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Lead Stories: Thursday, August 28, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 4/16/08

Posted April 16th, 2008 at 2:50 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Liu Campbell and Williams to Headline Reebok Grand Prix
Lauren Williams will square off against Veronica Campbell-Brown and Liu Xiang will defend his hurdles title at the Reebok Grand Prix on May 31st, 2008 at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York. All three are expected to contend for gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Read more at: [Reebok Grand Prix]

Ryan Hall Earns USA TODAY Olympic Athlete of the Week Award
Ryan Hall seems to have won the hearts and minds of the mainstream media after his dazzling 2:06:17 PR at the London Marathon this past weekend. Hall won out over “soccer player Natasha Kai, swimmer Ryan Lochte and beach volleyball tandem Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.”
Read more at: [USA Today]

New Zealand Selects Lean & Mean Beijing Track Team
Two Kiwi marathoners who have met the Olympic “A” standard have not been selected for the New Zealand Olympic team. Athletics New Zealand secretary-general Barry Maister defended the decision, saying that they “would only select athletes who made the A standard and not only that but meet it consistently and in major events.”
Read more at: [New Zealand Herald]
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TFS News Briefs: 2/18/2008

Posted February 18th, 2008 at 3:57 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Asafa: 80% Chance He’s Race Thursday
Asafa Powell, still healing after cutting his knee, says he is “70 to 80″ percent sure he start in Thursday’s Melbourne Grand Prix. He also wants a lifetime ban for drug cheats, against whom he says he’s certain to run in Beijing.
Read more at: [Melbourne Herald Sun][Jamaica Gleaner]

Central Florida: New Hotbed of Track
With new residents Tyson Gay and Veronica Campbell leading the way, Central Florida’s Clermont is the newest hotbed of elite track and field. Gay and Campbell, along with several other adidas-sponsored athletes are training there for the Beijing Olympics.
Read more at: [Orlando Sentinel]

Tariku Bekele - Craig Mottram Showdown Will Have To Wait
Tariku Bekele has pulled out of Thursday’s Melbourne Grand Prix, leaving Craig Mottram disappointed. Mottram had wanted to race the Ethiopian at the 5000m distance in front of a home crowd.
Read more at: [The Age, Australia]
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2008 Track & Field Previews & Prediction: Women’s Sprints

Posted January 25th, 2008 at 1:05 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

If you take a peek at the top women sprinters so far in this early 2008 indoor season, you’ll see that the lists are dominated by the Russians in the 60m, 200m and 400m dashes.

That will soon change, for the Americans and Jamaicans are sprinting juggernauts. Veronica Campbell and Torri Edwards dominated the 100m in 2007 with 8 out of the top 10 times. Campbell led the way with a 10.89 clocking in Kingston, Jamaica last June.

That’s a long way off from Florence Griffith-Joyner’s incredible (incredulous?) world record of 10.49 way back in 1988,and the slowest “fastest” time of the year since 1981 when Evelyn Ashford ran a 10.90, but certainly not too far off the mark when compared to the fastest times of recent years.
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TFS News Briefs: 11/28/07

Posted November 28th, 2007 at 1:04 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Hayward Field Track “Fastest in the world”
Hayward Field, the site of next year’s Olympic Track & Field Trials, has a new track surface, one that has been “designed to be the fastest track surface in the world.” Some specs of the new Benyon BSS 2000 surface: “It features maximum return of energy and superior shock absorption, courtesy of a bio-engineered force reduction layer of butyl rubber and full-depth color polyurethane, which allows for daily training without stress injuries. The track is finished with a custom-made surface consisting of embedded Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) granules, which allow for advanced traction.”
Read more at: [Product Design & Development]

Mysteries of Trail and Track Etiquette Revealed
An article in the Tallahassee Democrat (FL) reveals some of the mysteries of track and trail etiquette. Apparently, running newbies have not learned some of the basics, such as jogging in the outside lanes so that faster runners can have the inside lanes for interval training. If you are new to running, this is a good primer. Read more at: [Tallahassee Democrat]

Excerpt from Again to Carthage, John L. Parker’s sequel to Once a Runner
Runner’s World is featuring an excerpt from Again to Carthage, the long-awaited (29 years) sequel to the classic track and field novel by John L. Parker, Jr., Once a Runner. Again to Carthage is now available in bookstores. Read more at: [Runner’s World 1][Runner’s World 2]
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Spearmon, Richards set personal bests in Shanghai

Posted September 29th, 2007 at 5:45 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

2007 World Outdoor 200m bronze medalist Wallace Spearmon and 2007 IAAF Golden League winner Sanya Richards stole the show in 100 meter action at the 2007 Shanghai Golden Grand Prix.

A 4×100m gold medalist at the 2007 World Outdoor Championships, Spearmon edged out reigning World 100m and 200m champion Tyson Gay in the men’s 100m, crossing the line in 9.96 seconds to Gay’s 10.02 . It was a personal best for Spearmon and the first time he has ever dipped under the 10 second barrier.

In the women’s 100m, 2006 IAAF Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards set a personal best in taking second place in 10.97 behind Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell who won in 10.90. 2007 World Outdoor bronze medalist Carmelita Jeter was third in 11.09 and 2007 World Outdoor silver medalist Lauryn Williams was fourth in 11.21.
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U.S. stars invade Shanghai

Posted September 27th, 2007 at 3:30 PM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Team USA standouts Tyson Gay, Sanya Richards, Jeremy Wariner, Michelle Perry, Allen Johnson and Lauryn Williams will lead an accomplished group of U.S. stars Friday at the 2007 Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in China.

This third edition of the Golden Grand Prix in Shanghai has been designated as a qualifying event for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final 2008. Competing athletes at the meet will have the opportunity to get an early start on qualifying for next year’s final, to be held September 13-14.

Current world and U.S. men’s 100m and 200m champion Tyson Gay will compete in the 100 meters in a field that includes fellow Americans JJ Johnson and Marcus Brunson. The men’s 110m hurdles also should prove interesting as four-time world champion Allen Johnson and 2007 World Outdoor Championships bronze medalist David Payne do battle with world record holder and reigning world and Olympic champion Liu Xiang, who will compete in front of an enthusiastic hometown audience.
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On the Road & Around the Track: News Briefs 9/24/07

Posted September 24th, 2007 at 3:45 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Huge Names to Run in Shanghai This Friday
Tyson Gay and Veronica Campbell (100m), Asafa Powell (200m), Jeremy Wariner (400m) and Kenenisa Bekele (1500m) are all set to run this Friday in Shanghai, China in the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix at the University Town Stadium. For most of the athletes, it will be the last meet of the season. Read more at: [Shanghai Golden Grand Prix]

James Carney Plans on Being the X-Factor at the Olympic Trials Marathon
James Carney, 2nd place finisher at the USA 20K Championships on 9/04/2007 behind Dan Browne, said in a New York Road Runners interview that, “I think I have a very good chance of doing well, and I’m going into the race thinking that I can make the team.” He heads into the November 3rd race with a 27:43.64 qualifying time in the 10000m at the Stanford Invitational. Read more at: [New York Road Runners]
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USA sweeps 4×100 relays, Walker takes first U.S. gold in pole vault

Posted September 1st, 2007 at 12:10 PM by Martin Kennedy

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

Team USA swept the men’s and women’s 4×100m relays for the first time in 20 years, and Brad Walker won Team USA’s first-ever men’s pole vault gold Saturday night at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Nagai Stadium.

With one day of competition and six final events remaining, Team USA remains atop the medal tables with 22 medals, including 11 gold.

The men’s 4×100m victory made Tyson Gay the third man in World Championships history to win three gold medals at a single championship, but that feat was by no means assured heading into the relay.
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USA sweeps men’s 400,
Felix has historic win at
World Outdoor Champs

Posted August 31st, 2007 at 11:30 AM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Jeremy Wariner led the first-ever sweep of the men’s 400 and Allyson Felix (Pictured) defended her world 200m title with the largest margin of victory in World Championships history Friday night at the 2007 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Adding a pair of medals in the men’s 110m hurdles, Team USA picked up six medals at Nagai Stadium to bring its overall total to 19.

The defending Olympic and World Champion, Wariner (Waco, Texas) entered Osaka heavily favored in the 400, with the U.S. expected to sweep. Wariner and his compatriots LaShawn Merritt (Suffolk, Va.) and Angelo Taylor (Decatur, Ga.) came through in speedy fashion.
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Allyson Felix Repeats As Women’s 200m Dash Gold Medalist

Posted August 31st, 2007 at 8:20 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Going in to the Women’s 200m Final of the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, the goal was a sub 22. Allyson Felix, the favorite, was unbeaten at 200m in 2007 and the defending world champion at that distance.

Sanya Richards, not having qualified for Osaka in the 400m, had something to prove. She had a silver medal in the 400m from the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, so she wanted to upgrade to gold. Veronica Campbell, the gold medalist in the 100m Dash, was going for a double. Having run a bad curve and finishing 4th in the Helsinki 200m final, Campbell also had something to prove in that race.

No woman had broken 22 seconds for the 200m Dash since Marion Jones had run a 21.84 in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The personal bests were: Campbell, 22.05; Felix, 22.11; Richards, 22.17. The race had historic potential.

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