I'm kind of surprised that no one said "He's DONE" yet. This is LR, after all!
I'm kind of surprised that no one said "He's DONE" yet. This is LR, after all!
Notice that only Bolt broke 20 and almost everyone ran slower by a lot. Wet track. With that said he would not have broke the world or Olympic record today even in perfect conditions.
Woodsman wrote:
Sprinter Guy wrote:Wind and rain. Everyone was slow generally. Probably made .2 of a difference or so for most of them.
I thought so too.
Bolt was 19.78 in both (although it looked like the final was more of an effort), De Grasse was 0.22 slower in the final, Lemaitre was 0.11 slower, Gemili was down 0.04 etc. Only Bolt equaled or bettered his semi time.
I think it's more about cold & wet than the wind. The wind in the final was -0.5, which isn't too different from the -0.2 to -0.4 recorded in the semis.
It seems everyone "froze" when Bolt took off and that explains their slow final time. As for Bolt, he visibly stopped trying with 20 meters to go, perhaps knowing that he had the gold won.
Both Bolt and Degrasse ran the 100, and along with the semis, it seems to have taken a bit of sharpness off them. The field almost swallowed up DeGrasse, who I expected to push Bolt more. Bolt was working hard on that one compared to the 100. He seemed genuinely pissed that Andre pushed him in the semi.
Also, we may never see 9.58 in a final ever again if testing continues to tighten up.
Ahem wrote:
Both Bolt and Degrasse ran the 100, and along with the semis, it seems to have taken a bit of sharpness off them. The field almost swallowed up DeGrasse, who I expected to push Bolt more. Bolt was working hard on that one compared to the 100. He seemed genuinely pissed that Andre pushed him in the semi.
Also, we may never see 9.58 in a final ever again if testing continues to tighten up.
Well, there are legal drugs and supplements which are legal as per Iaaf/Ioc/Wada. Improved and more frequent testing is therefore not going to slow the times. New legal drugs could in fact improve times and at some point Usain Bolt's world record might come under serious attack. Yohan Blake, De Grasse and Trayvon Bromell cannot wait to go at each other next year and beyond.
Dark chocolate wrote:
It seems everyone "froze" when Bolt took off and that explains their slow final time. As for Bolt, he visibly stopped trying with 20 meters to go, perhaps knowing that he had the gold won.
I agree on the 'froze' bit - that was either the best start Bolt has had in a while, or the others were really slow.
I don't think he stopped trying though - if anything he ran through the line more than he does in most races.
The made the track longer since every "expert" said it was short.
i think its mostly because of the heat,and exhaustion.id say lashawn merrit was exhausted,being a 400/200 man,degrasse bolt,and some others had to back up from their 100's and the 200 meter specialists placed pretty high.some have suggested its due to reduced doping,but i wouldnt know.bolt does look slightly less formidable,ive noticed.
... He ran an average turn and ran like butt down the straightaway.
What race were YOU watching. Bolt got a great start and blew everyone away on the curve. His performance out of the blocks and on the curve is what won it. And yes, he also ran the straitaway well.
WeJo, saying that race was slow was like saying the 10,000m was slow because it was won in "only" 27:05. They can't run world records all the time. Running 200m in sub 20 seconds is a big accomplishment.
Simple: the male sprinting landscape is totally off what it has been for the past years. We have a 9.8 SB in the 100, and a 19.78 SB in the deuce. It's like we're back in 1995 again.
The top guys get older and don't cope with the rounds very well anymore (WC Beijing was already the first sign). You clearly see fatigue in guys like Bolt, Gat, Merrit after 6 rounds of 100/200 400/200.
Plus, the young guys aren't really coming trough. DeGrasse is running according to his ability, but his build suggest that 9.8 and 19.8 are about what his potential is. Bromell, Bracy, KBC, etc. All talented, but most likely not capable of replicating the times of the generation Powell/Bolt/Blake/Gat 4-5 years back. Maybe someting to do with some kind of lack in "GRRRRR", because they are running against the guy who's poster was above their beds when they were 16, but these guys just don't have "it" if you ask me. They don't have the build, strenght, turnover, start and SE etc etc and in your early 20's, that's where you want to improve every year. Most of them seem to go backwards and are losing circuit races against freakin' 40y old Kim Collins.
It all seems to me like every single sprinter not named Bolt has some kind of resignation in the fact that they run for silver only.
I'm not going to eleborate on the doping issue, but it's clear that something of the above has to do with that as well. Like one of my athletes said: "they all got the memo".
Think by season end: we have Powell on top of the 100 list with a Rieti 9.79. Hopefully WvN is going to run a deuce to get that SB as well. For sure he's now p*ssed off with the fact that he didn't go for the deuce in Rio. Big chance of gold even with Bolt himself being in that race.
lol lol lol lol wrote:
The Jamaican male sprinters, in general, have been very off this cycle. Or non-cycle. Bolt's glutes and hams and to a lessor extent quads look smaller this year. I'd suspect reduced or absent doping (Due to increased testing? Paranoia?) for this Olympics have led to times Carl Lewis could have perhaps run on this track, but one could also point to more benign explanations--age, injuries, conditions, etc. In any case this is not remotely close to the Bolt of '08 or '09, or even '12.
Bolt won both races by a good margin. Is everyone else more off?
wejo wrote:
Bolt ran 19.78 in both the semis and final. In the semis (-.3 wind) it wasn't all out. In the finals, Bolt was going for it saying he wanted the WR. (-.5 wind).
So was it slow because a) the track was wet b) Bolt was tired from 19.78 the day before or c) he tried to hard instead of relaxing
Sprinting is almost a farce, all these guys were breaking down from the rounds this OG compared to last.
Take a guess.
Daryl Basarab wrote:
It seems that Bolt's main advantage is that he runs close to his fastest time when it matters the most, while other people run world leading times in diamond leagues and semi-finals.
Think about it. In the 100m, in 2011, 2013 (counting Gay's DQ'd times), 2014 and 2015 Bolt did not have the world leading time.
No. Bolt's advantage is he is just so much faster than everyone.
His 200m was slow because of the weather and conditions for sure. Everyone in the race ran significantly slower than their semi or season best.
Daryl Basarab wrote:
I think this negates the argument that he's 6 5 or takes less steps. If that was true his progression would be ahead of the curve the entire season. Instead he peaks at championships and sometimes gets the world leading time.
If Bolt was 5 10 and of course altered his style accordingly, less side motion, quicker steps, faster start, in theory he could still be just as dominant.
No, it doesn't.
Just like MJ has been saying. Bolt can move his legs just as fast as the other competitors (stride rate) but he has a massive stride length. This is an extremely rare trait.
Most tall runners move their longer limbs slower but make up for it in stride length, like Schippers.
wejo wrote:
Bolt ran 19.78 in both the semis and final. In the semis (-.3 wind) it wasn't all out. In the finals, Bolt was going for it saying he wanted the WR. (-.5 wind).
So was it slow because a) the track was wet b) Bolt was tired from 19.78 the day before or c) he tried to hard instead of relaxing
*too* hard. Come on, son. Them grammar rules ain't that hard.
laughing wrote:
I'm kind of surprised that no one said "He's DONE" yet. This is LR, after all!
The stupid broadcaster idiots all go home devastated! Happy? Those morons (NBC/CBC) kept announcing that they are 100% confident that Bolt will run 19.3 or faster. Like do they even read lines in advance or edit what they have to read? Or are they that stupid and write it themselves.
Rain!
De Grasse ran 19.81 in the semis but only 20.01 in the final, and he was trying harder. My guess is that Bolt's 19.78 was probably a 19.5 in better conditions.
Fast is beautiful wrote:
lol lol lol lol wrote:The Jamaican male sprinters, in general, have been very off this cycle. Or non-cycle. Bolt's glutes and hams and to a lessor extent quads look smaller this year. I'd suspect reduced or absent doping (Due to increased testing? Paranoia?) for this Olympics have led to times Carl Lewis could have perhaps run on this track, but one could also point to more benign explanations--age, injuries, conditions, etc. In any case this is not remotely close to the Bolt of '08 or '09, or even '12.
Bolt won both races by a good margin. Is everyone else more off?
Many of the times seem non-PED aided or plausible for clean athletes, which was true in past Bolt Years (outside of the Jamaicans, Gatlin, Gay & some others). For example, Andre De Grasse, who strikes me as likely-clean, ran 9.91 for 3rd behind Bolt & Gatlin this year. In 2008, Richard Thompson finished 2nd in 9.89; Walter Dix finished 3rd in 9.91. In 2012, the first non-Jamaican, non-Gatlin was Ryan Bailey, who ran 9.88 for 3rd. Take Bailey--about whom I have heard some unconfirmed rumors--away, and you have Churandy Martina in 4th in 9.94.
In the 200 in 2012, the first non-Jamaican was Wallace Spearmon, in 4th in 19.90. So...if you remove those who set off all sorts of red flags for doping and focus on the probable clean sprinters, they seem to be running similar times from year to year. Very unfortunately, drugs have caused many to forget what exceptional clean performances "look like".
Cooler, wet, slight headwind, a bit of fatigue all add up. Bolt and DeGrasse eased into 19.8 the night before under better conditions. They would have gone 19.6x and 19.7x but they let up and started goofing around with 20 meters to go in that semi.