Day 7 Review

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My thoughts on the seventh day of the World Championships...

Somehow I didn't see the fact that the Versus coverage began at 6:00 instead of 7:00, and missed an entire hour. So as of right now I can only really address the last half of the broadcast. They a pretty good job with what I saw with one exception: they never even mentioned the fact that Andrey Krauchenko false-started out of the decathlon.

Event-by-even reactions...

Women's 20k Walk: I do like all the events, and I'll even take the effort to watch this one when I can. But it's not like I feel cheated because I missed it. Another Russian win.

Women's 1500m semis: One favorite won her semi, the other favorites went 1-2 in theirs. Expect them to win the medals.

Men's 800m semis: The semis did not go according to form. While favorite Borzakovskiy won his, the others went to Yego of Kenya and Reed of Canada, and Ramzi and Kamel are out. If you're willing to take a risk in the fantasy league, Reed could prove worthy.

Women's Triple Jump: A big upset--a Lebedeva victory in this event was billed as one of the most sure things of the meet. In fact, I made her one of my captains in the fantasy league, so I'm double-happy that she already won the long jump.

Women's Javelin: Another upset; Obergfoll got her first loss of the year, although she almost pulled it out on her final throw. Once again, results of the qualifying rounds predicted the final result (champion Špotáková won her qualifying group while Obergfoll did not). File this knowledge away for future fantasy-league domination.

Men's Decathlon: When I made my multis picks a week or so ago, I said I really didn't believe Clay could do anything considering that he's only finished one decathlon in the past two years. He went out hurt again. Upstart Maurice Smith is leading for now, but get prepared to sing "Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world..."

Women's 200m final: Allyson Felix is having a great year, and I'd have to say she's got the inside track on Athlete of the Year. 21.81 is seriously moving--it's the second-best best mark of the last ten years (save a few by Marion "What? Me BALCO?" Jones). Richards had an uncharacteristically poor race--I hope this isn't a bad omen for the 4x400.

Men's 400m final: USA sweep, led by two PRs. Wariner ran a dominant homestretch to kick all asses. You expected something different?

Men's 110m Hurdles: First and second went according to form; Liu is unquestionably the dominant hurdler of our time. Yesterday I said Payne could surprise, and I was right.