Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
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The Week That Was January 26 - Feb 1, 2009 The last week of January was a big one as action heated up all over the globe. We start our Weekly recap with the granddaddy of them all - the Millrose Games in NYC - before looking at some great US college action. Then we go over the pond, and in between we pause to think about what an awesome year in marathoning it's going to be. In regards to Millrose, we're going to assume you know the #1 story of the meet - that Bernard Lagat got his record-tying 7th Wanamaker title. If not, you can read any of the following: *Lagat Wins 7th Wanamaker Mile *Lagat Wins Mile At Millrose, Tying Coghlan's Record LRC: Our Brief (And Incomplete) Millrose Recap Thumbs Up and Down From The 102nd Millrose Games
And for good reason. We had his last 145.45 in 18.7, which equates to 25.7 speed for 200 meters on the notoriously-tight Madison Square Garden track. Of course, one probably didn't need to watch Millrose to realize that Andrews is a bit more special than your average pretty good HS miler. College coaches are known to exaggerate but one told us the other day that Andrews ran a 4:12 mile the first time he ever ran it.
And where is Andrews going? To UVA to run for Jason Vigilante. Vin Lananna may forever have the title of Greatest Recruiter in the NCAA but Vig may well deserve the title of Greatest Recruiter under the age of 40. Don't believe us? Bret Johnson, the 2nd placer at Millrose, who ran 4:09 to win the NJ MOC last year, is also going to UVA. Event 22 Boys 1 Mile Run High School
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Name Year Team Finals
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Finals
1 Robby Andrews Manalapan 4:17.42
2 Bret Johnson Ocean City 4:19.61
3 Mark Feigen East Greenwich 4:20.43
4 Tyler Stutzman Western Albemarle 4:21.11
5 Marco Bertolotti Paul D Schreiber 4:21.31
6 Bobby Peavey Floyd E. Kellam 4:21.54
7 Doug Smith Gill-St. Bernard's 4:21.66
8 Nick Ross East Greenwich 4:24.39
Star-Ledger: New Jersey's Jill Smith And Bobby Andrews Win Millrose HS Titles *Lap-By-Lap Boys Photos
Thumbs Up to Southern Regional HS coach Brian Zatorski for coaching the adidas Millrose Girls Mile winner for four straight years. Jillian Smith got the win this year for the 2nd straight year and before that, Danielle Tauro, who now runs for Michigan, got the win two years in a row. We don't follow the high school ranks all that closely but that is very, very impressive. Event 16 Girls 1 Mile Run adidas
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Name Year Team Finals
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Finals
1 Jillian Smith Southern Regional 4:51.88
2 Cory McGee Pass Christian 4:54.59
3 Emily Lipari Roslyn 4:57.70
4 Juliet Bottorff Tatnall 5:04.76
5 Emily Menges Garden City 5:04.78
6 Melanie Thompson Voorhees HS 5:06.96
7 Ariann Neutts Roxbury 5:10.38
8 Ann Carey St. John The Bap 5:11.60
-- Grace Rodriguez Hanover DNF
Thumbs Down To NY Times ... And US (NYC Metro) Track Fans ...
They finally wrote something about the meet on Friday and it was an article on the brilliant Steve Hooker of Australia, who more than lived up to the hype by almost setting a world record in the pole vault. But there was nothing on the Wanamaker mile or the rest of the meet and for that we've gotta give the Times a Thumbs Down. (We encourage you to email the Times at sports@nytimes.com). We were going to go totally off on the Times until we got to the meet. Once we were there we changed our tune a bit. Maybe we can't blame them for not writing too much. The one major pro meet of the year in New York and the arena had to be less than 2/3 full. If Northeast track and field fans can't even bother to show up for Millrose, why should the Times spend much effort on it? The official attendance was 11,543. The average WNBA game supposedly brings in 7,931 per game. Can't track get a sellout once per year? We're thinking about formally releasing the LetsRun.com Track Fans Code of Conduct and one of the Commandments would be "PAY to attend at least one US pro meet each year." And while we're at it, how about a Thumbs Down to college track coaches as well. Why more college teams wouldn't be begging to show up and run is beyond us. There were only two teams in the women's 4 x 400. We guess teams would rather run faster on some oversized track in front of 200 people instead of let their kids compete in New York City in front of 11,000+ and possibly a national television audience.
On Friday night, LetsRun.com co-founder Rojo and his Cornell squad were making the short walk from the Official Meet Hotel - the Athenia (from which you can see MSG, as they are across the street) - to get ready to warm up for the college 4 x 800. There seemingly are a thousand entrances to MSG and the Ivy Leaguers were having a hard time finding the athlete/coach entrance. Rojo was getting a little antsy about not being able to get inside but then Rojo saw Kara Goucher and Alberto Salazar a few feet ahead and quickly whispered to his runners, "Follow them. They certainly know where they are going." A few wrong turns later and Rojo's crew finds out that Goucher and Salazar had apparently walked around the entire MSG building looking for the entrance. Goucher was laughing about it and didn't seemed stressed at all. Goucher may not have known her way around the outside of MSG, but once inside she certainly knew her away around the track as she looked sensational, making a mockery of the women's mile field by 4+ seconds in 4:33. And to think she's getting ready for the Boston Marathon. What a talent. Keep up the good work, Kara. A big-time Thumbs Up to Kara Goucher. Finals
1 Kara Goucher USA 4:33.19
2 Marina Muncan SRB 4:37.77
3 Mestawot Tadesse ETH 4:38.30
4 Barbara Parker GBR 4:38.64
5 Shayne Culpepper USA 4:38.92
6 Courtney Babcock CAN 4:39.56
7 Kelly Macneice IRL 4:56.99
-- Korene Hinds JAM DNF
*Kara Goucher Pleased With Her Dominating Women's Mile
2009 World Marathon Majors Are Gonna Be Awesome But before we get to Berlin there will be at least 3 savory road battles over the marathon distance. The other big marathon news this week was the addition of 2008 Boston champions Dire Tune and Robert Cheruiyot to the 2009 John Hancock Boston fields. Normally this would not be huge news, but Boston clearly made an effort to attract the top American talents to their race this year in debut record-setter Kara Goucher and 2:06 man Ryan Hall. We give Boston a Thumbs Up for not doing what we feared they might: water down the field to ensure victories by Americans. The addition of Tune and Cheruiyot doesn't make the Boston fields on par with New York or London, but it means that for an American to win, they'll have to beat not only the defending champions, but two of the world's top 5 marathoners in the process (top 5 in their respective genders, though this, we admit, is debatable). Cheruiyot, in particular, will be incredibly difficult to take down. Robert Cheruiyot, the 2007 World Marathon Major champion after wins at Boston and Chicago, seems to be full of confidence as he came out this week stating that he plans to take down Geb's marathon record in Berlin at the World Championships this year. The marathon right now almost seems like the mile was back when Roger Bannister broke 4:00 for the first time in human history. After Bannister finally broke 4:00, suddenly runners around the world KNEW that they could do it too. Geb and Wanjiru (and to a lesser extent Martin Lel, Hall, Marilson Gomes Dos Santos, even Paula Radcliffe) have raised the marathon performance bar by leaps and bounds in the past 12 months, with new world records and Wanjiru's other-worldly Beijing marathon performance. And now the major players think that they too can run 2:03s, 2:04s, and 2:05s in almost any conditions; even 2:02 would not surprise Geb or Wanjiru if everything is perfect. As stated above, the Berlin World Championships marathon is shaping up to be a monster, especially if Cheruiyot believes he can set the world record there without a pacemaker. Throw London into the mix, with Paula & Co. on the women's side and the men's stacked field, including Wanjiru and Lel, and it is very, very difficult not to look at 2009 as the year when marathon performances that previously were few and far between to become startlingly mundane. More: "It will be nice to run against Haile. He skipped both the London Marathon and the Beijing Olympics, and one's real test is known when tested against such great runners." Collegians Start To Run Fast Ulrey Walks Down Rupp The best performer of the week, though, might be Arkansas' Dorian Ulrey, who last week famously finished second to Fernandez, running 3:57 in the process. This week, Ulrey wasn't playing the supporting role to anyone, not even Oregon Olympian and NCAA XC champion Galen Rupp. Ulrey reportedly grabbed the baton 20 meters behind Rupp for the 1,600m leg of the DMR on Washington's oversized indoor track, only to work his way up to Rupp. Though Rupp, a 4:00 miler, ran a commendable 3:57 split, he couldn't hold off Ulrey, who split 3:54 (wow) en route to a 9:28 school-record performance by the Arkansas Razorbacks (who ran without their best 800 man, Andy McClary, who had an injury). It's almost a fairy-tale week for Ulrey, whose 3:57 the week before was only good enough for 2nd place to a freshman and only 9th all-time on the Arkansas indoor list. Can you imagine? And to top it off, Ulrey came back the next day to run 7:50 for 3000m.
Trackshark Interviews Most Overlooked 3:57 Collegian Dorian Ulrey Meet Promoter Of The Week: Dwain Chambers We're giving a Thumbs Up to drug cheat Dwain Chambers. LetsRun.com has prided itself as one of the leaders of the anti-drug movement in the US (whether with Regina Jacobs or Steve Mullings) but Chambers is to his credit making things interesting. The Brit ran fast this weekend. He ran a 6.52 60m PB in some obscure meet in Britain as he's been basically blackballed by most major European meets. What made the 6.52 interesting is that he declared before the race that he would beat Craig Pickering's time from 5 Nations Cup meet, which had excluded Chambers from the meet given his prior drug suspension. Chambers was proven correct as he ran 6.52 to Pickering's 6.57. By injecting a bit of mano-a-mano intrigue, Chambers made us (a distance-focused site) care about some obscure sprint in another country. If not for Chambers talking it up, we wouldn't have cared less, as we don't even really know the difference between 6.52 and 6.72. It's just a meaningless time. By making it personal and a rivalry, Chambers is helping promote the sport the way it needs to be promoted. Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson had a sprint rivalry and captivated the public at large just like Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer currently captivate the public at large in tennis. Rivalries bring non-aficionados of the sport into the fold and track and field needs more rivalries. After living up to his promise to beat Pickering's mark, Chambers then did the unthinkable. He talked smack about Usain Bolt. He added in another article, "He won't be doing any showboating with me on his tail." Talking smack about the closest thing the world has ever had to a Sprint God is basically sacriligous but Chambers is a smart man. He's building intrigue and for a man with no sponsors, he needs intrigue. All we can say is we wish the average fan or promoter in the world understood track marketing half as well as Dwain Chambers. And we know one other thing: if Chambers ever races Bolt or Pickering this year, we'll certainly pay attention. More: *Chambers Sets Sights On 'Man To Beat' Bolt *Chambers: Bolt Won't Be Celebrating With Me In The Race *Chambers Will Give Up Relay Spot If Teammates Object *Dwain Chambers Runs Fastest 60m (6.52) Of His Career *Desperate Dwain Chambers Prepared To Play Race Card *Chambers Makes Good On Vow To Beat Craig Pickering's Time At 5 Nations Cup Runner-Up Meet Promoter Of The Week: Texas A&M Then this week, they had the SEC vs. Big 12 Challenge. A scored meet by conference featuring good teams from two conferences. A great idea. And what happened? More than 4,000 peole showed up to watch over two days as the Big 12 won both the men's and women's meets. Impressive. The Ivy League and Big East had a simlar meet a few years earlier but for some reason it was cancelled. More dual meets between traditional rivals and more scored meets. Very simple. More Than 4,000 Show Up To Watch Big 12 vs. SEC Track Meet *Meet Results Alan Webb Sighting In his preparations for his first competitive race of the season, Webb ran a 4:04/1:52 double as a workout last week. You can watch the race video yourself to see how he looked or hear from Webb after the "workout." Message Board: ALAN WEBB races @ George Mason Indoor Meet Newsworthy European Action: Shaheen Is Back, Borzakovskiy Runs 2:17 & Loses, Twell Loses And Farah Gets The British 3k Record There wasn't much professional road running action last week but there was some great action overseas on the track and on the cross-country course. In terms of a long-term perspective, the biggest news of the week probably came from Italy where the world record in the steeplechase Saif Saaeed Shaheen earned a comfortable victory over 8-time European champ Sergey Lebid in cross-country. After the race, Shaheen was very upbeat. It seems that his injury problems are a thing of the past as he told the IAAF, "I have great respect for Lebid who won eight European titles. Now I feel that I can run at the same level as before the injury or even faster. I will run at the World Cross Country Championships in Amman. If I finish in the top ten, it will be fine." We'll certainly find out how fit he is in a few weeks at World XC. In the women's race in Italy, Britain's teen prodigy Stephanie Twell was upset by Hungary's Aniko Kalovics in a thrilling race. Kalovics hammered hard from the gun as she didn't want it to turn into a kick with Twell and Twell was forced to play catchup. Catch up she did and she looked like a certain winner with 800 meters to go before Kalovics found a second wind and hammered home for a 4-second win in the see-saw affair. Keitany Wins In Zurich On the track, in Russia, 2004 Olympic 800 meter champ Yuriy Borzakovskiy shattered the Russian national record in the 1000 meter run by more than 4 seconds by running 2:17.10 - and he LOST. Yes that's right. You shatter your country's natioanl record and run 2:17 and get beat. Haron Keitany of Kenya ran 2:16.76 for the win. "Who the hell is Keitany?" you ask. Just another obscure Kenyan who has never competed in a world or Olympic championship but is fast as hell. Except Keitany is no longer obscure. Keitany is a great story. The 25-year-old entered last year with modest PRs of 1:50 and 3:37. He had a great year last year, however, as along the way he won the African champs, was runner-up in the Dream mile and won the Wetlklasse 1,500 in 3:32.06 before winning again in the World Athletics Final. Shockingly, despite the fact that he didn't race in the Olympics (as he was only 4th at the Kenyan Trials), he earned Track & Field News #1 World Ranking for the Year. In the midst of that, he did lose a lot of races but still managed a better seasonal record than any of the other contenders for the top ranking. Amazingly, his 800 PR is still officially 1:50.46. He certainly had to split faster than that in Russia. The other meet in Europe that we wanted to talk about from last week was the Aviva 5-Nations Cup, where the Commonwealth team got the victory over the US, Great Britain, Germany and Sweden. The highlight of the meet came from Britian's Mo Farah, who has certainly put his Olympic disappointments behind him (Farah failed to make the 5k final). Fresh off a training stint in Kenya, Farah ran a huge PB of 7:40.99 to set a new British 3k record. Very well done, Mo. More: Kenyan Haron Keitany Runs 2:16.76 For 1km And Beats Yuriy Borzakovskiy *Results Bored At Work? Hopefully Not as Bored As This Guy Working At Comcast In Tucson Well non-sports fans might say "sex" and apparently aren't the only ones thinking that, as for some still unexplained reason, Comcast cable subscribers in Tucson, AZ had their channels switched to a porno with, like, real nudity with 2:30 left in the game! We're not making this up. Click here to read about the mix-up. Click here to be taken to a site that has a video of the mixup - warning: the video has frontal nudity. Recommended Reads Unbeknownst to us or, seemingly, anyone else, there were cameras set up to record and save every single 100m split from every race at the Beijing Olympics from 800m up in distance.
As dull as sifting through thousands of 100m splits sounds, the article below is actually fascinating (plus it trims down enormous amounts of data to a very manageable size). Read it yourself to discover where the greats made their moves (you might be surprised) and to ogle at the ridiculous speeds the men and women were able to accomplish in the latter stages of races like the 1,500m and 10k. The biggest shocker to us was the speed of Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba at the end of a very fast and gruelling (well, apparently for her not THAT gruelling) 10,000m race. Following one recommended read based on statistics comes another with tables and charts analyzing distance runners. We of all people know that comparing splits between runners in different races is akin to the apples and oranges line, but Brett Larner
of japanrunningnews.com makes a very interesting comparison. Larner puts the 5k splits of Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher in New York side-by-side with the splits of Japanese women marathoners Yoko Shibui and Yukiko Akaba from Osaka. Shibui won the Osaka Women's International Marathon last week in a slightly faster time than Radcliffe and with a similarly impressive negative-split effort. Shibui closed incredibly fast and was jumping, laughing and filled with energy as she crossed
the line, returning to the form that
made her the world's fastest debut marathoner back in 2001. Akaba ran her debut marathon in a slightly faster time than Kara Goucher. The Japanese, who used to be a dominant force in marathoning, have been less effective in recent years but perhaps they will be a force again this year and in 2012. Other Recommended Reads: Looking Ahead: Reebok Boston & US XC
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Runner's World &
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We found it a bit embarrassing that the New York Times had virtually nothing on the Millrose Games prior to Friday's meet. Admittedly, the Times track writer Frank Litsky recently had surgery, so maybe it was hard for them to get much on it as it's hard to write about track if you don't really understand it.
