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Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

Walker breaks AR, Mutola wins for 16th time at Nike Prefontaine Classic

Posted June 8th, 2008 at 11:34 PM by thefinalsprint.com

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Meet records fell across all event groups, none bigger than Brad Walker’s American record in the pole vault, and Maria Mutola had a historic exit Sunday at the Nike Prefontaine Classic.

The fourth event of USATF’s Visa Championship Series, the Nike Prefontaine Classic drew a meet-record 14,221 fans to Hayward Field, site of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field June 27-July 6. They were treated to a formidable show, including no fewer than eight meet records and Walker’s AR.

The 2007 world champion, Walker looked magnificent throughout the competition. He had just one miss, at his opening height of 5.70m/18-8.25, then passed to 5.90m/19-4.25, which he cleared on his first attempt and which won the competition for him. Walker then elevated the bar to 6.04m/19-9.75. On his very first attempt, he cleared, brushing the bar just a bit, but leaving it up.
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2008 Reebok Grand Prix Preview

Posted May 31st, 2008 at 8:00 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

With the 2008 IAAF Golden League kicking off in Berlin this weekend, outdoor track is in full swing. This being an Olympic year, every major meet from here on out can offer a piece of what the final Olympic track & field puzzle might look like. The 2008 Reebok Grand Prix, which begins tonight, May 31, 2008, at at 5:00pm in Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City, NY, is no exception. Here are some quick glimpses into many of the events that will be held tonight:

100m

Men: Fresh off a sizzling 9.76 (just 0.02 slower than Asafa Powell’s world record), Usain Bolt will face World Champion Tyson Gay, who is facing some pre-Olympic jitters. Both men are fully capable of blowing their starts, which would offer Shawn Crawford and Xavier Carter some hope. There’s an A race and a B race. That’s always a letdown, isn’t it?

Women: Loaded with stellar American and Jamaican sprinters, this race should be a preview of the Olympic final: Veronica Campbell Brown, Lauryn Williams, Allyson Felix, Torri Edwards, more.

200m

Men: Wallace Spearmon is the only man in the race to have broken 20 seconds. It’s his race for the taking.

Women: Lashauntea Moore, the 9th fastest 200m runner of 2007 (22.46) faces Muna Lee, the 2nd fastest in the world (22.30) from 2008 and Shalonda Solomon, the 7th fastest in the world (22.36) in 2006. Keep an eye out for University of Texas freshman Bianca Knight, who turned pro this year after running a fabulous 22.40.
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TFS News Briefs: 3/07/08

Posted March 7th, 2008 at 5:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Drugs In Sports, TFS News Briefs

IAAF World Championships Event Reports/Previews
You can read up on all of the happenings in the World Indoor Championships by going to the IAAF’s Valencia ‘08 website. So far, gold medals have gone to Christian Cantwell (USA) in the men’s shot put, Angela Williams (US) in the women’s 60m dash, Tia Hellebaut (BEL) in the women’s pentathlon and Olusoji A. Fasuba (NIG) in the men’s 60m dash. Read more at: [IAAF WIC 08]

Coverage of World Championships on WCSN, VERSUS
You can catch the action from Valencia both online and on TV. Links to this coverage are available on Track & Field News’ home page (in section titled Latest Results).
Read more at: [Track & Field News]

Dwain Chambers Wins Silver Medal, Vows To “Do It Clean”
After his silver-medal-winning finish at the 2008 World Indoor Championships, Dwain Chambers has vowed to “put out a new script that you can do it clean.” He is getting the word out in an anti-drug campaign in which he will “start going into schools, use myself as an example to talk to kids to not go down the road I took.”
Read more at: [Times Online, UK]
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TFS News Briefs: 2/26/08

Posted February 26th, 2008 at 11:00 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

Controversial Front-Runner For USATF Presidency
Montreal 4×400m gold medalist Herman Frazier is being considered for the role of president, according to an article on the UH website. Frazier is a controversial choice, having made some unpopular decisions while athletic director at two different universities.
Read more at: [University of Hawaii][Wikipedia]

Incipient Shot Put Feud?
Christian Cantwell may have begun a feud with fellow shot-putter Reese Hoffa by calling him a hypocrite when Hoffa refused to bring Cantwell’s shot put to the US Indoor Championships. Hoffa defended himself against the volatile Cantwell, saying he wasn’t going to help his competitor. Adam Nelson was mentioned during the verbal exchange. Is this fuel to spark the big men’s competitive fires, or is it a major distraction in an Olympic year?
Read more at: [Boston Globe]

Pre-Worlds Profile of the Great Maria Mutola
The IAAF website has a profile of the great 800m runner Maria Mutola, who will toe the line in Valencia, Spain for her 8th gold medal in the indoor world championships. Mutola will retire after the Beijing Olympics to devote her time to her charity Foundation in Mozambique.
Read more at: [IAAF]
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Nelson Launches Huge Throw at Tyson Invitational

Posted February 16th, 2008 at 10:00 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The most decorated shot putter in World Outdoor Championships history, Adam Nelson continued a streak of amazing performances to win the Visa men’s shot put Friday night in front of 4,519 screaming fans at the 2008 Tyson Invitational.

The fourth stop of the 2008 USA Track & Field Visa Championship Series, the Tyson Invitational will be televised on February 17 from 5-7 p.m. Eastern Time on ESPN.

Nelson’s world-leading throw of 22.40 meters/73 feet 6 inches in the Visa men’s shot put is the third-best performance of all time in the shot, and he offered it up in front of the second-largest crowd in meet history at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville. For his efforts, the four-time World Outdoor medalist was named the Team USA Athlete of the Meet, presented by Visa.
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TFS News Briefs: 2/15/2008

Posted February 15th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs, Masters

Tyson Invitational Has High Profile Athletes
The Tyson Invitational meet will be held this weekend at the University of Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Indoor Track in Fayettville. Some huge names will be competing, including Sanya Richards, Wallace Spearmon, Jenn Stuczynski and the shot put and an all-star shot put shootout that will feature Adam Nelson, Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell and Dan Taylor.
Read more at: [Google News][Tyson Invitational Start List]

Lagat To Run 10000m in London?
Bernard Lagat has hinted that he may move up in distance for the 2012 London Olympics, saying that, “athletes like Haile Gebrselassie [have shown] how possible it is to be stronger as you get older.” Lagat will compete in the 3000m event this weekend at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham, England.
Read more at: [BirminghamMail.net, UK]

IAAF Tokyo Marathon Preview
The Tokyo Marathon will be held this Sunday, February 18th and it will be doubling as Japan’s Olympic Men’s marathon Trials. A slew of speedy foreign runners has been invited, including Daniel Njenga of Kenya, a 2:06 marathoner. Historically, Japan has been strong in the marathon at the international level, so – with its mix of domestic and foreign talent – this should prove to be a high-octane race.
Read more at: [IAAF][Tokyo Marathon Website]
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Two World Champs Added To The Millrose Games Lineup

Posted January 15th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Two reigning World Champions, shot putter Reese Hoffa (Pictured) and pole vaulter Brad Walker, will return to Madison Square Garden on Feb. 1 to compete in the 101st Millrose Games, organizers announced today. Both were ranked #1 in the world for 2007 by Track & Field News magazine.

Hoffa, a longtime Millrose Games and New York favorite, is coming off the best year of his career, winning world titles both indoors and outdoors in 2007 and notching the two longest throws of the year. Walker, the defending Millrose pole vault champ, is also the 2006 World Indoor Champion and a silver medalist from the 2005 World Championships.

Joining Hoffa will be the #2 and #3 shot putters in the world: 2005 World Champion Adam Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist and three-time World Championships silver medalist, and Christian Cantwell, the 2004 World Indoor Champion who last year set a Millrose Games record with his victory here.
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U.S. stars set to compete at World Athletics Final

Posted September 20th, 2007 at 7:40 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Team USA standouts Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards, Brad Walker, Wallace Spearmon, Lauryn Williams, Reese Hoffa and Walter Davis lead a strong cast of U.S. stars slated to compete this weekend at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 2005 World 200m women’s champion, Allyson Felix defended her title at the World Championships in Osaka with the largest margin of victory in World Championships history, striding to the gold medal and a huge personal best of 21.81 seconds, the fastest time run by a woman this century. Felix, who has posted the three fastest 200m times in the world this year, also won gold in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, splitting 48.0 in the 4×4. She will compete in the 100 meters in Stuttgart.

For the second consecutive year, Richards earned a share of the IAAF Golden League Jackpot by winning the women’s 400 meters at all six prestigious European meets. She enters Stuttgart with the four fastest women’s 400m times in the world this year, including the world-leading 49.27 she ran Sunday to close out her Golden League victories in Berlin.
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On the Road & Around the Track: TFS News Briefs September 18, 2007

Posted September 18th, 2007 at 3:32 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, TFS News Briefs

New York City Marathon: Women’s Competition Intensifies
As if a New York City Marathon field that included returning top three Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, Tatiana Hladyr of Ukraine and Catherine Ndereba of Kenya wasn’t enough, now Gete Wami of Ethiopia, Lidiya Grigoryeva of Russia, and Tegla Loroupe of Kenya have announced that they will be competing on November 4th. They will be competing for a prize of $130,000 plus a Toyota Prius. Read more at: [IAAF] [ING NYC Marathon]

Steve Cram Calls IAAF World Athletics Final “Pointless and Bemusing”
In a Guardian Unlimited article critical of the IAAF’s current race structure, British miling legend Steve Cram is calling for a makeover of not only the World Athletics Final, but also the Golden League and even the World Championships. Read more at: [Guardian Unlimited]

World Athletics Final Previews: Throws and Jumps
Previews of the Jumps and the Throws at the World Athletics Final this weekend in Stuttgart, Germany are available on the IAAF World Athletics Final website. Reese Hoffa, Christian Cantwell, Stefan Holm, Blanka Vlasic and Yelena Isinbayeva are some of the key field-event athletes going into the meet. Read more at: [IAAF WAF07]
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IAAF Men’s World Rankings: Who Climbed and Who Dropped (8/07/2007)

Posted August 7th, 2007 at 5:09 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

This week I begin a weekly glance at the athletes who climb and drop in the IAAF World Rankings Top 100 list. In this post, I take a look at the men. I’ll cover the women in a later post.

Some highlights on the men’s side: Jeremy Wariner climbed from 6th place in the rankings to 4th place after his outstanding 43.50 400m in Stockholm. Stefan Holm climbed 9 places after his impressive world-lead tying high jump of 2.35m at the DN Galan meet.

Reese Hoffa jumped 87 places to 21st after his outstanding world-leading 22.43 heave in the shot put. Haile Gebrselassie’s 59:24 at the NY 1/2 Marathon earned him a spot on the rankings at number 32.

Here are the rest of the climbers from this week in the IAAF World Rankings:

4. (6) Jeremy WARINER, USA, 400m
12. (14) Wallace SPEARMON, USA, 200m
21. (29) Reese HOFFA, USA, Shot Put
25. (31) Usain BOLT, JAM, 200m
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