Wallace Spearmon Jr. 19.96 World Lead!

20.54 (+1.8) for a 400m runner in March, and you are concluding that he is "done"?

Exactly what other top 400m runner has put up that kind of time so far?

I ask that question seriously, I have no idea. 20.54 is a smoking 200.

To me, that 20.54 in March looks great. He is running the 400, you know. Anybody know how he looked running it?

Same as I think Charles Jock's 1500 times in March look great.

Yeah and my mistake above, Wariner was 2nd place. I was distracted with people and kids around and taking photos at the time, and it was so close I initially thought he was third and that just seems to have been stuck in my head. But 2nd in 20.53 is correct.

Relatively speaking, Wariner has never been terribly fast when it comes to 200 times, and there's really nothing wrong with that. His strengths lie elsewhere, and so I'm inclined to echo other people here and say this marks a strong early season performance for him.

wally's problem apart from injury in his career has been his poor pace judgement

he usually ran the race with a pedestrian bend

now, i'm 1st guy to say that the guys run the bend too fast & slower woud be better, but he was too far the other way - running 10.5 bends severely handicaps you when trying to run 19.7/19.8

here is vid of his pb when running 19.65 ( 0 wind ) in daewoo stadium in rehersal meet for following year's wc ( unquestionable timing/wind as rehersal meet with likely all same equipment used the next year )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMSk9ZZrmrQ

here is near perfect bend of ~ 10.3

the formula i use for an ideally run 200 is :

200 = 2*100 split - 0.95

a ~ 10.3 split is perfect one for 19.65

he needs to try & replicate this kind of curve often

Vid is up on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaWE65PdYmg

Not a great video, but it will have to do, for now.

Spearmon still needs to work on his turn.

Wariner, after being down to Connaughton, reeled him in and passed him in the last 50m. Connaughton's too big for even the 200, he should stick to the 100. He was all over the place, and gassed after 150m.

Spearmon's race looked to me pretty much like all his other 200's, although he did seem to pick it up a bit after maybe 30m, but his first 30m were very conservative.

Of all the things, and it's hard to tell from the video, but Wariner looks like he actually had a good start, with some drive! Again, hard to tell.

Of all the athletes, I think maybe Wariner looked the best--he looked controlled and energetic for this time of year, seeming to run well within himself. Granted it was only a 200, but the way he was flagging last year, this to me shows some promise, although his 400 endurance is still a VERY open question.

My London final:

Bolt...........18.85(9.90/8.95)

Blake..........18.98(9.98/9.00)

Gay............19.26(9.92/9.34)

Dix............19.44(10.00/9.44)

Spearmon.......19.57(10.27/9.30)

Alonzo Edwards.19.75(10.20/9.55)

C.Lemaitre.....19.79(10.25/9.54)

Ashmeade.......19.84(10.20/9.64)

Lol, 2 sub 19's? I don't think so.

I haven't seen Wariner live before but he seemed loose and relaxed and he was smiling and conversing with other athletes beforehand and after. His body language didn't show disappointment after either.

On one hand perhaps the time off he had has been good, and corrected issues holding him back, or else as you mentioned, perhaps he will find himself short on the longer distance development. I would love to see him take MJ's record but quite possibly he lost that window back in '08 when he switched coaches, changed his training which was really working well and had him rolling along.

20.54 is pretty good for Wariner at this point. I think this bodes well.

Cheif wrote:

20.54 is pretty good for Wariner at this point. I think this bodes well.

What's his 200m pr?

agreed, how is 20.5 for a 400 meter runner bad?

WellPoint wrote:

Cheif wrote:

20.54 is pretty good for Wariner at this point. I think this bodes well.

What's his 200m pr?

20.19 with a 1.2 wind. He only ran 20.59 the year he won the Olympics, and 20.35 the year he ran his PR.

BTW, for all those commenting that Wariner is done, his 20.53 has just given him the Olympic "A" Standard in the 200m.

I predict Bolt won't even make the final in the 2.

Injuries. He'll be like Gay in 08. Bolt is fast, but he's too fast for his body. He's hurt.