Josphat Menjo: Mystery Man

If you had to make a tree falls in a forest track analogy, it probably wouldn't get any better than this:

If a man runs a solo 26:56 10,000 meters in an empty stadium in a race against nobody, does he make an imprint in a loaded weekend of track?

Weekend Brussels and Rieti Wrap: The Perfect Storm

This weekend, track and field had the perfect storm. Non-Championship year? Check. Athletes chasing records and paydays? Check. High quality meets with top-notch facilities and meet directors servicing the athletes' every desire? Check. Below are my semi-organized thoughts on the athletes and events that made it a memorable weekend.

Kings of the Weekend:

Rieti Blurbs and Predictions

Fear not, my friends. While the end of the Brussels Meet marks the end of the highly-successful inaugural season of the Diamond League, track fans will barely have to wait for high-level profession racing to being anew. The lightning-fast track has been a home to the most staggering World Record in the book (youtube Daniel Komen 3000 World Record and witness Steve Cram giggling in disbelief) and my personal favorite (go figure) Noah Ngeny's 1000m world record. This meet, fittingly, has world record talent that affords the meet the opportunity for two more to add to the facility's resume. That and more in the following blurbs.

Memorial Van Damme DL 1500 Cooldown Wrap

The subject of American 1500m running is unabashedly near and dear to my heart. Check out this column if you want see my thoughts from a few weeks ago on American medal prospects: http://viewfromlane9.blogspot.com/2010/08/generational-gap-american-1500m-running.html

Men's 1500m headliner: While the triumphant return of the best 1500 meter runner in the land, Asbel Kiprop, registered as no shock, a tantalizing stretch run by American Leonel Manzano to close off a one second personal best and obliterate the rest of the field was hardly anticipated. The diminutive American inexorably gained on the 2008 Olympic Champion Kiprop causing radical thoughts to crop into the minds of middle-distance fans everywhere. Could Manzano have done the unthinkable and beaten Kiprop had he kicked earlier?(I say no, read why at the bottom) Is Manzano a serious medal threat for years to come?(Yes, I believe, though I did so cautiously even before the race)

Belgacom Memorial Van Damme DL Blurbs and Predictions

Headliner- A Middle Distance Meet for the Ages: The last Diamond League meet takes place this Friday in Brussels and the table is set for the best middle distance racing of the year.

In the 800 meters, the men's side features newly anointed world record holder, David Rudisha, versus his #1 challenger Abubaber Kaki. Their last battle depicted to the left of this text yielded a phenomenal race with Rudisha emerging with a narrow victory stopping the clock in 1:42.0.

On the women's side, Russian Mariya Savinova will try to stamp herself as a serious challenger to controversial 2009 World Champion Caster Semenya, whose gender is now in more doubt than her form after a sub 2 clocking last week. Perennial contenders Janeth Jepkosgei and World Leader Alysia Johnson will try to redeem themselves after some disappointing recent results and end their Diamond League campaigns with a flourish.

Off Beat: The Most Interesting Man in the World

Here is a long overdue Off-Beat edition before a crowded weekend with Rieti, Brussels, and a Rudisha WR attempt about to emerge upon us

If you are like me, you adore Dos Equis' "The Most Interesting Man in the World" commercials, which feature Jai Alai, arm-wrestling with Fidel Castro, and the timeless quote "He can speak French.....in Russian". I've always kind of pondered who would be my own real-life Most Interesting Man in the World. Well, the answer for me is easy and not even close- it is poker legend Doyle Brunson.

Two questions are probably popping into your head immediately: 1. This is a track blog, correct? (yes it is) 2. Why did you choose Doyle Brunson? (short answer: basketball, poker, AND track!).

Column: It is Snow Argument- The Case for Cross in the Winter Olympics

In a story that was deemed gripping enough to make the headlines section by ESPN editors (doubtful Rudisha's WR run was given similar treatment for long if at all), the IAAF made waves, er snowdrifts, by requesting that the International Olympic Committee add cross country running to the Winter Olympics program. A worrisome obstacle is the Olympics' charter that states: "only those sports which are practiced on snow and ice are considered as winter sports". Still, I would not be surprised if this charter is malleable considering other known Olympics goals like worldwide participation and the IOC's less outward ones like increasing television ratings and revenues. Logistical issues aside, I absolutely love the idea of having cross country in the Olympiad as both a fan of the sport and a fan of the Olympics. Below are the top reasons that Cross Country running in the Winter Olympics is a perfect fit.

Berlin Wrap: Rudisha splits, Best of the Rest

Rudisha WR splits and Analysis, Men's 800m:
From the video (go to letsrun.com to see an embedded version), we can ascertain that David Rudisha's individual splits are 49.1, 1:14.54(25.44), 1:41.09(26.59). The 200 meter split is not visible in the video as the cameramen granted us a much-demanded closer look at the a slow-looking white guy running in last. It's not a reach to extrapolate from when they pan back to the actual race going on that Rudisha went through the half-lap mark in a shade under 24 seconds. Either way, Rudisha's splits were nearly perfect. They are very close to what Kipketer split for his record, and I believe a slight positive split is ideal for the 800 meters.

The World Record is Gone! David Rudisha 1:41.09

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12993_6329676,00.html
I'll definitely have some thoughts once a video becomes available.
Splits: Sammy Tangui 48.65 @ 400m, David Rudisha 1:14.54 (25.89) @ 600m, 1:41.09 (26.55) @ 800m

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,

Weekend Cooldown: Weltklasse Zurich 5000m Wrap

Headliner- Men's 5000m:
Languishing in the shadow of the greatest distance runner of all-time would not be easy for any athlete, least of all a practitioner of the same disciplines. So, in a season where Tariku Bekele was afforded a fleeting chance to emerge out of the shadows and seize some of the spotlight from his renowned but injured brother, he has capitalized on the opportunity and made a name for himself. With a resounding victory over a stellar field, Tariku firmly stamped himself as a medal favorite for next year's World Championships.
Only a few seconds after Bekele put the finishing touches on his victory, British and American medal hopes were galvanized by the courageous runs of Chris Solinsky and Mo Farah. Solinsky nearly landed a knockout blow on the best 5,000 meter runner this year, Imane Merga, before succumbing to Merga's last $40,000 surge(a second place clinched the DL prize). Farah, on the other hand, earned a long sought and overdue PB shattering the British Record with a 12:57 that added further legitimacy to his status

Weltklasse DL Men's 5000m/3KST Previews, Predictions, Event Blurbs

Two absolutely loaded races stand out in tomorrow's DL meet: the men's 5000m and the men's 3000m Steeplechase. The men's 5000m stands out because of its sheer, incredible depth, the men's 3000mST because of the fact that it has every single global championship medalist in the steeplechase since 2004. Yes, you read that correctly every person that won a medal in 2004(Athens), 2005(Helsinki), 2007(Osaka), 2008(Beijing), and 2009(Berlin) is racing. There's other great stuff in the meet, too, which I will have blurbs on once I'm done previewing these two spectacular

Weekend Cooldown: London Wrap 800 up

Londoners love their distance and mid-distance races, and so do I. Without further ado:

Women's 5000m:
Before this race, I really thought Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot's ability to control the pace at the front and then run a 58-60 second last lap even off a quick pace was truly unbeatable. How foolishly I forgot that for years there's been someone doing that exact thing with similarly impressive results. The "Baby-faced Destroyer", Tirunesh Dibaba, made a triumphant return to the European circuit with a dominating 5000m win in 14:38.17(she ran 14:30s in Eugene for an easy victory a while back). The race alternated between 2:54 and 2:58 kilometers before Cheruiyot hit the front and began what she likely thought was her winning move. Defar lurked on her shoulder and passed by with 550 meters to go. From there, she slowly unleashed her unrivaled kick that has been the trademark of her global championships at the 5000m distance.

Weekend Cooldown: London Wrap Sprints/Brit Announcers

Before I begin the recap, a few words on the excellence of British announcers. Last week I commented on how difficult it is to comment on hurdle races and pick out the winner. Well, the Brit announcers, that you can hear in all their resplendent glory live or archived on selected events on universalsports.com, knocked it out of the pitch on this one. Sure, their knowledge of the events, the competitors, and the tactics are great and set them apart, but their sense of the moment and their authentic joy is what is striking compared to our bland domestic commentators. The accents don't hurt either. If you want to see what I mean go to: http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=c0264beb-9168-443a-b877-993c1f427f38.html?__source=newsletter&cid=. At :42 in might be the most awesome (sorry no better word) moment of all as the announcer declares in a deep, whispering tone

Column: Dear Alan

Dear Alan,

I know you must feel like a burnt piece of steak right now. A blackened cut uncomfortably surrounded at the kitchen table by a thousand observers poking and prodding. While some mercifully remain silent or keep their voices down, the most unabashed and cynical you hear loud and clear as they declare: "He's done! He's cooked! Stick a fork in him!"
While most solemnly nod at this conclusion, I do not count myself as one of them. And neither should you. The naysayers will be there for the coming months, ripping you and writing your eulogy. Nonetheless, you must remember this is not the first time they've raised their voices, nor have they been right in the past.

Preview: DL Aviva London Part 2 (Saturday)

Onto part two of the preview. If you haven't looked at the Day 1 edition check the post below. Since, I write too much let's get straight to it:

Women's 800m:

Headliner: 2010 World leader and revelation, American Alysia Johnson takes on a loaded field including 2005 World Championship Gold Medalist and Beijing Olympic Silver Medalist Janeth Jepkosgei, British Mid Distance hope, 2009 Worlds Silver Medalist Jenny Meadows (Gold if you remove "a Secret Man? Yes" aka Caster Semenya), 2010 European Champion and World Indoor Champion Mariya Savinova, and 2010 European Silver medalist, Yvonne Hak. Johnson ran her phenomenal 1:57.34 in impressive fashion- destroying the field in Monaco in her typical wire-to-wire fashion. Meanwhile, Savinova has had an excellent season with a strong

Preview: DL Aviva London Part 1 (Friday)

Astoundingly Loaded. Those are the two words that I think best describe this week's two day track and field bonanza that is known proper as the Aviva London. The meet has nearly all of the year's top performers and an extensive program that truly does necessitate two days. Without further ado and for fear of hyping this up so much a letdown would be inevitable, I will begin with a preview of events starting on Friday(and in order of time schedule).

Men's 3000m:

Headliners: A top-heavy field features last week's 5000m winner at the DL Stockholm meet, emerging Kenyan star Mark Kiptoo. Kiptoo, to my surprise, stated in a flotrack interview that he wants to run the 1500m for Kenya, and this race should give some type of inkling whether that goal is realistic. The man whose likeness you can see

Off-Beat Edition 1: Wilfork and Randy Moss on the Track, Paul Pierce?

Every week I'll take a light-hearted look at something unrelated from elite/college track and field to give a break from my usual posts, which I'm sure are often heavy reading.

This Week: Boston pro athletes in track,

Next Week: Huck Seed, Poker champion, and 4:40 mile prop bet + my nominee for the Most Interesting Man in the World, Doyle Brunson

Column: Generational Gap

American 1500m Running Primed to End Medal Drought
By Noah Jampol

Follow me along on a 24 year trip, virtually a generation, spanning from Tokyo, Japan to Beijing, China and finally culminating in Daegu, South Korea. The destinations may seem like they belong on a checklist of a Westerner visiting the continent of Asia for the first time. However, in the lore of American 1500 meter running, the cities represent a journey from competitiveness to irrelevance and perhaps all the way back in the contemporary middle distance landscape. Tokyo, Beijing, and Daegu are three hosts of global championships that represent the former heights American 1500 meter running reached, the depths to which it plunged, and where it might witness a rebirth.

Tokyo: A Bronze for Spivey Wraps up an Era of Competitiveness

In 1987, Jim Spivey’s bronze at the World Championships in Tokyo made him the last athlete who spent his formative years training in America to earn a medal at a major championship. The 1980s also saw Steve Scott make his mark with a silver medal

Coming Attractions

-Later Today, I will will put up my first feature article. The topic is American 1500m running over the past generation, and the article starts with the era of Jim Spivey and Steve Scott and covers emerging medal hopes Andrew Wheating, Leonel Manzano, and Lopez Lomong in the quest to break America's medal drought in the 1500m run.

-Wednesday, I will post the first of a weekly (hopefully) feature on the lighter side. This week, I'm going to look at the track exploits of Boston pro athletes like Vince Wilfork (shot put and discus), Jacoby Ellsbury (presumably NOT discus) and more.

Luzern Wrap: Uceny, Carter and Dix Shine

The results from this Sunday's meet in Luzern are unlikely to lead Sportscenter, nonetheless, there were a few eye-opening results that bear mentioning.
The men's 100m marked the return of early-season headliner, American Walter Dix, in a duel against the overshadowed but consistent sub 10 threat, Jamaican Nesta Carter. Carter emerged with the victory in 9.86 over Dix's 9.88 in a close battle, but both will be happy as a cooperative wind (+1.0 mps) rewarded both with personal bests. It is nice to see that Dix, who withdrew from a matchup with Gay due to "financial difficulties", is still fit this season after his excellent 19.72 200m at the Prefontaine classic. As for Carter, he ran .11 faster than his countryman Usain Bolt did in his ballyhooed matchup versus Tyson Gay.

Someone you might have missed: It was nice to see former high school phenom and Arkansas Razorback, J-Mee Samuels, run 10.03 for a new personal best. Samuels had the high school record (10.08 I believe) for the event before NCAA Champion Jeffrey Demps took it down. At Arkansas and beyond, Samuels has struggled to live up to that exemplary high school performance, which it should be noted was an outlying performance for him at the time. It is always pleasant to see a talented guy who's stuck with it through some hard years reap some reward. Certainly, disgraced champion Justin Gatlin will receive a lot more press, but this is a comeback I personally prefer much to that.

The standout performer of the women's 800m was American Morgan Uceny.

Weekend Cooldown Stockholm Wrap: The Best of the Rest

Outside of the Bolt-Gay matchup that rightfully dominated headlines there was a ton of great racing. Check out some detailed Cooldown breakdowns of the Men's 800, Women's 1500, Men's 5000 for all of the action and tidbits you might have missed below:

Men's 800:

Quick Recap: Marcin Lewandowski backed up his European championship with a Diamond League victory in a surprising race(and it really was a race and not a glorified time trial). With Abubaber Kaki in the field and consistent pacemaker Khadevis Robinson, the expected outcome for most was a 1:42-1:43 victory for Kaki with a 50 second first 400. Instead, the pace was pedestrian at 400 with Kaki coming in around 51.6 and mysteriously electing not to follow closely or draft. Even with the slow pace, nearly all of the deferential field apparently gave Kaki the alpha-male treatment. Nearly all of them bunched behind him making no attempt to pass the presumptive heavy favorite even as the pace was slow. That would be all of them besides an aggressive rail-hugging Lewandowski. He surged from 250 out, defiantly pushed a slowing Robinson out of his way and into Kaki's at 200 meters to go. He held the lead to the finish line holding off a hard-closing Michael Rimmer(later Dq'ed), last week's European silver medalist. Kaki was a casualty of Lewandowski's shove as Robinson got pushed in front of him and he was subsequently spiked. Kaki's subsequent pulling-out of the race took out Andrew Wheating who came to a near-stop to avoide the carnage. All in all, a confounding, but entertaining race.

Weekend Cooldown: Stockholm 100m Wrap

Headliner: Tyson Gay Steals the Show
I think we can all admit it now. We didn't quite see that coming. In the biggest upset of the season, Tyson Gay shot out of the blocks in front of Usain Bolt, and then easily dispatched him in Bolt's usually dominant portion of the race: from 40 meters-80 meters. Bolt uncharacteristically, appeared to be straining and frantically trying to make up the early gap. The gregarious Jamaican's face was tensed up, his movement looked choppy, and he was gaining nothing on Tyson Gay.
From the outset of the race, his drive phase and his transition to an upright full sprint looked slow and unnatural. When Usain ran 9.58 running wire-to-wire for the win, he looked easy and smooth throughout. When he ran 9.97 yesterday having to come back against Gay, he looked forced and sloppy. Bolt admitted after the race that he is not working as hard as he should be and his strength is sub-par at the moment. Gay, humble and thoughtful as always, downplayed the victory saying, essentially, he has not seen the best nor the last of Bolt.

Welcome to the View from Lane 9 Blog

I want to make this the site for the most innovative and cutting analysis into the professional and collegiate track world. It is my view that track reporting in the US is characterized by overly simplistic recapping that adds little to those who watch the sport. This blog will go beyond the statistics and results and into the races, and moreover, the races within races to bring you the deepest analysis you can find anywhere. My "Cooldown" columns inspired by Peter King and Gregg Easterbrook are a work in progress and any suggestions and input will be sincerely taken into account. Thanks for reading, and enjoy and let's continue to love and support our sport