Miss the Olympics? Good news! Track and field never sleeps. (Not in the summer, anyway.)
Not that everyone was back in action in today’s Diamond League meet in Stockholm. But a few familiar people were back:
– Long jump gold medalist Brittney Reese had a poor performance. You could say she’s erratic, or you could say she shows up for the big events. Bronze medalist Janay Deloach was a bit behind her London mark but still finished third.
– Michael Tinsley beat Olympic gold medalist Felix Sanchez to win the 400 hurdles with ease.
– Do you know who won the gold medal in the men’s triple jump? You should. He’s American. And he won again today.
– Same for Reese Hoffa in the shot put, who threw just a centimeter farther here than he did in London but beat Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski.
– Remember Ryan Bailey? (The sprinter, not the water polo player.) He was the only man under 10 seconds in the 100.
– Olympic pole vault champion Jenn Suhr entered today’s competition at 4.55 meters and promptly exited.
– Two Americans, including Dukie Shannon Rowbury, ran their best times of the season to stay in the top five in the 1,500.
– Newly crowned (as in “post drug test”) women’s shot put champion Valerie Adams (New Zealand) got the joy of winning it on the field of competition this time. She has a funny and mildly profane quote in the New Zealand media.
– Russia’s Yuliya Zaripova dominated the steeplechase with a meet record and the best time in the world this year.
– Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells continued their “Hey, stop looking at Lolo for a second and look at us!” tour with a 1-2 in the women’s 100 hurdles.
– Charonda Williams and Bianca Knight were 1-2 in the 200, with Jeneba Tarmoh fifth.
– And this just in … Sanya Richards-Ross is still the best in the world in the women’s 400.
One person jumped out at me and inspired a possible blog post later that I’ll call “the lonesome pacemaker” — Matt Scherer, who is carving out quite a career not finishing races.
But wait — there’s more! In the four-way DecaNation meet, the USA convincingly beat Russia, Germany and France. Big wins for Justin Gatlin, Alysia Johnson Montano, Bridget Franek, Christina Manning, Calvin Smith, Michelle Carter, Nick Symmonds, Cory Martin, David Oliver and … Shannon Rowbury? She’s everywhere!
Oliver in particular is worth noting — he was dominating the 110 hurdles between Games but was out of form and didn’t make the Olympic team at trials.
(OK, OK … the triple jump winner is Christian Taylor.)
Duresport.com 
Unreal about Harper and Wells. PTI put Lolo on to cry about things again and brag how her career wasn’t over while those two are, you know, actually running races.
Stupid question, since I don’t know the ins&outs of professional track: How does a full time pacer get paid? The article you linked to mentioned he didn’t have a sponsor. So how does that work? Do meets/events pay him or do the runners going for a time throw money in a pot?
Oh, definitely the meet organizers. They want the allure of having fast times at their meet. And when you see the “tactical” approach runners take in the Olympics, where you won’t see pacemakers, you see the advantages.