BTC & Portland Track Holding Separate Meets this Friday (7/31)

Bower Man wrote:

Goe clarifies that Jerry has chosen not to participate in these Big Friendlies, substituting intrasquad meets instead.

So, we will have two meets to watch live on our computers in three days.

An absurdity or a luxury of riches, depending upon your perspective.

From the interviews of the athletes it sounds like the county is enforcing a strict 25 person cap on participants?? how many athletes does bowerman have competing ? i would think they are already coming up against that limit on their own intrasquad meets

whatever their reason i am just glad meets are happening

There are 23 runners on the BTC team: 12 men, 11 women.

Along with 3 coaches.

Currently, 16 of of the 23 are competing: 9 men, 7 women.

If there is a 25-athlete limit, BTC is well under that.

Also -- although it has not been confirmed -- presume that USATF.tv will stream the meet live on Friday as it has done for BTC Intrasquad Meets #2 and #3.

Bower Man wrote:

There are 23 runners on the BTC team: 12 men, 11 women.

Along with 3 coaches.

Currently, 16 of of the 23 are competing: 9 men, 7 women.

If there is a 25-athlete limit, BTC is well under that.

Also -- although it has not been confirmed -- presume that USATF.tv will stream the meet live on Friday as it has done for BTC Intrasquad Meets #2 and #3.

LIVE Webcast - Portland Intrasquad Meet IV 2020

The Portland Intrasquad Meet IV will be broadcast live from Portland, Oregon on Friday, July 31 via USATF.TV. The broadcast will require a RunnerSpace +PLUS subscription. On demand videos will be made available here.

Broadcast Schedule

11:00 pm EDT / 8:00 pm PDT Women's 4x1500m Relay

11:20 pm EDT / 8:20 pm PDT Men's 4x1500m Relay

12:00 pm EDT / 9:00 pm PDT Mixed Gender 4x800m Relay

12:20 am EDT / 9:20 pm PDT Mixed Gender 4x400m Relay

Oh, Great Genie in the Computer, thank you for granting our wish.

Bowerman Bros can field two 4x1500 teams -- everyone running save CD if they really are going all -out for a record. Possibly, Josh Thompson will return -- he has been missing from the last two meets.

However, how can the Babes field 2 teams with only 7 runners (presuming Cragg, Infeld, Grace, Fraser are all still out)? My guess: they will recruit Emily Pritt -- or someone else from the BTC Elite team -- to team with Frerichs, Hall and Jorgensen for Team #2. Have to presume Team #1 will consist of Cranny, Squigs, Schweizer, and Houlihan and will shoot for the 16:55.33 US record (approx 4:14/1500 split) which seems very doable.

All 8 men are really good milers so that race should be really competitive. US record is 14:40.80 (approx 3:40/1500 split) which also seems quite doable but which cannot include Ahmed or Scott who will have to be on the "international" team.

As for the mixed-gender 4x800s, Jerry will have to be really good and lucky creating teams of equal ability since the 800 distance gives the men a distinct advantage; i.e. a guy could run a 1:50 while the female leg is running 2:05. Which means Shelby might get the baton with a 100m lead and still get run down by Ryan Hill, not to mention Mo or Lopez.

I was expecting 1ks or 2ks followed by sprint medleys or 4x800s. Possibly, Friday is just a all-have-fun meet as a prelude to one more meet where we will see all-out record attempts at 2k or even 3k.

Or, this could be their swan song for the year before they drift away into the off season.

Note: World 4x1500 records:

Men: 14:22.22 (approx 3:35.5/1500 split) (Kenya)

Women: 16:33.58 (approx 4:08.4/1500 split) (Kenya)

This is the last meet of the season for the Bowerman crew. Sadly, no 2k, 3k, or 10k.

So USATF.tv is going to show an intrasquad meet with just some dumb relays? And it’s behind a paywall? Is USATF.tv a paid for hire outfit or do they have affiliation with USATF?

Meanwhile, a real track meet is happening in the same town with multiple athletes from different teams. Is the Big Friendly 3 going to be streamed?

How comical will it look when the "international" team beats the USA team but the "USA" team gets the world record?

Never mind, I didn't see the world record was 14:22, that should be safe

That's no good that they're ducking competition entirely this year, even where they don't have to travel to get it, with others from their own shoe company! They could easily mix up both squads to compete at two meets without exceeding the athlete limit. And they're closing it up with relays! Why not go for more pr's at various distances? And they're skipping Monaco and other European meets. If that were because of travel restrictions on Americans with Trump's failed handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, that'd be understandable, but it fits in with Jerry's reluctance to let his athletes race against the best.

The Bowerman Track Club women will be attempting to break the world record for the 4 x 1500 meter relay this Friday.

The existing record is 16:33.58 set by a Kenyan team in 2014. It’s an average of 4:08.39 per runner.

Personal bests:

Colleen Quigley 4:03.02

Elise Cranny 4:05.83

Karissa Schweizer 4:00.02

Shelby Houlihan 3:54.99 (AR)

zxcvzxcv wrote:

That's no good that they're ducking competition entirely this year, even where they don't have to travel to get it, with others from their own shoe company! They could easily mix up both squads to compete at two meets without exceeding the athlete limit. And they're closing it up with relays! Why not go for more pr's at various distances? And they're skipping Monaco and other European meets. If that were because of travel restrictions on Americans with Trump's failed handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, that'd be understandable, but it fits in with Jerry's reluctance to let his athletes race against the best.

It's not about an "athlete limit", it's about control. This has always been Schumacher's MO.

Back over to the Portland Track "Big Friendly #3" meet, we are getting what we hoped for: an 800 record attempt by Donovan Brazier:

https://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/2020/07/donavan-brazier-will-be-gunning-for-a-fast-time-and-maybe-a-record-in-fridays-portland-track-popup-meet.html

Also, several other very good races which will include Shannon Rowbury, Craig Engels, Brooks Beasts, Oiselle Little Wing . . . and Brenda Martinez:

https://twitter.com/PortlandTrack/status/1288862019563610113

Returning to BTC Intrasquad Meet #4, here is what the BTC IG post today has to say:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDSAO0OnzWP/

Occurred to me that Lopez rabbited the 1500m race last week where Mo ran his 3:34. Remember, Lopez beat Mo in a 1500 in BTC Meet #1 back on 6/30 and was just outleaned by Josh Thompson. This might be asking for too much, but if Thompson is healthy, fit and racing tomorrow, a lineup of Thompson, Lomong, Fisher, and either McGorty or Jager just possibly could threaten Kenya's 14:22.22 WR (approx 3:35.5/split). We would have to see a couple of 3:34s to offset a couple of 3:36-3:37s. Even if Thompson doesn't compete, a lineup of Lomong-Fisher-McGorty-Jager should still break the US record and be within several seconds of the WR.

Looks like everybody now is all in on mixed gender relays.

Bower Man wrote:

As for the mixed-gender 4x800s, Jerry will have to be really good and lucky creating teams of equal ability since the 800 distance gives the men a distinct advantage; i.e. a guy could run a 1:50 while the female leg is running 2:05. Which means Shelby might get the baton with a 100m lead and still get run down by Ryan Hill, not to mention Mo or Lopez.

What if it was Shelby vs. Chris Derrick?? That could be interesting!!

Shelby ran 55.5 while Chris ran 57.5 on their legs last week.

So, if Chris gets the baton with a 15 meter lead or less on Shelby . . . she runs him down.

Now, that's entertainment.

Big Friendly #3 meet preview just posted here:

https://tempojournal.com/article/bf3-revenge-of-the-friendly/

No mention of Koko -- guess she' not running -- likely preparing for Monaco in 15 days.

Just listened to this week's LRC podcast.

Either WeJo or RoJo stated that he would be disappointed if Brazier did not break his US record at Monaco on 8/14.

Apparently, they were not aware when they recorded the podcast that Brazier is racing the 800 on Friday.

By Monaco, the US men's 800m record could be significantly faster than it is right now.