What's On The Weekend

The Memorial Van Damme, the final meet in the IAAF Diamond League tour, will be held tomorrow at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.
Live web coverage: begins at 2 PM at UniversalSports.com and CBCSports.ca
TV coverage: tape-delay broadcasts at 9 PM Friday on Universal Sports, 1 PM Saturday on CBC, and 3 PM Sunday on NBC
Meet website / Start lists and results
Flotrack coverage
IAAF previews: meet preview / Vivian Cheruyiot / Allyson Felix / Christian Cantwell / David Rudisha / Svetlana Bolshakova / Tyson Gay
Athletics Weekly previews: men / women
Caster Semenya analysis from The Telegraph and the AP

The Crim Festival of Races, which includes the USA Championship Men’s 10 Mile race, will take place on Saturday in Flint MI.
Live web coverage: begins at 8:30 AM at RunnerSpace.com

The Internationales Hochsprung-Meeting, a high-jump only competition, takes place from Friday through Sunday in the German city of Eberstadt.

The annual Finland vs. Sweden dual meet, aka Suomi-Ruotsi-maaottelu, takes place on Friday and Sunday in Helsinki's Olympiastadion.

The Rieti 2010, an IAAF World Challenge meet, takes place on Sunday in the Italian city of Rieti.  Tyson Gay will run the 100, and one of the featured races will be yet another matchup between Chris Solinsky and Galen Rupp, this time at 3000 meters.
Meet website / IWC page

Track on TV
USATF Outdoor Championships rerun, 3 PM Friday on Universal Sports
Beijing 2008 – America’s Olympic Glory, 4 AM and 6 PM Sunday on Showtime Family Zone

Around the Web
Runner's World Racing News has all the headlines.

They missed the two biggest:
1) Deena Kastor is pregnant (for the first time) and will miss the NYC Marathon.  In my estimation, her career as a dominant marathoner is over -- by the time she fully regains fitness, she'll be 38 years old.
2) Tyson Gay is mulling a move up to the 400 meters.  If not for individual races, at least for the Olympic relay.  I'm betting he sees the 100 as deep as it's ever been over the next few years and the 400 as unusually weak

AlSal says Alan Webb will break the American Records in the 1500 and mile.  I say he's never going to win a race that requires thinking on his feet.

The Telegraph rips the EAA over willfully ignoring doping suspensions.

Kara Goucher blogs about her husband Adam.

Nice catch by Let's Run: USATF revenue down 22.2% in 2009 (see p. 28).  Of course, everyone's revenue is down these days.

Let's Run analyzes last week's Shaq V.s Tyson Gay show.

Are the Olympics profitable?  No, at least not in the traditional sense.  But one thing often ignored is that the Olympics and other similar events force governments to make long overdue infrastructure improvements and with a deadline.  It's money they should have already spent on the public but haven't.

A compilation of world-class track guys who went to pro football.

Van Damme

Tomorrow’s Van Damme Memorial meet in Brussels will crown the remaining half of the inaugural Diamond League champions. Many of the titles are already clinched, but some others are still in play.

I’m trying out a new rankings system this year, known as the Superfan Rankings. The criteria for ranking high is similar to that of Track and Field News’ world rankings, but with one difference: avoiding tough competition in order to avoid losing is penalized.

While the Brussels meet is not the last one, it’s the last really big one. In order of the meet schedule, here’s how the rankings in each event being run tomorrow could play out.

Women’s discus: Yarelis Barrios leads and cannot be caught.

Men’s shot put: Christian Cantwell leads and cannot be caught. A big throw, something over 22 meters, would help him fend off Tyson Gay and Bershawn Jackson in all-event Athlete of the Year rankings (in which he is currently third).

Women’s triple jump: Right now, Yargeris Sevigne leads over Olga Rypakova. That will reverse if Rypakova wins by anything more than about 6 or 7 centimeters.

Men’s steeplechase: The Diamond League final was last week, and Paul Koech won the title. There’s a steeplechase tomorrow, though. Koech is ranked #2 behind Ezekiel Kemboi, and could go to #1 if he wins with a sub-8:00 clocking.

Men’s 400m hurdles: Bershawn Jackson leads and cannot be caught. If he wins with a 47.40 or better, he would pass Christian Cantwell in the overall rankings.

Women’s 200 meters: Allyson Felix leads and cannot be caught. If she runs a world leader, she’ll pass Jessica Ennis for #2 in the overall rankings.

Men’s pole vault: Renaud Lavillenie leads and cannot be caught.

Women’s high jump: Blanka Vlasic leads and cannot be caught. If she wins, she’ll pass Betty Heidler (currently third) in the all-event Athlete of the Year rankings.

Women’s 800 meters: Mariya Savinova leads and cannot be caught.

Men’s 100 meters: Tyson Gay will pass Asafa Powell for the #1 ranking, unless he false-starts or injures himself. If he runs under 9.75 or so, he would pass Christian Cantwell for third in the all-event Athlete of the Year rankings.

Women’s steeplechase: The #1 ranking is on the line here. Whoever wins between Milcah Chemos and Yuliya Zarudneva will take the top spot.

Men’s 1500 meters: Augustine Choge has this all but sewn up. If he totally bombs, Amine Laalou could take the top spot with a win. Asbel Kiprop also has an outside chance at the top ranking.

Women’s 100m hurdles: Priscilla Lopes-Schliep just about has the #1 ranking sewn up, barring disaster.

Men’s triple jump: Teddy Tamgho leads and cannot be caught.

Men’s javelin: Andreas Thorkildsen leads and cannot be caught.

Men’s 800 meters: David Rudisha has clinched the #1 ranking, and just about clinched #1 in the all-event Athlete of the Year rankings.

Women’s 5000 meters: Vivian Cheruyiot would have to run poorly to lose her #1 ranking, in which case it would go to Sentayehu Ejigu.

Track on TV
Beijing 2008 – America’s Olympic Glory, 7:45 AM on Showtime Family Channel
Diamond League London rerun, 11:30 AM on Universal Sports

Around the Web
Runner's World Racing News has all the headlines: Mary Keitany will run her debut marathon in New York, and weekend previews

Britain's Athletics Weekly says the upcoming Commonwealth Games will be a delight, not a disaster.

SPIKES Magazine interviews Tyson Gay and David Rudisha

An interview with Mo Farah

Doha, Istanbul and Rome have bid for the 2017 IAAF World Championships.  Should the Turkish city win, I have the perfect theme song.

RunnerSpace has video highlights of the recent Leadville Trail 100 and a 10-minute interview with Alan Webb.

Rome 1960: when the Olympics went modern.

Flotrack interviews Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie.

Hometown newspaper features on Morgan Uceny and Christian Cantwell.

Guest Post: Why Zurich is Awesome

Friend of the blog and Swiss thrower Martin Bingisser went to the Weltklasse Zurich meet today and offered up the following guest post.  Additionally over at his own blog he wrote up a piece on the Big Shot competition in Zurich's main train station and the trend to move some throws into more intimate atmospheres.

So read up and think (and set aside your jealousy over his being there and you not).  Be sure to bookmark his blog too.

As a collegiate athlete at the University of Washington, Hayward Field was our second home. Any time we wanted to face a little competition, we hopped in the bus and took the five hour drive south to Eugene. Over the years I've competed there more than a dozen times and also had the pleasure of providing media coverage for the 2004 Prefontaine Classic. Of allof the places I've competed in the world, Eugene is unique and has an environment that I had ne seen matched outside of a major championship...until now.


Last night I attended Weltklasse Zürich at Letzigrund Stadium. I've been to Switzerland at least eight times since 2003, but each time my visit has been in the early summer or late summer, thus always missing what I consider the highlight of the year. The meet itself has a history reaching back 82 years, but it really made a name for itself in the 1950s when it started to produce some world records. In 1960, it produced the first ever 10.0 second run in the 100m dash. Since then, it has produced 25 world records.


Now that I have witnessed the top American track and field meet* at the Prefontaine Classic and the top European track and field meet at Weltklasse Zürich, I think I can sum up what makes the two different. While both are outstanding competitions in their own right, the difference is a matter of scale. Zurich was so much bigger.

Sunday Evening Decathlete

What did we learn this week?

The Prefontaine Classic is the best meet in the USA.  The Olympic Trials might be a better meet, and might not.    It's not merely the big marks that the meet gets.  I'm not a "mark snob"; to me, a closely competitive race or field event is much preferable.  But that so many top athletes come, and do so well, that you get the magic combination of close competition at high levels.

There's only one way for next year's Pre to top this year's, and that's for Hayward to be struck by a Lightning Bolt.

NBC actually tried to do it well, and still couldn't.  They went out of their way to keep up with field events, but still missed the two best contests of the day.  Betty Heidler and Tatyana Lysenko staged a tremendous battle in the hammer throw, but TV viewers wouldn't have known it even took place.  And probably the best competition of the day, either track or field, was completely ignored as well.  Sudden javelin star Kara Patterson took on Barbora Spotakova and Martina Ratej, rated #1 and #3 in the world by yours truly, and beat them both on her final throw.

As my brother noted, Tom Hammond appeared to be mailing it in.  But the rest of the coverage was as good as they can make it given NBC's track-coverage meme.  And it still sucked.  That meme requires post-race interviews, at least a little bit of pre-recorded up-close-and-personal fluff, the drama of self-doubt, and a complete ban on acknowledging the existence of the metric system in field events.

The first two items really eat up time.  At about 16 minutes out of each hour, US broadcasts have more commercials than just about any of the world's broadcasters, and when the meet is loaded with top-level field events those interviews and fluff just aren't worth the time.  The drama of self-doubt obscures real competition.  Whereas the NBC announcers repeatedly referred to Tyson Gay's 2008 Olympic Trials injury and whether he could get past the memory of it, CBC's opening comment of their entire telecast questioned whether a rusty Gay could beat an on-top-of-his-game Walter Dix, a question which seems prescient only if you haven't been paying attention to track for the last month.

Worst of all is the no-metrics rule.  It's not as if Glenn Beck is in the booth, ready to taser announcers who dare to mention that newfangled 18th-century Frenchy socialist plan to ruin America and make your ratchet set obsolete.  What it does is eliminate the possibility of using the graphics-heavy international feed which allows viewers to easily follow the changing fortunes of field events.  We did get a little bit of it, in the long jump, but even there Dwight Stones didn't say what those big lines spaced 39 inches apart meant.

No, the only way to fix domestic track broadcasts are to destroy them and rebuild from the ground up.


Big bureaucracy does...good!  There are always stories of unbelievably petty high school uniform DQs every year, but we seemed to have a bumper crop this year.  The NFHS, which sets the rules for track as well as all other sports, came up with a shockingly simple solution: the first violation in a meet gets the team a warning, and only subsequent violations get a DQ.

Bernard Lagat's best years are behind him.  Don't get me wrong, he's still very good, as his recent 5k American Record proved.  But as a miler, his dominance is probably over.  He hasn't run a (by his standards) good mile or 1500 since January, when he won his umpteenth Wanamaker at Millrose.

Walter Dix is a star on the rise.  He's running very well, and after beating Tyson Gay on Saturday he goes to Lausanne on Thursday to take on a coming-off-the-shelf Usain Bolt.  Even better, he's a natural in front of the camera.  Asked if beating Gay was an upset, he thought for a moment before saying yes.

This is where the money is.  Speaking of Bolt, he and Puma launched a new line of shoes and clothing.  "Puma..recently launched their 'Bolt Collection', which includes training-friendly footwear and apparel all designed by the Jamaican.  The designs are said to capture the athlete's preferences in terms of on and off track styling and all feature the now famous emblem - a silhouette of the athlete striking his 'to the world' pose, which was made famous during the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008."

This is "sportswear", sold not to people who do sports, but to those who watch them.  Gotta get me some.

David Oliver is the most unappreciated athlete in American track.  Who else could tie an American Record, held by a legend, and not get mentioned until the seventh item?  He's undefeated outdoors this year and running faster and faster and faster.  I can't wait to see him and Dayron Robles race.

Christian Cantwell is the most unbeatable man in the world.  He hasn't lost this year.  On Saturday he faced the guys I have rated as #2, #3, #5, #7, #8 and #10.  The worst of his six throws would have won by over seven inches.

US distance running fortunes continue to rise.  It says much about the current state of affairs that Chris Solinsky's seventh-place finish in 13:08 was a bit of a letdown.  Even a year ago, it would have been cause for much celebration.  There were a bunch of breakthroughs, too.  There were 3:51 and 3:53 for just-barely-ex-Ducks Andrew Wheating and AJ Acosta.  But none were bigger than the women's 800, where youngsters Phoebe Wright and Alysia Johnson ran 1:58 PRs.  They're still a step or two away from Olympic medal contention, but this is an event where the USA didn't have anyone advance out of the heats in Beijing.

Veronica Campbell-Brown is having a dream season.  She beat Allyson Felix, Shelly-Ann Fraser, and Carmelita Jeter in the space of just a few weeks, and broke a five-year-old PR on Saturday.  If I had to pick a women's Athlete of the Year right now, I think she'd win.

Nancy Lagat is the real deal.  The winner of five big mile/1500 races this year stepped down to the 800 and darn near won with a nifty 1:57.  In the process she beat Janeth Jepkosgei, the most consistent half-miler over the last few years.

The men's 400 is not having a stellar year.  The world-leading time is 44.61.  The last time the month of July began with a time this slow was 1985, when Thomas Schonlebe led with 44.62.

Stars: Who needs 'em?  No Sanya Richards, no Jeremy Wariner, no LaShawn Merritt, and only a half-assed Tyson Gay and Jen Suhr.  No Usain Bolt, no Yelena Isinbayeva, no Kenenisa Bekele.  And yet these two US Diamond League meets have been off the hook.

I'm just smart enough to castigate myself for not being smarter.  I took third in the USATF Pick N Win game, just seven points out of first.  The difference is $1900.  There are so many ways I could have made up those points by being just a little smarter that I'll wake up and brood about it for months.  But I learned some things this year that I'll put to use next year, when I'll take home the big money.

On Field Events and Wise Use of Resources

I remember hearing a while back that some Hollywood types were seriously pursuing making a movie out of Micheal Lewis' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.  Apparently the plan has been shelved.  Too bad, as it might have doubled the number of watchable movies about statistical analysis (21 being the other one).

The central point of Moneyball, though, isn't using newfangled statistics to get ahead of the competition.  It's a very old idea: when you have limited resources, you don't waste them.  When you can get good things cheap, make the best of them.

Track and field in general, and in the United States in particular, needs to really examine this issue.  While last week's USATF Championships saw many stars skip the meet because there wasn't enough payoff, every single one of the top field-eventers were there.  The two biggest stories of the weekend were Chaunte Lowe's amazing single-day high jump/long jump double and Kara Patterson's American Record javelin throw.

The new Diamond League setup and its mandated slate of events has really expanded competitive opportunities in the field events.  And, unlike sprinters or distance runners, those athletes never duck each other.  Rest assured that even if there's only a small paycheck to be earned, throwers and jumpers will be there.

Look at this weekend's Prefontaine Classic.  You've got an international field of men's discus throwers that we just aren't used to seeing around these parts.  You've got all the top men's shot putters save Andrei Mikhnevich and Maris Urtans.  You've got Dwight Phillips and Fabrice LaPierre, the top two long jumpers in the world (according to my rankings). The women's pole vault is absolutely loaded, topped by Jen Suhr and Fabiana Murer, the second- and fourth-highest vaulters of all time.  The top three women's hammer throwers are all there.  And in the women's javelin throw, you've got Barbora Spotakova versus Mariya Abakumova, whose 2008 Olympic battle Spotakova considered payback for the Soviets crushing the Prague Spring.  The field events should be by far the best part of the meet, even better than the loaded fields in the men's mile and 5k.

The field events are where you get great competition at a low price.  Sprinters and distance runners get outsized attention and therefor outsized appearance fees.  Discus throwers, on the other hand, come mighty cheap.

It is imperative, then, that professional-level meets make sure that the spectators in the stadium and the television viewers at home see what's going on with the field events.  Based on what I saw in-stadium way back at the 2001 Worlds, and from what I see on BBC webcasts, this is done very well overseas.  But here in America, we are our usual wasteful selves.

I read a lot of complaints about the adidas Grand Prix in New York, citing difficulties following the field events due to a substandard scoreboard and poor announcing.  What I do know for sure is that if you watched it on TV, you would have thought there were only two field events contested: the women's pole vault and long jump.  There were in fact eight field events, and they were tremendous.  The expense of bringing in names like Steve Hooker, Malte Mohr, Renaud Lavillenie, Teddy Tamgho, Christian Olsson, Phillips Idowu, Andreas Thorkildsen, Tero Pitkamaki, Valerie Vili, Natallia Mikhnevich and Sandra Perkovic was completely wasted.

I'm willing to bet that Nike's outlay to bring in those jumpers and throwers will be pretty much flushed down the toilet due to bad TV work.  At least the 12,000+ people in the stands will be treated well, though--and, considering that, is it any wonder they keep on coming back?

The Diamond League has led to one more change this year: broadcasters who had previously shown only the Golden League meets now pick up all fourteen meets in the series.  So, for the first time, CBC will be broadcasting the Prefontaine Classic at the same time that NBC is.  Those of us lucky enough to be able to watch both might want to compare and contrast.

Bottom line: we don't have money to waste in track & field.  Field events will always give you more bang for the buck.

Oslo Diamond League Preview

The meet will be webcast live staring at 2 PM EDT at UniversalSports.com. CBCSports.ca will also stream the meet.

TV coverage is at 8 PM Friday on Universal Sports, and at 2 PM Saturday on CBC.

1:15 PM: Women's Discus Throw
Leading entries: #1 Yarelis Barrios, #4 Nadine Muller, #7 Sandra Perkovic, #8 Stephanie Brown Trafton, #9 Nicoleta Grasu, #10 Yarisley Collado, #12 Aretha Thurmond, #16 Zaneta Glanc
Analysis: Barrios is the Diamond League points leader and hasn't lost this year.

1:50 PM: Men's Pole Vault
Leading Entries: #1 Steven hooker, #2 Malte Mohr, #3 Alexander Straub, #4 Renaud Lavillenie, #5 Steven Lewis, #6 Derek Miles, #8 Aleksandr Gripich, #9 Przemyslaw Czerwinski, #13 Maksym Mazuryk, #14 Michel Balner
Analysis: Hooker inexplicably bombed last time out in Shanghai. Look for him to get even with Mohr, who came out the winner there.

2:40 PM: Men's Shot Put
Leading Entries: #1 Christian Cantwell, #4 Ralf Bartels, #5 Dylan Armstrong, #6 Reese Hoffa, #8 Pavel Lyzhyn, #9 Tomasz Majewski, #14 Adam Nelson
Analysis: Armstrong is on a bit of a hot streak and broke the Canadian record yesterday. I think Cantwell is still too much for him, though.

3:43 PM: Women's Long Jump
Leading Entries: #2 Olga Kucherenko, #3 Darya Klishina, #4 Funmi Jimoh, #5 Keila Costa, #7 Naide Gomes, #8 Ksenija Balta, #11 Elena Sokolova, #15 Brianna Glenn
Analysis: Kucherenko put up the year's best mark last week.

3:49 PM: Women's High Jump
Leading Entries: #1 Blanka Vlašic, #2 Chaunté Howard Lowe, #3 Ruth Beitia, #5 Svetlana Shkolina, #6 Emma Green, #7 Levern Spencer, #9 Irina Gordeeva
Analysis: Lowe is riding a good streak, beating the nearly-unbeatable Vlašic and then breaking the American record. Vlašic is considered nearly unbeatable for a reason, though. This is likely to be a very interesting competition.

4:04 PM: Women's 400 meters
Leading Entries: #2 Amantle Montsho, #3 Novlene Williams-Mills, #4 Debbie Dunn, #5 Shericka Williams, #8 Christine Ohuruogu, #12 Monica Hargrove, #13 Denisa Rosolova
Analysis: Toss-up. No strong favorite here.

4:15 PM: Men's 400m Hurdles
Leading Entries: #2 Kerron Clement, #3 Bershawn Jackson, #4 Isa Phillips, #6 L.J. van Zyl, #11 David Greene, #12 Justin Gaymon, #14 Michael Tinsley
Analysis: Probably a homestretch battle between the top two Americans.

4:20: Men's Javelin Throw
Leading Entries: #1 Andreas Thorkildsen, #2 Petr Frydrych, #3 Tero Pitkämäki, #5 Guillermo Martinez, #7 Vadims Vasilevskis, #11 Teemu Wirkkala, #12 Ari Mannio, #17 Antti Ruuskanen
Analysis: The place will go wild every time Norway's Thorkildsen steps up to throw, especially if he is winning as expected.

4:25 PM: Women's Steeplechase
Leading Entries: #1 Gladys Jerotich Kipkemoi, #2 Milcah Chemos Cheywa, #3 Lydia Rotich, #4 Sofia Assefa, #7 Katarzyna Kowalska, #13 Mekdes Bekele, #18 Sophia Duarte
Analysis: Kipkemoi won fairly easily last time out in Shanghai, in a time superior to everyone else's PR save Cheywa.

4:45 PM: Women's 100m Hurdles
Leading Entries: #1 Lolo Jones, #2 Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, #6 Perdita Felicien, #7 Delloreen Ennis-London, #8 Danielle Carruthers, #13 Vonette Dixon, #14 Carolin Nytra, #19 Christina Vukicevic
Analysis: Jones has been her usual inconsistent self lately, while Lopes-Schliep is steady as a rock. They're far better than anyone else, though. If Jones has it together she wins, otherwise it's the Canadian.

5:00 PM: Men's 100 meters
Leading Entries: #2 Asafa Powell, #11 Michael Frater, #14 Richard Thompson, #15 Lerone Clarke, #16 Churandy Martina, #20 Trell Kimmons
Analysis: If there's one thing the Diamond League has failed to do, it's get the best men's sprinters to face off. But this is only the third meet, so maybe these are just undercards. In any case, Powell is the class of the field.

5:10 PM: Men's 800 meters
Leading Entries: #1 David Lekuta Rudisha, #5 Abubaker Kaki, #7 Alfred Kirwa Yego, #8 Marcin Lewandowski, #11 Bram Som, #12 Augustine Choge, #18 Adam Kszczot, #21 Michael Rimmer
Analysis: There's talk of a possible World Record here. Rudisha and Kaki are great runners, but that record is an awfully tough one. If the pace is too agressive, the two favorites could fade and open the door for an upset.

5:20 PM Men's 5000 meters
Leading Entries: #1 Eliud Kipchoge, #2 Vincent Chepkok, #3 Edwin Churuiyot Soi, #5 Imane Merga, #13 Chris Solinsky, #14 Tariku Bekele, Bernard Lagat (#8 at 3k)
Analysis: Your usual Bislett Games long-distance clash of the titans will be renewed. From a US perspective, there's also the possibility of an American record, but I don't think Lagat has much of a chance at it. If it happens it will go to Solinsky.

5:40 PM: Women's 200 meters
Leading Entries: #5 Carmelita Jeter, #6 LaShauntea Moore, #12 Sheri Ann Brooks, #16 Cydonie Mothersill
Analysis: This is a bit out of Jeter's comfort zone, but she's a much better sprinter than Moore.

5:50 PM: Men's Mile
Leading Entries: #2 Deresse Mekonnen, #4 Asbel Kiprop, #5 William Biwott Tanui, #9 Mekonnene Gebremedhin, #16 Gideon Gathimba, #18 Geoffrey Kipkoech Rono, #21 Juan Carlos Higuero
Analysis: Kiprop is probably the best miler of the bunch but runs dumb from time to time, such as in Shanghai. I don't think he's going to get burned twice in a row, though.

Shanghai Diamond League Preview

The meet will be webcast live at www.universalsports.com at 8 AM on Sunday (fee req'd). TV coverage will be on Universal Sports at 6:00 PM and on CBC next Saturday at 5:00 PM
Meet website
IAAF preview
Universal Sports preview

6:20 AM (EDT) Women's Shot Put
Leading entries

#1 Nadzeya Ostapchuk (BLR), #2 Valerie Vili (NZL), #5 Nadine Kleinert (GER), #6 Jillian Camarena (USA), #8 Gong Lijiao (GHN), #9 Misleydis Gonzalez (CUB), #25 Liu Xiangrong (CHN)
Analysis

Ostapchuk v. Vili is one of the best rivalries around. This will be Vili's first big test since firing her coach after losing the World Indoor Championships to Ostapchuk. Everyone else here is competing for third.

6:30 AM Men's Discus Throw
Leading entries
#1 Gerd Kanter (EST), #2 Robert Harting (GER), #3 Jason Young (USA), #4 Piotr Malachowski (POL), #5 Zoltán Kövágó (HUN), #7 Jarred Rome (USA), #13 Ehsan Hadadi (IRI), #25 Ian Waltz (USA)
Analysis
One effect of the Diamond League setup is that the traditionally ignored events, like the discus, will have loaded fields every time out. Kanter has put up some big distances in southern California's big winds, but Harting won at the recent all-throws meet in Germany. Those two, along with Kövágó, are your favorites for the win.

6:35 AM Women's Triple Jump
Leading entries

#1 Olga Rypakova (KAZ), #2 Yargeris Savigne (CUB), #3 Anna Pyatykh (RUS), #8 Nadezhda Alekhina (RUS), #9 Limei Xie (CHN), #18 Gisele de Oliviera (BRA)

Analysis

All three World Indoor medalists are here, led by champion Rypakova.

7:40 AM Men's Pole Vault
Leading entries
#1 Steve Hooker (AUS), #2 Malte Mohr (GER), #6 Steve Lewis (UK), #14 Hendrik Gruber (GER), #15 Aleksandr Gripich (RUS), #25 Maksym Mazuryk (UKR)
Analysis
It would be very surprising if Hooker lost.

7:43 AM Men's High Jump
Leading entries
#3 Dusty Jonas (USA), #4 Jesse Williams (USA), #8 Andra Manson (USA), #12 Andrey Tereshin (RUS)
Analysis
It looks like the USA should do well here. Most of these guys haven't competed much since the indoor season, with the exception of Jonas and Manson.

WEBCAST BEGINS

8:05 AM Women's 400m Hurdles
Leading entries

#1 Lashinda Demus (USA), #2 Melaine Walker (JAM), #4 Kaliese Spencer (JAM), #6 Natalya Antyukh (RUS), #8 Sheena Tosta (USA), #9 Anna Jesien (POL), #11 Ana Rabechenyuk (UKR), #16 Dominique Darden (USA)
Analysis

Walker is the defending World champ but has a habit of starting her season slowly. Look for Demus to win.

8:15 AM Women's 100 meters
Leading entries

#1 Carmelita Jeter (USA), #5 Shelly-Ann Fraser (JAM), #8 Chandra Sturrup (BAH), #21 Sherone Simpson (JAM), #23 Lisa Barber (USA)

Analysis

World champ Fraser is one of the "Diamond League Ambassadors", but Jeter is the star of this show.

8:20 AM Men's Javelin Throw
Leading entries
#2 Andreas Thorkildsen (NOR), #8 Petr Frydrych (CZE), #10 Vítězslav Veselý (CZE), #15 Igor Janik (POL), #24 Roman Avramenko (UKR)
Analysis
This is Thorky's season opener, so while he's favored it's hard to tell what may happen. This competition will not count in the Diamond League standings as it's an extra event above and beyond the mandated events.

8:25 AM Men's 400 meters
Leading entries
#4 Jeremy Wariner (USA), #7 Ben Offereins (AUS), #15 Leslie Djhoné (FRA), #22 David Neville (USA)
Analysis
We'll find out whether Wariner was just rusty in his opener or if he's really having problems. He lost to Neville last time out, and both Offereins and Djhoné are capable of sub-45. This is no cakewalk for Wariner.

8:30 AM Men's Long Jump
Leading entries
#1 Dwight Phillips (USA), #2 Fabrice Lapierre (AUS), #3 Irving Saladino (PAN), #12 Brian Johnson (USA), #14 Su Xiongfeng (CHN), #15 Chris Noffke (AUS)
Analysis

This could be the most interesting competition of the whole meet. Lapierre put up a big mark in April, Phillips was on fire last year, and Saladino is no slouch. Chinese entry Su is a dark horse and the home team's best chance for a win.

8:35 AM Men's 200 meters

Leading entries

#1 Usain Bolt (JAM), #12 Marvin Anderson (JAM), #18 Ryan Bailey (USA)

Analysis

Like lambs to slaughter.

8:45 AM Women's Steeplechase

Leading entries

#3 Milcah Chemos Cheywa (KEN), #8 Gladys Kipkemoi (KEN), #11 Sofia Assefa (ETH), #18 Lydia Rotich (KEN), #20 Katarzyna Kowalska (POL), #25 Lisa Galaviz (USA)

Analysis

This is the first steeplechase of the year for all but Galaviz.

9:05 AM Women's 800 meters

Leading entries

#2 Jenny Meadows (UK), #3 Yegeniya Zinurova (RUS), #4 Kenia Sinclair (JAM), #10 Janeth Jepkosgei (KEN), #18 Tatyana Petlyuk (IKR)

Analysis

Sinclair may be more race-sharp than the others, as she's run two big races already while Meadows and Zinurova have been on the shelf since the indoor season.

8:15 AM Women's 5000 meters

Leading entries

#3 Linet Masai (KEN), #8 Sentayehu Ejigu (ETH), #11 Meselech Melkamu (ETH), #14 Sylvia Kibet (KEN), #18 Florence Kiplagat (KEN)

Analysis

World XC runner-up Masai has, so far, put together the best season.

9:40 AM Men's 110m Hurdles

Leading entries

#1 David Oliver (USA), #6 Dwight Thomas (JAM), #8 Ryan Brathwaite (BAR), #15 Liu Xiang (CHN), #22 Allen Johnson (USA)

Analysis

The house will be rockin' for Liu Xiang. But I'd be surprised if he won. Oliver is head and shoulders above the rest.

9:50 AM Men's 1500 meters

Leading entries

#1 Augustine Choge (KEN), #2 Deresse Mekonnen (ETH), #3 Haron Keitany (KEN), #6 Asbel Kiprop (KEN), #7 William Tanui (KEN), #16 Mekonnen Gebremedhin (ETH), #23 Geoffrey Rono (KEN)

Analysis

This is the first outdoor 1500 of the season of any importance. Indoors, Mekonnen beat Choge in their only meeting.

Fan's Guide to Diamond League Doha

LATE EDIT: The meet WILL be at UniversalSports.com, or at least that's what a recent press release seems to indicate. If not, you can try cbcsports.ca.

TV coverage will be on Universal Sports from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM on Friday, and on CBC from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Saturday.
Meet website

Here's the current schedule and leading entries:


AS you can see, the big-attention events are a bit thin but the rest are stacked with top athletes.

Diamond League Changes Everything?

Today the IAAF released its Diamond League calendar for 2010.

The Diamond League format changes a lot of things, and almost all for the better. One of the big problems in getting the top athletes to compete against each other instead of ducking for the big money is that the most popular events are held far too often. Example: all 24 of the biggest invitationals have held or will hold the men's 100 meters. By contrast, next year's Diamond League will have the event maybe ten times in its fourteen meets.

When there are dozens of opportunities to compete, the talent pool spreads out and lining up deep races just doesn't happen very often. This isn't as big a problem in, say, the high hurdles, since hurdlers specialize in a single event. But sprinters generally run both the 100 and the 200, and between the two they're probably held 75 times on the World Athletics Tour. No wonder sprinters can duck each other. It's the exact same problem as when Seb Coe and Steve Ovett avoided each other: popular distances held all the time, and each ran multiple distances.

So finally the IAAF has figured out a way to control the problem: limit competitive opportunities in some events. At the same time, they've radically upped the profile of events that were virtually ignored in the Golden League setup by mandating they be held a minimum of eight times in those fourteen meets.

This is old news, though. What was really a big deal with today's announcement was the timing of the two US meets, the Reebok Grand Prix in New York and the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene. Respectively, they will be on June 19th and July 3rd, a radical departure from their traditional dates.

These two meets will bookend the USATF championships (June 23-26). There will be major international competition in the USA in the summer, after the national championships, for the first time in several generations.

Even more commonsense is the fact that these meet won't be swallowed up in the domestic college and high school seasons, when the natural fan base (coaches and athletes) are busy with other things. As much as I love the pros, I'll be at the state meet the first Saturday in June until I die (and I may require my casket to be brought down every year too). And where the major sports media is concerned, these meets are no longer up against the NBA and NHL playoffs--the only competition will be baseball and golf, which many will quite happily abandon in favor of something new.

Also, these meets are just the fifth and sixth in the Diamond League series. Unlike the Golden League, where competing in all the meets was mandatory if you wanted the payoff, it's not that way in the DL. So most domestic athletes will likely stay in home for just about the whole time until USATF/Pre...which should help out meets like Toronto's new Festival of Excellence and anything else someone decides to dream up.