Dirt, Road, Tartan

Athletics Blog - also on Facebook

[dirtroadtartan]

I would love to see cross country back in the Olympic Games

The words come from the IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, when commenting the decision to integrate the event at the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games.

Would this implementation in the Summer Olympics be a good way of reinforcing the sport which carries most of the Olympic spirit? Or is athletics down to track and marathons in the days that we live and that's sufficient for the Olympic events?

What's your opinion on the subject?

[Photo: Cross Country race at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Paavo Nurmi would be victorious.]

[dirtroadtartan]

14 Wins in a row make Stefanidi’s golden season

Pole Vault is a discipline characterised by some difficulty to achieve consistent top results. Or at least we thought so until we put our eyes on the Greek pole vaulter who has dominated the event for the past year.

Ekateríni has jumped higher than her opponent throughout all the year of 2017, including the Diamond League meetings in which there wasn't even the same need to punctuate as in the years before. Regardless, she just kept going over the bars to seal the year invincible.

But when the two great finals came she didn't hesitate any more than in the previous contests:

In London, she went for a dazzling 4,91 metres, achieving the third highest jump in history and making her personal best increase by 20 centimetres in less than two years.

In the Brussels Diamond League final she passed the 4,85 metres at the first try (victory guaranteed) and then attempted to add one centimetre to that height she had accomplished in the world championships, which she failed to do.

Perfect score for Stefanidi and Olympic and World gold medals in her pocket, after this brilliant last period of the Greek vaulter!

[Photos: Diamond League and London World Championships; various authors]

[dirtroadtartan]

2017 was the year Barshim really stole the bar

Back in 2014 Barshim was jumping over 2.43 metres and the crowd in Brussels going crazy. It was the end of a great year for high jump, with five different athletes jumping over the bar at 2.40m. In Zurich(24th August), 2.36 metres jump was enough to get him the Diamond trophy. The Gold at the London world championships and the trophy in the Diamond League final, to which he adds the Birmingham diamond league - that gave him once again the prestigious height of 2.40 - are a deserved recognition of Mutaz's performances through the years.

Even though he had never achieved the feat of an outdoor global championships gold, he has been jumping 2.40 or higher since 2013, this is, for the last 5 consecutive years. Through all these years he was the world leader, with the exception of 2013, when Bondarenko edged him by 1 cm.

It delights me to see the Qatari finally having a truly profitable season after watching him lose so many finals!

I leave you with a photo posted by Gianmarco Tamberi (sadly, he had an unfortunate season) that brings together the jumpers of the year. He writes in it "My family" and I really enjoy staring at this group of athletes as such. I look forward to seeing them compete together next year and I hope that a year as good as 2014 may come sooner that expected.

[Photo: AFP Photo/Emmanuel Dunand & Gianmarco Tamberi]

[dirtroadtartan]

Jamaican Athletics: coming to an halt after a 10-year era

The London 2017 have come to an end one week ago.  These championships were a significant mark in what concerns the place of Jamaica (and consecutively the USA) in the world stage of athletics.

The analysis of the recent results isn't instantaneous and even less straightforward. So, if you choose to go through a summarised interpretation and prediction of this theme, take a seat and let me show you the way I look at the current situation in the sprint disciplines.

In 2008, Fraser-Pryce and Bolt went to Beijing to show the world that the sprint were for the Jamaicans in the famous "JAlympics". Veronica Campbell-Brown and Asafa Powell had been shaping this moment for some years and some time later this generation was joined by stars like Yohan Blake and Elaine Thompson.

Now, Bolt laid on the track seems to represent the halt in a period of hegemony. 

What is there to speculate about the close future of athletics in this Caribbean country? Let's first take a look at the still-fresh results from the London Olympic stadium.

On the women's side, Elaine Thompson was living the moment of her career after last year's sprint double and was the main hope of the Jamaicans. Despite having opted to focus on the shortest race, she was actually showing good signs, with a world-leading time of 10.71 seconds).  When it came to the final, however, a 10.98 placed her in a disappointing 5th place from the top. No Jamaicans qualified to the 200 metres final. Thompson didn't participate in the 4x100 metres relay either and a bronze was the final result. The longer relay saw the Jamaican women going no further than the second leg. In the 400 metres hurdles, Ristananna Tracey clinched a bronze too. On the one-lap, three athletes made it to the final but occupied the bottom spots in that race.

On the men's side, Bolt made the same decision of putting it all in the 100 metres. A very modest third place - which wasn't what "The Lightning" sought to put an end to his track career - awarded him a bronze medal, behind two men from the USA (Gatlin and Coleman) The 200 metres saw no Jamaican coming to the final, which registered the slowest winning time since 2003. The "salvation" came really from the 110 metres hurdles, where Omar McLeod clinched the only gold medal for the country. The longer relay didn't get to the final and the 4x100 was the infamous one that put Bolt on the floor while Great Britain went for the victory. I am of the opinion that the fact that Omar McLeod was part of the relay team shows how Jamaican athletics is going through a bad phase. The hurdler is indeed quick - remember that he was the first sub-13 hurdler to go bellow 10 seconds on the 100m - but that shouldn't be enough to earn a place in a sprint nation like Jamaica.

Summing it up, Jamaica went from 11 medals to 4 and from 6 golds to a single one between 2016 and 2017!! Now, who do we have left? Was this nothing but bad luck or is Jamaica in need of a new generation of sprinters?

Well, Omar McLeod is here to stay! He was Olympic champion at 22 and still seems to be on fire. Bolt, Powell and Campbell-Brown are finished with their track career now. Blake had a chance and was unlucky. After being regarded as "the next Bolt", injury pulled him away from a peak and is now 27 and probably too old to progress significantly, despite a possible medal in future championships (he was fourth in both Rio 2016 and London 2017). Elaine Thompson is, form me, the actual doubt. Having emerged as "the new generation" alongside Dafne Schippers she seemed to be just edging the Dutch from what we saw in the Rio Games, but that has proven not definite with the opposite results which she obtained in London. Even though Thompson may put in some great performances again (and I truly believe this is the most likely possibility), that won't be enough to mask the decrease in the medal haul.

Despite the apparent low which Jamaica seems to be on the edge of, let us not forget how the conditions can change very quickly! Just remember that Bolt had run the 100m in 10.03 in 2007 and that he was running a 9.69 world record the following year, despite turning to the side and slapping his chest before crossing the finish line!

The next great Jamaican sprinter can be just around the corner!!

[Photos: AFP - Olivier Morin & Getty Images]

[dirtroadtartan]

Trinidad and Tobago’s victory brings the championships to an end

A great demonstration by the Caribbean relay, with incredible second and fourth legs.

After the first 500 metres, Jereem Richards made a very good approach to the inside lane, surpassing two athletes while doing so. After the third leg, the T&T and USA were side by side and when the decisive lap came, Lalonde Gordon just waited behind the Americans until the finish straight and then blew the fatal strike, leaving his teammates euphoric with the golden medal!

[Photo: AP Photo/Martin Meissner]

[dirtroadtartan]

After months of struggle, Inês is a World Champion

Even though it already been recognised as an official event by IAAF in 2015 and the fact that Inês Henriques had already set an inaugural world record in the distance back in January; it wasn't until very recently that the Portuguese athlete knew there would be women participating alongside men in the 50 kilometres race walk. And it wasn't one or two: seven women took part in this competition without precedent which brings female athletics competitions one step closer to male's. Among them, only four managed to finish under the time limit set by IAAF (4:17:00).

The icing on the cake was the new world record, breaking the one she had set half an year ago, now with an international exposure. The 37-year-old ran the race in 4:05:56, fulfilling her initial objective of breaking the 4:06 barrier.

For this last period of 6 months she had been stating her intention of competing in the 50 kilometres and, at last, her resilience paid out and she received her deserved prize.

[Photo: Reuters / Matthew Childs]

[dirtroadtartan]

Ethiopia steals Farah’s golden finish to his international career

When Kejelcha got to the front of the race at the ringing of the bell and started looking back for his compatriots I had the feeling that for the first time there was a chance of Mo Farah being beaten.

The only way I thought there was of beating the multiple-times world champion was working as a team in order to get away from the Briton before he could get away from the them and that was exactly what the East-African country did. Here, I present the factors which I consider to have been essential in this upset:

1. Ethiopia worked as a team and were together in the front with 400 metres to go.

2. Both Kejecha and Muktar Edris advanced, guaranteeing a front position in the back straight. It looks like Barega tried to go with them but didn't succeed. For years, we have seen athletes putting all their effort in surpassing Mo with 250 metres to the finish line but none of them has succeeded in doing so. With the UK athlete behind them, this requisite was fulfilled.

3. In the final bend, Mo was boxed by Chelimo, who was now trying to be in the medal dispute. An unexpected hindrance for Mo, who was now getting in close contact with the front runners.

Luckily, Mo, found a way on the first lane to run freely. Nevertheless, it was already too late to prevent Edris from winning. Mo was second with Chelimo (USA) by his side getting bronze. Kejelcha, had done the initial effort entering the last lap and just ran out of gas in the final hundred metres.

For me, the opportunity of beating Farah was a deserved reward for the Ethiopian. Both Edris and Kejelcha clock great times race after race and always end up defeated by this master of the tactical races.

This doesn't remove any credit froom Mo's career. I'm sure he will always be remembered as the 1.75 metres man who gave the other no chance in the final lap!

[Photo: EPA]

[dirtroadtartan]

9.94   -   19.84   -   30.81

The last 20 days have been productive for Wayde van Niekerk’s consolidation as a very powerful multiple-event sprinter. 

Last night's Golden Spike meeting, in Ostrava can be seen as a miniature representation of the "exchange of baton" which is occurring in the athletics sprints, with the South African shifting the limelight from Usain Bolt (who ran a modest 10.06 in the 100 metres) to  his world best in the 300 metres.

The previous weeks we had seen him dipping even more bellow the 10- and 20-seconds barriers and those marks were building momentum to his likely attempt at the 200/400m double later this summer.

Now, breaking the 300-metres world best performance is just the frost on the cake and erases the name of ... Michael Johnson... who was precisely the only man to achieve the 200/400m double at an Olympic Games (and also in 1995 world championships). Should this mean something? I do think it is a convincing argument, although Johnson wasn't running against a Jamaican who's already ran the 200 metres under 19.20.

The London 2017 World Championships are five weeks away, and when the moment comes van Niekerk will have six races in six days. That includes running the 200m semi-final and final after having completed the 400m competition. Even though he is expected to qualify from the heats with relative ease, 400 metres is a though race - even for Wayde's legs - and that might make things a bit more difficult for the faster sprint in the immediately following days.

Until then, we still have the chance of seeing him in action in the Lausanne and Monaco meetings of the Diamond League.

(Photo: AP)

[dirtroadtartan]

Joyciline and her unbelievable split-time

The first of April is the day the most mind-blowing facts or happenings are heard. Unfortunately or not, such a date also indicates that the accomplishment will likely turn out to be false. However, from time to time, this tradition is broken and when you wake up on the next morning, the news on the IAAF website are still the same.

That is the moment you realize a milestone has just been shattered by Joyciline Jepkosgei! Last Saturday, when the world first heard of the women's half-marathon world record having been broken, the announcement didn't come alone. There were 3 other records associated with the performance the emergent Kenyan, who had been tracing her path in the running competitions unnoticed until this moment.

The 15- and 20-kilometres records were not that surprising, as there aren't many competitions of these distances and usually such records fall during these much more competitive half marathon events. But the fourth record set en route was of the 10 kilometres road race! 30 minutes and 4 seconds was the registered split-time.

No, it's not a typo! The woman on the way to the half marathon world record did break the 10 kilometres world record and then maintain the strength towards until the 21 km.

Jepkosgei shaved 14 seconds from the HM record - becoming the first woman to run the distance in under 65 minutes - but an even more impressive 17 seconds from the previous best mark in the 10 km, set by Paula Radcliffe back in 2003 (taking Violah Jepchumba just one second behind her).

This made a lot of thoughts flash through my mind - most of them related to the extrapolations one might draw from this result. If she ran the distance in just over 30 minutes on the road, with neither a Mondo track nor running spikes and with the unavoidable extra metres run and moments of deceleration in the street bends, I wonder how fast she could run in the “most favourable conditions”. How much would she be able to dip under the half-hour barrier?

It is difficult to make such predictions with accuracy, but of something we can be sure: if she was running for the 10 kilometres only, she would make jaws drop near the finish line, when the clock stopped.

Of another thing I’m convict: it is unlikely that we will see this runner on the track and, therefore, know what time she would be able to clock, as sad as this idea might sound. The road race are a source of money prizes which allocates a crescent proportion of athletes and Joyciline won't probably an exception.

As always after such a breakthrough, we shall wait for further developments…

(Photo: RunCzech)

[dirtroadtartan]

Cross-country World Championships with a new team relay

The World Cross Country will take place in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, this Sunday. It has been a full decade since the last time this event of the World Athletics Series was hosted by any African country.

Since those days, when the championships were still disputed every year, little change has been observed in the podiums. However, there are even less Europeans in the front group, replaced by athletes who wear singlets of Bahrain, Turkey or Spain.

This 42nd edition of the competition brings some novelty with it - an extra race which will change the way people look at "team competition" in cross country. Despite the usual team standings which rank the countries according to the order of arrival of each athlete, there will be an actual 4 x 2 kilometres mixed relay, starring some middle-distance runners of each country.

In this race, Ethiopia might try to prove superior to Kenya, as they have already confirmed the presence of both Genzebe Dibaba (who holds several world records: from 1500 to 5000 metres indoors and 1500 metres outdoors) and the emerging 19-year-old Yomif Kejelcha (7:28 in the 3000 metres - an U20 world record). On the other side, Kenya is taking Asbel Kiprop (the fastest 1500-metres runner since Hicham El Guerrouj and the only to make the Moroccan's world record tremble). The countries are allowed to choose any order for their two men and two women, so it will be difficult to predict who's going to win until the very end of the race.

As to the other races, the highlight goes to Geoffrey Kamworor, who will be attempting to maintain his title after having won the world cross country in 2015 and the half-marathon world championships in 2016.

(Photo: Getty Images)

[dirtroadtartan]

Laura Muir makes the Double and breaks records Twice

The Scottish runner didn't fear the ghosts of her past delusions or the Kenyan-born Yasemin Can who imposed a strong front-running which soon detached the pair from the rest of the field.

She kept in close contact with the multiple-times European gold medallist and in the final 300 metres simply shot away, with no response from the surpassed athlete who finished 8 seconds behind the new European champion.

The results that sealed her two victories in the 1500 and 3000 metres are the icing on the cake - two new Championships Records, set after some long years of maintenance.

Last year, Laura had created high expectations when preparing for the Olympics and some of us were saddened by her modest performance in the 1500 metres final. Now, the results are equally valuable and the outdoor season is yet to start... Should we expect great feats from the women who will compete at home later this season, during the World Championships?

Photo: Getty Images

[dirtroadtartan]

Ivana, the european Queen

The European indoor athletics Championships have come to an end and it is certainly an edition to remember. For the next few days we'll go through the most remarkable feats coming from the old continent, more precisely from Belgrade.

Serbia is not only the venue of the competition but also the homeland of probably the best individual mark achieved during these three days.

Ivana Spanovic took advantage of the momentum created by their compatriots at the arena and leaped to a result better than any other seen since 1989 indoors (or 2004 outdoors). Her jump of 7.24 metres improved her personal best by 14 centimetres and made the public roar with pride for their compatriot.

In her final jump, with a smile in her face, she laid back in the sandpit. The centimetres she lost by doing so where in no way necessary for her crowning as the European indoor Champion...

Photo: Getty Images

[dirtroadtartan]

Will it be this time for Bekele and Dubai?

In case Keninisa Bekele is right, by tomorrow, at 4:33 am GMT (8:33 Gulf time), we will have a new World Record in the men's marathon. He is pretty confident that a the race in Dubai will allow him to do what he wasn't able to some months ago in Berlin by some mere 6 seconds.

Then, why Dubai? Actually, it has been 15 years since this world record was broken in any place outside Berlin, and the German streets have proved to be one of the best places to run when the aim is surpassing the limit of human resistance.

However, we should broaden our vision. Looking at the statistics, we see that 13 sub-2:05 marathons have been run in the that event since 2012 and that the runners who have produced such times, all have set their Personal Bests in that exact event (with exception of Haile Gebrselassie). Interestingly, if you look at their names, you will discover that they aren't the most famous athletes in the athletics world and still thy have recorded those marks. Having said this, the city in United Arab Emirates appears in the map with a rather discrete event but a very fast course.

Bekele's confidence should be taken seriously. He has run the Berlin Marathon with that incredible second best time in History and appears to be very focused on his objective. Having said this, it is very likely that the sun will rise tomorrow (at least in Europe, Africa and America) with the name of an Ethiopian as the marathon world-record holder, something unseen in the last 9 years. Such a feat would be the symbol of perfect harmony for the country in Eastern Africa, taking Bekele the place that his compatriot Gebrselassie has once occupied.

Interestingly, this race (and included World-Record attempt) comes in a moment of agitated expectation towards the "Sub2Hours", which is making every enthusiast of the sport come to a state of deliration or prompt refusal. But that would be the subject of an entirely new text.

(Photo: Dubai Marathon organisation)

[dirtroadtartan]

The inaugural 50 km Race Walk World Record is Portuguese

Just like IAAF had announced, the first result bellow 4:30:00 counting from the beginning of 2017 would be considered the first World Record in this distance, which women have only competed officially since last year.

Inês Henriques didn't only do that but also lowered the best result of which there is record. The Portuguese covered the distance in 4:08.26, shaving two and an half minutes from the previous unofficial record, which had been set almost 10 years ago.

This means that "inaugural" doesn't necessarily mean "short-term".We need to observe the reaction of the biggest race-walking powers to the inception of this new distance in order to understand how this world record may further evolve.

Portugal itself isn't far from the best race-walking countries, having taken 6th and 12th places at the women’s 20 kilometres race walk during the Rio Olympics.

(Photo: António Cotrim/LUSA)

[dirtroadtartan]

The Eaton couple retires from Athletics

It breaks mine and most athletics supporter's hearts to hear about the retirement of the most prolific couple in athletics for the last few years.

In what concerns Ashton, it comes as unexpectedly as any other retirement after consecutive years with World and Olympic Records broken. Even though he is already 28, did have some fuel left and titles to reconquer. Brianne too had won her first senior World title in Portland less than one year ago.

It is, however, a comprehensible decision, especially, when it is simultaneous. Time for themselves is something they must have never really enjoyed and even the best athletes wish to have some quality in their lives while still young. The best way to express the way they feel is really the words written by Ashton two days ago in their personal blog, which will certainly mean something to nearly every sports fan:

"it’s my time to depart from athletics; to do something new. Frankly there isn’t much more I want to do in sport. I gave the most physically robust years of my life to the discovery and pursuit of my limits in this domain. Did I reach them? Truthfully I'm not sure anyone really does. It seems like we tend to run out of time or will before we run out of potential. That makes humanity limitless then, as far as I'm concerned. And I think that's inspiring."

We say goodbye to this wonderful couple, but I can't hide my special admiration for Ashton, the holder of the World records in both the indoors Heptathlon and the Decathlon - the "greatest athlete in the world"!

Photo: AP / Elaine Thompson

[dirtroadtartan]

Kenya dominates the European Cross-Country Championships once again

The absurd expressed by the header is real and, unfortunately, is starting to become an habit. However, I leave you the photos of the first European-born athletes to cross the finish line in the Senior races, Karoline Grovdal and Callum Hawkins.

Racing even when you know you should be in the top of the podium and not winning a bronze medal is a demonstration of the true spirit of athletics, unlike the monetary prizes that some countries offer to athletes of previous nationalities...

(Photo: Tullio M. Puglia; Getty Images)

[dirtroadtartan]

The IAAF Athlete of the Year

Prize for most significant feat? or Career award?

IAAF and the athletics community have voted for the Athletes of the Year! The outcome was a victory for Almaz Ayana and Usain Bolt.

On the one hand, the victory of 10,000 metres Ethiopian runner who broke the World Record by 14 seconds at the Rio Olympic Games was in no way unexpected. Especially when the Diamond League saw her threaten the 5000 metres WR so often (every time she ran the distance).

On the other hand, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and Wayde van Niekerk were contenders for the prize of the best male athlete.

Mo Farah was, just like Bolt in a position of recognition for his long streak of medals in international competitions. However, Usain Bolt clearly surpasses the English when we compare the winning streaks of both: Bolt has been invincible since 2008 (with exception of the 2011 false start) and Farah "only" since 2011. The Jamaican’s position when nominated for the award is of the first man to ever win the same athletics event Olympic final three times, the one with the most Olympic golds ever, the one to have done everything that no one else has dreamed of...

But is recognizing a brilliant Olympic career that now culminates in the Rio Games the actual objective of the Award?

The South African Van Niekerk appears as "the amateur" in these stages, having broken the 400-metres 17-year-standing WR for 0.15 seconds right after being in the limelight for the first time the previous year. Also, he’s become the first person to ever run the 100, 200 and 400 metres in under 10, 20 and 44 seconds, respectively.

Honestly, I believe that the latter has achieved much more remarkable individual feats during the current year.

Shaving such a fraction of second from such a long-standing record is, in the general opinion of spectators, of greater difficulty, compared to running the 100 and 200 metres in 9.81 and 19.78 seconds, just like Bolt did this summer.

Even Bolt must know how his own times are far from the limits of human speed, as he was the one to have run the WRs 7 years ago. Contrarily to that, Van Niekerk doesn't know where the limits of speed for the full-lap event are, as he is the one in the process of discovering it.

The final awardee of the prize was most likely attributed to the Jamaican due to the impact of online voting through facebook and the comparatively imense popularity of "the Lightning".

Personally, my Athlete of the Year was Wayde van Niekerk!

Hopefully, he will show us again that he is the deserving winner of such a prize!

(Photo: Getty Images)