Category: track and field

olympic sports, track and field

World Track and Field, Day 2b

Posted on by Beau Dure

What you should know at this stage of the World Track and Field Championships (all times ET), particularly if you’re waking up in a couple of hours:

– Usain Bolt races in the men’s 100 semifinals at 5:30 a.m. ET and almost certainly the final at 7:45 a.m.

– Americans Trey Hardee and Ashton Eaton are currently 1-2 in the decathlon, which wraps with the 1,500 meters at 7:15 a.m.

– Kenyans won all six medals on Day 1 (women’s 10,000 and marathon).

– Russia then claimed second in the medal table with gold and silver in the men’s 20k walk.

– Britain, hoping for a lot of medals next year on home soil, got a rough start — a false start, actually, with Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu disqualified in the 400 heats.

– Some clutch qualifications for U.S. women in field events — Brittney Reese posted the best jump of Group A on her final attempt, and Jenn Suhr needed a third attempt at 4.50 meters before making the grade in the pole vault.

– Sogelau Tuvalu set a personal best in the 100 meters — 15.66 seconds.

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olympic sports, track and field

The biggest non-Olympic Olympic sports event is upon us …

Posted on by Beau Dure

Live from Daegu (assuming you don’t sleep during normal hours in U.S. time zones), it’s the 2011 IAAF World Championships. (That’s track and field/athletics.)

Given the time difference, soccer duties and the uncertainty of having power by the time Hurricane Irene has finished with the East Coast, I won’t be live blogging or anything like that. But as long as I’m able, I’ll post daily recaps and previews.

Not that Day 1 has much to offer. It has the first five decathlon events and a lot of qualifying for later in the week. The only finals are in the women’s marathon and women’s 10,000 meters, both of which should give East African countries an early lead in the medal count.

A few things to watch:

– Top Americans in finals: Shalane Flanagan took bronze in the 10,000 in 2008, and her season and personal bests stack up well against the rest of the group.

– Other finals: The women’s marathon, as Track Super Fan points out, draws a better start list than the men’s marathon, but not by much. The big names aren’t here.

– First glimpses: Usain Bolt gets a bye past the preliminary round of the 100 meters, and the way his challengers are dropping out with injuries and other problems, he might as well save his strength for one good shot at the record. Surprise Beijing gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton is in the women’s discus qualifying rounds.

VITAL INFO: Results, live streaming, predictions, etc.

– Live streaming and a lot of news coverage at Universal Sports. Webcasts cost $14.99 for the whole nine days or $3.99 per day.

– Predictions and previews at TrackSuperFan.com

– My 2012 medal projections include a quick look at the top athletes in each event: Men’s running events, women’s running events, field events.

– More coverage at ESPN, espnW, USA TODAY, somewhere on SI’s site — and for a more worldly view, the BBC and Eurosport.

– A Twitter list that I may revise as the competition goes on.

Happy running, throwing, jumping and walking.

 

 

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medal projections, olympic sports, track and field

2012 track and field projections: Big year for USA?

Posted on by Beau Dure

One danger in projecting the 2012 Games, particularly in track and field (or athletics), is that smaller countries end up underrepresented. In some cases, their athletes aren’t participating in the Diamond League or other notable meets.

Most U.S. athletes were in action in the non-championship year, many establishing themselves as medal favorites. That might change after the 2011 World Championships.

It’s hard to say the USA will win 33 medals in athletics, which is what the projection shows for now. The past few Games for the USA: Beijing 23, Athens 25, Sydney 16, Atlanta 23, Barcelona 30, Seoul 26. So 33 would be a record for the post-boycott era.

But the USA, for better or for worse, is the big dog heading into every Olympics. Americans simply aren’t the underdog in this sport. We’ll see a few upsets that keep the USA’s medal count down.

So remember that the projection is designed to point out the favorites — the USA, Kenya, Russia, Jamaica and a resurgent Germany.

If you missed the event-by-event projection, check out men’s running, women’s running and the field events.

 

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medal projections, olympic sports, track and field

2012: Field events

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’ve covered men’s and women’s running (and walking) events. Now we bring out the tape measure for the events you’ll see in great detail (long jump, high jump, shot put) and those you won’t (hammer throw).

ATHLETICS: Field events

Same three sources for 2010 performances: the ever-handy list of top performances, this terrific chart of Diamond League performances and the Diamond League site’s event recaps.

Continue reading →

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medal projections, olympic sports, track and field

2012 medal projections, men’s track: Bolt, then who?

Posted on by Beau Dure

The typical trend for men’s running events: The Americas (USA, Jamaica, other Caribbean) battle in the sprints, African nations split the distance events, and British hearts slowly break until they all watch Chariots of Fire and reminisce.

No real reason so far to think that’ll change, but the World Championships (Aug. 27-Sept. 4, Daegu, South Korea) might unearth some talented runners who haven’t earned Diamond League slots.

ATHLETICS: Men’s running events

Good sources for 2010 performances are the ever-handy list of top performances, this terrific chart of Diamond League performances and the Diamond League site’s event recaps. The Diamond League launched last year, combining the Golden League and a few other top meets, filling the gap between World Championship years.

Continue reading →

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olympic sports, soccer, track and field, winter sports

Midweek Myriad: Fretting over Freddy, winter winners, soccer challenge

Posted on by Beau Dure

Time for another Midweek Myriad, also known as “stuff that happened while I was at Disney World.” I’ve saved the most serious item for the end, which is either “building suspense” or “burying the lead.”

SOCCER: Americans move at transfer deadline, with only 1 of 4 going in the “right” direction

U.S. fans longing for more Americans to succeed in Europe are thrilled that Michael Bradley is leaving Bundesliga bottom-dweller Borussia Moenchengladbach on loan to mid-table Premier League club Aston Villa, though playing time is far from assured.

More worrisome are the players making what ambitious folks would consider something less than a “lateral” move. At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle worries that Jozy Altidore and Eddie Johnson are following the same career path of loans without upward progress. Carlisle doesn’t even mention Freddy Adu, who is mentioned in a similarly downcast piece by Soccer America‘s Paul Kennedy.

Altidore’s move isn’t bad, really. He’s not seeing time at Villarreal, and he gets to hop into a title race in Turkey with Bursaspor. The snag is that the club also signed Scottish striker Kenny Miller.

Johnson is a few years older and settling into Championship-level soccer. Nothing really wrong with that, and no one’s looking to him as the future at forward for the U.S. national team these days. He’s on loan from Fulham to Preston North End trying to save the club from relegation.

The stunner is Freddy Adu, who quietly went on loan to Rizespor in Turkey’s second division. Even Adu’s harshest critics would’ve had a hard time predicting that he’d be so low on the European club ladder at age 21. I’d say Freddy has to set the Turkish second division on fire to put his career back on track, but in Turkey, the fans usually set the fires.

What’s strange is that no one can really tell us why Adu’s career has taken such turns in the past couple of years. For a while, his European misadventures were easily explained — he couldn’t break into the lineup at Benfica, and he was in a terrible situation in Monaco with an American-education club chairman who brought him in without seeing if the coaching staff had any interest. But we don’t know why Greece’s Aris lost interest in him or why he couldn’t latch on anywhere else in this transfer window.

And this just in (HT to Grant Wahl): Robbie Findley, newly transferred to Nottingham Forest, may be out three months.

SOCCER: NASL, fans damn the torpedoes

The NASL is undaunted (see Brian Straus story) over an initial rejection of second-division sanctioning and the need to start a Carolina team from scratch after previous owner Selby Wellman, a leading figure in the NASL breakaway, was unable to find a a supplemental or replacement investor. The RailHawks trademark sold on eBay for $14,999.

NASL fans also are undaunted, releasing a letter to U.S. Soccer complaining about the lack of D2 status. Kenn Tomasch calmly shredded the letter, mostly by reminding NASL fans that you have to play a few seasons, or at least a few games, before boldly proclaiming yourself a model of stability.

TRACK AND FIELD: Millrose Games surprises

– Ethiopia’s Deresse Mekonnen ended Bernard Lagat’s domination of the mile.

– Jamaican sprinters were a step ahead of the Americans in the men’s and women’s 60.

– The USA shot put train keeps rolling: Youngster Ryan Whiting upset Christian Cantwell, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson.

Recaps from the New York Times and Universal Sports, plus full results. (Big round of applause for the Millrose site for putting its results on one easy-to-read page rather than making us click for every event. Take note, track and swimming organizers.)

In less entertaining indoor track and field, some U.S. athletes went overseas after sleeping on the floor at JFK and lost to other international “teams” at the Aviva International in Glasgow. The biggest upset was a repeat from last year, with Britain’s Jessica Ennis beating Lolo Jones in the 60-meter hurdles.

MORE MYRIAD HEADLINES

– Winter X Games: Shaun White, Lindsey Jacobellis and Kelly Clark are still really, really good at snowboarding. The only surprise in that trio: Clark landed a 1080. Nick Baumgartner upset Seth Holland in the men’s snowboardcross.

– Soccer: Ridge Mahoney points to a major issue that could derail the Cosmos-to-MLS train: the league’s lucrative adidas deal. (Update: Grant Wahl, who has done the most extensive interview on the Cosmos to date, says the club has prepared to go adidas if it gets into MLS. Ridge’s piece is still worth reading as a reminder of how much power adidas wields.

– Handball: Olympic champion France keeps rolling, winning another men’s world title with an extra-time win over Denmark. Spain edged host Sweden for third, and Croatia beat my buddies from Iceland for fifth. All close games in the world championship of the sport that have the highest popularity-to-English-language-coverage ratio in the world. (AP)

– Figure skating: The highlight of the U.S. Championships in my beloved former hometown of Greensboro was Alissa Czisny’s remarkable comeback from afterthought status to win a battle of three former national champions. Christine Brennan, who has stuck with the sport through thick and thin, has the analysis.

– Ski jumping: Not sure what to make of the fact that Sarah Hendrickson has been at the forefront of a strong U.S. showing in international competition this year but managed only 18th in the World Junior Championships.

– Luge: No stunning world championship for the USA’s Erin Hamlin this year. She finished 14th. (AP)

– Freestyle skiing: Hannah Kearney’s World Cup moguls win streak stands at five heading into the World Championships in Park City.

– Cyclo-cross: Katie Compton took second in the World Championships. Holding this event in cold mud just seems especially cruel.

– Wrestling: Olympic champion turned Biggest Loser competitor Rulon Gardner is still hawking a 1 1/2-pound sandwich and challenging people to eat it with fries and a massive drink in 20 minutes. Maybe Rulon’s hoping to match legendary competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, who is still skinny. (AP)

Last and not least …

At BigSoccer, Bill Archer has annoyed a lot of Canadian fans, and they have the prerogative not to be Bill’s buddies.

But aside from my own “Bill’s a good guy once you get to know him” story, I can say this — if you care about the sport, you should be reading Bill’s blog. I’ve yet to see anyone else in the Americas, from basement bloggers to professional journalists, do as much work in compiling disparate reports on the issues of FIFA, CONCACAF and other international soccer bodies. I would say to my fellow journalists — Bill is doing what we should be doing.

This piece on the utter travesty of Qatar’s Asian Cup final is a prime example.

If someone can offer valid reasons why organizers locked the gates before kickoff, separated families and brought out the riot police, fine. Let’s hear from them. But let’s not act as if this isn’t news.

We the American soccer media/blogosphere shouldn’t be moving on so quickly from FIFA’s extraordinary World Cup decisions to an exclusive focus on the MLS preseason or slobbering all over the latest EPL transfers. My challenge to all of us: Keep watching FIFA and Qatar. If Qatar is an absolutely unsuitable host for the Cup and FIFA is an unsuitable guardian for the game, these things can be and must be changed. Silence won’t get it done. If Al Jazeera can talk, so can we.

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medal projections, olympic sports, track and field

2012 medal projections: Old Cold War battles, Jamaica heat up women’s running

Posted on by Beau Dure

Olympic athletes don’t just show up out of nowhere in an Olympic year, except maybe in a few secretive nations. Next year, we’ll have world championships in virtually everything, giving us a good chance to project what might happen in 2012.

We’re not waiting until then. We’re setting up some projections now, then revising as new results come in. It’s FiveThirtyEight with less math and no Rasmussen.

Today, it’s …

ATHLETICS: Women’s running events

We’re not Eurosnobs. Really. But isn’t “athletics” less awkward than “track and field”?

Besides, the marathon uses neither a track (except at the very end) or a field. And the shot put can be held anywhere.

The year’s top performances for each athlete are given in parentheses, but remember that some top athletes (Usain Bolt springs to mind) didn’t put much emphasis on running in a year with no Olympics or World Championships. (Source: IAAF)

We’re going to split this into running events and non-running events, then split it further by gender. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Continue reading →

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mma, olympic sports, soccer, track and field

Midweek Myriad: PanPac swimming, Diamond League finals

Posted on by Beau Dure

Yes, I’m spending some time away from the computer this week. Coincidentally, I’m pondering a remake of SportsMyriad.com. The experimental phase should be at an end soon; the question is what follows.

This is an unusually busy midweek for Myriad sports — CONCACAF Champions League group stage games, UEFA Champions League playoffs featuring teams you might be able to find on a map, plus the culmination of some swimming and track and field seasons.

Track and field: The Weltklasse Zurich meet wraps up roughly half of the Diamond League events. The shot putters got an early start. The rest of the meet is Thursday on Universal Sports online. Events to watch: men’s long jump (Dwight Phillips leads but hasn’t clinched), women’s 400 (Allyson Felix, who has clinched 200, leads here as well) and women’s long jump (Brittney Reese has narrow lead) . You’ll also see victory laps for Jeremy Wariner (men’s 400), David Oliver (men’s 110 hurdles) and Carmelita Jeter (women’s 100). The most curious event is the men’s 200, where runaway leader Walter Dix has withdrawn, leaving Wallace Spearmon a chance to clean up.

Swimming: The Pan Pacific Championships — mostly USA, Australia, Japan, Canada and South Korea, but with a handful of people from non-Pacific places like South Africa — are on Universal Sports and Swim Network.

Soccer: Seeing Joe Public FC play at home in Trinidad carries a reminder of a sad incident in international youth soccer. The stadium is named for Marvin Lee, a Trinidad & Tobago Under-20 player who was paralyzed in a collision during a game and died a couple of years later. The player with whom he collided — Landon Donovan.

MMA: Sorry for the lack of advance warning, but you’ll want to get to a TV now to see WEC on Versus. Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez are in the main event.

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mma, olympic sports, soccer, track and field

Friday Myriad: EPL madness

Posted on by Beau Dure

Catch up on your EPL previews now. Check out the whole team-by-team series at The Guardian.

MLS, meanwhile, has Donovan vs. Henry. Sign up to do player ratings.

We also have an interesting grab bag of events from a pretty big gymnastics competition to a USA Basketball friendly.

FRIDAY

2 p.m.: Track and field, Diamond League, London Grand Prix. Check the preview and hope the stream works. Universal Sports online

3 p.m.: Soccer, Bayern Munich-Real Madrid. Interesting friendly. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3

11 p.m.: MMA, Strikeforce Challengers. The main event is veteran Joe Riggs vs. Louis Taylor, and Randy Couture’s son, Ryan, makes his debut. But most eyes are on the women’s tournament, featuring Miesha Tate and Carina Damm. Showtime (delayed to 11 p.m. PT on West Coast)

SATURDAY

7:30 a.m.: Soccer, Tottenham-Manchester City. Online only? ESPN3

9:30 a.m.: Track and field, Diamond League, London Grand Prix, Day 2. Universal Sports online

10 a.m.: Soccer, Aston Villa-West Ham. Your first EPL game of the year on FSC should feature at least one American (Brad Friedel) and a lot of chatter about a possible American coach (Bob Bradley). FSC

12:30 p.m.: Soccer, Chelsea-West Brom. Your first Big Four game of the year on U.S. TV. FSC

3 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Rogers Cup (Montreal) semifinals. ESPN2

4 p.m.: Action Sports, Dew Tour. NBC

4 p.m.: Soccer, Philadelphia-Colorado. TeleFutura

5:30 p.m.: Soccer, New York-Los Angeles, including a 30-minute pregame to hype all the Designated Players. FSC

7 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Rogers Cup (Montreal) semifinals. ESPN2

8 p.m.: Gymnastics, Visa Championships. NBC

SUNDAY

11 a.m.: Soccer, Liverpool-Arsenal. Your first really, really big game of the EPL season. FSC

1 p.m.: Basketball, USA-France. ESPN2

3 p.m.: Tennis, ATP Rogers Cup (Montreal) final. ESPN2

4 p.m.: Action Sports, Dew Tour. NBC

6 p.m.: Soccer, WPS, Boston-Sky Blue. FSC

MORE MYRIAD

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America: MLS, EPL, Mexico, elsewhere in Europe and Latin America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Soccer, tennis, Aussie rules and a bunch of different forms of baseball, from Little to Mexican.
  • Tennis Channel: WTA Cincinnati.
  • Universal Sports: More gymnastics, track and field, triathlon, FIVB beach volleyball.
  • More Olympic sports: The Youth Olympic Games open for the first time Saturday in Singapore. Women’s volleyball has World Grand Prix action with occasional streaming.
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track and field

Diamond League: The pen-penultimate meet

Posted on by Beau Dure

As with many track and field competitions, the Diamond League is coming to a conclusion that should be exciting but is a little odd.

Each event is contested seven times during the spring and summer. The finals in each event are split between the last two meets in Zurich and Brussels. In those meets, the points are doubled — 8 points for a win, 4 for second, 2 for third.

This weekend’s meet in London is two days (Friday/Saturday, hopefully on a working Universal Sports stream), and it has the penultimate gathering for each event. Except, for some reason, five — men’s 200, men’s 800, men’s 5,000, women’s 100 and women’s pole vault.

The full standings in PDF form are here under the link “Actual Standings.” The events to watch, admittedly from a provincial U.S. point of view:

MEN

100: The marquee sprint has been disappointing because of the injury wave among the Big Three of Usain Bolt (JAM), Tyson Gay (USA) and Asafa Powell (JAM). Bolt only ran twice, beating Powell in Paris and losing to Gay in Stockholm, before shutting things down for the season. Powell leads the Diamond Race with 10 points, winning two races, but he sat out in Stockholm. Powell, Richard Thompson (TRI, 7 pts) and Gay (4) are all scheduled to start. They’ll run two heats, so several more Americans are in the current field of 16.

400: Jeremy Wariner (USA, 16) is 4-for-4 and can clinch the Diamond title by beating Jermaine Gonzales (JAM, 8), who won in Wariner’s absence in Monaco.

110 hurdles: David Oliver (USA, 16) has dominated the event with four wins and should make his season title official here. Ryan Wilson (USA, 6) is second. Dayron Robles (CUB, 4) won in Oliver’s absence in Rome but will miss this one.

400 hurdles: Bershawn Jackson (USA, 16) has three wins and has twice finished second to Kerron Clement (USA, 10). Clement is out, so Jackson almost has this one sewn up.

Long jump: Dwight Phillips (USA, 12) has had a good season-long duel with Fabrice Lapierre (AUS, 11). Irving Saladino (PAN, 7) also is in the mix and upset Phillips in Eugene.

Shot put: Christian Cantwell (USA, 20) is the only male athlete with a perfect record. He has clinched the season title ahead of Dylan Armstrong (CAN, 6).

Javelin: Andreas Thorkildsen (NOR, 18) won the first four of the season but finally dropped one to Tero Pitkamaki (FIN, 8), leaving a mathematical chance that the Finn could catch him.

WOMEN

200: Allyson Felix (USA, 10) took control of the event with two straight wins after a loss to Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM, 4). She’ll virtually clinch it here.

400: Felix (USA, 8) has two wins here as well, sharing the lead with Amantle Montsho (BOT). They’re both entered in London along with Shericka Williams (JAM, 5), Debbie Dunn (USA, 5) and everyone else.

800: Alysia Johnson (USA, 8) has won the last two events to take the lead from Janeth Jepkosgei (KEN, 7). This is wide-open — 10 runners have points.

100 hurdles: Lolo Jones (USA, 13) is looking to bounce back from an upset loss in Stockholm. She leads Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (CAN, 10) and Sally Pearson (AUS, 4), who finished 2-1 in Stockholm.

400 hurdles: Lashinda Demus (USA, 12) won the first three, then stumbled in Monaco and isn’t entered here. Kaliese Spencer (JAM, 12) is.

High jump: Blanka Vlasic (CRO, 20) has edged Chaunte Howard-Lowe (USA, 10) in all five meets so far. Vlasic has all but clinched the title, but their competitions have been entertaining.

Long jump: Brittney Reese (USA, 10) won in Lausanne and Paris ahead of Naide Gomes (POR, 7) before both lost in Stockholm to Darya Klishina (RUS, 5).

Javelin: An American contender in a women’s throwing event? Kara Patterson (USA, 8) trails Barbora Spotakova (CZE, 12).

Other events:

Continue reading →

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