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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Superfan Daily: Your Track Vault Pick of the Week

In advance of Friday's Millrose Games, where Alberto Salazar's protoge Galen Rupp will race two miles, this week I give you a 1981 Sports Illustrated story on that year's great Millrose meet.
Alberto Salazar knew he was there—he had been there a long time—trailing behind him like a cape. But there was nothing more for Salazar to do now but push on, as fast as he prudently could. Pitched slightly forward in full flight, staring fixedly ahead, his face expressionless, Salazar had set a blistering pace in the 5,000-meter run at last Friday's Mill-rose Games. Rushing through the first mile in 4:13.8, a split suggesting a world indoor record in the making, the 22-year-old winner of the 1980 New York City Marathon had the Madison Square Garden crowd of 18,211 shifting in the seats. But more than the splits were stirring them now.


Directly behind Salazar, not more than two yards back as they raced into the final six of the 34-plus laps, was Suleiman Nyambui, a spindly-legged Tanzanian who was running 12 miles a day, back and forth to school, when he was all of eight years old. He has since developed into one of the world's leading distance runners. Nyambui (pronounced ny-ahm-boo-ee), a junior at the University of Texas at El Paso, won both the 5,000 and 10,000 runs at last year's NCAA outdoor championships. And, coming off that, the silver medal in the 5,000 at the Olympics in Moscow. Now Nyambui was waiting to kick for the world record.
The rest of the story...

What's On
The Beskydska latka, the second leg of the Moravia High Jump Tour, takes place today in the Czech town of Třinec. Stars to compete include Aleksandr Shustov, Jesse Williams, and Emma Green.
Meet website (in Czech)

A "Springermeeting" will take place today in the German city of Cottbus, featuring the men's pole vault and women's high jump. Stars slated to compete include Renaud Lavillenie, Bjorn Otto, Jerome Clavier, and Ruth Beitia. Will the crowd be chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"?
Meet website (in German)

A "High Jump with Music" competition will take place today in the German city of Koln.

Track on TV
Olympics: Reliving the Glory: Atlanta '96, 7:00 PM tonight on Universal Sports
Endurance, 9:30 PM tonight on Flix
Bud Greenspan Presents: Beijing 2008 - America's Olympic Glory, 4:15 AM tomorrow on Showtime Extreme
Bud Greenspan's Athens 2004: Stories of Olympic Glory, 7:50 AM tomorrow on Showtime Family Zone

News Links
Runner's World's Racing News has all the headlines.

Dathan Ritzenhein pulls out of London Marathon with injury.  Alberto Salazar trashing to being in 3...2...1

A poll finds that 81% of Londoners oppose Tottenham's plans to remove the track from the Olympic Stadium. And in other track stadium news, Kingston's National Stadium is racing against time to have resurfacing work done before major meets are slated.

Nearly 34,000 Londoners have applied for 8,000 Olympic volunteer jobs.

The Millrose Games will have another Super 60 race, this time pitting athletes from four different sports.

Two Russians put up world-leading marks in Siberia on Saturday. Josh Norman, world leader in the 60 meters, will compete in Moscow next week, as will Brianna Glenn, who blogs about flying there.

The new USTFCCCA computer rankings are out, with LSU's men and Oregon's women both at #1. LSU just lost a meet against #3 Texas A&M, which officially makes these rankings the only thing that makes less sense than the BCS.

Steve Prefontaine would have turned 60 yesterday, leading TrackFocus to ask what would have happened had he not died young.

An Abebe Bikila biopic will be screened in Portland in February.

Houston's Conference USA pole vault champion is also Shasta, the school's mascot.

Flotrack Weekly features the return of Ryan Hall.  They also interview 400 hurdler Fawn Dorr.

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