point total.
He's also an impressive looking athlete, and should go on to much success on the Pro circuit.
The two Pole Vaults produced record performances of one kind or another.
And both produced ding-dong battles for places.
While the MR wasn't broken, the Men's vault nabbed a great mark for the USA's Devin King.
Despite getting the same mark as the Silver and Bronze medal winners, King finished just 4th with his PR of 18-0.50!
I want to say this was his first 18 foot vault, but a few days earlier, he'd vaulted 18-0 in a STREET vault!
I don't know (yet) if that mark is acceptable for HS list purposes.
If it is, then THAT was his initial 18 footer.
If not, his WJC mark was.
Whatever the case, his WJC prevailed anyway (by half an inch!).
He moves from 11th A-T HS, tied with 3 others, up to 6th.
And the Women's PV had a humdinger of a battle too.
Russia's Alena Lutkovskaya pulled out the win with her Meet Record-tying height of 14-9.
Two girls got marks of 14-7.25, with America's Desiree Freier prevailing for Silver with her latest HSR.
In fact, she got TWO of those babies in this meet!
The first came when she cleared 14-6.
This was her OUTdoor PR (She'd earlier this season gotten 14-6 INdoors!!), so claimed her own HSR at that height.
She then went higher, her 14-7.25 getting her 2nd place, but 1st place on the A-T HS list.
It's also, of course, the HS 12th Grade Class Record, again breaking her own mark.
AND......it's better than the COLLEGIATE Frosh Class Record!!
This five foot tall (Tall?? LOL) wunderkind misses the United States All-Time Top 24 Performers list by....one-quarter inch!!!
Finally (in the Women's PV), Eliza McCartney claimed the NATIONAL Record (not just the JUNIOR NR, but the OVERALL NR!!) of New Zealand with her Bronze medal-winning height of 14-7.25.
(She had more misses than Freier.)
All 4 Relays were of high quality, but none of them captured the Meet Records.
The closest were the two 4X100's.
The United States won both, missing the Men's MR by a mere 0.04 seconds!
The USA Women won too, but missed the MR by 0.06 seconds!!
In the meet's two closing races, the 4X400 Relays, the MR's weren't threatened, but the USA won both of them fairly easily.
(Japan, however, surprised some by capturing 2nd in the Men's 4X400!!)
Morgan Lake of Great Britain, just 17 years old, won the Heptathlon with her PR of 6148 points.
She HJ'ed a PR of 6-4.25 in that 7-eventer.
She also competed in the Open HJ, winning there with 6-3.
In both jumps, she made 3 attempts each at 6-5.50, which would've been the Age 17 record if she'd succeeded!
Ashlee Moore of the USA scored a PR of 5466 points, but she remains in 5th place on the A-T HS list!
So what happened to the "BIG STAR" of the WJC pre-meet hype?
(aka Mary Cain!)
She did quite well, thank you!
Would you believe she WON the 3000?
And would you also believe she was the first American of either sex to win a distance race in the WJC's??
Not only that, she beat a few Kenyans and Ethiopians while doing so!!
I'll have a post sometime soon about the great depth of HS (and College Frosh) middle and long distance runners on the female side.
In that, I'll speak to the question of whether to accept Cain's marks run AFTER turning Professional as HSR's.
For the nonce, I AM accepting those marks, and including them on my HS DDD's.
Thus, the following should be read with that caveat in mind!!
Mary Cain won the 3000 meters race in 8:58.48.
This broke Lynn Bjorklund's 1975 HSR of 9:08.6.
Finally!!
It also claims the HS Senior Class Record.
And it moves her from 8th A-T HS into 1st.
The race itself was great.
The K splits were a "jogging" 3:03 and 3:04 (6:07 at 2K), with Cain and the Africans in a pack, Cain in 2nd on the inside.
They started to RUN at around 250 or 300 to go, but Cain seemed boxed in.
On the final curve, she tried to break out, but one of the Africans wouldn't let her go.
She actually slowed down, thinking maybe to cut around her from the back.
Then (magically, it seemed to me!!), the African girl ALSO seemed to stop (!!), and Cain sprinted hard into an instant lead, giving it her all the rest of the way, winning by a clear 20 meters!!
This was the Mary Cain of 2013 and Indoors 2014 we all have learned to know and love.
On that final straightaway, I've never seen a better Mary Cain!!
IMHO, she can run 8:35 or thereabouts.
The two "NEXT Mary Cain's", Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny were in the 1500.
They easily made the final, both taking the needed 4th in their heats to qualify.
But they were going up against the much-vaunted Dawit Seyaum of Ethiopia, who had a 3:59 to her credit.
However, their PR's showed them as the 3rd (Efraimson) and 5th (Cranny) fastest runners coming into the final.
It opened a bit fast, but soon became another of those maddening jog-and-kick affairs you see WAY too often in Championship meets.....on any level!!
Both of them ran tactically smart races, with Efraimson sticking closest to the front, Cranny not far back.
This continued through laps of 68 and 69 (2:17 at 800), and they hit the bell (1100 meters) at about 3:08, with the Americans still close.
Could they pull a Cain, and beat these "unbeatable" Africans?
Wish I could say YES!, but alas, it was no.
Alexa tried......really tried.
When Seyaum finally took off, Efraimson sprinted too.
And stuck close for maybe 20 meters.
Then Dawit was GONE!
But she still sprinted, finally running out of gas on the straight, where (somewhat shockingly!), Cranny passed her.
Cranny took 4th, with Efraimson 6th!!
We should remember that in the WJC in Barcelona in 2012, Cain took 6th also, behind Faith Kipyegon's 4:04.96 Meet Record.
A couple of other highly-rated USA High School girls did fairly well, but neither PR'ed.
Raven Saunders got the Silver medal with her final round put.
But TJ'er Keturah Orji just didn't have it here, and didn't medal or PR.
The HSR remains intact, and that 45 foot barrier will have to wait for another prodigy to come along!
The biggest upset of the meet, besides Williams over Bromell in the 100, came in the Women's 800.
Cuban Sahily Diago, despite a PR of 1:57+, was beaten by Margaret Wambui of Kenya!!
Wambui had come in with a PR a full 6 seconds slower than Diago!!
Before I close here, let me report a couple of oddities that occurred!
One was heartWARMING.
The other was heartRENDING!
The latter happened in the heats of the Men's 4X400 Relay.
Nigeria's 2nd man was allowed to cut in after the first turn.
He didn't!!
He continued running the ENTIRE LAP in the FOURTH lane!!!
(I'm not an expert, but my guess is he ran an extra 20 meters!!)
Finally, just before the hand-off, he realized his mistake, sharply cut over to where the 3rd man was waiting for the baton!!
Embarrassing, to say the least!!
I'm sure his Coach and/or the Officials will have to answer for this egregious error!!
The more positive dramatic element took place in the Women's 100 heats.
Angela Tenorio of Ecuador "false-started", and was told to leave the starting line.
She did.....in tears and bewilderment!
Later, it was decided she did NOT false-start!
So the officials created a "race".....just for her.....to see if she would "qualify" for the semi's!
She needed to run at least 11.77 to make it.
She was in her blocks......all by herself.......waiting to get down to her start position, when right in front of her, apparently not knowing she was about to run the most important race of her life, the Kenyan 10000 winner, flag draped over his back, ran past her on his victory lap!!
However, after this amusing, yet much loved delay, she finally ran the race.
In 11.27!!
She was in the semi's, and she finally wound up taking the Silver medal!!
And Ms Tenorio was probably the most popular and beloved Silver winner ever!!
That wraps up my report on the WJC of 2014.
I have a few older marks, plus a few new marks to report, but this is far too long already, so will include them when I do my post (on August 2nd!) at the conclusion of the ongoing Commonwealth Games, happening now in Glasgow!!
Hope you all enjoyed the meet (and were able to see it either in person or online....as I did!).
And hope you enjoyed this report.
If you did, please refer my blog to your friends who want ALL the news on T&F Records and Marks, past, present, and future!!
See you in a few days!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)