Ashton Eaton's heptathlon world record was the Performance of the Week. The indoor version of the multi-event favors him; he's strongest in the running and jumping events and weakest in the throws. He's still got some improvement to do if he's going to challenge Trey Hardee and Bryan Clay, but it will be a very interesting USATF championships this summer.
Honorable mention goes to Lolo Jones for her 7.72 Worlds win in the 60 hurdles, Teddy Tamgho's 17.90 world indoor triple jump record, Nadzeya Ostapchuk's 20.85 shot put win at the Worlds, and Olga Rypakova's 15.14 triple jump win at the Worlds.
The competition of the week was the women's shot put at the World Indoor Championships. Pretty much everyone of any importance was there, and the top three of Ostapchuk, Valerie Vili, and Natallie Mikhnevich are all having a great year.
Showing posts with label Performance of the Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Performance of the Week. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 01, 2010
Weekly Awards
Valerie Vili earns the Performance of the Week award for her 20.57 put at the Sydney Track Classic. It beat her own meet record by nearly half a meter, and approached the Australia all-comers record of 20.69 set by WR holder Natalya Lisovskaya in 1985.
Honorable mention include Tatyana Lysenko's 75.66 hammer throw, Maria Abakumova's 68.31 javelin throw, Steve Hooker's 5.91 pole vault, and Usain Bolt's 43.58 relay leg.
The competition of the week was the men's shot put at the USATF Indoor Championships. Eight of the throwers have a seasonal best of at least 20 meters.
Honorable mention include Tatyana Lysenko's 75.66 hammer throw, Maria Abakumova's 68.31 javelin throw, Steve Hooker's 5.91 pole vault, and Usain Bolt's 43.58 relay leg.
The competition of the week was the men's shot put at the USATF Indoor Championships. Eight of the throwers have a seasonal best of at least 20 meters.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Weekly Awards
The Performance of the Week honors go to Aniysa Kirdyapkina for her 1:25:11 20k walk at the Russian Championships in Sochi. It ties her for third on the all-time list. Two more sub-1:26 times were recorded behind her, making the race the Competition of the Week as well. All of this should be taken with a grain of salt as there were no international judges present, and adherence to the rules (or lack thereof) has as much to do with fast times as anything else.A close runner-up is Elvan Abeylegesse for her 1:07:07 half marathon in the UAE. Honorable mention goes to Mare Ibrahimova (1:07:13) and Aselefech Mergia (1:07:22) in the same race, and Vera Sokolova (1:25:35) and Tatyana Sibileva (1:25:52) for their fast walks behind Kirdyapkina in Sochi.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Weekly Awards
The performance of the week award goes to Nadzeya Ostapchuk for her 21.70 meter (71’ 2¼”) shot put at the Belarus Indoor Championships. It’s not just the best performance of the week, it’s by far the best performance of the year.
I make these performance of the week choices based on a points table I’ve developed using yearly lists of the last decade as well as all-time lists. It's literally off the chart.
I make these performance of the week choices based on a points table I’ve developed using yearly lists of the last decade as well as all-time lists. It's literally off the chart.
Ostapchuk’s mark puts her at #3 on the official all-time indoor list. The way I look at it, it’s a world record. Not an indoor world record, but a world record, period.
The official world record stands at 22.63 (74’ 2¾”) by the USSR’s Natalya Lisovskaya in 1987. While that’s official, it’s not what I use to judge performances by today’s athletes any more than I’d use Uwe Hohn’s 343’ to judge javelin throwers. The rules to the javelin were rewritten in 1986 with the effect of shortening throws, and the IAAF no longer recognizes Hohn’s mark. In 1992 the rules of competition for all athletes were rewritten, but no one officially recognizes this changeover.
Two near-simultaneous occurrences led to a decrease in performance for many (but not all) events. The adoption of random out-of-competition drug testing and the implosion of east European state-sponsored sports programs led to big changes in throwing events in general and the shot put in particular, and all women’s events save the newly-emerging ones (400 hurdles, long distance, walks, pole vault, triple jump, hammer). The intersection between these sets is the women’s shot put, which has seen a bigger drop in performance than any other event.
Here is the official all-time top ten list:
22.63 Natalya Lisovskaya 1987
22.50i Helena Fibingerová 1977
22.45 Ilona Briesenick 1980
22.19 Claudia Losch 1987
21.89 Ivanka Khristova 1976
21.86 Marianne Adam 1979
21.76 Li Meisu 1988
21.73 Natalya Akhrimenko 1988
21.70i Nadzeya Ostapchuk 2010
21.69 Vita Pavlysh 1998
Note how all of the top eight were made prior to Ben Johnson’s famous episode.
Here’s my all-time top ten list (1992 to date):
21.70i Nadzeya Ostapchuk 2010
21.22 Astrid Kumbernuss 1995
21.07 Valerie Vili 2009
21.06 Svetlana Krivelyova 1992
20.96 Belsy Laza 1992
20.70 Natallia Mikhnevich 2008
20.54 Liuhong Zhang 1994
20.35 Lijiao Gong 2009
20.24 Anna Romanova 1993
20.20 Nadine Kleinert 2009
You may wonder what happened to Pavlysh’s 21.69 from the first list. I struck it from my list, as she received a doping ban in 1999 (along with a second one in 2004, that time for life). Four other athletes would have made my top-ten list but I removed them because of their “doping vacations”:
21.46 Larisa Peleshenko 2000
21.15i Irina Korzhanenko 1999
20.61 Yanina Karolchyk-Pravalinskay 2001
20.32 Irina Khudoroshkina 1996
Of course it’s impossible to say for certain whether or not these athletes were on the juice prior to a positive test. But the reason I maintain these lists is to see how today’s athletes stack up against history, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to compare today’s tightly-controlled athletes to those who at some point got into trouble.
In any case, Ostapchuk’s mark was by far the best by an athlete who has (so far) passed strict doping control. Her second-best mark of the competition, 21.23, also broke Kumbernuss’ fifteen-year-old “record”. It’s possible to argue it’s a better mark than either of Usain Bolt’s records.
In light of that, is it unreasonable to wonder if Ostapchuk’s sudden jump in performance is legitimate? Not really. After the Bernie Madoff scandal came out, all kinds of people said that an investment fund that always increased in value regardless of the larger economy was suspicious and should have been investigated. The same skeptical approach is applicable here. This was Ostapchuk’s first competition of the year, and her two measured throws both broke the “world record”.
This does not mean I’m accusing her of doping, although that’s not an unreasonable thought given the history and nature of the event. It’s also possible that something wasn’t right about the facility or the measurements. Note that in the men’s competition, Andrei Mikhnevich broke his own national indoor record four times in his six attempts. Either one of these is surprising, but both on the same day makes me wonder.
The official world record stands at 22.63 (74’ 2¾”) by the USSR’s Natalya Lisovskaya in 1987. While that’s official, it’s not what I use to judge performances by today’s athletes any more than I’d use Uwe Hohn’s 343’ to judge javelin throwers. The rules to the javelin were rewritten in 1986 with the effect of shortening throws, and the IAAF no longer recognizes Hohn’s mark. In 1992 the rules of competition for all athletes were rewritten, but no one officially recognizes this changeover.
Two near-simultaneous occurrences led to a decrease in performance for many (but not all) events. The adoption of random out-of-competition drug testing and the implosion of east European state-sponsored sports programs led to big changes in throwing events in general and the shot put in particular, and all women’s events save the newly-emerging ones (400 hurdles, long distance, walks, pole vault, triple jump, hammer). The intersection between these sets is the women’s shot put, which has seen a bigger drop in performance than any other event.
Here is the official all-time top ten list:
22.63 Natalya Lisovskaya 1987
22.50i Helena Fibingerová 1977
22.45 Ilona Briesenick 1980
22.19 Claudia Losch 1987
21.89 Ivanka Khristova 1976
21.86 Marianne Adam 1979
21.76 Li Meisu 1988
21.73 Natalya Akhrimenko 1988
21.70i Nadzeya Ostapchuk 2010
21.69 Vita Pavlysh 1998
Note how all of the top eight were made prior to Ben Johnson’s famous episode.
Here’s my all-time top ten list (1992 to date):
21.70i Nadzeya Ostapchuk 2010
21.22 Astrid Kumbernuss 1995
21.07 Valerie Vili 2009
21.06 Svetlana Krivelyova 1992
20.96 Belsy Laza 1992
20.70 Natallia Mikhnevich 2008
20.54 Liuhong Zhang 1994
20.35 Lijiao Gong 2009
20.24 Anna Romanova 1993
20.20 Nadine Kleinert 2009
You may wonder what happened to Pavlysh’s 21.69 from the first list. I struck it from my list, as she received a doping ban in 1999 (along with a second one in 2004, that time for life). Four other athletes would have made my top-ten list but I removed them because of their “doping vacations”:
21.46 Larisa Peleshenko 2000
21.15i Irina Korzhanenko 1999
20.61 Yanina Karolchyk-Pravalinskay 2001
20.32 Irina Khudoroshkina 1996
Of course it’s impossible to say for certain whether or not these athletes were on the juice prior to a positive test. But the reason I maintain these lists is to see how today’s athletes stack up against history, and I don’t think it’s reasonable to compare today’s tightly-controlled athletes to those who at some point got into trouble.
In any case, Ostapchuk’s mark was by far the best by an athlete who has (so far) passed strict doping control. Her second-best mark of the competition, 21.23, also broke Kumbernuss’ fifteen-year-old “record”. It’s possible to argue it’s a better mark than either of Usain Bolt’s records.
In light of that, is it unreasonable to wonder if Ostapchuk’s sudden jump in performance is legitimate? Not really. After the Bernie Madoff scandal came out, all kinds of people said that an investment fund that always increased in value regardless of the larger economy was suspicious and should have been investigated. The same skeptical approach is applicable here. This was Ostapchuk’s first competition of the year, and her two measured throws both broke the “world record”.
This does not mean I’m accusing her of doping, although that’s not an unreasonable thought given the history and nature of the event. It’s also possible that something wasn’t right about the facility or the measurements. Note that in the men’s competition, Andrei Mikhnevich broke his own national indoor record four times in his six attempts. Either one of these is surprising, but both on the same day makes me wonder.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Weekly Awards
The performance of the week is a tie between LaVerne Jones-Ferrette for her 6.97 60 meters in Stuttgart on Saturday, and Blanka Vlašic for her 6’ 9” (2.06 m) high jump in Arnstadt on the same day.
Jones-Ferrette ran the fastest time in that event in eleven years, and is now #6 on the all-time list (#4 if you discount Marion Jones and Ekaterini Thanou). Vlašic’s jump is the fourth-best ever indoors, just 2 cm off the world indoor record.
Honorable mentions go to Aleksey Drozdov’s 6300-point heptathlon, Yelena Isinbayeva’s 15’ 11” (4.85 m) pole vault, and Tatyana Chernova’s 4855-point pentathlon. Tops by an American was Carmelita Jeter’s 7.09, run well in arrears of Jones-Ferrette.
The competition of the week was the women’s pole vault at Moscow’s Russian Winter meet. Seven of my top 20-ranked vaulters were in action there.
Jones-Ferrette ran the fastest time in that event in eleven years, and is now #6 on the all-time list (#4 if you discount Marion Jones and Ekaterini Thanou). Vlašic’s jump is the fourth-best ever indoors, just 2 cm off the world indoor record.
Honorable mentions go to Aleksey Drozdov’s 6300-point heptathlon, Yelena Isinbayeva’s 15’ 11” (4.85 m) pole vault, and Tatyana Chernova’s 4855-point pentathlon. Tops by an American was Carmelita Jeter’s 7.09, run well in arrears of Jones-Ferrette.
The competition of the week was the women’s pole vault at Moscow’s Russian Winter meet. Seven of my top 20-ranked vaulters were in action there.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Weekly Awards
Performance of the week honors goes to Christian Cantwell for his big 72' 1/2" (21.95m) shot put at the Millrose Games. The big Missourian's two meets have netted him two of the three awards given so far this year.A close runner-up is Ashton Eaton, whose 6256-point collegiate heptathlon record indicates he's likely to do great things in the decathlon this summer. Adding 500 points or more to his PR wouldn't surprise me.
Honorable mentions go to Hyleas Fountain for her near-American Record pentathlon of 4731 points at Penn State on Friday, Ivan Ukhov for his 2.34m (7' 8") high jump in Trinec on Tuesday, and Lavern Jones-Ferrett's 7.09 sprint and Ariane Friedrich's 2.00m (6' 6 3/4") high jump, both in Karlsruhe today.
The competition of the week is a tie between the Millrose Games men's shot put, which featured four of the world's top six throwers, and the Karlsruhe women's high jump, which featured five of the world's top eight jumpers.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Weekly Awards
The performance of the week happened earlier today when Ivan Ukhov cleared 7' 9 1/4" (2.37m) at the first leg of the Moravia High Jump Tour. Ukhov is best known for his discovery a few years ago at Lausanne that Red Bull does not, in fact, give you wings...when you mix it with vodka. That was a one-off occurrence (his girlfriend had just dumped him) and he should be known for his jumping--currently he's #1 in the high jump in my world rankings system.A close second was Spain's Sergio Sánchez, who broke a 23-year-old European record when he ran 4:52.90 for the odd 2000-meter distance. The only other marks of note were Christian Cantwell's 69' 11 1/4" (21.32m) and Nadine Kleinert's 62' 10 1/4" (19.16m), both at the Nordhausen shot put competition.
The competition of the week is the women's race at the Kenya Police Cross Country Championships, where two defending world champions faced off: Vivian Cheruyiot (5k) handily beat Linet Masai (10k) with an emphatic last half-mile, while Berlin's 4th-place 10k runner Grace Momanyi was relegated to third. Runner-up goes to the men's competition at the above-mentioned high jump tour event in Hustopece, Czech Republic. The field featured seven of the world's top twenty high jumpers (as determined by my world rankings).
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Weekly Awards
A new feature here that I hope to keep going: performance of the week and competition of the week.
These are objective rather than subjective awards. I use some performance tables I've developed for my World Rankings.
This week's award goes to Reese Hoffa for his 69' 6 3/4" shot put (21.20m), a field house record at the Kentucky Invitational. It was his first competition of the year and a great start for him.
Honorable mention goes to Lacy Janson's 15' 3" (4.65m) pole vault personal record at Virginia Tech, Superblog reader Dan Taylor's 65' 6 1/4" (20.89m) shot put in Flagstaff, and Silke Spiegelburg's 15' 1" (4.60m) pole vault in Leverkusen.
The best competition of the week was the men's race at the Cross Internacional de Itálica in Seville. Leonard Komon downed a deep field where defending World XC champ Gebre Gebremariam could only manage sixth.
These are objective rather than subjective awards. I use some performance tables I've developed for my World Rankings.
This week's award goes to Reese Hoffa for his 69' 6 3/4" shot put (21.20m), a field house record at the Kentucky Invitational. It was his first competition of the year and a great start for him.
Honorable mention goes to Lacy Janson's 15' 3" (4.65m) pole vault personal record at Virginia Tech, Superblog reader Dan Taylor's 65' 6 1/4" (20.89m) shot put in Flagstaff, and Silke Spiegelburg's 15' 1" (4.60m) pole vault in Leverkusen.
The best competition of the week was the men's race at the Cross Internacional de Itálica in Seville. Leonard Komon downed a deep field where defending World XC champ Gebre Gebremariam could only manage sixth.
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