Weekend Preview

The relay season kicks off this weekend with the Florida Relays on Friday and Saturday.  Friday is the individual events, Saturday is the relays.

Besides all the hot collegiate action, which I previewed yesterday, some big-name pros are getting started here too.  David Oliver is running his first outdoor race of the year; Francena McCorory and Mary Wineberg are facing off in the 400; and a foursome of Vet Myers, Lauryn Williams, Natasha Hastings, and Bianca Knight are running the 4x100 and 4x200.  (Tyson Gay had considered running on a 4x400 here, but it looks like that's not happening.)

And then there's the brainchild of Florida sprinters Terrell Wilks and Jeff Demps: the fastest mascot challenge.


Flotrack will have coverage and DistancePreps.com will have a live webcast on both days.  Don't miss it!

Another quality relay meet this weekend is the 46th annual Colonial Relays at William and Mary.  The Missouri Relays also takes place in Columbia.

Scored Meets
If you're like me, and you love meets that keep score, you'll have a lot to keep you happy this weekend.

The inaugural LSU Invitational has the home Tigers plus Texas A&M, Illinois, Iowa, UConn and Army.  On both the men's and the women's side, the team battle should be a war.  In terms of individual events, the men's 110 hurdles lines up the top two in the country, Barret Nugent (LSU) and Andrew Riley (Illinois).

The Jim Click Shootout lines up the home Arizona Wildcats against Ohio State, Minnesota and Washington State.  The two from the Big Ten are deep teams that do very well in this kind of competition.

There's a revival of a once-great dual meet series as Tennessee travels to UCLA.  Nebraska and Northern Iowa go to Wichita State.  BYU and Cal St. Northridge come to USC, and that one should be a close matchup between the Cougars and the Trojans.

High Schools
The best track meet in the entire world, the Jamaican Boys' and Girls' Championships (aka "The Champs") is going on in Kingston.  TrackAlerts.com is your one-stop shop for updates, and the live webcast features Ato Boldon.

Road Racing
Here in the USA we have the Cooper River Bridge Run, the Carlsbad 5000, and the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.  Eliud Kipchoge is in Carlsbad and wants the road world record; Runnerspace is at Cherry Blossom and will be running a new three-feed webcast.

Overseas there's the Prague Half Marathon, the Paralleloop, and the Berlin Half Marathon, plus a special Iberic Trophy 10,000 meters in Spain.