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The Week That Was June 1 - June 7, 2009 June 8, 2009 Everyone loves teenagers, so this week we do an exhaustive analysis of teen sprint phenoms and tell you how we think the next Usain Bolt likely isn't in Jamaica but rather Texas. We also look at a slew of great performances from some teen distance phenoms and tell you who apparently benefits the most from NCAA Regionals, before telling Nike to get rid of having everyone in the race wear the same uniform and tell you how to get rid of your Prozac. We also wonder why Asbel Kiprop wasn't DQed. At journalism school, we're sure they would tell a writer to start with the most interesting stuff first to draw readers into the story. But it's almost 2:00 am and we are tired as hell after a long day of travel to Arkansas for the NCAA championships and we certainly didn't go to journalism school, only to Ivy League schools that dont teech you how too spell. So we'll start with two quick Thumbs Up before getting into the bigger events from last week. A Quick Thumbs Up To Kaki & Burla Thumbs up to 19-year-old Abubaker Kaki, whose sensational 2009 season continued last week as he picked up two wins - one in Hengelo in 1:43.10 on Monday - and then one in Torino on Thursday in 1:44.25. For the year, Kaki has run 7 races and he's won them all. The breakdown: Depressed? Screw Prozac - Go For A Run! A Closer Look At Some Young Sprint Sensations We know that companies like Nike, Reebok, etc. can be wrong a lot of times and still come out way ahead if they get one Usain Bolt locked up but we certainly don't think Lee is the guy we'd sign. To us, the most troubling thing is his lack of improvement. His PR in 2007 was 10.33. In 2008, he ran a wind-aided 10.32 and now he's run 10.31. So he's coming down .01 per year. So in 65 years, he'll be ready to break Bolt's record.
The shoe companies should hire us as their consultants. The guy we'd sign is Texas high schooler Prezel Hardy. The guy at the start of last week was just 16 years old (his birthday is 6/1/92 compared to Lee's 1/18/91). He is 500 days younger than Lee and he just ran a wind aided (wind was just 2.2 mps) 10.08 at the Texas State meet!!! Unbelievable. And the best part about it? Look at his improvement. Last year he ran 10.95 wind legal/10.53wind aided and now 10.41 wind legal/10.08 wind aided. But all in all, we'd say let the kids be kids. Speaking of going pro early, Rend Lake junior college has produced another stud for the 2nd straight year. Last year the JUCO produced Kenyan Olympic 800 runner Boaz Lalang. This year, their 100/200 man Ryan Bailey, whom T&FN ranks in the top 10 in the 100 and 200, has gone pro early. The Oregon native has PRs of 10.05 and 20.45, both set on the same day (May 22nd) at the JUCO nationals. Bailey, who is 20 years old, ran 10.18 at Pre. More: *Rend Lake Produces Again: Sprinter Ryan Bailey Goes Pro After Frosh Year And Is Running Pre Classic The article says someone like him might make $200,000 per year. We say no way. *Dexter Lee's Agent Upbeat For His Client's Potential Some Great High School Action: Hasay's Golden Career Comes To An End As Robby Andrews Continues To Impress Where to begin? Individually, things were led by Cal's Reggie Wyatt, who set a new national 300 hurdles record of 35.02 in the state meet prelims. In the final, he got the win in both the 300h (36.17) and open 400 (46.13).
But this is a distance-focused site and there is a lot to talk about on that front. It seems as if the amazing depth that is now found in the college ranks is starting to take place at the HS level. At the NJ Meet of Champs, we were momentarily stunned that 7 boys ran 4:11 or better in the 1600. Stunned only until the California state meet results punched us in the face and made us overcome a case of East coast bias. In California, 8 boys broke 9:00 in the 3,200 and a staggering 19 of them broke 9:10. All in the same race! Special congrats to 10th grader Heyden Wooff, who ran 8:55.16. Individually, the big media news was that Jordan Hasay ended her HS career as a champ as she captured the CA state 3,200 meter title in 10:05.29, significantly slower than the 9:52.13 she ran there last year. While it appears that a big pacing mistake (67 first lap as Hasay is unwilling to let anyone else lead) cost her any chance of the national record of 9:48.59, we're not sure if we'd want to be Hasay going into college. It just seems to us that the expecations are totally unrealistic. After reading that Hasay had her own police escort at the CA state meet (not making this up), we called a CA high school coach to get his take on Hasay. He said, "I feel sorry for her as the future scares me. Out here, anything short of an Olympic gold medal and she'll be viewed as a failure." Our take: Calm down, people, and appreciate Hasay for what she is - one of the greatest female high schoolers in history. That doesn't mean she is going to be a big-time pro or even a dominant collegian. If we were betting, we'd have to say the odds are way, way less than 50% she ever makes an Olympic team. Former national record holder Melody Fairchild made a Worlds team but never the Olympics and current national record holder Kim Mortensen didn't even have much of a college career at UCLA due to problems associated with anorexia. 10:05.29 is very fast for a HSer, but to put it in perspective, it's 15:45 5k pace. Stanford frosh Laurynne Chetelat, who pushed Hasay to the limit last year while in HS, has already run 15:43 this year. Distance-wise, with all due respect to Oregon's Elijah Greer, who ran 1:49 this week in the Pre Classic after running 1:47 last year, the prep with the most upside in our minds is New Jersey's Robby Andrews, who ran a 1:48.66 this week at the NJ Moc (video race highlights here). The guy's kick is unreal. We've been wondering what he could do in a mile all year and this week he will go for sub-4 on Saturday at the Portland Track Festival. Could he be the #5 HSer to go sub-4? We aren't counting him out, but it's awfully tough in a HS-only race. If someone can get him to 1,209m in 3:03 or under, he's got the wheels. God bless him if he does it. More: *1:48.66 For Robby Andrews At NJ Meet Of Champs - Full Results A LRC reader wrote to us saying the NJ MOC was sick and he was right. *Recap Of Kenyan HS Champs *Jordan Hasay Goes Out A Champ *7 Boys Run 4:11 Or Better At NJ State MOC *3 At 8:55 Or Better In Texas *26' LJ In Texas *Texas Girl Wins 2nd Straight State Team Title All By Herself *New Boys 300h National Record Mboard: Does Greer have a shot at the national high school record?
Getting Ready For NCAAs - We Look at The Outcome Of NCAA Regionals For the men, the following marks were the last at-large time/distance based marks to get into the meet. Everyone else was top five in their region. Running events: Men's 100 (13.92), 110h (13.92), 200 (20.76), 400 (46.04), 400h (50.90), 800 (1:48.58), 1500 (3:42.13), steeple (8:50.30), 5k (13:57.06), 10k (28:57.06). Field events: HJ (2.16), PV (5.30), LJ (7.73), TJ (15.89), SP (18.17), DT (57.43), HT (64.12), Javelin (67.08). In that light, we'd like to send our condolences to Cal Poly's Daniel Gonia, Georgetown's Michael Krisch and High Point's Jesse Cherry. All three of them ran sub-29:00 minute 10ks and didn't make the show. We believe they are the first sub-29:00 guys to not get to compete at NCAAs (if it's happened before, please email us). It wasn't too long ago that 29:00 was still the NCAA auto mark. The good news is all three are juniors and can give it a crack next year. And as for regionals, we can just say that we were very pleased to see the Oregonian's Ken Goe wrote a great piece in defense of regionals. Chasing marks favors the big money schools and it rewards those that peak at the wrong part of the season - at the first or second Stanford meet. We also are for regionals because time trials are boring as hell and regional meets teach guys how to race. Looking at the 2009 regionals themselves, we really don't have time to do a great statistical analysis of anything, so what we did was look on the men's side at what region had the most automatic qualifiers who were slower than the last at-large, mark-based qualifier. The verdict? The West region benefited the most in a big way. The West led the way with 29, the East had 17, the Mideast and Miwest had 16 each (Note: That's not counting relays, which we didn't do, and we apologize in advance if it's not 100% accurate). Our analysis certainly isn't pefect but it's the easiest thing we could think of doing. PAC-10 schools, you guys had better think twice about ending regionals. What event played the most according to form? It might not be wat you think. The men's 110 hurdles was 100% totally unaffected by guys with slow times getting automatic qualifiers at regionals. The top 26 guys on the stopwatch all got in the top 12 in their regions and made the show. Which events went least according to form and had the most AQ qualifiers below the last at-large time? Not a surprise in that one of the events was the 800, where 11 guys that ran slower than the last time qualifier of 1:48.58 got in. The other event with 11 in a similar fashion was a surprise - the long jump. Clearly the top jumpers didn't jump well at regionals. More: Oregonian's Ken Goe Says It's Not Fair For Pac 10 To Advocate Cutting Regionals "Doing away with the regional meets would cut costs, but at the expense of fairness. Bryan Green On Why NCAA Regionals Are A Good Thing A Few Thoughts About The 2009 Pre Classic Now on to a few observations. Stat Of The Week #1 - How Fast Was Symmonds' Last 200?
Symmonds' last 200 was sensational and it allowed him to do something that is very rare in 800 meter running. His last 200 was his fastest of the race. He covered his last 200 in 25.77 compared to his first 200 of 25.91. Interesting to note that the last 200 of 5th-placer Khadevis Robinson, a known front-runner, also was his fastest of the race (25.99 to 26.20). But to us, the meet was really all about two things - Barringer in the 1,500 and Kiprop in the mile (and Phillips in the LJ if you are talking about non-track events). From an American perspective, Barringer's run in the 1,500 was very special. The best part was she ran aggressively from the start. Far from being a little timid at the relatively short (for her) distance of 1,500, she was up front all race. Then she closed in 62.05. Sensational. That being said, we think it would be a shame if the performances of the other Americans were lost in the shuffle. Anna Willard had the 2nd-best close of anyone in the field (62.52, which is better than the race winner Burka's 63.02), but she was just a little too tentative early on. Willard finished fourth with a huge 4.82-second PR of 4:01.44. The Barringer-Willard steeple clash at USAs is going to be a real treat. In 5th, Christin Wurth-Thomas had set a PR by 2.24 seconds in 4:01.72. So in two weeks, Wurth-Thomas, a 2008 Olympian, has knocked down her PR by a total of 3.16 seconds and yet she's only the third American in the race and probably only the 4th-best American 1,500 runner once Shannon Rowbury gets going. Speaking of Rowbury, Prefontaine was her outdoor debut and while she probably was disappointed with her 4:03.92 time, we don't think she should be. We were very impressed by how aggressive she was from the gun as she was up front all along and still in 2nd at the bell. It was clear that despite the fact that it was her opener, she was going for sub-4. To run 4:03.92 with a total disaster of a last lap (66.62) is pretty impressive. Lacking a finish is the norm, not the exception, in one's first 1,500 of the year. How do you get over the tie-up? By running more 1,500s. Stat Of The Week #2 - How Does Barringer's Improvement Compare To Rowbury's Last Year 11.46 seconds - the amount that Barringer's PR has come down this year (from 4:11.36 to 3:59.90) Kiprop Is Special If a still photo isn't enough for you, please watch the race video here/read our full article on the race . And oh yeah, one more thing, we loved his mid-race celebration. That being said, we're still waiting for the meet referee to DQ him for pulling a Jimmy Wyner. DQ him and half the Prefontaine winners who were all celebrating early as shown by this celebration photo gallery. Shocker Of The Day That being said, the biggest shock of the meet had to belong to Maggie Vessey, who won the women's 800 despite having the slowest PR of anyone in the field. A 2:02.01 performer last year, Vessey ran 2:00.18 and earned the right to became the 2nd person on the planet who can say, "I won an 800 that Pamela Jelimo was in." Vessey was next-to-last with 200 to go, but her 29.74 got her the win. Looking at the individual splits once again reminded us that Jelimo was still way up at 600 meters. She had nearly 2 seconds on Vessey. 1:28.58 to 1:30.45. But a 36.99 final 200 won't win a HS race. We're honestly fascinated to see what Jelimo does the rest of the year. Her tactics were so poor (her first 200 was 27.19 compared to Vessey's 29.24) that it reminded us just how raw she is. We certainly aren't writing her off for 2009. She's not in great shape but she's not helping herself by just running with zero tactical awareness. But we guess it's not a surprise that she is doing this, as last year, she won everything by just running as hard as she could. She can't get away with that this year. Parting Comments/Ok We Have To Go Negative And one last thing - Nike, please, please, please promise that never again will you make virtually the entire women's 1,500 field and entire men's mile field wear the same hideous yellow jerseys. The fact that all of the races are rabbitted makes it hard to remember that people are actually supposed to be competing against each other, but when they are all dressed the same, it's virtually impossible to tell who is who on the NBC telecast (particulary when NBC pans out to keep the entire field in the picture). Are Bekele & Dibaba Vulnerable? Will An Ethiopian Or Kenyan Step Up If They Falter? If Bekele isn't a winner at the World Champs in Berlin, it will drive the Kenyans absolutely crazy if another Ethiopian wins, as Kenya is still very much a male-dominated society and they desperately want gold in the men's distance events. But the winner of the 5k in Hengelo and the first sub-13 guy of the year? None other than Ethiopia's Ali Abdosh. The Kenyans had better not just assume like they did in cross-country that just because Bekele is down that the title
is theirs for the
taking.
Recommended Reads From Last Week Remembering The Last Week With The Quotes Of The Day - Day-By-Day: Monday: 3:59.90!!!!! "You see, I want to become a better runner than my father. But I'm determined to
become a better man."
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