IT'S ON! Lashawn Merrit runs 19.78 wind legal!

Good thing all those Russian and Kenyan dopers won't be there to ruin things for our upstanding sprint corps.

He'll be 30 in June but running PRs in the 200m after training and racing since early teens. It's like Gatlin running fast times in his 30s. Magical.

TruthSayer wrote:

He'll be 30 in June

Damn. I thought he was a few years older. He's been around so long I was thinking mid-30s. I didn't realize he broke 44 when he was 21. That's crazy. My mind = blown

TruthSayer wrote:

He'll be 30 in June but running PRs in the 200m after training and racing since early teens. It's like Gatlin running fast times in his 30s. Magical.

What is magical about that? 30 isn't old. Your body doesn't just shutdown when you turn 30. It's just a human-powered number.

as pointed out, 19.78 now woud expect a 19.60 in summer when at peak & done all the speedwork

that will get him the 400wr & i go with 43.0/43.1

remember lashawn ran 43.65 last year off little speedwork as carrying early season injury which severely disrupted his summer runs

dopeed wrote:johnson ran 19.32 but could only muster 43.18, yet merrit can run a WR if he's only in 19.6 shape?? what's your reasoning?

he was not likely better than 19.70 when he ran 43.18

he had virtually switched totally in '97/'98/'99 to 400 & ran little no 200s as with 19.32 he didn't need to

lashawn now is nearly as fast as mj was when he ran 43.18 & lashawn has 2 advantages :

1) more speed to come as only april so that 19.78 may move to 19.60 at rio

2) he has better endurance profile than mj - remember a wjr for indoor 400 as a kid of 44.9

lashawn will break the 400wr this year

yesohyes wrote:

Was this guy not already a convicted doper?

Yes, he tried to use the cover story that he needed the "supp" because his member wasn't working but everyone knows the particular drug he was using is generally taken to combat all kinds of sides that result from 'roid abuse.

A good telltale sign with this clown is looking at pictures of him from when he started college - then all of a sudden his times drop dramatically when he put on almost 30 lbs of muscle. it's a shame that the folks in charge enable so many cheats because of political correctness and certain sponsors.

Merritt and his weak sauce wrote:

A good telltale sign with this clown is looking at pictures of him from when he started college - then all of a sudden his times drop dramatically when he put on almost 30 lbs of muscle.

Sounds more like you don't understand what muscles do. Stronger muscles means faster running. If adding 30 lbs of muscle did NOT make him faster then something is wrong.

I'm 31 and set my pr in the 100m last year.

That being said, I'm a lot slower than elite. Also I am not a convicted doper (nor a doper at all).

My only point is that some people may set prs into their 30s.

jjjjjj wrote:

LaShawn Merritt smashed his 200m pr of 19.98 (+1.4) of 2007 with this 19.78 (.8 m/s). He has run 43.65 in the 400m, at Beijing in 2015, as well as 43.74 in Moscow in 2013, and 43.75 in Beijing in 2008. He is now 29. He is certainly on track to challenge the world record at 400m this year, but I'll predict 43.35. Don't want to do anything too noticeable.

He likely could have bested his 200m PB from 2007 last year, let's be honest. 43.65 to 43.35 would be a big improvement, like I said he would move to third all time. That is impressive.

He isn't certainly on track to challenge the WR just yet, let's see how he carries his speed through the season.

200/400 guys are not distance runners. They don't work on endurance then build in the speed. My bet is Merritt has been working hard in the gym over winter to improve his strength and power, and doing hard 200m training to improve his speed. He runs a great 200m PB. Then he will add in the 400m special endurance and lactic workouts through the season up to Rio. His 200m may not improve at all.

43.35 may not be noticeable to you, but it is what I believe Merritt will run and is an unbelievably fast time. Why would I predict the world record will go? That is a knee jerk reaction. Based on this run the best Merritt can hope for is 43.25 but I don't see him running that fast.

43.35 is my prediction.

Only thing I'll add is looks like it could be Gold for the USA in the 400m; Men, Women, and both 4x400 relays.

Must be that American 400m gene.

runnerdnerd wrote:

I'm 31 and set my pr in the 100m last year.

That being said, I'm a lot slower than elite. Also I am not a convicted doper (nor a doper at all).

My only point is that some people may set prs into their 30s.

at your level, do you compete against others who you suspect are on the sauce?

He's peaked. Oops.

dopeed wrote:

I love olympic years

the good drugs come out to play. speaking of which, watch out for makhloufi to run insane at rio. and I mean INSANE. word is he's running absurd workouts and looking easy

Best post of the season so far.

It's going to be one hell of a show!

He did an interview with the excellent journalist and 400 coach, Mike Hurst, and claimed that he never did much real speed work. Maybe at 30 he finally decided to concentrate on it.

dopeed wrote:

I love olympic years

the good drugs come out to play. speaking of which, watch out for makhloufi to run insane at rio. and I mean INSANE. word is he's running absurd workouts and looking easy

Where did you hear that???

how many sprinters are doping? Lots of fast times with big improvements from "unknown" sprinters early in the year.

You can't win at mens 400 without peds

bigdog01 wrote:

how many sprinters are doping? Lots of fast times with big improvements from "unknown" sprinters early in the year.

fair question: I'm not going to speculate on what 200m shape Johnson was in when he ran 43.18, but rather compare Merritt's 200m times when he ran his best 400s to what he might run this summer given this early 19.78.

He was running roughly 20.1 since his 19.98 pr in 2007 while running 43.65/43.74, and 43.75, among others. If he drops half a second in the 200m, as he may very well do from that time this year (20.1-19.60=0.5s), then why would it be hard to believe to see him running 0.5 s faster in the 400m than last year? That's 43.15. If just his current improvement of 0.2 s on his 200 pr is doubled, we already get 43.25. Hence, a very good world record attempt is very much in play. Also figure that Merritt runs to competition in many cases since 2008 (where Wariner had a very poor final and lost by .99) and is not big on "time trial" circuit events, unlike Wariner in his heyday. There is a huge amount of competition likely this year with three guys from Southern Africa, including Niekerk, who has already had a terrific start to the year. A Jamaican ran sub 44 last year in heats, while Makwala, another guy, and Niekerk, plus Merritt were sub 44 guys. There's a lot of sauce out there, I am sure, but whatever is the case there, Merritt knows he will have to be in top form for the Olympic final, where he will likely run low 43.