Recap Of The US’s 1st Street Meet: Marvin Bracy (10.23) Nips Yohan Blake At The Line, Tori Bowie Runs 11.03 & Jenn Suhr Scratches

2016 adidas Boost Boston Games

By Jonathan Gault
June 18, 2016

BOSTON — The first ever street meet in the U.S. is in the books.

A temporary 180-meter track and long jump/pole vault runway erected on Charles Street on Boston Common marked day two of the inaugural adidas Boost Boston Games, and while some athletes, such as women’s 100 winner Tori Bowie (11.03) took to it just fine, others weren’t as enthused.

“It was atrocious out there for me and the track,” said Jamaican star Yohan Blake after taking second in the men’s 100 in 10.23 seconds, his slowest time of the season. “I kept going up and down, up and down, losing my form and my balance…It’s more than a little bouncy. It’s atrocious.”

Reigning Olympic pole vault champ Jenn Suhr was another big name who did not perform as she wanted — that is to say, she did not perform at all. Suhr, who has not competed since May 7, was banged up going into the event, did not look great in warmups and decided to scratch rather than risk further injury.

Bowie was not as harsh in her criticism of the track as Blake, but felt that her performance was worth more than 11.03 today.

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“The time doesn’t show what kind of shape I’m in right now,” Bowie said. “[The track was] a little different. Sprinting on a regular track, you can put everything into the track. this one kind of yields a little bit. it’s a bit bouncy, a little curvy. but overall, we all had to deal with it, so it was fair, right?”

It’s a testament to the fitness of Bowie — the U.S. leader and #2 in the world right now — that she could still come out and run so quickly, especially considering she had been sick in the week leading up to the race.

While the track, as is common in this sort of competition, was not super fast (winning times in the 100/110 hurdles were 12.94 for Tiffany Porter and 13.39 for Ronnie Ash), athletes universally praised the atmosphere of the United States’ first street meet. Fans lined the long jump/pole vault runway two or three deep, with bigger numbers fitting themselves into the bleachers at the end of the sprint straightaway.

“It kind of put me back in that mindset of when I was 15, 16 years old racing out in the middle of the road,” Bowie said. “This was so exciting, I actually really enjoyed it.”

“The crowd was good,” Blake said. “The atmosphere was good but the track was atrocious.”

Brief recap with interviews below.

*Full results *Day 1 recap *All LRC coverage

Men’s 100: Marvin Bracy edges Yohan Blake at the line

(No wind reading listed in results)

PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	USA	Marvin Bracy	10.23 10.223	0.139
2	JAM	Yohan Blake	10.23 10.225	0.139
3	TTO	Keston Bledman	10.29	0.139
4	RSA	Akani Simbine	10.32	0.153
FS	JAM	Warren Weir

Marvin Bracy interview
Bracy said it was cool to come back and win at the same meet where he captured the high school Dream 100 in 2011, even if the venue has changed since then.

Yohan Blake was not happy with the track, said Russians should be allowed to compete in Rio and explained why he’s no longer “The Beast”
Blake’s training partner Warren Weir false started and Blake said that he wanted to false start too because of the track but knew he couldn’t let down the fans. He said he was “all over the place” because of the track and couldn’t transition properly but was happy to make it through the meet injury-free.

Blake also said he that he would be in favor of Russians competing in Rio even though the federation is currently banned by the IAAF.

“There’s a saying: first bitten, twice shy,” Blake said. “Everybody deserves a chance. God gives us plenty of chances. If it was me, I would let them compete because you know, they still have the [inaudible] out there and you have to give everybody a chance. Everybody works hard and everything. Give them a chance and let them compete, that’s my thoughts…To be honest, I don’t know what happened. We all deserve a second chance in life.”

Finally, Blake explained why he gave up “The Beast” nickname earlier this year. He said that in April pastor Andrew Scott told him that God didn’t like the nickname and that if he gave it up, he would run well in 72 hours. And he did, clocking 9.95 in Kingston on April 16, his first sub-10 100 since 2012.

“The nickname was holding me back. I keep on getting injured and it was related to The Beast…God didn’t like it so I had to change it.”

Women’s 100: Torie Bowie clocks 11.03

WIND: 0.4 M/S
PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	USA	Tori Bowie	11.03	0.162
2	TTO	Kelly-Ann Baptiste	11.30	0.146
3	JAM	Remona Burchell	11.42	0.148
4	JAM	Schillonie Calvert	11.48	0.154
FS	USA	Octavious Freeman

Tori Bowie interview
Bowie, the U.S. leader at 100 (10.80) and 200 (21.99) said that she plans to run both events at the Olympic Trials.

Men’s 110 hurdles: Ronnie Ash nips Orlando Ortega
Ash went almost a month between meets but ran a big SB of 13.18 in Montverde last weekend and won again here today.

WIND: 0.1 M/S
PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	USA	Ronnie Ash	13.39	0.145
2	ESP	Orlando Ortega	13.41	0.153
3	USA	Aleec Harris	13.68	0.136
4	USA	Spencer Adams	13.72	0.151
5	USA	Jason Richardson	14.21	0.155

Women’s 100 hurdles: Tiffany Porter takes down Sharika Nelvis and world champ Danielle Williams
Porter loves running in street meets and has a great record in them: she’s won the last three editions of the Manchester GreatCity Games and the last two of the Great North City Games. Now she can add the inaugural adidas Boost Boston Games to the list.

PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	GBR	Tiffany Porter	12.94	0.168
2	USA	Sharika Nelvis	12.98	0.149
3	JAM	Danielle Williams	12.99	0.190
4	JAM	Shermaine Williams	13.41	0.176
5	USA	Candice Davis-Price	13.43	0.143

Women’s 150: Tiffany Townsend takes it, Jasmine Todd address her departure from the University of Oregon

WIND: -0.1 M/S
PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	USA	Tiffany Townsend	16.99	0.168
2	USA	Shalonda Solomon	17.01	0.174
3	USA	Gabby Thomas	17.20	0.170
4	USA	Kamaria Brown	17.27	0.150
5	USA	Jasmine Todd	17.48	0.221

Todd, who made Team USA for the World Championships last year in two events, left Oregon before the NCAA West regional meet under mysterious circumstances. She said she’s still not ready to discuss why in detail but said that it was not related to the Oregon team.

“It’s a sticky situation. It’s a lot but it had absolutely nothing to do with the track program itself,” Todd said.

Later, she added, “the coaches really don’t have much comment because they know everything that was going on and they were there with a lot of support.”

Todd said that she will likely explain what happened later once the time is right.

“The situation is as resolved as it’s going to be…I will probably be releasing [a statement] because I feel like I do owe it to my fans, for them to know what was going on. It was a tough situation for me.”

Men’s 150: Antigua & Barbuda’s Miguel Francis continues unbeaten season
Francis ran 19.88 for 200 in Kingston last weekend, the #3 time in the world this year, and is now six-for-six on the season at all distances.

PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	ANT	Miguel Francis	14.93	0.141
2	PAN	Alonso Edward	15.10	0.169
3	USA	Sean McClean	15.24	0.147
FS	JAM	Nickel Ashmeade

High school boys’ Dream 100: Eric Stokes (Covington, Ga.) gets the win

WIND: -0.4 M/S
PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	USA	Eric Stokes	10.59	0.165
2	USA	Anthony Schwartz	10.66	0.164
3	USA	Cravont Charleston	10.69	0.201
4	USA	Micah Beaver	10.71	0.173
5	USA	Ramone Newland	10.80	0.170

High school girls’ Dream 100: Amaru Patterson (Haines City, Fla.) wins

PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	REACT
1	USA	Amaru Patterson	11.59	0.152
2	USA	Katia Seymour	11.66	0.175
3	USA	Tamari Davis	11.77	0.146
4	USA	Abby Steiner	11.81	0.217
5	USA	Ariyonna Augustine	11.95	0.195

Women’s pole vault: Katie Nageotte takes it after Jenn Suhr scratches

PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	4.30 14-1 ¼	4.50 14-9	4.60 15-1
1	USA	Katie Nageotte	4.50 14-9	XO	O	XXX
2	CAN	Alysha Newman	4.30 14-1 ¼	O	XXX
3	USA	Melissa Gergel	4.30 14-1 ¼	XXO	XXX
DNS	USA	Jennifer Suhr		PPP	PPP

Men’s long jump: Michael Hartfield wins it in the fifth round
2014 U.S. champ Jeff Henderson took the lead with a 7.77-meter jump in the second round and extended it out to 7.87 in the fourth round, but Hartfield answered back with a 7.90 in round five, which held up for the win. Olympic bronze medallist Will Claye struggled as he fouled four consecutive attempts in the middle of the competition.

PLACE	ATHLETE		RESULT	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	5TH	6TH
1	USA	Michael Hartfield	7.90 25-11 0.2	7.74 25-4 ¾ 0.2	7.41 24-3 ¾	7.59 24-11 -0.5	F -0.2	7.90 25-11 0.2	7.81 25-7 ½ -0.5
2	USA	Jeff Henderson	7.87 25-10 -0.9	5.53 18-1 ¾ 0.7	7.77 25-6 0.1	7.66 25-1 ¾	7.87 25-10 -0.9	F -0.3	6.60 21-8 -0.4
3	USA	Will Claye	7.66 25-1 ¾ -2.0	7.46 24-5 ¾ 0.1	F 0.9	F 0.1	F	F 1.0	7.66 25-1 ¾ -2.0
4	USA	Korbin Smith	7.63 25-0 ½ 0.3	7.63 25-0 ½ 0.3	7.34 24-1 0.4	F 0.3	7.51 24-7 ¾ -1.1	7.29 23-11 -0.7	F -0.5
5	JAM	Damar Forbes	7.49 24-7 -0.3	F	7.25 23-9 ½ -0.5	7.43 24-4 ½ 0.6	7.32 24-0 ¼	7.29 23-11 0.2	7.49 24-7 -0.3

Recap Of The US’s 1st Street Meet: Marvin Bracy (10.23) Nips Yohan Blake At The Line, Tori Bowie Runs 11.03 & Jenn Suhr Scratches

2016 adidas Boost Boston Games

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