World Cross Country Recap

Meet Website
Results

Runnerspace videos
AP wirestory
Let's Run live thread

Ethiopia sweeps all four individual titles, with (Kenenisa) Bekele and (Turinesh) Dibaba taking the open titles. Hardly a surprise there. The surprise was Kenya pulling off victories in both junior and senior men's races. Considering the rough patch the Rift Valley has gone through as of late, this has to be one of the most meaningful victories in the 45-year history of the nation.

My personal dark horse pick in the women's race, Gelete Burka, went out too fast and lost a medal in the last 200 meters. Bigmouth Buster Mottram not only didn't win, he didn't even beat Jorge Torres.

On the domestic front, there will be the usual amount of self-flagellation for middling American results. Save that vitriol and direct it at WCSN, who promised to show the meet to their $50-a-year subscribers but crapped out. As one T&FN board member wrote, "I hate WCSN! I feel raped. Did i mention they suck?"

Run, Fat Boy, Run

A new track-related movie came out yesterday: Run, Fat Boy, Run.

Will I see it? Probably not. Movies.com gave it a D+ and the NY Times called it "just another lap around the cliché track". This just goes to prove my long-held belief that David Schwimmer is about the unfunniest guy who ever starred on a hit sitcom.

World Cross Country Preview

Meet Website
Entry Lists
Schedule

IAAF previews: Men -- Women
USATF preview
Runner's World preview

Web coverage: WCSN says they'll have it, but since they don't even have a start time posted I wouldn't hold my breath.

Superfan Rankings, Men's 800 meters

58, Abuber Kaki Khamis
30, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi
29, Dmitrijs Milkevics
29, Dmitriy Bogdanov
26, Khadevis Robinson
26, Yuriy Borzakovskiy
25, Yusuf Saad Kamel
24, Yuriy Koldin
22, Wilfred Bungei
21, Nick Symmonds

Kaki is clearly the class of the event at this point and is one of the sport's rising stars. Had Kamel competed more, he'd be top-three for sure. Borzakovskiy and Bungei get dinged a bit in this system for having skipped the indoor Worlds, in that they missed an opportunity to pick up big points.

From the SI Vault

A 1971 article on running form written by none other than Bill Bowerman himself.

Enjoy.

TV/Web Listings

Don't have WCSN TV? Contact your cable subscriber and tell them "I gotta have WCSN!"

Friday, March 28
HDNet, 2:30-3:00 AM
Art Mann Presents: 2006 Bay to Breakers 12k
note: this program concentrates on the party, not the race

Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Sunday, March 30
WCSN, time tba
World Cross Country Championships

Monday, March 31
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Tuesday, April 1
HDNet Movies, 8:00-10:05 p.m.
Without Limits
(repeats 4/2 at midnight, 4/12 at 6 p.m., 4/13 at 4:30 a.m.

Wednesday, April 2
HDNet Movies, 9:00-1:15 a.m.
Chariots of Fire

Friday, March 28
Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Monday, April 7
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Wednesday, April 9
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Michigan at Ohio State

Monday, April 21
Versus, 9:30-12:30 a.m.
Boston Marathon

Saturday, April 26
ESPN, 2:00-4:00 PM
Penn Relays

Thursday, May 8
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Illinois Twilight Meet

Monday, May 12
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Jesse Owens Invitational

Wednesday, May 14
Big Ten Network, 6:00 p.m.
Musco Twilight Invitational

Sunday, May 18
ESPN2, 10:00-midnight
Adidas Track Classic

Thursday, May 22
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Big Ten Championships

Saturday, May 31
ESPN2, 8:00-10:00 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 1
CBS, 1:30-2:30 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 8
NBC, 4:00-6:00 PM
Prefontaine Classic

Saturday, June 28
USA, 12:00-1:00 a.m.
NBC, 8:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, June 29
NBC, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Monday, June 30
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Thursday, July 3
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Friday, July 4
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Saturday, July 5
NBC, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, July 6
NBC, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Superfan Rankings, Women's Pole Vault

53, Jennifer Stuczynski
48, Yelena Isinbayeva
34, Svetlana Feofanova
34, Monika Pyrek
34, Yuliya Golubchikova
26, Jillian Schwartz
22, Fabiana Murer
20, Anastasiya Shvedova
19, Carolin Hingst
17, Lacy Janson

Stuczynski holds her #1 spot purely by taking the indoor season more seriously than Isinbayeva. Murer ranks low because, as far as I can tell, she has only competed in three meets.

Superfan Rankings, Men's Pole Vault

53, Yevgeniy Lukyanenko
44, Steven Hooker
31, Tim Lobinger
30, Brad Walker
26, Jérôme Clavier
22, Maksym Mazuryk
22, Rory Quiller
21.5, Derek Miles
18, Sergey Kucheryanu
16, Igor Pavlov



Lukyanenko cemented his status as the #1 vaulter so far this season with a World Indoor win. Walker would probably rank #2 if his early injury hadn't curtailed his indoor season. Mazuryk won the big Pole Vault Stars competition in Donyetsk but did little else of note.

Weekend Update

It was a "slow week" where "nothing much" was "happening".

Let's Run's "week that was" and Runnerville's "weekly podcast" are up, but no one else has a weekly report--not Athletics Weekly, not WCSN, not NBC Olympics.

Bad Report on Wariner

At yesterday's Texas Southern Relays, the stadium announcer was reported to have pronounced the following:

Ladies and gentleman, Jeremy Wariner has entered the stadium. He will be running later this evening. He has asked that no one talks with him or ask for autographs at this time.

Now, this is a third-hand report off a message board. And we don't know the exact details. But when you add this in with his nasty split from Clyde Hart, it appears that Wariner might be heading towards an entry at Dickipedia (the "wiki of dicks").

Superfan Rankings, Women's High Jump

64, Blanka Vlašic
55, Yelena Slesarenko
37.5, Ariane Friedrich
35, Vita Palamar
32, Ruth Beitia
29, Yekaterina Savchenko
28, Amy Acuff
21, Tatyana Kivimagi
19, Marina Aitova
18, Ebba Jungmark

Vlasic continues her domination of this event. Slesarenko has lost to none but Vlasic so far this year. Friedrich had a very good indoor campaign until the Worlds, where she tied for eighth.

Sneaker Wars

Sneaker Wars
By Barbara Smit
(Ecco, 384 pages, $26.95)

I have not yet been able to get my hands on this book (the official release date is Tuesday), but the Wall Street Journal published a review and an excerpt. The book details the first two international kingpins in shoes, Adidas and Puma, the ascendancy of Nike, and the bareknuckle fights between them.

A similar upcoming book is Geoff Hollister's "Out of Nowhere: The Inside Story of How Nike Marketed the Culture of Running", to be released in just a few weeks. Hollister was Nike's third employee, after founder/CEO Phil Knight and superguru Bill Bowerman.

Superfan Rankings, Men's High Jump

As with all the events at this point, only each athlete's best four meets are totaled.

56.5, Yaroslav Rybakov
56, Stefan Holm
44.5, Andrey Silnov
42, Ivan Ukhov
28, Jesse Williams
26, Linus Thörnblad
25, Andra Manson
23, Kyriakos Ioannou
20, Aleksei Dmitrik
20, Dusty Jonas

Since the last update, the only competitions which made a difference were the World and NCAA indoor championships. While Holm won the World Indoor over Rybakov, the Russian has more big marks than the Swede and won arguably the toughest competition of the year, the Russian Championships. I expect a great back-and-forth battle between these two all season long.

TV/Web Listings

Don't have WCSN TV? Contact your cable subscriber and tell them "I want my WCSN!"

Friday, March 21
Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Saturday, March 22
Showtime Extreme, 8:25 a.m.
Bud Greenspan's Favorite Stories of Olympic Glory

Monday, March 24
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Friday, March 28
Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Sunday, March 30
WCSN, time tba
World Cross Country Championships

Monday, March 31
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Wednesday, April 9
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Michigan at Ohio State

Monday, April 21
Versus, 9:30 a.m.
Boston Marathon

Saturday, April 26
ESPN, 2:00-4:00 PM
Penn Relays

Thursday, May 8
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Illinois Twilight Meet

Monday, May 12
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Jesse Owens Invitational

Wednesday, May 14
Big Ten Network, 6:00 p.m.
Musco Twilight Invitational

Sunday, May 18
ESPN2, 10:00-midnight
Adidas Track Classic

Thursday, May 22
Big Ten Network, 8:00 p.m.
Big Ten Championships

Saturday, May 31
ESPN2, 8:00-10:00 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 1
CBS, 1:30-2:30 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 8
NBC, 4:00-6:00 PM
Prefontaine Classic

Saturday, June 28
USA, 12:00-1:00 a.m.
NBC, 8:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, June 29
NBC, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Monday, June 30
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Thursday, July 3
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Friday, July 4
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Saturday, July 5
NBC, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, July 6
NBC, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Superfan Rankings, Women's Shot Put

74, Valerie Vili
43, Nadzeya Ostapchuk
27, Christina Schwanitz
25, Chiara Rosa
24, Anna Omarova
23, Assunta Legnante
22, Kristin Heaston
20, Meiju Li
20, Misleydis Gonzalez
16, Anc Heltne

There has been far less meaningful competition in this event than in most. Vili has already won three times on the GP circuit plus the World Indoors. Ostapchuk has only been in three meets and could very easily challenge Vili the next time they meet. Legnante’s win at the recent European Winter Throws was by far her best outing of the year.

Weekend Update

Let's Run's weekly update is up, as is Athletics Weekly's and the new podcast of Runnerville Weekly.

Superfan Rankings, Men's Shot Put

The top ten men’s shot putters (best four meets)…

68, Christian Cantwell
50, Reese Hoffa
45, Adam Nelson
32, Scott Martin
28, Ryan Whiting
28, Tomasz Majewski
25, Rutger Smith (only 3 meets)
22, Russ Winger
21, Peter Sack
16, Andrei Mikhnevich (only 2 meets)

The competitions of note since the last update were the World Indoors, NCAA Indoors and the European Winter Throws. Ryan Whiting set a collegiate indoor record at the NCAA meet; his marks suggest he has a fighting chance to make the Olympic team, which would automatically make him a medal favorite. At the Euro competition, Rutger Smith won in the absence of Majewski, Sack and Mikhnevich.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

To go with your pint of Guinness and stobhach gaelach, a YouTube video of one of the greatest performances of all time: Eamonn Coghlan's 3:49 mile on a 160y board track.

NCAA D-1, day two

Trackshark coverage
Results

In the pre-meet formcharts, Arizona State was a co-favorite to win the women's title but neither Trackshark nor Track & Field News had them in the top five on the men's side. The USATFCCA computer rankings had Arizona State's men ranked #1 for three weeks in a row, which made me think their system was crap.

How do you like them now? ASU pulled off the double victory. But I still don't know why a campus with an average January high temperature of 68 degrees has an indoor track program.

This is one of the big problems with our sport, and the college end of it in particular. A while back I mentioned that indoor track is not real track, and it set off quite a bit of criticism. Over at Runnerville there's a discussion about whether indoor track merits championship status.

My opinion is that indoor track is preseason track and nothing more. In the midwest and northeast, it's an absolutely necessary part of the track program, since competing or even getting good practice outdoors isn't much possible until about six weeks before the conference meet. Anywhere else, taking it seriously is a colossal waste of resources. But if championships and All-American status are offered, the overly competitive nature of D-I athletics takes over and no one really seems to gives a damn if your title was won indoors or out.

Yesterday I saw the true amateurs, the true college athletes. With the exception of four quarter-milers from Texas, it seemed like everybody came from either the northeast or the midwest. But since D-3 stretches over the entire nation, it's safe to assume that the small schools have kept their heads about indoor track and warm-weather areas don't do much of it.

One effect of an overemphasis on indoor track is stretching out the competitive season far too long, which wreaks havoc on distance runners and merely leaves most of the rest uninterested in summer competition. But it also leads to shortening the outdoor season, which limits opportunities for bona fide competition (everyone is looking for a good mark). Schools as small as Bowling Green or Kent State spend millions building indoor facilities. In the interest of getting marks for the indoor nationals, college athletes started avoiding the 160y banked board tracks decades ago, which limited the fields available for the big indoor pro-am invitationals, and they largely disappeared.

All in all, indoor track is fun and useful, but nothing more. Treating it as an end to itself is ultimately destructive to the sport.

NCAA D-3 report

I went down to Ada to see the Division III championships this weekend.

Meet website
Results

The Ohio Northern University Sports Center seats maybe 500, tops. Track events on the final day didn't start until 2:30, but by noon there was literally nowhere left to sit. Eventually people were standing four and five deep.

Event of the Meet: Women's 4x400. Going into the penultimate event, the 5k, Washington (Mo.) had 23 points to Illinois Wesleyan's 20. Back a bit was Wartburg with 14, but they had a runner in the event. Anna Kraayenbrink ran a smart race, starting well back and moving all the way up to third before surrendering two places in the final lap. She gave her team another five points.

Washington did not have a 4x400 relay team qualified, but IWU and Wartburg did. In fact they were the two fastest relay teams entered, so the race was essentially a battle for the overall team title. I paid no attention to Texas Lutheran's huge lead after three legs, because who won the event didn't matter as much as who won between IWU and Wartburg.

At the final exchange, TLU had a sizable lead, and Wartburg was several steps ahead of IWU. Anchoring for Wartburg was Hannah Baker, who had been third in the individual 400. Anchoring for IWU was Rachel Anderson, who won the 400 with a new fieldhouse record.

Anderson overtook Baker on the backstretch of the first lap, but Baker stayed right on her. Coming off the final turn, TLU anchor Taffey Gray met Riggy big-time, Anderson and Baker blazed past, and IWU held on for the win and the championship.

Runner-up for event of the day: Men's mile. Heavy favorite Peter Kosgei won a tight stretch run by 0.01 seconds. Runner-up Paul Zdroik of Wis-La Crosse has the best 'stache I've seen this side of 1983.

Performance of the Day: A weird pick, but it's mine. Becca Jordahl, a junior at Wis.-River Falls, has run two indoor 5ks in her lifetime--her nationals qualifier and a 17:02.89 for second yesterday. She says she really didn't take running seriously until she got to college (she was more into soccer in high school, and didn't take up running in college until last year).

Disappointment of the Day: Men's 800 meters. Ohio Northern junior Jimmy O'Brien won the 800 at both the indoor and outdoor nationals last year, but faced a stiff challenge in mile champ Peter Kosgei. O'Brien got thunderous applause when introduced, and if he won the place would have exploded. It should have been a great race. But O'Brien got a bad start, ran the whole race in lane 2, and never gave himself a chance. He barely got third.

NCAA D-I, day 1

Trackshark and Track & Field News have dueling live blogs. Awesome. I think Tom Borish's is better, but it's not like you have to choose from one or the other.

I was attempting to keep track of changes in the team scores from the T&FN formchart predictions (i.e., Texas started w/ 33, lost 10 in the 800m, gained 6 in the PV, now predicted for 29). Here's what I've got now for the men:

LSU, 31
Fla State, 29
Texas, 29
Tennessee, 26
Arkansas, 25

At one point last night it looked like Arkansas had built a commanding lead, but then they cratered in the distance medley and came back to the pack.

It's also a bit more complex than it appears; Arkansas, Tennessee, and FSU were all projected for 0 points in the 60m but got an athlete to the finals. And LSU is slated for 18 points in that event, so they can't do better and could very easily do much worse.

On the women's side, it's a three-team meet.

LSU, 50
Ariz State, 49
Meechigan, 43

The team least equipped to exceed its projected score is Michigan. They're projected for 25 points today, but 20 of them come from winning the 800 and mile, and you can't do better than first. They'd need both a good day from Bettie Wade in the pentathlon AND some screwups from two other teams. Wade's subpar performance in the high jump yesterday has me thinking it's really only a two-team meet. Did you know that the no Big Ten team has ever won a national championship in women's track, be it indoor or outdoor, NCAA or AIAW?

NCAA Preview

We will have live video! Go to ladybacks.com, click on the "webcast" tab, and view! Starts at 9:45 a.m. on Friday, 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Trackshark.com is the place to be for live internet coverage. He's got his own previews for men and women, which differ somewhat from Track & Field News' previews for the men and women.

A comparison of team score predictions...
MEN
Trackshark:
1. Florida State - 43 (website incorrectly says 35)
2. Tennessee - 34
3. Texas - 28
4. LSU - 25
5. Stanford - 22

Track & Field News:
1. Texas - 33
2. Arkansas - 32
=3. Tennessee - 31
=3. LSU - 31
5. Florida State - 30

WOMEN
Trackshark:
1. Arizona State - 52
2. LSU - 49
3. Michigan - 44
4. Texas A&M - 33
5. Stanford - 33

Track & Field News:
1. LSU - 50
2. Michigan - 47
3. Arizona State - 46
4. Texas A&M - 40
5. Kansas - 32

As you can see, nothing is etched in stone, and the race for the team title should be quite close on both sides of the meet.

There's only one thing I can add to these previews: a handy way to keep track of the scores. I've put together a Google spreadsheet with one sheet for each meet. Each team gets two columns: one with predicted score in each event typed in, and one left blank to record any change from that prediction.

For example: Trackshark has Bettie Wade penciled in to win the pentathlon, and score 6 points for Michigan. If, however, she took second, you would write in "+2" and adjust the Wolverine's predicted team total accordingly. In this way you can see how the results of any single event affect the final outcome, and at the end of the meet you have the actual team score.

Have fun with it; I also have sheets for the D-III meet made up mostly for myself. The only preview of that meet I've seen is on the Trackshark forums.

TV/Web Listings

Don't have WCSN TV? Contact your cable subscriber and tell them "I want my WCSN!"

Friday, March 14
Ladybacks.com, 9:45 a.m.
NCAA Division I Championships (live)

Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Saturday, March 15
Ladybacks.com, 11:00 a.m.
NCAA Division I Championships (live)

Monday, March 17
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Tuesday, March 18
Showtime Extreme, 9:45-11:15 a.m.
Bud Greenspan's Favorite Stories of Olympic Glory
(repeats 3/18 at 5:00 p.m., 3/22 at 8:25 a.m.)

Thursday, March 20
ESPN Classic, 2:00-2:30 a.m.
Cheap Seats: 1985 World's Strongest Man (Geoff Capes)

ESPN2, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
NCAA Indoor Championships

Friday, March 21
Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Monday, March 24
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Friday, March 28
Bridges TV, 10:30-11:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Sunday, March 30
WCSN, time tba
World Cross Country Championships

Monday, March 31
CBC, 7:30-8:00 p.m.
Countdown to Beijing

Monday, April 21
Versus, 9:30 a.m.
Boston Marathon

Saturday, April 26
ESPN, 2:00-4:00 PM
Penn Relays

Sunday, May 18
ESPN2, 10:00-midnight
Adidas Track Classic

Saturday, May 31
ESPN2, 8:00-10:00 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 1
CBS, 1:30-2:30 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 8
NBC, 4:00-6:00 PM
Prefontaine Classic

Saturday, June 28
USA, 12:00-1:00 a.m.
NBC, 8:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, June 29
NBC, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Monday, June 30
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Thursday, July 3
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Friday, July 4
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Saturday, July 5
NBC, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, July 6
NBC, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Weekend Update

Let's Run gives their thumbs-up/thumbs-downs, Runnerville Weekly is up, and NBC Olympics and WCSN have a quick look at the indoor Worlds.




GOOD NIGHT, AND HAVE A PLEASANT TO-MOR-ROW!

Track on the Big Ten Network

This weekend I had two new experiences. Until now, I had never seen a track meet on an all-college-sports cable channel, and never seen a meet in hi-def. The Big Ten Network's telecasts of the men's & women's conference championships righted those two wrongs.

This was the first time track has been on the fledgling Big Ten Network, an issue I addressed previously. Both shows were recorded on the same weekend, one in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin, and so were worked by different crews, and presumably edited and produced separately as well.

Let me be clear that I know next to nothing about how televised sports are put together. I do know quite a bit about watching TV, a skill I have practiced over a lifetime.

The men's meet was on first, and started off with an electrifying race. Off a ridiculously slow pace, Jeff See kicked to a tight win in the mile. They could not have done a better job of hooking the viewer; the gun went off maybe fifteen or so seconds into the telecast. The announcing crew was decent, and included Butler By'not'e and Craig Virgin. Someone did a very good job of scouting camera placement for running events, and every final-day running event was shown start-to-finish. We were constantly kept abreast of team scoring as the meet progressed.

Where the men's meet telecast was a bit wanting was in field events. As is all too common in other TV track meets, we were shown winning attempts and little else. Even worse, the final event of the heptathlon, the 1000 meters, was not put into any context at all; either the TV crew was given no info about the event in any way, or no one on said crew anticipated a need for it.

The women's meet used Kevin Sullivan and Suzy Hamilton as color announcers, who were pretty good. This telecast showed all the running finals from both days, and covered all the events of the pentathlon in one coherent package. But like on the men's show, the field events didn't get the attention they deserve. The order of the events were sometimes jumbled, and team scores were updated much less often as a result.

These were first efforts for the Big Ten Network, and are acceptable in that context only. But it has to improve for me to think they give a damn about track at all. When a sports event is shown in its entirety, like a football or basketball game, the important things to take care of are camera placement and anticipation of the action. Track meets are a bit different, and while the producer doesn't necessarily have to be a track person to do it right, it does take someone who cares enough to think about what the viewer needs.

To illustrate what's necessary to do a track meet justice, I'll use two of ESPN's most popular shows, SportsCenter and NFL Primetime. Both are highlight shows, but more importantly each knows how to tell the story of an athletic event. From beginning to end, we are taken through the contest, shown lead changes, thrilling moments, and how the win was clinched.

Track meets are three-ring circuses, and made up of up to twenty individual contests that themselves all tie together into a larger team contest. We get to see most running events in their entirety and so summarizing them isn't necessary, but field events really cannot be done that way. Like a SportsCenter summary, each field event should be presented in a beginning-to-end format that shows lead changes and other important moments.

The men's championship show did this quite well for one event. The triple-jump was a back-and-forth struggle that came down to the final jump. But unfortunately, we were only told the distances of each jump and how it affected the standings. Why can't we get one of those graphics in the corner of the screen that tells us who's winning and what's happening now?

These are small complaints, and overall the broadcasts were good. But I bet little things like this don't get lost in the shuffle on an Indiana basketball broadcast.

Worlds Day 3 Recap

Results

IAAF recap
USATF recap

My thoughts on the third day of the IAAF World Indoor Championships...

Event of the day: Men's 800 meters. In a thrilling fight all the way through, Sudanese teen sensation Abuber Kaki had his coming-out party. Six finalists, six (indoor) PRs. I can't add much that hasn't already been said.

Performance of the Day: Women's 1500 meters. Yelena Soboleva topped off her amazing indoor season with an even-more-amazing mark, breaking her month-old World Indoor record. The IAAF Scoring Tables say her recent performances put her at or above the level as Jolanda Ceplak, Süreyya Ayhan, and even Jarmila Kratochvílová. I'm just sayin'.

Surprise of the Day: Women's 800 meters. Tamsyn Lewis ran very smart, Maria Mutola ran very dumb. Rewinding the electrons on my DVR, I noticed that Lewis ran right on the rail in second place or first place until the very last straightaway, avoiding the shoving matches and extra distance that plagued other runners. If everyone else runs 810 or so meters and you only run 802, you don't relaly have to be better than they are.
Video

Disappointment of the day: Men's 4x400m relay. Russia's team looked like they might give Yuriy Borzakovskiy a chance to make the anchor leg interesting, but Maksim Dyldin stepped on the rail and fell, making the rest of the race a mere formality.
Video

Warning: Men's 400 meters. If Jeremy Wariner's much-publicized split with Clyde Hart ends up compromising his performance, Tyler Christopher today proved he might be the man to knock him off.

Battle That Wasn't: Women's Shot Put. Women throwers don't get a lot of opportunity to compete on a big stage, and this was supposed to be a showdown between Valerie Vili and Nadzeya Ostapchuk. Nope, Vili dominated beginning to end.

Proof that Indoor Doesn't Mean Crap: Men's 3000 meters. Buster Mottram is way better than his fifth-place showing, but he obviously doesn't pay any attention to the tactical adjustments indoor tracks require. Running wide for several laps, trying to pass going into a turn, etc., all robbed him of a chance to run for a medal.

Why Didn't We Just Hand Out the Gold Medal and Call it a Day: Women's High Jump. Uh, when was the last time Blanca Vlasic had any real competition?

Separated at Birth: Men's Pole Vault. Lukyanenko deserves the headline, but I just couldn't look at Steve Hooker without wondering which he resembles more: Kenny G or Christopher Atkins.

Valencia's Hurdles are Cursed: Men's Heptathlon. Bryan Clay is back in top form. Roman Sebrle might have made a contest of it but he came up injured in the hurdles.
Video

Worlds Day 2 Recap

Results

IAAF recap
USATF recap

My thoughts on the second day of the IAAF World Indoor Championships...

Story of the day: Hurdle foulups. Dayron Robles was the indoor Athlete of the Year coming into this meet, while Susanna Kallur had broken a seemingly untouchable World Record. Neither made their final. Robles made a bonehead mistake; Kallur was injured in warmups.

Event of the day: Women's triple jump, where Yargelis Sevigne and Piyi Devetzi went back and forth with indoor PRs. Sevigne won the competition on her final attempt. Runner-up might be the men's long jump. Too bad we didn't get to see a single attempt of either one on Versus.

Men's high jump: Holm vs. Rybakov, chapter 172. This time the Swede came out on top.
Video

Women's 3000 meters: Meseret Defar sprints away from the field. What, you expected something else?

Men's 1500 meters: The news will be that first Deresse Mekkonen won, then he was DQ'd for stepping over the rail, and then he was reinstated. The real development here is the Ethiopian win, against the best Kenya could put on the line. Ethiopia has never been able to expand on their success at 3k and further...until now. This is the turning point. Gold medals may not come this year, but they will be coming and it won't be that long.

Men's 60m Hurdles: In the absence of Robles, Liu Xiang's victory was all but assured. Yawn. Allen Johnson's run was brilliant and he deserves all the attention. He won't win in Beijing, but a medal is within his grasp.
Video

Women's 60m Hurdles: Whether Lolo Jones would have won if not for the injury to Kallur plus Onyia's crash-and-burn is impossible to say, but it sure did make it easier.

Worlds Day 1 Recap

This post could have been made last night, but was delayed to avoid spoiling the Versus TV coverage.

Results

IAAF recap
USATF recap

My thoughts on the first day of the IAAF World Indoor Championships...

Event of the day:Men's Shot. Reese Hoffa put up the best-ever indoor mark in a qualifying round, only to get seriously whupped by Christian Cantwell in the final. Cantwell's indoor season has been consistent, probably the first time that's ever been said about his throwing.

Quote of the day: “I hope that when they bury me they bury me upside down so all my critics can kiss my ass.”
--Christian Cantwell

Women's 60: Angela Williams won as expected.

Men's 60: Olusoji Fasuba won Africa's first world indoor title in the short sprint. Which begs the question: Why the hell is someone from the tropics running indoors? Kim Collins and the notorious Dwain Chambers tied for second place, with new US star Mike Rodgers in fourth. I thought Rodgers was sure to win a medal, but he looked a little unnerved during the finals introductions, and his drive phase kept him off the podium.

Women's Pentathlon: Whenever I see Tia Hellebaut's northern-Eur0-style tightly-pulled back dark hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and angular features:it makes me think I've seen that look somewhere before...She (Hellebaut, that is) won the pentathlon, once again frustrating British fans of Kelly Sotherton.

How was the Versus coverage? Eh, OK. They took advantage of the IAAF's international feed, which has far superior graphics to that of NBC or ESPN, but instead of the announcing crew we had for last summer's Worlds we had Larry Rawson and Carol Lewis inflicted on us.

TV/Web Listings

Friday, March 7
ESPN Classic, 1:00-1:30 p.m.
1977 Superstars Competition (Guy Drut, Peter Snell)

WCSN, 10:00 a.m. (free!)
World Indoor Championships

Saturday, March 8
WCSN, 10:50 a.m. (free!)
World Indoor Championships

Versus, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
World Indoor Championships, Day 1
(repeats at 6 p.m.)

Versus, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
World Indoor Championships, Day 2
(repeats at 11 p.m.)

Sunday, March 9
WCSN, 10:50 a.m. (free!)
World Indoor Championships

Versus, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
World Indoor Championships , Day 3
(repeats at 10 p.m.)

Big Ten Network, 8:00-10:00 p.m.
Big Ten Men's Championship

Monday, March 10
Big Ten Network, 9:00-11:00 p.m.
Big Ten Women's Championship

Thursday, March 20
ESPN Classic, 2:00-2:30 a.m.
Cheap Seats: 1985 World's Strongest Man (Geoff Capes)

ESPN2, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
NCAA Indoor Championships

Sunday, March 30
WCSN, time tba
World Cross Country Championships

Saturday, April 26
ESPN, 2:00-4:00 PM
Penn Relays

Sunday, May 18
ESPN2, 10:00-midnight
Adidas Track Classic

Saturday, May 31
ESPN2, 8:00-10:00 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 1
CBS, 1:30-2:30 PM
Reebok Grand Prix

Sunday, June 8
NBC, 4:00-6:00 PM
Prefontaine Classic

Saturday, June 28
USA, 12:00-1:00 a.m.
NBC, 8:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, June 29
NBC, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Monday, June 30
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Thursday, July 3
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Friday, July 4
USA, 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.
US Olympic Trials

Saturday, July 5
NBC, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

Sunday, July 6
NBC, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
US Olympic Trials

World Indoor Championships preview (part 2)

AP Preview
EAA preview
Eric Pelle's preview of the men's 800

The slightly re-calculated Superfan Rankings for the most heavily-competed indoor events on the women's side...
(Bold athletes are on the provisional entry list for the World Indoor; maximum number of scored meets per athlete is in the event header)

High Jump (best five meets)
1. Blanka Vlasic, 59 pts (5 meets)
2. Yelena Slesarenko, 46 pts (5 meets)
3. Ariane Friedrich, 43.5 pts (5 meets)
4. Yekaterina Savchenko, 31 pts (5 meets)
5. Ruth Beitia, 25 pts (5 meets)
6. Tatyana Kivimagi, 23 pts (5 meets)
7. Amy Acuff, 20 pts (3 meets)
8. Vita Palamar, 20 pts (4 meets)
9. Svetlana Shkolina, 12.5 pts (5 meets)
10. Emma Green, 12 pts (4 meets)

Vlasic is about as prohibitive a favorite as there is in this meet.

Pole Vault (best 4 meets)
1. Jen Stuczynski, 40 pts (4 meets)
2. Yulia Gulubchikova, 34 pts (4 meets)
3. Jillian Schwartz, 26 pts (4 meets)
4. Yelena Isinbayeva, 24 pts (3 meets)
5. Svetlana Feofanova, 22 pts (3 meets)
6. Anastasiya Shvedova, 20 pts (4 meets)
7. Carolin Hingst, 19 pts (4 meets)
8. Monica Pyrek, 17 pts (3 meets)
9. Lacy Janson, 17 pts (4 meets)
10. Vanessa Boslak, 14 pts (3 meets)

The conventional wisdom has Isinbayeva a clear favorite; she was undefeated and set her umpteenth world record. But she has been beaten and two of her three meets have been strangely not dominant. The most consistent performer this year has been Stuczynski, and I would not be surprised if she pulled off the win.

Who is Mike Rodgers?

If you've been asking that question about the USATF Indoor 60m champ, Runner's World answers it. He's going to make the medal stand at the indoor Worlds this week, maybe the top step, and he still doesn't have a contract.

Track & Field Grassroots?

Runnerville recently linked to a political article and asked the following question:

Barack Obama, whether you like him or not, has created one of the greatest grassroots movements ever. Can our sport learn from this?

Some important points from the article in case you're not a political junkie such as myself (I read this a week before it hit Runnerville).

Obama's successful recruitment of outsiders was born of necessity - Clinton enjoys endorsements from Ohio's popular governor and many Democratic officeholders. If she retains her (albeit shrinking) lead in the polls, it will mean that a traditional, top-down campaign rooted in the party establishment still can win in the clutch. But if Obama scores an upset, it could prove that a new breed of grassroots campaign - viral, internet-based, built from the ground up by neophytes like Antoinette McCall - is finally ready for prime time.
...
All winter, the heart of Hillary Clinton's campaign in central Ohio was Jamie Dixey's apartment in the affluent Columbus suburb of New Albany. She started by inviting nine friends over to listen in on a national conference call with Clinton. She organized two monthly meetings, both of which attracted about 10 people.
...
Dixey's counterpart on the Obama campaign, Valli Frausto, signed up to volunteer for Obama on Feb. 11, 2007, the day after he announced his candidacy. Immediately she found the social networking section of Obama's website, my.barackobama.com, which campaign insiders affectionately call "MyBO." Frausto posted a personal profile, just as she would on MySpace, and met other supporters online. Within six months, her group of three women had grown to over 200 members. Together they used the website's event planning tools to organize Obama for President picnics, neighborhood cleanups, phone banks and a 5K fund-raiser run.
...
Across the state, Obama's 300 web-based groups started canvassing neighborhoods three days to a week before Clinton's campaign...

Now, the results of yesterday's election are not necessarily a referendum on this system--I voted for a candidate, not an organizational chart. But six months ago, the conventional wisdom was that Clinton would more or less have it in the bag before Super Tuesday and it hasn't quite worked out that way. A strong and widespread grassroots organization has been one of the many factors that made a supposed non-contest into a highly competitive affair.

Enough with the political dissection. Can track & field take advantage of the internet in the same way? In some ways, it already has.

The strongest case can be made by Let's Run, which I think has transformed the domestic running community. Through the late 80s and well into the 90s, when I was young and pushing my limits, the conventional wisdom was lower milage/higher intensity and the name "Arthur Lydiard" was as dated as bellbottoms. I rejected all that, took the old-school approach, and got a lot out of my abject lack of talent, but I hardly knew anyone else under the age of 40 who agreed with me on the importance of milage. You wouldn't say that's true anymore. The Brojos are more responsible for the change of attitude than any other single entity.

I doubt this is what Matt Taylor is thinking about, though. He's all about raising the profile of the professional and major collegiate ends of the sport. Before we try to start up a grassroots effort to do something, what exactly do we want to do? Answer this question, and then we can try to get somewhere.

Weekend Update

Weekend updates from Let's Run along with a page of links to every major collegiate conference meet.

Didn't get to this until this morning; I was up relatively late following the first-ever Ohio Primary Election That Actually Counted For A Damn Thing. Note to the 90+ percent of municipalities & school districts whose tax levies passed: this won't happen again, so press the statehouse to move the primaries up to Super Tuesday!

And I'm posting at 8:15 a.m. because I've got yet another snow day. My school district averages about 1.5 snow days per year, but we've maxed-out with five each both this year and last. Global climate change for sure (the Great Lakes aren't freezing over, causing more snow & ice storms).

World Indoor Championships preview (part 1)

IAAF Previews: Men -- Women -- Multis
WCSN Preview
Eric Pelle's Women's Preview

Timetable
Entry Lists (provisional)

Web coverage:
WCSN (live video/audio)
IAAF Radio (live)

TV coverage: Versus
Day 1 -- Saturday, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm (repeats at 6:00 p.m.)
Day 2 -- Saturday, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm (repeats at 11:00 p.m.)
Day 3 -- Sunday, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm (repeats at 10:00 p.m.)

A little re-calibration of the Superfan Rankings brings us to the current top tens in the as-of-yet most competitive men's events. Athletes in bold are on the provisional start lists. Note that the number of meets listed is not necessarily the number of times the athlete has competed, but how many times he has scored points, up to the maximum listed for each event.

High Jump (best six meets)
1. Andrey Silnov, 56.5 pts (6 meets)
2. Ivan Ukhov, 56 pts (6 meets)
3. Stefan Holm, 54 pts (6 meets)
4. Yaroslav Rybakov, 43 pts (5 meets)
5. Linus Thörnblad, 32 pts (6 meets)
6. Jesse Williams, 29 pts (6 meets)
7. Aleksei Dmitrik, 20 pts (4 meets)
8. Andrey Tereshin, 18.5 pts (3 meets)
9. Dmytro Dem'yanyuk, 17 pts (4 meets)
10. Alexander Shustov, 15 pts (4 meets)

Holm has been the most consistent, but Silnov has put up slightly more in the way of big marks. Take your pick.

Pole Vault (best four meets)
1. Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, 35 pts (4 meets)
2. Steven Hooker, 28 pts (3 meets)
3. Tim Lobinger, 27 pts (4 meets)
4. Derek Miles, 21.5 pts (4 meets)
5. Sergey Kucheryanu, 18 pts (4 meets)
6. Igor Pavlov, 16 pts (3 meets)
7. Alexander Straub, 16 pts (4 meets)
8. Maksym Mazuryk, 16 pts (4 meets)
9. Danny Ecker, 14 pts (3 meets)
9. Jérôme Clavier, 14 pts (3 meets)

Despite the numbers above, Hooker would have to be considered the favorite. His best mark is 15 cm above anyone else's.

Shot Put (four best meets)
1. Adam Nelson, 43 pts (4 meets)
2. Christian Cantwell, 42 pts (4 meets)
3. Reese Hoffa, 31 pts (4 meets)
4. Scott Martin, 26 pts (4 meets)
5. Peter Sack, 17 pts (4 meets)
6. Ryan Whiting, 16 pts (3 meets)
7. Garrett Johnson, 14 pts (4 meets)
8. Justin Anlezark, 12 pts (2 meets)
9. Milan Haborák, 12 pts (3 meets)
10. Tomasz Majewski, 12 pts (4 meets)

In the absence of Nelson, Cantwell is the heavy favorite, with a 3-1 record against Hoffa this year.

ESPN notices track

...and I've seen Obama yard signs in my 99.5% non-black suburb. I expect Beelzebub himself to deliver a snowball from the gates of Hell any day now.

Alan Grant profiles Breaux Greer in the current issue of ESPN Magazine. The teaser should catch people's eyes:

ROGUE SPEAR
As Beijing beckons, the best javelin-thrower in U.S. history asks for—make that demands—your attention. But if he doesn't get it, Breaux Greer always has plan B: "I think I'll do porn."

TV Listings Update

The best advertising tells you about something you actually wanted to know. Thanks, Google Ads.

The World Indoor Championships will be on Versus next weekend. The schedule:

3/8/2008 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
3/8/2008 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
3/8/2008 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
3/8/2008 11:00 pm - 12:00 am
3/9/2008 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
3/9/2008 10:00 pm - 12:00 am

Based on what they gave us at last year's Worlds, I'm guessing the broadcasts I put in bold will be new and the others will be reruns.

Conference Weekend

This is the conference championships weekend for pretty much every college team in the country. I could have gone to the MAC meet--it's a fairly short drive for me to Ypsilanti--but I found the prospect less than exciting. In fact, most of college track leaves me cold.

Part of this is no doubt due to what happened at my alma mater, which severely dampened my enthusiasm for all college sports (I now say I'm a Bluffton fan). But that's not all of it. The structure of college track leaves a bit to be desired. And it's far more than the fact that college track is almost never on TV, and has been on live TV just once in the last 35 years.

Who is the favorite to win each conference? It's hard to say without really studying the numbers. There are the rankings produced by the Coaches' Association, but they're based on how a team should do at the national meet, which can differ greatly from performance at a conference championship (especially for teams outside the top ten).

The indoor season seems to be little but two months of getting qualifying marks capped by two meets that mean anything. There is no building towards a championship, no standings, no way to truly compare teams based on actual head-to-head competition. (Well, save one: we know Michigan should beat Ohio State.)

The most exciting sports event of the last year was the Super Bowl, because one team was a heavy favorite and actually lost. Possibly the most exciting event in the history of college sports was the 1985 men's basketball championship, for the same reason. Would it be a big upset if Kent State won the MAC championships today? Without knowing a favorite, you simply don't know.