They're on the ball

Flash Results, Inc.,, the nation's leading meet management service, now has results formatted for the iPhone. Awesome!

There's also an app called Live Results that will take web results and format them for the iPhone, but Flash Results' setup is much easier.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What's On The Weekend

Professionals

The adidas Boston Indoor Games takes place on Saturday. The tape-delay broadcast time has been moved to 2 PM on Sunday. The men’s 5k looks like it’s set to be a great race.
Meet website / Pick’n’Win page / Flotrack coverage
USATF preview/ Athletics Weekly / Universal Sports / Let's Run / RunNow.com

The Sparkassen-Cup, an IAAF indoor permit meet, will take place in Stuttgart on Saturday.
Meet website (in German) / IAAF preview / Universal Sports

The Russian Indoor 2010, another IAAF indoor permit meet, will be held in Moscow on Sunday.
Meet website / IAAF preview / Athletics Weekly

The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, an IAAF silver label road race, will be run in Beppu, Japan, on Sunday.
Race website / Japan Running News preview / IAAF preview

The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, a IAAF silver label road race, is scheduled to be held on Sunday morning.
IAAF preview / Athletics Weekly

Colleges

The huge Meyo Invitational will be held in South Bend on Friday and Saturday.
Preview / Flotrack coverage

The Armory Collegiate Invitational will take place in Manhattan on Friday and Saturday. Live webcasts run from 2 to 9 on Friday and noon to 6 on Saturday.
Meet website

The Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup will be hosted by Penn State on Friday and Saturday.
Preview & meet info

The Virginia Tech Elite meet will be in Blacksburg on Friday and Saturday.
Meet preview

The Husker Invitational will be in Lincoln on Friday and Saturday.
Preview / Meet info

High Jump Rankings

MEN
1. Ivan Ukhov (Russia)
Two wins and a second, already has some big heights to his credit.

2. Yaroslav Rybakov (Russia)
Got off to a good start over the weekend in Belarus.

3. Jesse Williams
Hasn't yet competed.

4. Andra Manson
5. Linus Thörnblad (Sweden)
6. Jaroslav Bába (Czech Rep.) 4th in Trinec, 4th in Hustopece
7. Andrey Tereshin (Russia) 1st in Ostrava
8. Dusty Jonas 2nd in Trinec, 2nd in Hustopece
9. Raul Spank (Germany)
10. Aleksandr Shustov (Russia) 1st at Moscow Cup
11. Osku Torro (Finland) 1st in Wuppertal
12. Dmytro Dem'yanyuk (Ukraine) 3rd in Trinec, 6th in Hustopece
13. Aleksey Dmitrik (Russia)
14. Viktor Shapoval (Ukraine)
14. Tora Harris
16. Sergey Mudrov (Russia) 2nd in Ostrava, 8th in Hustopece
17. Kyriakos Ioannou (Cypress)
17. Sylwester Bednarek (Poland)
19. Alessandro Talotti (Italy) 3rd in Hustopece
20. Samson Oni (UK) 5th in Hustopece

WOMEN
1. Blanka Vlašic (Croatia)
Trying to shake off an illness.

2. Ariane Friedrich (Germany)
Started strong with two wins, including the deepest competition of the year so far at Karlsruhe.

3. Ruth Beitia (Spain)
Has made some good marks but has avoided any decent competition as yet.

4. Irina Gordeeva (Russia) tied for 6th at Karlsruhe, 2nd at Cottbus
5. Chaunté Howard Lowe won at Glasgow, 2nd at Trinec, tied for 3rd at Karlsruhe, 4th at Hustopece
5. Marina Aitova (Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world) won at Cottbus, 2nd in Goteborg, tied for 3rd at Karlsruhe
7. Anna Chicherova (Russia)
8. Viktoriya Klyugina (Russia) 2nd at Karlsruhe
9. Antonietta Di Martino (Italy)
10. Svetlana Shkolina (Russia) tied for 2nd at Hustopece, won at Goteborg
11. Iva Straková (Czech Rep.) tied for 2nd at Hustopece, 4th at Trinec
12. Emma Green (Sweden)
13. Levern Spencer (St. Lucia) 5th at Karlsruhe, tied for 4th at Glasgow, 3rd at Goteborg
14. Nadiya Dusanova (Uzbekistan)
14. Elena Slesarenko (Russia)
14. Melanie Skotnik (France)
17. Jessica Ennis (UK) 2nd at Glasgow
18. Meike Kröger (Germany) 3rd at Glasgow, 3rd at Cottbus
19. Amy Acuff has she retired?
20. Noengrothai Chaipetch (Thailand)

What's On Tomorrow

The PSD Bank Meeting, an EAA Indoor Permit meet, will take place tomorrow in Düsseldorf. The headline events are the men's shot put and high hurdles, where Tomasz Majewski and Dayron Robles will open their seasons. The women's 60, with Laverne Jones-Ferrette and Carmelita Jeter, may be the most interesting competition.
Meet website (in German) / EAA preview / Sky Sports / Athletics Weekly

Why I Get So Worked Up

Stay with me, I'll get to it soon enough.

SI's Joe Posnanski has a great column on the core problem of the Pro Bowl.

When I was a kid, I would desperately root for the AFC to win the Pro Bowl. Well, OK, I'm exaggerating a touch. The adjective "desperately" is too strong. I wasn't painting "AFC" on the side of my face or anything. I did care, though. I honestly cared. I can remember feeling happy when the AFC scored, unhappy when the NFC scored. I can remember, late in games, going through those mental gymnastics fans do when watching games and figuring what their team needs to do to win the game. It mattered.

Then, I suppose everything mattered when I was a kid. It mattered that the Globetrotters won on Wide World of Sports. It mattered that Evel Knievel made his jump. It mattered who won the Superstars competition. It even mattered who won on Battle of the Network Stars. That Patrick Duffy ... what an athlete. But you could not never count out the competitive spirit of Robert Conrad.
...
I would watch the Pro Bowl with interest and passion -- Go AFC! -- until I realized that I had more interest and passion in these games than the players. I suppose I came to that realization when I was about 13 years old. When you care more than the players do, the event became pointless. And after that, the Pro Bowl became more or less pointless to me. I might watch. I might not. But it never again mattered.

Posnanski helped me understand the reason I get so worked up about how well things could be done to present track meets (but are not). It's because I care about this more than the people who are entrusted with the job. I see things that could be done better, and are loused up every single time, and I figure they either don't know or don't care. Neither do the people who hire/fire them.

Case in point: this week's adidas Boston Indoor Games. The meat of the event schedule goes from 6 to 8 p.m., but the broadcast window is from 5 to 7. I was about to blow my stack over this until it was pointed out to me that the meet is on Saturday...and the broadcast is 23 hours later. On Sunday. During the Super Bowl. At which point I just slumped in my chair in defeat.

You see, these Visa Championship Series broadcasts are blocks of time bought by USATF. They can't pick and choose exactly when they want airtime, but there's some leeway involved. I'm 95% sure USATF took Super Bowl time because it was cheap. But it does nothing to advance the sport.

Last Friday's Millrose Games were adequate but not enthralling. This week's meet won't be watched by anyone, myself included. Then there's a three-week break before the national championships. It's not much of a TV presence for track & field.

And here's the thing no one in Indy ever seemed to understand: Paying attendees to an event are nice, but over the last 25 years the rule has been that if your sport isn't on TV, to the sporting public it does not exist. And even more important, it does not exist to potential sponsors. Sponsorship and TV contracts are where the money is.

How do you make a TV presence happen? Well, you can be wholly owned by ESPN, and they'll plaster you everywhere. (Examples: X-Games, pro bowling.) You can be a niche sport that meshes perfectly with specific highly profitable sponsor companies. (Example: golf, poker.) Or you can do your darndest to use TV to show how amazing your sport is. Examples there would be...oh, everything else that's on TV a lot, but most notably basketball and football.

You argue, those are the most popular sports in America--track can't compete with them! I suppose no one recalls the early 80s, when the NBA was so unpopular that its championship finals were shown tape-delay after The Tonight Show. Yet the first two World Championships in '83 and '87 were carried live in prime time. Seems hard to believe now, huh?

Major League Soccer was once like USATF. It was a niche sport not well appreciated in America. They got on TV only because they bought air time. Somehow they progressed past that level, but it was hard and took years. It was because people cared and tried. They were more like the players in the Super Bowl than those in the Pro Bowl. I have yet to see any indication that USATF's leadership goes that direction.

What's On Tomorrow

The Samsunggalan, a European indoor permit meet, will take place tomorrow in Göteborg's Scandinavium. The highlighted event is the men's triple jump, which will be Christian Olsson's return to action after a long injury layoff. Following the results online is a perfect "screwing around at work" activity, as they'll roll in between 12:30 and 3 PM Eastern time.
Meet website / EAA preview

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.

High Hurdles Rankings

Read up on my shot put rankings if you want to know where these come from.

The high hurdles are a different race indoors than they are outdoors, and while the indoor season counts in my rankings, it's not much. As of yet, however, these rankings are just last year's best outdoor marks along with early indoor results.

MEN
1. Terrence Trammell
Won Millrose with a world-leader 7.49.

2. Dayron Robles (Cuba)
Has yet to run, but a force when he does.

3. Ryan Brathwaite (Barbados)
Defending World outdoor champ was second at Millrose.

4. David Oliver won at Glasgow yesterday
5. Petr Svoboda (Chech Rep.) won in Karlsruhe today with another new PR, 7.50
6. Dexter Faulk
6. David Payne
8. Dwight Thomas (Jamaica)
9. Aries Merritt 4th at Millrose
10. Ryan Wilson
11. Xiang Liu (China)
12. Joel Brown
13. Antwon Hicks
14. Eric Mitchum 3rd at Karlsruhe
15. Ronnie Ash
16. Dániel Kiss (Hungary)
16. William Sharman (UK)
16. Andrew Turner (UK)
16. Jason Richardson
20. Allen Johnson 2nd at Karlsruhe

WOMEN
1. LoLo Jones
Got beaten in her season opener in Glasgow yesterday, but ran much better in Karlsruhe today with world-leading 7.90

2. Dawn Harper
Hans't run yet

3. Brigitte Foster-Hylton (Jamaica)
Ditto.

4. Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (Canada)
Won at Millrose

5. Sally McLellan (Australia)
6. Delloreen Ennis-London (Jamaica)
7. Perdita Felicien (Canada) 4th at Millrose
8. Virginia Powell 3rd at Millrose
9. Damu Cherry
10. Michelle Perry
11. Derval O'Rourke (Ireland)
12. Tiffany Ofili 2nd at Millrose
13. Nickiesha Wilson (Jamaica)
14. Jessica Ennis (UK) beat Lolo Jones to win in Glasgow with a new national record
15. Lacena Golding-Clarke (Jamaica)
16. Yvette Lewis 2nd in Karlsruhe
17. Carolin Nytra (Germany) 3rd in Glasgow
18. Anay Tejeda (Cuba)
19. Vonette Dixon (Jamaica) 3rd in Karlsruhe
20. Lucie Škrobáková (Czech Rep.)

File Under "I Don't Care"

Michael Johnson is on the new season of Celebrity Apprentice.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Millrose Reactions

Results
IAAF report /Athlete quotes

I had high hopes for this year's Millrose Games. I thought Larry Rawson's sacking meant significant changes were in store for the TV broadcast. Sadly, no. It's still the same old tired and boring formula. Race, h/bimbo does immediate post-race interview of h/bimbo, another commercial, field events get spit on if covered at all. Complete absence of on-screen graphics to help make meaning of the action.

I've always thought track and field is an inherently interesting sport, and people will like it if you show it to them. I've also always thought domestic TV coverage doesn't show us track and field meets, but rather a bunch of disjointed races. There is no thought or effort put into how to present the three-ring circus as a single coherent experience.

The only thing they managed to do right was the Wanamaker mile. They had done some pre-production (imagine that!) and when it came time for the race, they got out of the way and let the MSG announcer do his thing. Unfortunately, they didn't give us any visual reason why Lagat should have feared Kiprop: all it would have taken was footage of the final 120m of last year's Bowerman Mile at the Pre Classic to get the point across (footage that USATF produced and therefore owns the rights for). In the end, Lagat used his two most potent weapons, the ability to accelerate on a dime and the knowledge of when to use it. Kiprop didn't look race-sharp and the result was never in any doubt.

Besides all that, for the most part the meet sucked. Aside from the shot put and maybe the 600 yards, the fields were weak. If the meet disappeared (which some rumors say it may), I wonder if anyone would notice. And if it does, we are on the verge of the domestic professional indoor circuit ending alltogether. Again, would anyone notice?

In the 30s up through the 80s, the USA had a thriving circuit of indoor track meets all over the country. The list of cities that hosted them sounds almost like "I've Been Everywhere, Man". The IAAF's indoor Grand Prix serieswas exclusively in the USA, bringing every pros all over the world to the USA. But then Europe started getting in on the action. And then the IAAF's indoor world championships and indoor world records made indoor times important. And the NCAA indoor championships started meaning about as much as the outdoor championships. So foreign stars started wanting to stay home, and everyone (college stars especially) wanted to run on fast 200m tracks rather than those tiny board ovals. And, of course, TAC's tin-ear leadership let whatever attention was paid to them die on the vine. By the late-90s, all but one traditional meet--Millrose--had closed up shop.

So it was a major reconstruction a few years back to have created a four-meet televised domestic series culminating in the USATF indoor championships. Millrose has been the most famous but least appealing of all of them, but at least it got press. It was announced a month or so ago that there wouldn't be any pro action or TV coverage at the Tyson Invitational. If Millrose goes the way of the dodo, then we're down to one domestic pro meet. Considering that even in the 21st century crossing the Atlantic isn't something you do on a whim, getting enough good athletes to be here for one meet won't happen. It would be the death of the whole thing. Like the domestic auto industry, it's been so poorly managed and of such inferior quality that while if it went away we'd miss the industry, we wouldn't miss the product it created.

Performance of the meet: Even taking the tight boards into account, none of the track events were notably fast. The vertical jumps were underwhelming. Christian Cantwell's final put, though, was huge. How big is 21.95 meters? Equal to #2 on last year's combined indoor/outdoor world list. No one but Cantwell himself threw further all of last year.

Super 60: There were track purists that described this race's mere existence in apocalyptic terms usually reserved for prominent politicians of the opposing party. It turned out to be covered as a sideshow and nothing more, like the kid's sprint races. And it was an interesting race, too. Anthony Dorsett Jr. ran a respectable 7.01 to win.

Competition of the meet: Most of the ones that were tight and interesting were because the fields were of inferior quality or performing well below their ability. The women's 60 meters was an exception, with Lisa Barber winning by .003 seconds over Veronica Campbell-Brown. Side note: while discussing Jana Rawlinson's breast augmentation/reduction drama, an insider said an unnamed US sprinter also recently recieved implants. I'm guessing it's Lisa Barber. I seem to recall her being fairly flat-chested, but she certainly isn't now. It would fit with her overall "please look at me" style.

Fantasy League: Ugh. I'm 893rd. My wife said "It could be worse. You could be last." To which I replied, "How do you know I'm not?"

One of the cardinal rules of fantasy sport is to obsessively check news about your athletes. This is especially true in track & field, where start lists change all the time. I last checked updates to start lists at 11 AM yesterday, at which time it had not yet been announced that Boaz Lalang was added to the men's 800, an athlete I would have immediately picked. Screwed myself there.

Then there were two withdrawals never announced: my picks in the women's pole vault and high jump. Two big goose-eggs. Renauld Lavillenie, who has been dominating the European circuit, inexplicably bombed here. Other than that, my only bad mistake was picking Sally Kipyego in the women's mile. My numbers system said Hannah England was the best runner in the race, and I never should have doubted it.

What's On The Weekend

Pros

The Millrose Games kicks off the IAAF’s indoor permit series on Friday night. Live coverage on ESPN2 goes from 8 to 10 PM.
Meet website / IAAF preview / USATF preview / Flotrack coverage

The Aviva International Match in Glasgow takes place on Saturday. It’s a scored meet between teams representing the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Commonwealth.
Meet website / Ten to follow

The 78th edition of the historic and traditional Cinque Mulini (“five mills”) cross country race will be held in Vallagarina, Italy on Sunday. The athletes actually run through working mills.
Meet website (in Italian) / IAAF preview

The BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe on Sunday is the next IAAF permit meet.
Meet website / IAAF preview

The Osaka International Ladies Marathon takes place on Sunday.
Race website (in Japanese) / IAAF preview / Japan Running News preview / live vido link

College
The best meet of the weekend will probably be the Big XII v. Pac-10 v. SEC showdown at Texas A&M on Friday and Saturday. Three schools from each conference will be competing, with the competition being between the conferences rather than individual teams. Five of the top ten men’s teams (according to the USTFCA rankings) and four of the top ten women’s teams will be there.
Preview / results page / streaming video / Flotrack coverage

The Rod McCravy Invitational is on Friday and Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky.
Preview / results page

The Terrier Classic is in Boston on Friday.
Flotrack coverage

The Pole Vault Summit is in Reno on Friday and Saturday.
Meet website

The Washington Invitational is in Seattle on Friday and Saturday. Dathan Ritzenhein is scheduled to run the 5k.
Preview / Flotrack coverage

The National Invitational is at Penn State on Friday and Saturday.
Preview / results page / Flotrack coverage

Fantasy league preview

USATF’s online pick ‘em game gets started tomorrow with the Millrose Games. Until now, I was the only online advice for the fantasy league. USATF’s Vicky Oddi has entered the fray. In a few areas, I disagree with her picks.

Super 60
A lot of fans and an athlete or two have taken offense at this contest being included in the program. I don’t, as I see it as nothing more than celebrity track. The rules and objectives of the event haven’t been changed, unlike UKA’s harebrained extreme jumping getup.

Reading between the lines, this NY Times article makes it clear who should win the race. Willie Gault was better in his prime than any of the rest of these guys, and has stayed in better shape and competed more. Being some 10 to 25 years older than the rest of the sprinters isn’t likely to make a difference. It would be almost like matching Tom Kite against a bunch of guys who used to have low handicaps but don’t play much anymore. It’s hard to say how much stock to put in reports of a recent 4.27 for the 40 yards by Gault, but if true he’d still be among the NFL’s faster men. And against this crowd...it will be a butt-whuppin’ of Bolt proportions.

Men’s 60 meters
This was going to be a hard choice until Walter Dix pulled out. In his absence, I can’t see Mike Rodgers losing.

Men’s 600 yards
This is one event where I disagree with Oddi. Renny Quow is a far better quarter-miler than Bershawn Jackson, and has shown he can run on the boards. Easy pick.

Men’s 800 meters
This field is very weak. I’m going with Dmitrijs Milkevics.

Wanamaker Mile
This is the most intriguing matchup of the night. Seven-time champ Bernard Lagat is going up against T&FN’s #1-ranked Asbel Kiprop. I think Kiprop is a better runner than Lagat, but the tight board track is a factor that’s hard to figure out. Lagat has the experience and can accelerate off a dime, and Kiprop is very tall; all of these favor Lagat. On the other hand, they won’t matter if Kiprop is flat-out better that night. I’m going with the “first, do no harm” rule of fantasy leagues and pick Lagat, as I figure he’ll be second at worst.

Men’s 60m Hurdles
The only threat to Terrence Trammell will come from defending world outdoor champ Ryan Brathwaite. Trammell has a history of running at a high level in the domestic indoor season, so I’m going with him.

Men’s Mile Race Walk
Why do they make us pick this? Tim Seaman, I guess.

Men’s Pole Vault
Strangely, Oddi did not include this event in her picks. Smart players stand to pick up big points here. Renauld Lavillenie has already made heights equal to or better than the rest of the field did all of last year, but has been chosen by only 20% of Pick & Win players. He should be a heavy favorite, but apparently those Frenchy types aren’t known around these parts.

Men’s Shot Put
Oddi picked Adam Nelson. I disagree, and I think he’s far more likely to be last than first. Be smart and take Christian Cantwell, who has already thrown further than either Taylor or Nelson did all of last season.

Women’s 60 meters
This one is hard to choose. The 60 can be a crapshoot at times. Even worse, none of these athletes have raced much if at all so far this year, leaving us without knowledge of their condition. I’m taking Veronica Campbell-Brown, but any of the others could win.

Women’s 400 meters
This race is also hard to pick. Mary Wineberg has a good race under her belt, but has less upside than Monica Hargrove. Aliann Pompey has historically run well on the boards. Any of those three are serviceable picks. I don’t think Pompey will win, but I think she’s a safe pick for second or third.

Women’s Mile
There’s a dearth of good runners in this race. Sara Hall hasn’t impressed me at all in the last several years, so I think it’s going to come down to Sally Kipyego and Sara Bowman. It was a huge upset when Bowman won a similar matchup at last year’s NCAA indoor championship. I’m sure Kipyego hasn’t forgotten that and wants to even the score. I’m picking Kipyego.

Women’s 60m Hurdles
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep is head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

Women’s Mile Race Walk
If it’s a domestic race walk, always go with Teresa Vaill.

Women’s High Jump
Elizabeth Patterson is the best of a weak field.

Women’s Pole Vault
Jen (Stuczynski) Suhr has withdrawn, leaving Oddi to say that Chelsea Johnson is the favorite. Sadly, no. Aleksandra Kiryashova is the best of the remaining athletes.

Dual Meet Rankings

Week #2 in the dual meet rankings is heavily impacted by the Texas A&M - Texas matchups.
last week's rankings

MEN
1. Texas A&M (1-0) beat Texas
2. Arkansas (1-0)
3. Indiana (1-0)
4. Missouri (1-0)
5. Michigan State (2-0)
6. Ohio State (1-0)
7. Wisconsin (3-0)
8. Purdue (1-1) beat Indiana State
9. Iowa (1-0)
10. Connecticut (2-0)
11. Princeton (1-0)
12. Notre Dame (1-1)
13. Akron (3-0) beat Kent
14. Eastern Michigan (3-0)
15. Indiana State (1-1) lost to Purdue

WOMEN
1. Texas (1-0) beat Texas A&M
2. Indiana (1-0)
3. Notre Dame (2-0)
4. Purdue (0-1-1) tied Indiana State
4. Indiana State (1-0-1) tied Purdue
6. Wisconsin (3-0)
7. Michigan (2-0)
8. Cincinnati (3-0)
9. Boston College (3-0)
10. Louisville (1-1)
12. Yale (2-0)
13. Western Michigan (1-0)

The big matchup this weekend is Texas Tech traveling to Nebraska. On the men's side, they are currently #11 and #5 in the USTFCA rankings.

Shot Put Rankings

I've done my own world rankings over the last few years, and I've tweaked the system a bit since last year. Here are my initial 2010 rankings for the shot put.

My numerical system is based on a combination of best marks and placing high (with an emphasis on winning) in major competition. This is more or less everything that matters in track & field.

Early on in the season, though, I include an athlete’s best marks from the previous season. Tomasz Majewski has not started his season yet, but as defending world champion it wouldn’t be realistic to leave him out of any ranking of the world’s best shot putters. It’s kind of like fantasy football: you give last year’s stars the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks if they have a slow start, and only after a while do you conclude last year’s stud (Adrian Peterson) is only going to be above average this season.

So, here they are going into Friday’s Millrose Games (* = scheduled to compete)...

1. Christian Cantwell*
He threw the farthest last year, has the best throw this year, and won the only significant competition of the year.

2. Reese Hoffa*
#2 on the 2010 world list

3. Tomasz Majewski (Poland)
Ranked solely on the basis of last year’s accomplishments

4. Dan Taylor* #3 on the world list
5. Ralf Bartels (Germany) second at Nordhausen
6. Adam Nelson* fourth at Nordhausen
7. Andrei Mikhnevich (Belarus)
8. Ryan Whiting
9. Dylan Armstrong (Canada) sixth at Nordhausen
10. Pavel Lyzhyn (Belarus)
11. Pavel Sofin (Russia)
12. Dorian Scott (Jamaica)
12. Sultan Abdulmajeed Alhabashi (Saudi Arabia)
14. Marco Schmidt (Germany) third at Nordhausen
14. Maksim Sidorov (Russia)
16. Zach Lloyd
17. David Storl (Germany) fourth at Nordhausen
17. Maris Urtans (Latvia)
17. Noah Bryant
20. Rhuben Williams

WOMEN
1. Valerie Vili (New Zealand)
The undisputed world’s best

2. Nadine Kleinert (Germany)
First at Nordhausen with a world leader

2. Lijiao Gong (China)
Asian Championships gold medalist, which counts on this year’s rankings due to its late date in 2009

4. Natallia Mikhnevich (Belarus)
5. Anna Avdeeva (Russia)
6. Nadzeya Ostapchuk (Belarus)
7. Denise Hinrichs (Germany) second at Nordhausen
8. Anca Heltne (Romania)
9. Petra Lammert (Germany)
10. Meiju Li (China)
11. Misleydis González (Cuba)
12. Michelle Carter
13. Mailín Vargas (Cuba)
14. Christina Schwanitz (Germany) fourth at Nordhausen
15. Chiara Rosa (Italy)
16. Ling Li (China)
17. Xiangrong Liu (China) Asian Championships silver medalist
17. Assunta Legnante (Italy)
19. Yaniuvis López (Cuba)
20. Anna Omarova (Russia)

What Nike Fears

Adidas? No. A shutdown of the NFL? No. It's this.

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).

Do We Have A Rivalry?

Two years ago I wrote a post about rivalries in college track, and noted Texas versus Texas A&M was a women's rivalry that could take off if a dual-meet series took place.

Today, the two schools met in such a meet. Last year the men's teams met for the first time in a generation, but the Longhorn women passed. They showed up this time. It couldn't have been better: tied going into the 4x400, and anchors Angele Cooper and Jessica Beard were shoulder-to-shoulder with 200m left. Cooper ended up in front by a step. Story here. I hope the Aggies are really, really pissed about this and spend the whole next year thinking about it...because then the series will be extended.

This is what regular-season college track should be. Not crap like the Meyo Invitational, a six-hour snoozefest of time trials with nothing on the line.

Dual Meet Rankings

Track & Field News used to do these, but gave it up at least a decade ago. With the resurgence of the college dual meet, it's time to get it rolling again.

Ranking rules...
1) A team cannot be ranked unless they have beaten at least one Division I team in a scored meet of four or fewer teams.
2) Split squad results don't count.
3) Rankings are a product both of how good a team is perceived to be, and how good their defeated opponents are perceived to be.
4) Head-to-head results are most meaningful.
5) While the rankings are for a combined indoor-outdoor season, outdoor results are considered more important than indoor ones.

Week one rankings...
MEN
1. Arkansas (1-0) beat Texas
2. Missouri (1-0) beat Kansas
3. Ohio State (1-0) beat Michigan
4. Indiana (1-0) beat Purdue
5. Wisconsin (3-0) won a quad over Marquette, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Southern Illinois
6. Princeton (1-0) beat Navy
7. Akron (2-0) won a tri over Bucknell and South Florida
8. Indiana State (1-0) beat Illinois State
9. Eastern Michigan (3-0) won a quad over Central Michigan, Oakland and Detroit

Women
1. Wisconsin (3-0) won a quad over Marquette, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Southern Illinois
2. Indiana State (1-0) beat Illinois State
3. Indiana (1-0) beat Purdue
4. Cincinnati (3-0) won a quad over Akron, Bucknell and South Florida
5. Boston College (3-0) won a quad over UMass, Sacred Heart and Boston University
6. Akron (2-1) second in home quad
7. Western Michigan (1-0) beat Toledo
8. Missouri (1-0) beat Kansas

Rankings will go deeper as the weeks pass.

Missy Koch Billingsley: A Runner and Amputee

From Sports Illustrated's website...

Twenty-five years ago doctors amputated Missy Koch's right leg after diagnosing her with a rare tumor. Follow Missy's journey and her determination to run again.

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.