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Lead Stories: Sunday, September 7, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 8/26/2008

Posted August 26th, 2008 at 11:37 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Columns, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

ÅF Golden League Down to Two for Jackpot
Friday’s Zurich Weltklasse meet, the second-to-last event in the Golden League series, will have the remaining two athletes contending for the $1 million jackpot. Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo and Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic are undefeated in the series. Jelimo broke her own World Junior Record at the Beijing Olympics, while Vlasic suffered her only defeat in over a year. The meet, known as “The Olympics In One Night” due to the strength of the competition, will be carried on ESPN Classic on Friday afternoon. IAAF

Catherine Ndereba Confirms She Didn’t Know She Was Behind
Her agent tells Runner’s World’s Amby Burfoot that she lost sight of eventual marathon champion Constantina Tomescu-Dita when she made her break, and excessive security kept the information from being relayed to her. She never tried to close the gap because she thought her group was leading the race. Runner’s World

Coach deserves Texas-sized blame for Games
In a searing editorial, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette lays blame for Olympic disappointments at the feet of head coach Bubba Thornton due to his forcing legend John McDonnell off the US staff. That McDonnell was the coach at Arkansas while Thornton is at rival Texas had nothing to do with their analysis, of course.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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SoundOFF: Was the US Olympic Team a Disaster?

Posted August 24th, 2008 at 6:01 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, SoundOFF, Columns, Olympics

In a piece for Sports Illustrated’s online Olympic coverage titled “Putting U.S.’ so-called ‘disaster’ Games in the proper context“, Tim Layden lays out the numbers. His conclusion: “It is clearly stretching the truth to call Beijing a disaster for USA Track and Field. It is also stretching the truth to call it a success.” Other writers, such as USA Today’s Dick Patrick, ESPN’s Luke Cyphers, and the Washington Post’s Amy Shipley have all commented on a percieved underperformance.

The final numbers: seven gold medals, 23 total, and 40 top-eight finishes. How does this compare with the USA’s historical numbers? (1983 Worlds are substituted for the ‘84 boycott games, and the Sydney numbers are before BALCO-related sanctions.)

While it’s not a true low point in terms of gold medals, remember that there were many fewer women’s events in 1972 and ‘76, and the USA women contributed zero golds and just three medals to the team totals in each of those Olympics. All things considered, it’s probably the weakest outing ever, but not by much. So why the general perception of failure? Several reasons spring to mind.
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Bekele Defends Olympic 10,000m Title; Rupp 13th

Posted August 17th, 2008 at 2:00 PM by Stephanie Lowe

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine reclaimed gold and silver for Ethiopia in the men’s 10,000 meters Sunday night in Beijing. Three-time world champion and 10,000m/5000m world record holder Bekele ran 27:01.17 to break the Olympic record, which he set in Athens.

“It was a very big goal for me to win this title - my dreams have come true to win tonight,” Bekele said afterward.

Sihine was close behind Bekele in 27:02.77 and Kenya’s Micah Kogo won the bronze with a time of 27:04.11. Kogo barely outkicked fellow Kenyan Moses Ndiema Masai at the finish line.
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Dathan Ritzenhein: Next Stop … Beijing Olympic Marathon
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 12)

Posted August 13th, 2008 at 7:00 PM by Dathan Ritzenhein

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Dathan Ritzenhein

Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein! Check back every other Tuesday for Ritz’s latest entry at http://dathanritzenhein.thefinalsprint.com as he prepares to represent the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics!

It has been a long couple of days. I left Eugene on Tuesday morning and flew to San Jose for team processing. For the second trip in a row I had a rough start. My flight was cancelled from Eugene so Nick Symmonds, Andrew Wheating and I had to drive to Portland and our flight from there ended up delayed. By the time we got to team processing everyone was already done and so we had to blast through and get caught up. The amount of gear we got was amazing, but I have to say it was all very cool. We then had to get up early and Teg [Matt Tegenkamp]and I tried to get a 60 min run in at 5:00 before we left. Once we got to Beijing I was beat, but still managed to make it out for a 70 min run.

The village is awesome. It is so much nicer than Athens. The opening ceremonies were the next day and the feeling of walking into the stadium (under the same tunnel that the marathon will finish into) gave me chills. It helped to dull the experience of standing on our feet for eight hours. We also got to meet President Bush and Bush Sr. That was a cool experience - regardless of your individual political views.
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2008 Beijing Olympic Preview: Women’s High Jump

Posted August 9th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Women’s High Jump
The Schedule: qualifying, Thursday Aug 21; final, Saturday Aug 23
The Americans: #6 Chaunte Howard, #8 Amy Acuff, #14 Sharon Day
The Contenders: #1 Blanka Vlašic (CRO) [Pictured], #2 Yelena Slesarenko (RUS), #3 Anna Chicherova (RUS), #4 Ariane Friedrich (GER), #5 Tia Hellebaut (BEL)
The Stats: Records, 2008 List, 2007 Worlds, 2004 Olympics
The Medal Picks: T&FN - Vlašic, Slesarenko, Friedrich; SI - Vlašic, Friedrich, Slesarenko
The Story: Vlašic is probably the strongest favorite in the Olympic track & field competition. She has not lost in over a year, and has cleared 6′ 8″ (2.03m) or better twelve times this year, versus three times for the rest of the world combined (Friedrich, Chicherova and Slesarenko have each done it once).

This does not mean she cannot be beaten, but it would take a below-average day for her and a career day for someone else. Chicherova, the Russian champion, might be the one to do it. But the most likely scenario is a dogfight for silver and bronze followed by a victorious Vlašic taking shots at the World Record.

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SoundOFF: NBC, Track & Beijing

Posted August 7th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, SoundOFF, Columns, Olympics, Drugs In Sports

The Associated Press published an article a few weeks ago headlined No longer exalted, track slouches toward Beijing:

Track and field is slouching toward Beijing. To climb back on its pedestal, the sport needs the world to pay attention to the compelling story lines at these Summer Games, highlighted by what could be the greatest men’s 100-meter race in history and a Chinese megastar named Liu Xiang.

The story touches on a number of issues that have been discussed recently. Most telling is NBC’s treatment of track compared to other sports.

With the recent U.S. track trials and the swimming trials running concurrently, NBC chose to place Bob Costas, the face of its Olympics coverage, by the pool in Omaha, Neb., rather than trackside in Eugene, Ore.

That pecking order will be evident in China, too. During the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, swimming and gymnastics will be broadcast as they happen in prime time in the United States, even though that meant switching the start times to morning in Beijing. Track and field will be shown in the evening, but on tape — the suspense of the results gone in this wired world.

The trials in those three sports were illustrative. The overnight ratings on NBC averaged 3.9 for swimming, 3.3 for gymnastics and 3.2 for track and field.

It is a major reworking of priorities on US television that swimming and gymnastics are being made the top draw over track & field. NBC is of course tight-lipped about their reasons, leaving the rest of us to speculate, and inevitably the reason most often cited is the abundance of doping scandals in track. I’m not sure I buy it.
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Dathan Ritzenhein: NYC Half-Marathon & On to Beijing
(Elite Athlete Blog Entry 11)

Posted July 30th, 2008 at 2:17 PM by Dathan Ritzenhein

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Dathan Ritzenhein

Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Dathan Ritzenhein! Check back every other Tuesday for Ritz’s latest entry at http://dathanritzenhein.thefinalsprint.com as he prepares to represent the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics!

If our travel to New York City was any indication of how the race was going to go, it was not looking good. It was an epic battle to get to New York, but we finally made it.

Early Wednesday morning my wife, daughter and I boarded the plane with the intentions of landing in the city early evening that day. But good ol’ Mother Nature was not having anything of the sort. Our flight out of Denver was delayed from the get go, which was no big deal, however after 2 ½ hours in flight our captain announced that there were storms on the east coast and we will be circling in a holding pattern until the storm clears. Well, long story short, we ran out of fuel, had to land in Pittsburgh, the pilots reached their maximum amount of flying hours, and the next thing we know we are staying the night in Pennsylvania. Our plane was not the only one to land in Pittsburgh, so they made arrangements for everyone to be rebooked in the morning. After a few more hours of being delayed we finally made it to NY, 36 hours later.
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Team USA Roster Set for Beijing Olympics

Posted July 14th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Image details: U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials - Day Four served by picapp.com

USA Track & Field released its Olympic squad today, and the experienced team, which includes 15 Olympic and 31 outdoor World Championships medalists, will be amongst the strongest in Beijing.

“This Olympic Team is one of our strongest ever, with more medal-winning experience in a wider range of events, from sprints to distances and field events, than we’ve had in many decades,” said USATF President and acting CEO Bill Roe in a prepared statement.
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NBC Sports & WCSN Partner to Launch Universal Sports

Posted June 17th, 2008 at 8:30 AM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics

Press Release: NBC Sports, a division of NBC Universal, and World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) have joined forces to create Universal Sports. Universal Sports will combine NBCU’s programming and production expertise and promotional power with WCSN’s leading online destination for Olympic sports plus its growing television network to create the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic sports programming.

The announcement was made today by Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics and Leo Hindery, Jr., Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners, the controlling shareholder of WCSN. Universal Sports will include both a television network and a robust online platform UniversalSports.com.
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Last Chance: AMC High Performace Track and Field Series

Posted June 13th, 2008 at 1:00 PM by Stephanie Lowe

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

Four years of preparation boil down to one weekend for athletes on the verge of making the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. This Sunday, June 15, is the last day to qualify.

A highly competitive last chance meet takes place Saturday night at the IUPUI track in Indianapolis. It is the final meet of the 2008 American Milers Club High Performance Track and Field Series created by Indiana Invaders coach Greg Harger. The series began May 31 and continued June 9 and 11. The AMC meet on June 14 features 800-meter, 1500-meter and 3000-meter steeplechase races.

The rabbitted races are run with on the Mondo track after 9:30 p.m. when weather conditions are calm. The goal of the AMC meet is to provide an ideal environment for running fast times since most of the athletes want to hit Olympic Trials standard times.
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