Demus, Robles, Wariner, Howe / Weekend Wrap

This was a very big weekend for track and field at this early stage of the season. The Diamond League opened in Doha on Friday. Saturday we had a sprint fest in Kingston. Late Saturday saw more big names taking to the track in Guadaloupe. And Sunday we got another surprise in the sprints.

In what was reportedly rainy weather in Guadaloupe, Lashinda Demus (USA) took her first run over the 400 hurdles this year and finished in a world leading 54.92 – the year’s first mark under 55.00. With a best of 52.63 Demus is one of four women currently competing with a PR under 53.00 – Melaine Walker (JAM, 52.42), Natalya Antyuhk (RUS, 52.92) & Sheena Tosta (USA, 52.95). Walker and Demus went 1,2 in Berlin in ‘09 and appear headed for another showdown in Daegu as Walker currently sits right behind Demus on the yearly list at 53.60.

Another hurdler debuting in Guadaloupe was Dayron Robles (CUB) the WR holder in the 110 hurdles. He won here in 13.35. A fair time for the conditions, but more importantly showing fitness and health – and putting him on a path to meet AR holder David Oliver (USA) in Daegu. Now we just need to see Liu Xiang in action to set up what could be one of the greatest hurdles races of all time as Robles (12.87), Liu (12.88) and Oliver (12.89) are the three fastest hurdlers in history! A Worlds final with all three healthy has the potential to produce something special – perhaps the best of the meet. So it’s nice to see that two thirds of the trio is currently healthy.

Jeremy Wariner returned to good health last year. And while he has been competing for several weeks now, his victory in Guadaloupe was significant in that it was his first sub 45 of the season (44.88). Wariner didn’t break 45 in 2010 until June 10th (44.72) so it looks like he is ahead of last year’s schedule and more in line with previous seasons when he ran under 44.00. In other words we could see Wariner back to his 43 second form, which would make him very difficult to beat in Daegu. Because believe it or not we haven’t seen a sub 44 quarter since 2008 – Merritt 43.75, Wariner 43.82!

Speaking of the quarter, Andrew Howe (FRA) keeps convincing me that what he really is is a sprinter. The long jumper (27’ 9.5” PR) ran a sterling 20.28 as a junior athlete. Coming off a couple of years of serious injuries he ran a 200 last year and scoots 20.30. This past weekend he runs the 400 for the first time in five years and runs a European best 45.70! I know he was good enough to take silver in the long jump in Osaka (‘07), but given his history of injuries I can’t help but wonder what would happen if he gave the sprints some serious consideration.

This last weekend was awesome – yet we’re just getting started. This weekend will see the second leg of the Diamond League in Shanghai, and the collegiate season turns to championships in earnest with several of the top conference championships on tap. There is much to talk about this week.

Sprints Hot in Jamaica Without Bolt or Gay

The hottest sprinting of the weekend was not in the Doha Diamond league event on Friday, but at the Jamaican Invitational in Kingston on Saturday. Given the results in Kingston and the talk earlier in the week about the meets being scheduled too close together, you can bet that somebody will have a different place on the schedule next year.

But another time to talk about the scheduling woes of the sport. Jamaica is about sprinting, and Jamaica’s best stayed home for the weekend to ply their wares on the newly laid track at National Stadium. And the results on the track were pretty impressive.

Carmelita Jeter (USA) got the track hot by scorching the track for a new world leader in the 100 with her 10.86 (+1.9). Excellent sprinting for any time of the year, let alone early May. It seems she may be on her way back to the 10.6x zone. It’s still very early in the season, but she’s moving into a favorites position unless others begin to step up soon. Here her closest competitor was Kelly Ann Baptiste (TRI) in 10.94. Beijing co-silver medalists Sherone Simpson (JAM) and Kerron Stewart (JAM) were well back as both ran 11.07.

Jeter’s win was the only victory to break up the Jamaican sprint party on this day however, as immediately following in the men’s race Yohan Blake controlled things handily with a 9.80 (+2.2) victory. Slightly windy, but still impressive. He too was well up on second place as Daniel Bailey (ANT) was well back in 9.94, just ahead of Michael Rodgers (USA) 9.96. With 9.89/19.78 credentials last year, Blake’s race here confirms that he is a serious threat to make the Jamaican team for Doha in both sprints – and a threat for both finals.

Jamaica repeated it’s winning ways in the 200. First in the women’s race with Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce moving up from the 100 (Olympic and World champion in ‘08/’09) and blazed the turn on her way to a 22.10 (+2.4) victory. While the wind negated the legality of the race, the fact that second place was held by Veronica Campbell Brown (JAM, 22.37), the ‘04 & ‘08 Olympic champion, makes Fraser Pryce a potential threat here as well. As this race certainly marked her as someone to watch in this event.

The men’s race gave us yet another sprinter to watch this year as Nickel Ashmeade (JAM) moved from promising youngster to accomplished sprinter as he became the newest member of the sub 20 club with his 19.95 (+1.6) win. The victory gave him the world lead, and broke the stadium record set by Tyson Gay in 2007 (19.97). His win came against some big names in the sport with yearly 100 leader Steve Mullings (JAM, 20.15), World and Olympic medalist Wallace Spearmon (USA, 20.16), and last year’s 100 co-leader Nesta Carter (JAM, 20.25) all some distance behind. The race saw one time 100 WR holder Asafa Powell (JAM) in 8th place as Jamaican youth were on display on this day.

It’s still very early in the season, and one can only imagine what we will see when Bolt and Gay finally take to the track, but I think it is safe to say that the sprints are going to command center stage this year – and the rivalry between the US and Jamaica just had more logs thrown onto the fire! Anyone wanting to be in the mix this year is going to have to bring his AND her “A” game!

And I can’t go without mentioning another world leader from Kenia Sinclair (JAM) as she outran Phoebe Wright (USA) in the 800 1:58.41 to 1:59.98 in a replay of their anchor legs at Penn. Jamaica may be sprint happy (and with good reason) but Sinclair could bring home a middle distance medal in Doha. And it’s nice to see Phoebe under 2:00 so early in the season.

Today belonged to Jamaica, however, as they feasted on home cooking. For full meet results click here. The weekend isn’t over and there are still more results to come in. But it’s going to take some to top the sprinting that took place in Kingston.

How to Run the Diamond League

Once again we’ve started the Diamond League without a matchup of any of the true stars of the sport. Doha produced many of the world’s top marks – but that is to be expected when you begin to get the world’s truly elite athletes on the track. We will see wholesale revisions of the yearly performance lists on a weekly basis now that the “best” are performing.

But what we were promised with the unveiling of the Diamond League last year was not just another series of “European Circuit” type meets. What we were told was that this league was going to contract with the crème de la crème in such a manner that we would get regular servings of elite head to head matchups. Yet one of the complaints after the end of last season was that that promise went unfulfilled. And if Doha, and quotes by IAAF President Lamine Diack are any indication, we won’t be seeing too many this season either.

Why is getting these athletes to compete so hard – aside from the fact that the head of the sport doesn’t seem to feel it’s a priority? Personally I don’t think it’s really all that difficult. So here’s my suggestion.

First off, since this is supposed to be a “league” let’s treat it like a league. To me that means that each “meet director” is treated like an “owner” in any other sporting league, and that the league is treated as a single unit. As such, let’s develop a collective agreement between all the meets on the circuit and put all revenues into a league trust. That would include turnstile revenue, souvenir sales, corporate sponsorships, etc.

A formula can be created to determine each meet’s profit level and, more importantly, the payout base for athletes. Once the payout base has been set for the season, the league can set it’s individual meet payouts, overall season payouts, and then begin negotiations on individual performance contracts. These individual contracts would be based on criteria such as previous season’s performance, rankings within events, and number of meets the individual is willing to commit to.

Once the contracts have been established the athlete’s and agents are done. Now the most important phase begins – setting up the competition schedule for the season. The league should have a Competition Committee whose function would be to take the athletes that are under contract and based on the number of meets, and events they have agreed to compete in assign each athlete to a set of meets for the season.

Not an easy job I know. Usain Bolt, for example may want to compete in three 100 meter races and two 200 meter races – based on talks held during contract negotiations. Conversely, Tyson Gay may want to compete in one 400, two 100’s and two 200’s. The job of the Competition Committee will be to see that both athletes run head to head, while also sharing time on the track with the likes of Nesta Carter, Wallace Spearmon, Yohan Blake and Walter Dix. Athletes/agents could make some stipulations during contract talks, such as they don’t want to meet a rival within X days of the start of the season, right after Nationals, amount of recovery time between meets, etc. From that the Competition Committee would be charged with ensuring that all events (in this case the sprints) within the Diamond League have an adequate number of top level athletes competing, as well as a fair number of head to head matchups among not just numbers that engage let’s say the top half dozen or so athletes in each event. A daunting task I know, but one that I believe is doable.

The idea here being not to end up with a circuit that becomes a series of “Time Trials” each meet with a major competitor lining up against a group of up and comers. But that each meet provides a series of challenging competitions to the fans. Because these athletes will be paid to compete and to fulfill contracts that require some serious competition outside of the year’s major championship. After all, the public is paying to see just that, and just like other sports track and field needs to deliver it’s best every meet. I can already feel the excitement of fans waiting for the unveiling of the Diamond League season. Fans waiting with baited breath to see against whom and when their favorite athletes are going to be lining up during the season. Knowing that Gay & Bolt, Robles & Oliver, Kaki & Rudisha, Felix & Campbell Brown, et al have to go through each other on their way to the next championship! Now that makes for an exciting season, not just an exciting championship.

I know this is radical thinking. I can already hear that Bolt’s agent or Gay’s agent or whoever’s agent isn’t going to want to give up that kind of control. That the athletes and agents and coaches want to determine their own destiny. But if the sport is to grow, it is only going to happen by getting the athletes to compete against one another. And truth be known, it’s only been in the last decade that we’ve had such difficulty getting athletes to compete head to head. Maurice Greene, Ato Boldon, Tim Montgomery, Frank Fredericks and Bruny Surin competed against each other in various configurations quite often – in the late 90’s and leading into the oughts. Ditto Merlene Ottey, Gail Devers, Gwen Torrence, Irina Privalova and Inger Miller in the mid to late 90’s. And Allen Johnson, Liu Xiang, Ladje Doucoure, Terrence Trammell and Anier Garcia in the early oughts. Oh, and neither the Olympics or Worlds lost any stature.

Besides most professional sports have no control over how the competitive season gets laid out. Scheduling committees are common place. And low and behold those sports are all thriving – primarily because they put a great product on the floor/field every time patrons go through the turnstiles. And that is my aim – for track and field to put a great product on the track every time out. Because right now we are closer to putting the Harlem Globetrotters out to play the Washington Generals each meet than we are to putting out Kobe v Rose or Lebron v Carmelo. And it seems that the only way to effectively move in that direction is to go from being a bunch of individual meets and individual competitors to becoming more like a collective operation. And I believe that the Diamond League could be used to begin that process.

I know I’m whistling in the wind – nobody’s listening or hears. Some people may even be questioning if I’ve lost my mind. But something has to change. The direction we’re going as a sport is NOT a good one. We’re running races down the middle of the street because we can’t get people to the stadium! When Jesse Owens ran against horses it was out of desperation – and I feel the same way about street races, begging football players to run 40 yards at a meet, and long jumping in a sand box. Kobe and Lebron don’t have to play at Rucker’s Park and Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt shouldn’t have to run down the middle of the street. They just need to run against each other in a stadium and EVERYONE will come and watch! So if we’re going to make radical changes – like racing in the street – why not make a few that will do more than create novelty. Let’s get back to basics by creating competition – the one true staple of the sport!

Diack Says Head to Heads Diminish Value of World Championships

Yes, you read the headline correctly. The head of the IAAF, the global governing body for track and field provided the following quote during an interview which can be read here. The quote made while discussing head to head meetings:

“"It will be more difficult this year," Diack said, adding that it would not be realistic, for instance, to foresee to see three or four meetings between Gay and Bolt. "Don't expect that," he added. "That could diminish the value of the World Championships. Maybe they will meet just once before then. We will see."”

I’m sorry, but I’m not following the logic here.The World Championships is the biggest meet of the year – regardless of what happens in any other meet during the season. The fields contain the crem de la crem of the sport – the ONLY time you will get them all together in one venue – plus the tension of competitors trying to work their way through the rounds. It’s THE meet that everyone strives to peak for. After all it is the meet where if you win you are crowned the CHAMPION of your event – because you’ve met and defeated the best there is.

There is absolutely NOTHING that can take place during the rest of the season that would diminish the value of the World Championships! That’s like saying the Super Bowl has no meaning if two undefeated teams meet during the season. Or the NBA finals is meaningless because the Lakers and Heat play four games prior. I find it almost insulting that the head of the sport would make such a comment – it’s not what you want to hear coming from leadership.

It’s either like the Fox and the Grapes – I can’t get them to run head to head so I don’t care about head to heads and didn’t want them to anyway. Or, he really believes that somehow great competition during the season diminishes the World Championships. Either way, both positions are ridiculous.

For starters, as I’ve said so many times now I’m nearly blue in the face, great match ups DRAW people to the meets and to the sport! That’s what people WANT to see. And in the words of the O’Jays, you’ve got to give the people what they want!

Besides, we got lots of head to heads in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, even the 90’s and guess what? The sport was infinitely MORE popular than it is NOW! We had more meets, and filled stands – and the Olympics and World Championships were as anticipated if not more so than today! Why? Because head to head competition during the season only increases the anticipation of what is going to happen once they face off again in the Major!

For example, adding an even number of head to heads during the season would provide the potential for Worlds to be the ultimate tiebreaker. Not just a tiebreaker, but a tiebreaker with at title on the line! That would diminish Worlds? Even in the event that the season series was uneven (say 3 to 1) Worlds now becomes the ultimate “redemption” race. The race of the year, with the season’s strongest field, with a title on the line, and the chance for “winner take all” glory! There are so many ways you can play the scenarios from a marketing standpoint – marketing opportunities that we are now lacking!

Not in the history of the sport has a Major championship race NOT held the throne as the ultimate race of the year. From Jesse Owens v Ralph Metcalf, to Jim Hines v Charlie Greene, to Carl Lewis v  Ben Johnson, to Mo Greene v Tim Montgomery, time and time again great sprinters have met during the season only to meet in the Major with the question looming – ok, can you do it with the lights on! And when an underdog comes back and wins, oooo “How ya like me now”!

After all, there is nothing like settling a good rivalry on the ultimate battle field with all the world watching with anticipation. Rivalries enhance a championship. And in order to have a rivalry, well you have to compete against each other. Individual time trials during the season by the sport’s best – each dominating the competition – with a one race season finale between the best, only leaves everyone wanting MORE.

This is why the sport is dying a slow agonizing death – and apparently it starts at the top! Perhaps next we’ll be advocating for no meets during the season at all – just a World Championships. After all, if we see them compete before Worlds it just may diminish the World Championships!

A Look Ahead to Doha

The pro season will get started in earnest Friday in Doha, Qatar. Judging from the lineup for the meet, and the large number of top level athletes on tap, the pros will be using the Diamond League to get paid while they prepare for Worlds. We may not see them all at the same time, or get the head to head “showdowns” that we want, but it looks like the Road to Daegu will run down the middle of the Diamond League.

The Start Lists for Doha are now available: Men’s List. Women’s List.

Let me say that the event I was most looking forward to was the men’s 800, but earlier this week both David Rudisha (KEN) and Abubaker Kaki (SUD) pulled out due to injury. I was hoping we would get a nice early season show down of note. However, there are still lots of athletes to keep an eye on. With that said, based on the current entries, here are a few events that I will be watching closely.  

Men’s 110 Hurdles. David Olver (USA). Until we get Liu &/or Robles on the track, Oliver should be running time trials in his preparation, as no one else has yet risen close to the stature of the Big Three. So the question in Doha for me is how close will Oliver get to 13.00? Because this year could be his shot at the WR if he can get the competition from Liu and Robles.

Men’s 200. Walter Dix (USA). After his Penn leadoff beat down by Asafa Powell (JAM) I want to see if Dix bounces back in Doha. He needs a pro like race here badly – meaning a victory near or under 20.00. Dix has shown the potential to be a great sprinter. He’s also shown a tendency to be up and down. His demeanor in championships is as good as any – but he’s got to get there first. He should get a fair test here from Saidy Ndure (NOR). And running a deuce gives us another look at Dix running around that turn.

Men’s Triple Jump. Teddy Tamgho (FRA). I would love to see a long 58 footer out of Tamgho. I think he is capable of challenging the 60 foot barrier (and Edwards’ WR) and getting out well beyond 58 feet early should move him towards 60 feet by season’s end. IMHO Tamgho is capable of being this year’s Bolt / Rudisha – that athlete that makes a “major” breakthrough.

Men’s Pole Vault. Renaud Lavillenie (FRA). Another athlete approaching a barrier as Lavillenie seems to have the potential to reach 20 feet. So does Steven Hooker of Australia. Their season’s bests last year were only .01cm apart. While they don’t grab the headlines their road to Daegu, and the battle once there, could be as epic as any in the sport this year.

Women’s 1500. Gelete Burka (ETH). Burka is one of the top 1500 runners out there. She should be in the mix for a spot on the podium at Worlds. With the current yearly leader only at 4:06, I expect this race to begin to set the standard for the season. Daegu should go sub 4:00, I expect to see Burka around 4:02 here.

Women’s 400. Allyson Felix (USA). Felix is in good shape – she split 50.3 in the 4x4 at Penn. Her speed is fairly sharp – she looked good on the backstretch of a 42.34 4x1 at Penn. She is considering making an attempt at the 200//400 double at Worlds and this will be her first open 400 of the season. It should be an interesting race. Amantle Montsho (BOT) is always tough and should give Felix all she can handle. I’ll also be watching Nicola Sanders (GBR). She ran 49.65 and was the silver medalist in Osaka (‘07). She’s had injury issues since, but could be a factor if healthy. She could be a sleeper.

Post Penn, this will be an excellent way to finally get the season rolling.

Distance Runners Come Alive at Stanford

For most of the early season I’ve talked about the speed events and the collegians, because they’ve been the one’s making most of the noise. I’ve been waiting for the distance runners to join the fray – if for no other reason than I feel like we really have a chance to compete against the rest of the world.

That happened yesterday at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto. A full invitational with sprints hurdlers and field events, it’s the distances that always seem to feature at this meet. In large part I’m sure because the weather is almost always nearly perfect for distance running.

The two big races were both the men’s and women’s 10,000 meters. On the men’s side Kenyan Bitan Karoki ran a world leading 27:13.67 – an excellent time at this point in the season. Americans followed in 2nd, 5th and 6th as Robert Curtis (27;24.67), Tim Nelson (27;28.19) and Matt Tegenkamp (27:28.22) all notched PR’s – Tegenkamp in his debut at the distance. Confirmation that U.S. distance fortunes are definitely on the upswing.

Further confirmation came in the women’s race as Kenyan Sally Kipyego also ran a world leader at 30:38.35, with American Shalane Flanagan right behind at 30:39.57. With Molly Huddle in 5th (31:28.66) and Jen Rhines in 8th (31:43.00) it’s clear to me that our distance crew is going to be ready to give it a good go come August. We’re becoming deep as well as competitive and that’s always a good thing.

There was also a good sign for our middle distances as Christin Wurth Thomas, better known as a 1500 meter runner, ran the #2 time in the world in the 800 as she won in 2:00.72. Coming on the heels of Phoebe Wright’s strong anchor leg in the sprint medley at Penn (1:59.25) and some earlier races by Jenny Simpson, our middle distance corps is also coming along quite nicely for this time of the year.

Daegu opens up this year’s Diamond League season on Thursday, and certainly things will begin to accelerate. I’ll be taking a look at Daegu’s lineup shortly.

Penn – The Power of the Relay

A packed stadium. Raucous crowd. Yelling, screaming, clapping, chanting, This is track & field at its best. This is what we get annually at Penn!

As other meets have either died or struggle to attract fans, Penn fills the seats every year – for FOUR DAYS! They say a meet shouldn’t last more than a couple of hours – you can’t prove it by Penn! They say you need to have a featured race run down the middle of Main Street to attract fans – you can’t prove it by Penn! They say you need World Record attempts to get the public to show up – you can’t prove it by Penn!

Penn presents track & field the good old fashioned way – great athletes, great competition, rivalries and relays – and it WORKS year after year! They get the best east coast high schoolers for the “local” fans and import Jamaican and west coast high school relay teams. They attract top level collegiate squads in their final tune ups before their championships runs. And they bring in some of the world’s best relay squads (replete with Olympic caliber athletes) for the USA vs. the World showdowns. Stir it up for four days and you have a packed stadium with the fans going CRAZY!

Like I keep saying, present top athletes to the public and they WILL come! You CAN prove THAT by Penn. USATF and meet promoters take note of the recipe.

As usual the competition kept the crowd on its feet as showdown after showdown had the fans engaged and rooting for their favorites. Full results can be found here, so I won’t recap them line by line. But between the results and what I was able to see of the meet online and on TV here are some thoughts that I came away with.

Going in I saw a chance for the U.S. relay squads to make some serious progress towards Daegu. I think our women’s teams did just that. I would be very comfortable with the women’s 4x1 squad at Penn representing us at Worlds in August. They looked crisp and competitive and and will only get better as they approach true “race shape” by the end of the summer. Ditto for the women’s 4x4 team. Though it’s clear with the 4x4 that we will have a minimum of six women vying for those final four spots – but that’s what I call a quality problem.

I’m a bit less excited by the men. I knew going in that without Tyson Gay it would be difficult getting a read on the men’s 4x1, but I didn’t expect to a) see Walter Dix look so ordinary, or b) see Justin Gatlin running a leadoff leg. Dix’ lackluster effort put the “Red” squad out of it from the gun Running from behind coupled with less than average handoffs, it was amazing that we only lost by .10sec. Spearmon was solid if unspectacular on second leg and Rodgers tried gamely to turn it over on anchor but it was Trell Kimmons’ third leg that brought us in reach in spite of running against last year’s rising sensation, Jamaican Nesta Carter. Between Kimmons’ effort on third leg (coupled with his run on leadoff in Zurich last year) and Dix’ performance on leadoff (there seems to always be the question of which Walter is going to show up at a meet), I’m now convinced that Kimmons should be our lead runner followed by Spearmon, followed by Gay. With the rest of the season an audition/search for someone to bring it home! And I must give Kudos to Jamaican’s Asafa Powell (who made Dix look ordinary) and Michael Frater as they made the first half of the Jamaican squad look in Daegu form! As for our “Blue” squad, that dog didn’t hunt. Gatlin is no leadoff, and it was further downhill from there with poor handoffs and average legs. They all have to show a lot more than I saw Saturday.

As for the men’s 4x4 squad, 3:02 says little to me. It’s nice to know that we can throw some long hurdlers out there in a pinch, but we can get high schoolers to run the 46 second legs we got from Clement, Gaymon and Dutch. Come Daegu we will need some 44’s and 43’s, because when it matters we’re not safe unless we’re running well under 2:57. Bottom line, it’s time for the quartermilers to step it up. It’s now May and nary a 44. Our 400 picture needs to start getting clear this month. And we’d better keep an eye on Grenada. Yes I said Grenada. Kirani James and Rondell Bartholomew looked lethal and will put Grenada in the thick of things if they are given a chance. If they can find two others to slip under 46.00 they could make a go of it on sheer will power – they have the talent! The Bahamas are solid and will threaten. Jamaica did not show up with their best – no Gonzales or Chambers. So while the win was nice, it was just a win and not a statement.

Speaking of statements, it’s clear from Penn that this year’s NCAA championships are going to come down to a show of will! Top squads were in town from LSU, Florida, Texas A&M among others. And though the top squads from the Pac 10 and ACC were missing, judging from the mixed results at Penn (no one dominating) focus and will power are going to be important elements. Because if you blink, flinch, botch a handoff, or simply hesitate there will be someone there ready to fly right by you! That was the statement made by the collegians at Penn, as no one is afraid and everyone is looking for that opportunity. The NCAA championships will be won by those that make the fewest mistakes and show up ready to compete!

Penn was great and signaled the next phase of the season as the collegians now head towards conference, regionals and nationals, and the elite season begins in earnest with Daegu (6th), Shanghai (15th) and Rome (26th) on tap this month!