8.79 Spilt

someweirdo wrote:

but not today you moron!

You and other are the morons for thinking this was some sort of amazing time. It was a good time and it significantly beat two US teams, neither composed of our best.

But the time run is not anywhere significant on the all-time world list, and those thinking otherwise just show how far out of it many distance runners (and Jamaicans) really are.

The womens 4X100 team composed of much of our best (Allyson Felix, Carmelita Jeter, and the Barber sisters) did beat one composed of much of Jamaica's best (including Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart).

By his senior year, Andrews will run that split in the last 100 of his 1:40.87

coach d wrote:

You and other are the morons for thinking this was some sort of amazing time.

But the time run is not anywhere significant on the all-time world list, and those thinking otherwise just show how far out of it many distance runners (and Jamaicans) really are.

The womens 4X100 team composed of much of our best (Allyson Felix, Carmelita Jeter, and the Barber sisters) did beat one composed of much of Jamaica's best (including Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart).

What does the womens 4X100 have to do with anything?

The point is Bolt ran to win and clearly wasn't concerned about his time.

8.79 is a very very fast relay split, within a tenth or so of the best ever-and he did it without really trying the last 20m, in APRIL. Woudl you mind linking the all time relay split list where the 9.79 anchor would not be significant?

That one puts it at number 3 all time, behind Asafa Powells 8.70 and 8.73-both at championship events in August where they were pushing to get a world record, not in April when coasting.

the conversion on anchor is to add ~ 1.00 - safa's 8.70 & 8.73 converts to 9.70/9.73, similar to his 9.72pb

therefore an anchor of 8.79 is ~ 9.79 open

however, it is fairly meaningless as there is no wind gauge in a relay & for all we know there might have been a +3 wind behind him ( unlikely to be the case with osaka/peking stadia which are modern enclosed stadium with barely a sniff of wind at track level - meaning safa's splits can be assumed to have negligible wind )

the only conclusion we can make is that it is an excellent early season run, but offers no portent to the upcoming season...

OK, so here's what they should have done:

In the middle of all the mayhem of those relays have a "Dream Mile" with some top Americans and African or two and some Europeans. The pre-race hype SHOULD NOT focus on time or on one person- hype the whole freaking field and the RACE.

54,000 people there to watch.

And, ESPN- put it on live TV

I see you have been smoking that Jamaican weed again.

runn wrote:

OK, so here's what they should have done:

In the middle of all the mayhem of those relays have a "Dream Mile" with some top Americans and African or two and some Europeans. The pre-race hype SHOULD NOT focus on time or on one person- hype the whole freaking field and the RACE.

54,000 people there to watch.

And, ESPN- put it on live TV

It's been done. You're prolly too young to remember the Liquari/Ryan Dream Miles in the early 70's. Not at the Penn Relays, but at the U of Penn track.

On the Wide World of Sports, live. Believe it or not, it was widely and wildly anticipated by the people. It was covered by the press and made the cover of Sports Illustrated.

It's been done, young man, it can be done again.

How about the Bislett Dream Miles in the 70's/80's? On TV- usually Wide World of Sports. Live!! People watched- the sport was marketed correctly and effectively.

Now, they focus on one person. Did you ever think what would have happened if the Jamaicans dropped the baton before it got to Bolt? The NFL doesn't rely on one guy to make them popular.

Football is a slow moving sport with little action (5 seconds of "action" every 30 seconds or so. Incomplete passes, running plays with little or no gain) yet it is popular (albeit only in the USA).

Proper marketing my naive, young let's run fellow poster.

thats because Jim Ryan captured the interest of America. He's white. We either need a rags to riches african (lomong) or Webb to be our poster child. then maybe just maybe a staggering 14 people will tune in on television. but watching Lagat dominate our sport does nothing

Dangerous Curve Ahead wrote:

By his senior year, Andrews will run that split in the last 100 of his 1:40.87

OOOOOPS! Don't know why this went up three times...

This was the camera that was set up to record the start of Bolt's leg on the 4x100

What the hell have we come to? I mean, honestly. A man has run 8.79, and regardless if 10 or 20 people have run that fast in the past, he has STILL run extremely fast. Hat's off to Bolt. Why the criticism? Why must we try to prove because he "barely" ran faster than others, or even didn't run faster than others--what the hell kind of difference does that make? Can we all at least agree that he ran very well? How do you define "very well," someone I bet will ask and debate that till it's dead. Yup, people run fast in relay; yup, Bolt has probably run faster; yup, Lewis may have run faster many times before. Let's just get over this “I'm right, you're wrong” bullshit and finally be excited that track and field has been blessed with such an athlete instead of meandering from the point and muddling with things that are clearly unimportant.

Is this really that hard?

I have loved Bolt in the past. However, I thought him running a victory lap by himself after a relay was selfish. A relay is a team win but he has tunnel vision on himself.

Seaton wrote:

yup, Bolt has probably run faster; yup, Lewis may have run faster many times before.

Except...he hasn't. And Lewis hasn't either.