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Friday, September 10, 2010

You Never Forget Your First Time

Last night I chatted with the parents of Erik Kynard, Kansas State’s standout high jumper, as their other son is in my Algebra 1 class. They related an interesting story from the last Olympic Trials.

Erik was a high school junior and it was his first truly big meet. Right around the time of the high jump qualifying round, the awards were being handed out for the men’s 400 meters. A certain quarter-miler had just been beaten for the first time in years and was not happy about it, and so when a little girl standing at the fence asked for his autograph he blew her off. She then looked at Erik, decided he was a good enough replacement, and asked for his autograph. It was the first such request he’d ever had.

Yesterday's results
Notturna di Milan in Italy (IAAF writeup)
Takaways from this meet: Caster Semenya won in 1:58, but we still don't know if there's any real physical difference between her in 2010 and 2009...Combacking milers: Alan Webb ran 3:36, but was still bested by another guy on the mend, former Michigan teammate Nick Willis (video here and Webb interview here)...Apparently there are always new Ethiopians, too: a never-heard-of-him Almirew Yenew ran the year's second-fastest time in the 3000 meters (7:28.70).

What’s On the Weekend
The DecaNation meet takes place on Saturday in Annecy, France. It’s one of the more interesting competitions of the year: national teams have one athlete in each of the decathlon events and it’s scored as a decathlon.
Meet website

The Metro 10k, an IAAF Silver Label road race, takes place on Saturday in Prague.
Race website / IAAF preview

This is the second week of collegiate cross country.
USTFCCCA comprehensive meet listing

Track on TV
Endurance, 8:45 AM Friday on Showtime Extreme
Prefontaine, 10:10 AM Friday on Showtime Extreme
Diamond League Brussels rerun, 12:30 and 10 PM Friday on Universal Sports
Continental Cup Day 1 rerun, 1 PM Saturday on Universal Sports
Diamond League London rerun, 5 PM Saturday and Sunday on Universal Sports
Continental Cup Day 2 rerun, 1 PM Sunday on Universal Sports

Around the Web
Runner's World's Racing News has all the headlines, including elite field announcements for the 5th Avenue Mile and the Philadelphia half marathon

The best analysis of the Doug Logan / USATF situation comes to us from Larry Eder at RunBlogRun

Phil Hersh analyzes the rebuilding of bridges between the USOC and IOC

Universal Sports' best of the summer

Kara Patterson blogs on the Continental Cup

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