Georgia - 2:58.82 @ Texas Relays (Godwin 44.4, Boling 43.8(?), Cavanaugh 45.4, and Sumner 44.8)

IS Walt Murphy retired from whispering in the ears of the announcers yet?

I don't think he is but he can't be everywhere.

in the old days you added .7 to relay time, as an approx. open time. What I liked seeing is how well Boling was able to keep his knees up coming down the final stretch. I have seen some of the women doing that in the 200 and it shows, to me, that he is very strong despite a lot of fatigue at that point. Many of these guys running 44+ can maintain very good form, very impressive. I am guessing a lot of that has to do with their 200 and 100 meter times, as they can run 21+ and it is less than max, close to maybe 92% of their max? To me that has been the biggest improvement over previous generations of 400m runners. They go out in 21 and can come back in 23.....I still remember when Larry James ran 43.9 leg yds at Penn Relays (his 5th race of the weekend) and had similar lift. He was able to maintain speed as his runs were a bit more even split. All in all very exciting to see such running. In 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the US ran 2:56.1, a world record at the time. Matthews(Johnson C Smith College), Freeman (Arizona State), James (Villanova) and Evans (San Jose). James was a sophomore, Freeman a junior and Matthews and Evans seniors. I am guessing that record could be achieved by one of these college teams.

UCLA anchor ran stupid

Proposed new rule: each team must select one thrower, one jumper, one distance guy, and one sprinter to make up their 4 x 400 team.

Back in the early 90s, I used to go out and run Tuesday night track meets with the Reese Park Striders in Chicago. Dirt/cinder track, kids riding around on bikes, half the time lane one was flooded in parts. Great times. The last even was always the 4x400 and the guy organizing the meets would make the teams. Common team composition was a HS/college runner, a local 30/40 y.o. hobby jogger, a little kid and an old lady or guy (70+). It was always a blast!

What happened to cade? Hurt stepping on a rail?

So that is better than 4 sub 46 sprinters?

Those 2 athletes went out in the first 200 about as fast as Will's 200m PR; he couldn't get out that fast if he wanted to. Btw, the reason Will was on anchor was to do exactly what happened, give him a lead and make the other runners chase him knowing Will will finish strong.

That makes sense - they sure burned themselves out catching and passing him and had little in the last 75 or so.

Why is nobody talking about the Alabama 2nd runner? He got confused and ran the 1st 100m in lane 6 when he should have been in lane 5. So technically Alabama should have been disqualified.

But even running extra distance, HE KEPT UP WITH BOLING despite running 15 extra meters. This is a far more impressive run than Boling.

It will be fun to see Will Sumner in the 800m after these sub-45 carries. He really held his speed well the last 100m. Too bad Flatt is not healthy as well to get a marquee NCAA 800m matchup.

tarsis orogot has been on my radar since he ran 20.20 indoors. at texas relays he ran 10.07 in the afternoon and came back to run that leg - which was a 43.9, despite everything you mentioned.

incredible talent. i could really see him running 19.8 high this year.

Each lane adds another 4 meters per turn.

It's pretty clear that Boling's best event will be the 400 meters. I've been thinking that for a couple of years now, and this race confirms it. Particularly as the 200 is currently loaded, while the 400 field is relatively weak.

And yeah, that Bama guy was superfast also, especially for a 2nd leg. He made Boling's time look slower than it was, because you wouldn't figure that somebody running 43x would have a shadow.

OMG that's wild, how didn't anyone notice that until page 3 and 3 full days after the race?

Why should 'Bama have been dq'd? He ran in a lane outside his own lane so no advantage there and he didn't impede another runner.

No dq.

Yep, totally agree. I like the racing plan he's been on, running all 3 distances to keep developing his speed. A 10 flat 100m guy with endurance is going to run a hell of a 400 and he's showing exactly what that looks like.

Kerley, Norman and Van Niekerk are the only to run sub-10, sub-20 and sub-44. Boling has a good chance to do that with a 27--foot long jump to boot. Quite impressive.