Image details: U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials - Day Five served by picapp.com
Sanya Richards put to bed all debate about who is the best women’s 400 meter, running 49.89 on Thursday night.
Afterwards Richards said “I was very happy to go sub 50 seconds. Today might have been the worst day for sprinting, it was very windy down the backstretch. I am extremely happy to have executed a race that allowed me to finish in the top three. Her fiancé, New York Giants corner back Aaron Glenn was in the stands to watch her victory.
Joining her on the Olympic Team is Mary Wineberg (50.85), and Dee Dee Trotter (50.88). Trotter managed to make the team even though her right knee needs surgery at the end of the season. “I was like Tiger [Woods] at the U.S. Open, only I was running at the Olympic Trials to qualify for Beijing.“
Read the rest of this entry »
The Week In the Rear View is a weekly column wrapping up the week’s events in running and track & field. I am normally found at PreraceJitters.com, writing about the fast life of track and field.
This was a week that saw records drop. The Prefontaine Classic is one of the hallowed places in the United States to host a track and field meet. The standing ovation for Maria Mutola was griping. The track great won her 16th and final Pre Classic 800. One track expert I spoke with on the phone after the meet summed it up best saying, “The fans at Pre really get it. They really get the sport.”
Jeremy Wariner did more than “bounce back” from the rare loss to LaShawn Merritt in Berlin last week. The Olympic and World Champion ran 43.98 in the IAAF Golden League Meet in Oslo on Friday. Some of the pundits may have forgotten that Michael Johnson lost to Frankie Fredricks in the 200 after the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials and before going on to run 19.32 the Olympics Games.
Vlasic Aims For Gold, Record At Beijing Olympics
World champion high jumper Blanca Vlasic from Croatia , whose aim is to win the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics high jump, also has her sights on another goal, saying, “I would say it is possible that I could win the gold in Beijing with a world record.”
Read more at: [Reuters]
Michael Johnson “Shocked” By Bolt’s 100m Time
After Jamaica’s fabulous early-season time of 9.76 seconds in the 100m dash at the Jamaica International Invitational, legendary sprinter Michael Johnson said, “Usain said he was shocked. I’m shocked too.” Even so, he advised Bolt “not to get too carried away with the performance.”
Read more at: [Caribbean Net News, Cayman Islands]
Great News From Ann Gaffigan’s Training Camp
Ann Gaffigan, the former American-record holder in the 3000m steeplechase, has published a new blog post that ha some great news for the runner who has had her share of bad news over the past year or two. Despite having a bad race lately (she trained through it) she writes that “my workouts have been better than ever before, yes I felt like my old self at the Mt. SAC Relays, yes my iron levels are high, my heart rate is low, my speed is good and my strength even better.”
Read more at: [Steeplechics]
Read the rest of this entry »
Who is the greatest male runner of all time? If you ask ten different track aficionados, you’ll probably get ten different answers, but I thought I’d take a look at some statistics to try and arrive at my own conclusion. I based my analysis on the fastest 50 performances of all time in every Olympic running event from 100 meters all the way up to the marathon. I tallied the number of times each name appeared in any of the events (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10000m, Marathon, 110mH, 400mH, 3000mSC) and then added the totals if any athlete had top 50 performances in more than one event. Most of the athletes who had 10 or more top-50-alltime performances have done so in more than one event.
Of all the runners who had 10 or more top-50 performances, which nations were most represented? Not surprisingly, the United States was represented by the most with 6 athletes, followed by Ethiopia with 2 and then 6 countries with 1 athlete each: Denmark, Jamaica, Kenya, Morocco, Qatar, and Trinidad. Based on that information alone, you can probably guess some of the names on the list.
Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Johnson: I Played No Part in Wariner’s Decision
World-record holder Michael Johnson says he played no role in Jeremy Wariner’s decision to split with long-time coach Clyde Hart. He also said that it won’t affect Wariner’s chances of winning the 400m gold medal in the Beijing Olympics.
Read more at: [Guardian Unlimited]
Defar To Try For 3000m WR in Stuttgart
Coming off a world-best in the unofficial 2-Mile Run in Boston, Meseret Defar is gunning for a world record in the 3000m at the Sparkassen Cup meet in Stuttgart this weekend. She holds the current record of 8:23.72. Her 2-Mile time of 9:10.50 in Boston was equivalent to a 8:29.8 in the 3000m.
Read more at: [IAAF]
IAAF Preview of 101st Millrose Games
The IAAF Valencia ‘08 site (the home of the 2008 Indoor Track & Field Championships) is featuring a preview of the 101st Millrose Games. The meet will be held in New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Friday night.
Read more at: [IAAF]
Read the rest of this entry »
IAAF Overrides British Governing Body Ruling
British sprinter Dwain Chambers got support from the IAAF when UK Athletics ruled him ineligible for a “comeback” because of a 2003 positive test for steroids. In a messy dispute that could end up in court, UKA is sticking to a ruling stating that retired athletes must undergo a year of negative tests. The IAAF, however, is stating that they never received an official retirement letter, so the rule does not apply to him unless UKA can produce such a letter.
Read more at: [Times Online, UK][Athletics Weekly][More]
Michael Johnson Backs IAAF’s Pistorius Ban
Michael Johnson, the retired 400m world-record holder, agrees with the IAAF’s decision to ban double-amputee Oscar Pistorius because his prosthetic legs (dubbed “Cheetahs”) offer him an “unfair advantage” over other athletes. “If he was racing at the same time as me,” Johnson said, “I would also think the same thing.”
Read more at: [The Tide]
Wariner and Legendary Coach Hart Ways
Clyde Hart, Baylor’s legendary coach who trained Michael Johnson, has parted ways with current 400m world champion Jeremy Wariner after a contract dispute in which Wariner sought to reduce the coach’s percentage. Sanya Richards will continue to train under Hart.
Read more at: [Waco Tribune]
Read the rest of this entry »
Record breaking Olympians Sir Steve Redgrave and Michael Johnson took time out from the 2008 Commercialbank Qatar Masters, Presented by Dolphin Energy, to visit the ASPIRE Academy for Excellence – and were immediately impressed with the ultra-modern facilities.
The two sportsmen – who between them amassed ten Olympic gold medals – were taken on a guided tour of the facilities by Prof. Dr. Dieter Hackfort, Dean ASPIRE & Director QESA Department who briefed them on the aims and function of ASPIRE before explaining the workings of the sport psychology aspect of the Academy in which they were especially interested.
Redgrave, who won five consecutive rowing golds, and US sprinter Johnson – winner of gold at 200m, 400m and 4×400m relay – toured the complex as part of their visit to Doha as guests of Commercialbank.
And the American admitted it was an eye-opening experience. “We don’t have anything like this in the US as most young people play sport anyway and there is an automatic natural process of selection,” he said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Eugene, Ore., will host the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2008, and the U.S. Outdoor Championships in 2009 and 2011. In between, USATF announced today, the national championship meet will move to Des Moines, Iowa, home of Drake University and the Drake Relays.
“For several years, we have wanted to bring one of our premiere events to Drake Stadium,” USATF CEO Masback said in a prepared statement. “The Drake Relays is truly a community event with phenomenal fan support, and that community spirit shone through in Des Moines’ bid. We look forward to building a very strong partnership with local organizers for what will be an outstanding 2010 USA Outdoor Championships.”
Drake Stadium will get a $15 million renovation for the championships. “We envisioned that the facility would make Drake and Des Moines the Midwest capital of track and field,” Drake President David Maxwell said. “This event is a huge plus not only for Drake but also Des Moines and Iowa as a whole.”
(c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
I was curious to know whether or not any single runner has posted world-class times in all of the following events: 100m, 200m, 400m and the 800m. I didn’t expect to find any (I didn’t) but I was shocked to learn that only 4 men have run world class times in the 100m, 200m and 400m.
Here are all of the men who have run world-class times in the 100m, 200m and 400m and their best times in each event:
Robson Caetano da Silva (BRA) 10.02 | 19.96 | 45.06
Xavier Carter (at right) (USA) 10.09 | 19.63 | 44.53
Michael Johnson (USA) 10.09 | 19.32 | 43.18
Michael Marsh (USA) 9.93 | 19.73 | 45.08
Read the rest of this entry »
Three-time World Outdoor champion and 2007 Jesse Owens Award winner Tyson Gay was named the Male World Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo over the weekend.
Gay had an historic year in 2007, sweeping the 100 and 200 meters at both the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Osaka and the USA Outdoor Championships. He added World Outdoor gold in the 4×100m to become the fourth man in World Championships history to win three gold medals at a single championship.
Read the rest of this entry »
I frequently scan the internet headlines in search of any news whatsoever about Jeremy Wariner; much to my dismay, he has been tight-lipped for much of the season. Lately, however, media reports about him have been a little more frequent.
Last week, he gave an interview in which he said he has […]
Undeterred by a soggy track and slight headwind, Tyson Gay cemented his status as the world’s dominant sprinter by winning the AT&T men’s 200 meters in the second-fastest time in history Sunday at AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. In addition to two national titles, Gay came away from the meet with the men’s […]
Former Hogs Tyson Gay and Wallace Spearmon, Jr. took first and second place, respectively, in the 200-meter finals on day four of competition at the AT&T USA Championships at Indianapolis’ Michael A. Carroll Stadium on the campus of IUPUI.
With a personal best and the fastest time run in the world this year, Gay won the […]
American Jeremy Wariner, a 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist who is represented by Michael Johnson, was able to top Olympians Darold Williams and Jamaica’s Michael Blackwood for yet another win in the 400m at today’s adidas Track Classic.
Wariner, who was initially behind Blackwood, took the lead after the first turn and ran away with the race. […]
After winning the 400m yesterday at the Norwich Indoor Union Grand Prix, his only planned indoor race of the season, Xavier “X-Man” Carter was disqualified and stripped of the victory.
Race officials reported that Carter stepped out of lane before taking the lead from Britain’s Robert Tobin. Carter was said that he was “shocked” by […]
John Einmahl, a Dutch mathematician and professor at Tilberg University in Germany, claims to have recently discovered that the world record in the 100m sprint can be lowered by another half-second.
Einmahl claims that Asafa Powell’s current record of 9.77 seconds mark can be reduced to 9.29 now, and Paul Tergat’s record of 2:04:55 can only […]
The Special Jury of the International Athletic Foundation will finally reveal the male and female “Performance of the Year” winners. The announcement will be made tonight, November 12, 2006 at the 2006 World Athletics Gala. The event will take place in the Salle des Etoiles of the Sporting Club d’Eté, Monte-Carlo
According to the […]
Dear Marion:
Please listen to and comply with the following advice from the world’s 200m and 400m record holder - Mr. Michael Johnson:
“For the sake of her own well-being and the sport, it would be best if she went away quietly.”
Johnson is giving you VERY sound guidance. Your reputation is beyond repair. […]
The American Men’s Team came close to winning their fourth team victory at the World Athletics Final. However, in the end, the Europeans held the lead and came away as the Final champions for the men. The American Women finished a lowly sixth, with the Russians winning the team title.
The American Men’s […]
Xavier Carter and Jeremy Wariner have both decided to run in the London Grand Prix on July 28, 2006 at the Crystal Palace. Carter, nicknamed the “X-Man”, and Wariner will be joining an incredible field of runners at the race, including Englishman Asafa Powell.
Powell is tied for the 100m world-record with Justin […]
© 2006-2008 The Final Sprint, LLC | Privacy Policy | Design by The Blog Studio
The Final Sprint, LLC is owned and operated by Adam Jacobs
The Final Sprint