Another busy indoor weekend - with a bit of outdoor action thrown in. The big mark was once again laid down by Torrin Lawrence. Previously Lawrence set a collegiate record in the 300, this time around he ran a sensational 45.03 in the 400. Not quite a record, but the mark makes him the #5 performer all time behind Kerron Clement (44.57), Michael Johnson (44.63), Lashawn Merritt (44.98) and Danny Everett (45.02) - all of whom have run under 44 seconds outdoors!
It definitely puts Lawrence in the spotlight in the 400 meters. Much the same way as Merritt's and Clement's times did when they were in college. BOTH went pro the same year they ran their marks. Merritt never even ran an outdoor race as a collegian, going pro as a freshman before the outdoor season began. Lawrence in now one to keep an eye on.
While on the topic of the 400, Usain Bolt started his season with an outdoor 400. A 45.86. A nice start to the season, especially for a 100/200 sprinter.
Wallace Spearmon, who just recently signed a deal with Saucony, found the going a bit tougher as he apparently pulled up with a bad hammy running a 200 indoors.
Makes me really start to question the whole indoor season. Seems to do well for the distance runners. They tend to be smaller and fit better on the small tracks. But things don't seem to translate as well for sprinters indoors.
For example, Dwain Chambers ran a world leading 6.50 in the 60 meters winning the British championship this past weekend. He was last year's world leader at 6.42, but was no where close to the top sprinters outdoors - Bolt, Gay, Powell among others. He will be among the favorites next month in Doha for the Indoor World Championships, however.
Another favorite for Doha could be Terrence Trammell who ran a world leader in the 60H with his 7.43 this weekend. He will make a worthy opponent for Dayron Robles who has run 7.48 this season and is #2 all time at 7.33. Should be a great race in Doha.
That said, the most news this weekend was in the distance events. A new European 500 record went in the books when Frenchman Bouabdellah Tahri ran a very nice 13:11.13 - making him #8 all time and the fastest non African.
The hot event, however, was the mile. At the Husky Invitational in Seattle FIFTEEN people ran under 4:00!
The indoor season is almost done. US Nationals will be held the weekend of the 27th, with the World Championships on tap starting March 13th. Then we head outdoors, for what should be an interesting non championship season.
No comments:
Post a Comment