Weekend Cooldown Weltklasse Zurich Best of the Rest

Men's 400m: Former Olympic and World Champion Jeremy Wariner ran his best 400 of the year, a world-leading 44.14 in the first of a series of turn-back-the-clock performances from America's track veterans. Wariner edged old world-leader Jermaine Gonzales by a significant margin and cemented his status as the world's best 400m runner in 2010 with yet another Diamond League Victory:

Race Dynamics: Wariner again chose lane 3 as in Stockholm, and was able to see his Jamican rivals, Gonzales and Ricardo Chambers the entire race. Both Gonzales and Wariner made adjustments to what they did in Stockholm, however. At the outset, Wariner ran his first 100 meters significantly harder and faster than in Stockholm. He picked up a chunk of the stagger on Gonzales and ran even with the always fast-starting Chambers. Gonzales, on the other hand, took out the first 100 relatively slow before running extremely hard from 100 meters to 250 meters passing the early leader, Chambers. A calm and collected Wariner processed what he was doing, and began to give chase at 150 meters to go. At 125 meters to go, Wariner was hitting top speed and began eating away at Gonzales' advantage. At 70 meters to go or so, he'd caught him and began to pull away for a significant margin of victory as Gonzales faded.

Athletes and Storylines that may Interest Only Me:
1. As I've noted before, the last 40 meters of Jeremy Wariner's 400m races were the biggest difference between his championship form of the mid-2000s and his form this season. Finally, it looks like Wariner has regained his old strength, as he made a narrow victory a significant one with a strong finish. This week, Wariner also went out a little bit harder and kept Gonzales within striking distance throughout. His time of 44.14 indicated the improvement in his finish as well as a more aggressive first 100 meters.
2. Two time Olympic Champion at 400m hurdles, Angelo Taylor, made a strong return to the 400m event with a third place clocking of 44.72. Taylor is the best flat 400m runner in the 400m hurdle ranks, as he owns a bronze medal from Osaka in the event. This race is a good sign that his fitness is strong, and if he carries it into next year Bershawn Jackson will have a battle on his hands.
3. The European men again struggled mightily casting even more doubt on the significance of the European championship in the 400m event that was won by Kevin Borlee. A European medal is a fine honor, but if not one of the competitors could be counted on to even make a global championship final, it surely does not have the same cachet.

Women's 1500m: Horrific pacemaking by both Mimi "KD" Belete and Diane Cumins marred another impressive victory by Nancy Langat.

Race Dynamics: Cumins set the initial pace extremely hot leading a surprisingly bunched field through in 61.32 seconds at 400 meters. The next lap was a dawdling 66.78 and Cumins stepped off with the damage, sadly, done. As Mimi Belete took on the pace, Anna Alminova held her usual spot in second place with Nancy Langat on her shoulder and Americans Morgan Uceny and Christin Wurth-Thomas just behind. Alminova was evidently not feeling good at all, and she made no attempt to chase Belete. Langat knowing she had the ace in the hole with her kick had no reason to chase after a time aggressively, either. She did overtake Alminova just before the bell and led the field through in about 3:15 at 1200 meters. Behind her, Alminova was having a dreadful race and Nancy Jelagat grabbed second with Uceny closely following. Inexplicably, the second pacemaker, Belete, stayed in the middle of lane 1 even though she was of absolutely no use during her time as a pacemaker and the field was only 200 meters away from the finish. Langat breezed by her and was mostly unaffected by Belete's massive brain fart winning by 10 meters over the field in 4:01.03. However, Belete's perplexing decision to stay on the track set off the following sequence that I will recap below.

Explaining the Fall: When Morgan Uceny went by Belete, just on her outside was the diminutive figure of Gelete Burka. Burka was beginning to make her move past Uceny right before Uceny's pass and Belete's presence brought the two uncomfortably close. Meanwhile, an oblivious and dangerously slowing Irene Jelagat mysteriously hit the rail just in front of Uceny. It appears she might have subtly brushed her leg against Uceny during her back kick causing her to lose control and hit the rail. Either way, her legs got tangled with Uceny who lost control and hit the rail herself. Uceny barely stayed up and angled away from the rail, instinctively. Unfortunately for her, her angling brought her right into Burka who shoved her aside to prevent herself from being cut off. The shove resulted in Uceny slowing down right into the path of Lisa Dobriskey. Dobriskey had no choice besides a certain crash, and had to shove Uceny who caught the rail again. This time, a fall could not be avoided, and Dobriskey jumped to the side to avoid going down while the two athletes next to her were brought into the carnage as well. Janeth Jepkosgei was able to keep herself up, while Anna Pierce was not-so-lucky and she hit the track hard. It looked like Shannon Rowbury had a difficult time getting around the carnage, too.

Athletes and Storylines that may Interest Only Me:
1. With all the craziness going on next to her, it'd be easy to miss a great finishing kick and run by young Briton Steph Twell. Twell was so wide at 150 meters to go, that the fall had little effect on her. She blew by Irene Jelagat and all of those involved in the fracas for a solid 4:02.54 third place performance.
2. If I had to give 800m runner Janeth Jepkosgei a grade for her first fast 1500m of her career, I'd give her the rare B/Incomplete. She ran 4:04.17, but she was involved in the Uceny fall and probably was hurt by it significantly. Before that, she has established good position and looked on her way to a stellar performance. The pacing was also poor, so a 4:04 with a fall right beside her messing up her finish? Pretty good, but I'd like to see her give it a go again. On the negative side, Lisa Dobriskey blew her away and ran under 4:03 with almost the exact same set of circumstances.

Men's 200m: American Wallace Spearmon followed the lead of fellow American vet Jeremy Wariner and turned back the clock to convincingly beat a talented Jamaican youngster, Yohan Blake, in the final strides of the race. Spearmon's turn this time was pretty good for him (so bad for anyone else), but it was not particularly damaging because Blake stood up at the start somewhat and only began really running very hard and fast at 120 meters to go. At 80 meters to go, Spearmon sized up his position and began his characteristic "kick". At 40 meters to go, Blake had put away the rest of the field that included turn leaders Ryan Bailey and Steve Mullings, but Spearmon was moving up on him ready to pounce. With 30 meters to go, Spearmon's superiority to almost everyone in the last stages of the race was clear and he put on a full tenth of a second on Blake and even more on everyone else with a great stretch finish. His time was a meet record, 19.79, and his fastest since his PB of 19.65 set in Daegu in 2006. Daegu, incidentally, is the site of next year's World Championships. If Spearmon can repeat this type of performance, he absolutely can return to the podium.

Athletes and Storylines that may Interest Only Me:

1. Unheralded American, Ryan Bailey, continued an overlooked but impressive campaign that has seen his 200 PB drop from 20.45 in 2009 to the 20.10 he ran in this race. He is only 21 years old, and it's worth noting that Tyson Gay's personal best at age 21 was 20.07 for the 200. Bailey is a guy to keep tabs on as he continues a rapid ascent up the US sprint ranks.
2. Meanwhile, on the negative side of the spectrum former stars Xavier Carter and Churandy Martina continued their fall into irrelevance running 20.38 and 20.40. You have to hope that these two can figure it out because they are great talents who can penetrate deep into the sub 20 range when they are in form.
3. For Yohan Blake to become a great 200m runner, he needs to work on his first 100 meters. His start was sluggish. Though, he could destroy Wallace Spearmon in a 60m dash, he was left behind the first strides of the race even versus Spearmon because of a poor move out of the blocks and some lackadaisical sprinting. We know he can close after watching him nearly snatch victory away from Tyson Gay, but against an on-form Gay or Bolt he's got to master the entire race.

Blurbs-
Men's 110mH: Much as anticipated, it was the David Oliver show in this race as the man showed his amazing dominance, as well as his trademark spectacular finishing lean. Oliver got off to a pretty good start, and was clean over 9 out of 10 hurdles. This wasn't a race, it was a beat-down. Oliver sensed that a great time might be imminent and dipped extremely hard. Too hard. He crashed into the track after his near-horizontal lean, which only adds to the entertainment of the Oliver Show, which by now is one of favorites on the Diamond League.

Women's 400m: With the Raiders doing anything but it, and Alyson Felix pulling it off every time perhaps we should award her Al Davis' slogan of "Just Win, Baby". Felix did just that again, pulling just enough out during the last 50 meters to beat perennial challenger and American champion, Debbie Dunn. Tatiana Firova did not mount a challenge this week, and Felix comfortably secured the status as the year's best 400m runner with another head to head victory over Firova and Dunn. Undoubtedly, when Sanya Richards rejoins the fray Felix's task of owning the 200 and 400 will become ever more difficult.

Men's 3000m Steeplechase: A fast early pace (2:38/5:20) battered the spectacular field that led my preview a few days ago. Only 2009 World Champion Ezekiel Kemboi and Diamond League Leader Paul Koech were able to handle the pace and run a solid last kilometer. Koech, as anticipated, assumed the mantle of race leader and continued pushing the pace at 2000 meters. Every athletes besides Kemboi fell victim to Koech's characteristically bold front-running. At a lap to go, though, Kemboi employed the same move that delivered him last year's world championship and went by Koech. His finishing move might not be pretty (he appears to be straining and he grimaces the whole way), but it is uncommonly effective. Koech faltered the last 200m, which is more than understandable considering this was high quality steeple #3 in 13 days. Behind Koech, Bob Tahri's conservative and patient strategy paid off with an impressive kick for 3'rd place in front of an aggressive Benjamin Kiplagat who's attempt to catch the leading two the last 800 meters was futile. African Champion Richard Mateelong finished 5'th in front of a resurgent Saif Saaeed Shaheen, who added a solid 8:09 steeple to a 13:00 5,000 meter run in Oslo. After some disappointing years, Shaheen might finally be on the way back to his sub 8 minute steeple form that made him an athlete superior even to Kemboi. Brimin Kipruto and Mahiedine Benabbad had disappointing runs behind Shaheen, but their struggles pale in comparison to the unfortunate stinker thrown up by American Daniel Huling. Sure, it was a bad day, but it's clear the best American steepler is galaxies away from competing for a medal.

Women's 100m: This one is worth a watch, and I can't do it justice just by describing it. Let's just say this race was so even that even after a look at the camera and the slow-mo replay, there was no way to determine who won. As you'd expect, it was a two woman race with Veronica Campbell Brown and Carmelita Jeter. VCB (like that nickname or maybe I just don't like typing) got a great start, but Jeter had a better one than usual, too. VCB held a slight lead until the last 20 meters when Jeter cut into it and made it so microscopic that I'm not sure that this race should have determined a winner. Both athletes, it should be noted, began their leads way too early. VCB was leaning some 8 meters before the line, and Jeter started her windmilling about 6 meters from the line. Just a great race, and it was nice to see Jeter back after a poor run in London. London winner, Marshevet Meyers, also showed well with 10.97 for third.

Men's 4x100M relay: USA! USA! USA!. The men of stars and stripes blew out a depleted Jamaican squad in true American style. The hand-offs were appropriately terrible, yet the time was still an amazing 37.45 (5'th fastest of all time). Trell Kimmons led off with a good leg and handed off cleanly to Wallace Spearmon. Spearmon continued to build a lead on the Jamaicans before a terribly sloppy hand-off to Tyson Gay that included Spearmon running far too close to Gay and doing a lot more rubbing of the baton and than handing off of it. No matter- Tyson Gay ran a scintillating turn that blew away the field. In his first 20 meters alone, he had singlehandedly ended the contest. His hand-off to Michael Rodgers included a full turnaround for Rodgers, but the lead was so big it didn't matter. Rodgers' leg was pretty good, but Jamaican star Yohan Blake did close a significant chunk. With Walter Dix added to this team likely in Rodgers' spot, a showdown against Jamaican team including Bolt, Powell, Carter, and Blake should produce a sensational world record.

Women's 400MH: Jamaican Kaliese Spencer made mince-meat of the field again, this time running a personal best of 53.33. Most impressively, she stood up at the start and probably has another tenth to knock off if she can fix that minor blemish.

Men's 100m: Did not see this watered-down field on the broadcast or online. In it, Trell Kimmons ran an impressive 9.95 into a -0.8 wind. He backed that up with a good first leg in the 4x100 and is establishing himself as a serious candidate for a spot on the loaded 4x100m squad.

Women's 100mH: Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep won her duel with Lolo Jones after a better start than usual and her usual strong finish. The race was a little less deep than usual, but Lopes-Scliep has looked pretty unstoppable the last few weeks even versus the likes of Sally Pearson and Jones.