I'm struggling to find things to talk about with the 2016 Twins, even organizationally - which was my go-to for all the lean years. Which isn't to say I'm not watching, but rather that there's only so much to do beyond shrugging and saying "yep, we suck."

So anybody here want to talk about track and field in 2016? State meets are wrapping up with some really impressive performances. The pro season is just getting going with Diamond League started and a big race in Eugene this weekend.

Rio predictions? Bolt's fitness? Kiprop's WR attempt? US teenagers (Norman/Lyles bros.) in the Olympic Trials?

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

Track and field's gratitude to Nike for keeping the sport afloat seems is starting to look a little bit more like Stockholm Syndrome.

http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2016/05/sunday_morning_news_notes_link_41.html

By Ken Goe | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on May 22, 2016 at 8:56 AM, updated May 22, 2016 at 9:01 AM
Those attending the Prefontaine Classic next weekend at Hayward Field in Eugene might want to pay special attention to the men's 800 meters.

The race is scheduled for 1:26 p.m. on Saturday, and World Indoor champion Boris Berian is expected to be on the start line.

And this is where it gets interesting the way the roadside wreckage of an automobile accident is interesting, because a nasty contract squabble between Berian and Nike bubbled into public view at the Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic.

It was at that meet on Friday at Occidental College in Los Angeles where Berian was served with a lawsuit brought by Nike for breach of contract.

The experts at LetsRun.com do a nice job of explaining what is going on, at least as much as anyone can from the information available.

The timing is awkward, because the Prefontaine Classic is Nike's showcase event. Many believe it to be one of the best, if not the best, invitational track meets in the world.

Now, into this celebration of all things Nike comes a reminder of how ugly the business side of the sport can be.

It's hard to know who is right here, and there might not be a clearcut answer. Once the lawyers get involved, right and wrong often become moving targets.

But, I think Nike already has lost the public relations battle. Berian is one of the sport's feel-good stories, a guy so down on his fortunes that two years ago he was sleeping on a friend's couch and flipping burgers to pay the bills.

Nike is a multi-national corporation that reportedly earned more than $31 billion for the calendar year ending in February of this year.

It's a classic little guy vs. the machine story.

Berian calls the situation "annoying."

I think it will be a migraine for Nike, and the headache could become very real on Saturday in the Prefontaine Classic.

-- Ken Goe

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

lol

I'm not really feeling excited about any of the track events this year. Men's high jump and triple jump has my interest. WRs should be coming down in those.


I'll be in this post after these warm up meets get underway. I don't have a feel for how the field is shaking out yet.

_______________________________________

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Hunter and Slagowski both dipped under 4:00 for the second time this season in Eugene. I'd love to see them race each other, as Hunter has been on the hot-shit-highschooler circuit since pretty much last spring and Slagowski's been churning out kind of insane times in races that, frequently, are utterly without competition. He got some pacing help from a teammate in that first sub-4:00, but he's run under 1:49 twice this season without being pressed at all. That's not easy.

Hunter was ostensibly going for Alan Webb's HS record at Prefontaine, but that hot, hot mile didn't pan out for anybody.

Down at Golden South, two HS teams ran under 3:10 in the 4x400m, with *freshman* Tyrese Cooper anchoring in 46.1 for the win. There's video on Milesplit.com, but I think it's behind the paywall. It's pretty cool though.

Unrelated to these actually fast kids, I am trying to actually do some in-school recruiting for my own team for the first time in pretty much ever. My distance group made a kind of unforeseen leap forward last year, and we're only graduating two seniors out of about a dozen. Neither one of them scored individually at our season-ending conference meet either.

It's been kind of awkward having "you might actually be good at this sport" conversations with kids who, at best, view it as a good opportunity to get in shape for the things they actually care about. Which is why I've never bothered with the hard sell before. But now I'm looking at a group that has the upside for Penn qualifiers in the DMR or 4x800m and starting to get greedy. Particularly for the latter. I *really* want to coach a team that runs under 8:00 in the 4x800m. Our school record is borderline untouchable at that event, but I think that 8:00 milestone is a "retire happy" kind of mark.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

Almost got a WR (0.03 off. Got the American record though) in the womens 100m hurdles from Kendra Harrison. I never heard of her before. Lets see if that was a one off fluke or if she can keep it going through the season.
And I think that's one of those eastern Bloc steroid era records, so I'd love to see that come down.

Boris Berian look good in the 800m against a strong field. Like he might be able to take on the long armed athletic Africans. Nice story behind him too (working at McDs just last year). I can see why Nike is fighting him.

_______________________________________

>Almost got a WR (0.03 off. Got the American record though) in
>the womens 100m hurdles from Kendra Harrison. I never heard of
>her before. Lets see if that was a one off fluke or if she can
>keep it going through the season.

She just turned pro recently & started focusing on the 100m hurdles so she's only going to keep getting better unless she gets injured.

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png

She could wind up with a lot of money. It feels like US women have been kind of bouncing from one next-hurdle-great to another for awhile now. Though that's maybe more my perception than fact.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>It feels like US women
>have been kind of bouncing from one next-hurdle-great to
>another for awhile now. Though that's maybe more my perception
>than fact.

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png

.

_______________________________________

http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/06/russian-olympic-ban/487571/

The Russian Olympic Ba

Russian athletes will be missing from the track-and-field competitions at the Rio Olympics this summer.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body for track and field, announced Friday that Russia had not done enough to fix its athletic system, which has been tarnished by a widespread doping scandal. Russian athletes have been banned from international competition for the last seven months following a damning report by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

While Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has said he was “very sorry” about the scandal, he never admitted the cheating was state-sponsored, as the WADA investigation had concluded. As The New York Times reports:

Since then, however, Russian officials have striven to persuade global decision-makers that they can be trusted in Olympic competition, volunteering to go beyond standard eligibility requirements and to send only athletes who have not been disciplined for drug use.

To allow athletes without a history of drug violations to compete – as the I.O.C. may discuss on Tuesday – could prove controversial. The sophistication of Russia’s operation, whistle-blowers have alleged, has made athletes on steroids appear to be clean, be it through surreptitiously swapping out incriminating urine samples or imbibing drugs with liquor to minimize the period during which they can be detected.
This is a rare move by the international governing body. As the Times notes, whole teams are usually banned from competition because of politics—like the ban on South Africa from 1964 to 1988 because of apartheid—and not because of doping.

In response, the Russian Ministry of Sport said it was “extremely disappointed” by the decision, and said it would appeal the decision to the International Olympic Committee:

http://twitter.com/Zhelanova/status/743830338221277184/photo/1

The IOC is scheduled to discuss the IAAF’s ban next Tuesday.

_______________________________________

I've just kind of gone on assuming Russia would end up competing, but mostly just because it's such a huge measure and it never seemed likely that one giant bureaucratic entity - much less two - would end up having this much spine.

On the actual track - Stockholm results?

Rudisha looked beatable, Harrison is becoming more solid as a durable queen of the high hurdles, and Christian Taylor apparently would have won TJ with every one of his jumps.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>Rudisha looked beatable, Harrison is becoming more solid as a
>durable queen of the high hurdles, and Christian Taylor
>apparently would have won TJ with every one of his jumps.

Taylor/Harrison want to break the TJ/HH records respectively & they are peaking for Rio.

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png

Not his best day, either. Edwards' TJ record has to be nearly twenty years old now, right? That's a really durable record for a guy who looked like an English Literature professor.

And yeah, I'll wait on judgement for Rudisha until he's pushed in a race that's actually fast. Mostly, I'm wishcasting there because the US might send a nice 800m squad and I'd be delighted if we can see a Nils-Schumann-in-2000 situation where a smart race and some luck gets an American a nice little bump.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

My girls daughter & her closest teammate/competitor (13/14) don't have much competition in Seattle for the 100/200 so their next big meet is nationals in Sacramento next month

How long has her daughter been involved with track? Is she into other sports or is that an all-year thing?

Prior to high school, it's still a pretty niche sport out here, but I get the sense that's starting to change. We've got a rival school that's gone from barely having a track team to reliably excellent on a national level due to the performance of a bunch of kids who've been competing in track for years. I'd rather not having them beat us all the time, but it's cool seeing the sport grow with kids who treat it as a priority.

My team finished up their season last month with a kind of wild conference finish (first/second place results were reversed two days later due to a scoring error) but I was kind of bummed we couldn't get all of the kids in the same place for one of the increasingly awesome post-season meets. New Balance Nationals is going on right now, and we actually qualified a 4x100m team but it had three seniors and they kind of went to the wind after the regular season wrapped up.

There was a DC/MD/VA "meet of the elite" that just happened for the first time this last weekend. We passed on that because I had a family obligation (grandmother's 100th birthday party) but I hope it returns next year. Lots of decent times from local kids that we've seen all season.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>How long has her daughter been involved with track?

3 years

Is she
>into other sports or is that an all-year thing?

Basketball but has to hide that from her coach & rest of the team. Coach don't even want her swimming for fun during the season.

>Prior to high school, it's still a pretty niche sport out
>here, but I get the sense that's starting to change. We've got
>a rival school that's gone from barely having a track team to
>reliably excellent on a national level due to the performance
>of a bunch of kids who've been competing in track for years.
>I'd rather not having them beat us all the time, but it's cool
>seeing the sport grow with kids who treat it as a priority.

That competition could be a blessing in disguise & help the kids in your school get better too. That's how they treat it round here whenever new talent steps in & immediately posts the best times.

>My team finished up their season last month with a kind of
>wild conference finish (first/second place results were
>reversed two days later due to a scoring error) but I was kind
>of bummed we couldn't get all of the kids in the same place
>for one of the increasingly awesome post-season meets. New
>Balance Nationals is going on right now, and we actually
>qualified a 4x100m team but it had three seniors and they kind
>of went to the wind after the regular season wrapped up.

They had some weird scoring errors down in Cali too. Caused 1 girl to get bumped & another to qualify the next day for finals. Seemed kinda shady but maybe it's pretty common.

>There was a DC/MD/VA "meet of the elite" that just happened
>for the first time this last weekend. We passed on that
>because I had a family obligation (grandmother's 100th
>birthday party) but I hope it returns next year. Lots of
>decent times from local kids that we've seen all season.

Props to your grandma! My girls daughter PR'd her 100 & 200 at districts a couple weeks ago & is gearin up for regionals this wknd

on youtube the other day. breh cant be beat unless he beat himself

<--- Big Baller World Order

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png

Berian looked un-phased by all the contract nonsense. I also liked his spikes quite a bit. New Balance isn't as bad as Brooks in all the busy-ness on their shoes, but they'd also never really bothered with Nike-esque tidyness. The pair Berian wore looked nice and clean. I like it.

Solomon and Brazier out in the prelims. Clayton Murphy made the semi-finals at Worlds last year, and seemed readier than Brazier after the long college season. I'd have loved to send a team of Berian, Brazier, and Murphy though.

Rupp in an ugly 10K. I can't think of an American distance runner with such a disparity between his talent/success and popular appeal. But he's really good.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png

As a sidenote, this makes me feel really old.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

Holy crap, that was wonderful.

I actually thought Bromell looked like he was in make-the-team-mode while Gatlin was awfully swimmy in the last 15-20m. That's probably reading too much into it, since Bromell isn't yet good enough to run an easy 9.84. In any event, Gatlin looks like the same guy who got caught at the line by Bolt last year. But Bolt was the only one who got him and he's ... Usain Bolt. So this doesn't even rise to the level of an interesting observation, even if it's true.

Merritt and Felix both looked great.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

That women's 800m was heartbreaking. I really wanted Montano and Martinez to make that team.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/750130824977100801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Letsrun commenters seem to be:

60% Montano got a bit sloppy and clipped Martinez
30% Martinez clipped Wilson, slowed down, and caused Montano to wreck
10% Rogers clipped Martinez, which caused Martinez to slow down, and Montano to wreck

I can make different sequences based on what I decide to look at. Apparently, Wilson said she felt something - but it's not clear if that is initiated by Martinez or part of the fall-out from Montano clipping Martinez.

Either way, the 800m is cruel. I'm heartbroken for Martinez and Montano - who've done so much to push US women in the event. My tendency is to not blame Martinez for any of this because I don't see Wilson react to anything in-race and my tendency with a pure front/back interaction like Martinez/Montano's is to go with traffic. It doesn't make any sense for the one in front to spontaneously slow and cause a wreck.

Either way - oof.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

sucks for montano though, but yeah...that's the 800 for you

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Hope they didn't blow their load in the opening round. I'd love to see one (or both) make the team

_______________________________________

My nerds got to see him up close and (technically, as it was a different heat) our adequate 800m runner got to race Noah Lyles in a 400m as him and his brother decided to have a Freak Friday meet day and race each other's events.

He's pretty remarkable. He ran like 46.high and clearly did the thing as a workout, going out nice and controlled (which was still faster than the field) and then dropping everybody in the last 200m.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

That makes me so happy.

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8anuMyJU2k

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png

I actually like the attempt at mimicking the event order and rounds of the Olympics/Worlds in the US trials. Watch John Teeters pop a 10.00 in the early goings and then look like he just ran a marathon in the subsequent round.

And I feel like looking backwards from the trials to, say, recent Worlds medal-holders and recent record setters would just walk into a different problem of giving team slots to injured/out-of-shape athletes.

So what if you looked forward from the trials. And say, give a limited (one month) period wherein anybody who runs an American (and, obviously there, a World) record automatically bumps the #3 qualifier. I assume that causes new problems, but are they worse than a recent WR-setter like Harrison staying home?

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

>I actually like the attempt at mimicking the event order and
>rounds of the Olympics/Worlds in the US trials. Watch John
>Teeters pop a 10.00 in the early goings and then look like he
>just ran a marathon in the subsequent round.

Keni Harrison has issues like Asafa Powell when it comes to pressure situations so that might also be a factor.

WHAT'S GOOD *****? What's REALLY good?!?!????!!! Ha HA!
http://40.media.tumblr.com/d8e2daf9f3f37244cd05436bcdf05973/tumblr_mt4qibKq4c1rgam01o1_1280.png