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[NOTE: Next week, TPR will introduce its weekly review/preview report, a concise event-by-event analysis to help keep track of the sport’s major developments on the track. Distributed in addition to TPR’s regular on-site coverage, reports and profiles, it will generally be delivered each Wednesday by 10 pm Central European Time, and will also include updates on the week’s primary prize money winners.
With that in mind and with the season beginning to pick up some steam, over the next few days we’ll get caught up with what has transpired thus far this season, beginning with a capsule overview of the sprints, below.
Another busy season is on the horizon. TPR will be providing on-site coverage from more than 20 international competitions this season, beginning with the Artur Takac Memorial in Belgrade on 29 May, before wrapping up with the season-capping World Athletics Final in Stuttgart in late September. For TPR’s complete coverage schedule please visit: www.trackprofile.com.
– Bob Ramsak, Editor, TRACK PROFILE Report ]
LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA - It might be unusual to not begin a sprint review with the 100m, but not this week. Indeed, with an unprecedented level of top-end talent in the men's 200m this season, the half lap could well attract more attention in 2007 than the sport’s marqee event.
The first major showdown in the sport’s hottest event takes place on Sunday, when Xavier ‘X-Man’ Carter and Wallace Spearmon square off in the 200 at the adidas Track Classic in Carson, Calif. Last year, both were key players in a major rewrite of the event’s all-time lists. First it was Carter with his 19.63 in Lausanne, and later Spearmon with a 19.65 in Daegu, South Korea, to end the season as the second and third fastest ever. This will be Carter’s first outing of the year, while Spearmon has already run a wind-assisted 19.87 (+2.2 m/s) along with a near-PB 10.14 in the 100. Olympic champion Shawn Crawford, whose biggest challenge this year will be to claim a spot on the U.S. team for the World Championships, will also be in the field.
[For some background, please see my features on both sprinters in the February issue of the IAAF Magazine: Carter, Spearmon]
But Carson will be but an aperitif for the event on the U.S. circuit, what with the clash of giants that’s set for the Prefontaine Classic on 10-June. In addition to Carter, Spearmon and Crawford, world 100m record holder Asafa Powell and 400m ace Jeremy Wariner are on the slate, along with Chris Williams, the winner at the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha last weekend. Collectively, that’s a lot of speed.
At the moment it’s Tyson Gay, last year’s World Athletics Final winner, who has set the early season pace with his 19.97 in Kingston (05-May), where he won by a massive .70 seconds. Last year Gay had a 2-1 edge in head-to-head meetings with Carter, and a 3-1 record against training partner Spearmon. LaShawn Merritt, a better 400m man, has run 20.18 in his sole half-lap outing, and is also in the field in Carson. Elsewhere, U.S. collegian Walter Dix (20.13 PB) is currently the world’s second fastest.
100m:
After a trio of precautionary pull-outs, Asafa Powell will finally make his 100m debut at the Takac Memorial on May 29, quite the coup for the Belgrade meet, this year celebrating its second running. Most interest will be concentrated not on how fast the Jamaican, who has produced three 9.77 performances, will run, but how he’s mended from tendonitis that forced the cancellation of some of his spring appointments.
Meanwhile, Gay, on paper and in reality the man who looks to be the biggest threat this year to Powell’s dominance, heads the line-up in Carson. It’ll be the 24-year-old’s first outing over the short dash this season; with his19.97 opener in Kingston two weeks ago, he’s obviously already in fine shape. The surprise world leader is Bahamian national champion Derrick Atkins, who rode a maximum allowable 2 m/s wind to a 9.98 clocking at the low-key Collegiate Challenge in Berkeley in late April. He too will return to the track in Carson in his first major test since entering sub-10 territory.
In this event too Carter will capture some attention, with his first outing of the season in the short dash coming at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo, The Netherlands, on Saturday, May 26. Last year Carter made such a big splash in the longer sprints that it was easy to overlook his 10.09 career best that propelled him to last year’s NCAA title.
Elsewhere, Darrell Brown produced his quickest clocking since 2005 with his 10.02 win in Kingston. Joshua Ross, who improved to 10.08 at the Australian Championships in March, wasn’t particularly impressive in his last outing where he clocked just 10.37 at the Osaka Grand Prix (05-May). Other performances of note, both by American collegians: unheralded Trindon Holliday’s breakthrough 10.08 to take the always-difficult SEC title; and U.S. junior record holder Walter Dix again, who sped a 10.11 at the Texas Relays in early April.
400m:
Jeremy Wariner spent little time picking up where he left off last season. Following his opener on 21 April at the Michael Johnson Invitational, where his competitive 'workout' included 20.81 and 44.66 wins with a 4x400 relay leg capping things, the Olympic and world champion blasted to a lopsided 44.02 victory in Osaka (5 May). He tops the bill in Carson on Sunday in a field that also includes training partner Darold Williamson (44.68 for second in Osaka) and Australian John Steffensen, the Commonwealth champion who made a few waves at home over the winter.
While Wariner’s fast start wasn’t an earth-shattering surprise, Angelo Taylor’s 44.35 last weekend at the Georgia Tech Invitational nearly was. The 28-year-old demolished a personal best set back in 2001, and opened the door for the 400m hurdles specialist to perhaps try for a spot on the U.S. World Championships squad in the flat as well.
Elsewhere, Gary Kikaya opened with a solid 44.60 in Xalapa, Mexico (05-May) and 22-year-old Jamaican Ricardo Chambers nailed a PB 44.62 behind Taylor to top the NCAA ranks. Kikaya, last year’s second fastest (44.10 African Record) and Steffensen are on the slate for the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games as well.
WOMEN –
100m:
Upon returning to the track for the first time in nearly a year, 2004 Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell appears to be adjusting well. First came a wind-aided 22.37 win at the John McDonnell Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on 21 April, and then her 11.07 world leader at home in Kingston (05-May), a narrow win over American Marshavet Hooker who’s 11.08 was a career best. The two square off again on Sunday in Carson, while Campbell also plans another U.S. outing at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York City on 02 June before the Jamaican Championships later that month.
Not far behind on the season’s world list is NCAA star Kerron Stewart who has twice run 11.10 this spring, which firmly places her in the running for a spot on the Jamaican squad for Osaka.
Five others have run under 11.20, including Bahamian 2000 Olympic Golden Girl Debbie Ferguson McKenzie who opened with a notable 11.14 in mid April. Double European champion Kim Gevaert of Belgium and the American Barber sisters, Me'Lisa and Mikele, are due to race at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games on 26 May.
200m:
Little notable action thus far, and it's again Jamaica ruling the early-season roost. Collegian Simone Facey produced a world-leading 22.49 PB to win the Big-12 title last weekend (she also won the 100 in 11.19, also a PB), with Stewart half a step behind with her 22.52 win at the SEC Championships.
Sherone Simpson, last year’s short sprint ace, debuted in Kingston with a 22.76 behind Rachelle Smith, the 2005 World Championships silver medallist, who won in 22.65.
Sunday’s adidas Track Classic will be the year’s first solid test, with world champion Allyson Felix making her debut. The 21-year-old won a solid 100/200 double in Doha last weekend, capped by a 50.40 PB over the full lap, a surprise world leader. Smith and Ferguson McKenzie are also in the Carson field.
400m:
After illness postponed her initially scheduled outings, Sanya Richards is due to make her eagerly-anticipated season’s debut at the PAA meet in Eugene on 27 May, where, she promised in her IAAF Diary entry, she’s hoping to produce “something special”.
Besides Felix’s world leader in Doha, there’s been little action over the full lap with most of last year’s seven sub-50 runners having yet to compete. A pair of exceptions are American DeeDee Trotter and Jamaican Novlene Williams, who finished 1-2 in Kingston (05 May) in 50.57 and 50.87 respectively. Both are in Sunday’s Carson field, along with former world champion Ana Guevara of Mexico.
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