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Lead Stories: Friday, December 5, 2008

Top Triple-Threat Sprinters of All Time (Women)

Posted December 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Yesterday we took a look at the top male triple-threat sprinters of all time. I had been curious to find out whether or not any man has ever run a world class time in all of the following events: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m. No man has ever done so. What about the women?

I turns out that one woman in track history has run a world-class time in all four events. Jarmila Kratochvílová (CZE) has run a time of 11.09 in the 100m, 21.97 in the 200m, 47.99 in the 400m, and – of course – her long-standing world-record time of 1:53.28 in the 800m. A caveat must be added to any mention of an achievement of this sort: although she never tested positive, rumors of her doping have persisted ever since she stormed onto the world-class running scene in the early 1980s. According to Wikipedia, “doctors administered banned substances, such as nandrolone, norandrosterone and stanozolol, through the 1980s to Czechoslovakian athletes in a wide variety of sports including track and field athletics.”
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Team USA ties gold medal record; Lagat and Felix make history

Posted September 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

It was a night of firsts, and one of history, for Team USA Sunday night in the final session of competition at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

With victories in the men’s and women’s 4×400m relays, the United States became the first country to sweep all four relays at a World Outdoor Championships.

Bernard Lagat became the first man to win the 1,500/5,000m double at Worlds, and the first American ever to medal in the 5,000.

Allyson Felix became the second woman in history to win three gold medals at a single World Championships, as the relay team of Dee Dee Trotter, Felix, Mary Wineberg and Sanya Richards ran the fastest time in 14 years.

The men’s 4×400m relay of LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, Darold Williamson and Jeremy Wariner ran the third-fastest time in history.

Breaux Greer became the first American since the inaugural World Championships in 1983 to win a medal in the men’s javelin.

At the close of competition, Team USA tied the all-time World Championships record for gold medals with 14, matching its feat from 2005, and tied the American all-time medal tally at a World Outdoor Championships with 26. Team USA led a medal table in which a record 46 countries won medals; Kenya had five gold and 13 overall, and Russia had four gold and 16 overall. The other occasion on which the United States won 26 medals, in 1991, just 29 countries were on the medal table.

Not a bad night.
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World records likely in Osaka?

Posted August 23rd, 2007 at 9:00 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

The Osaka track is extremely fast, as evidenced by Jeremy Wariner’s early-season 44.02 back on May 5th, 2007 at the Osaka Grand Prix. That bodes well for the sprints, obviously, which means that most of the distance records are probably safe. Hard tracks are best for sprinting, while soft tracks are best for distance races. So which world records are safe and which ones could be broken in Osaka?

The two safest records are undoubtedly Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1:53.28 in the women’s 800m and Marita Koch’s 47.60 in the women’s 400m. These records were set way back in 1983 and 1985, respectively, and will probably be safe for some time to come. The 2007 world’s best for the 800m, set this week by Ukraine’s Yuliya Krevsun in Bangkok, Thailand, is 1:57.63, nearly 4 1/2 seconds slower than Kratochvílová’s controversial mark.

Rumors of drug use by both Kratochvílová and Koch persist, their best marks having come during the heyday of the Cold War when nationally-sponsored doping programs within the Iron Curtain were rampant. It should be noted, however, that neither neither athlete ever tested positive for PED’s and both records are still considered to be official by the IAAF.
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