Road Rash: Kenyan and Ethiopian Men Continue to Demolish All-time Lists

There have been many theories and guesses for why sub 27 10,000 meter runs and sub 12:50 5,000 runs are on the decline: Might it be the effectiveness of the new EPO test? The presence of inferior pacemaking? The retirement of a few doped athletes? An unavoidable cyclical down period after the great talents of Haile Gebresalassie, Paul Tergat and Daniel Komen? Those three and the other Kenyans and Ethiopians of the mid to late 1990s hit astonishing marks and rewrote the all time track and field record books in a revolutionary fashion . Now, the view is there must be something (for cynics, a pharmacological something) behind it, as the times remain out there only challenged by Kenenisa Bekele. At face value, it is unmistakable that today's Kenyan and Ethiopian distance runners are not matching the great achievements of their predecessors.

The funny thing about the whole discussion is, well....

5'th Avenue Mile Preview: What are the Odds...?

"New York!!!!Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...These streets will make you feel brand new"- Empire State of Mind by Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys

OK, so it's probable that Jay Z and Alicia Keyes didn't have a bunch of skimpily-attired elite runners racing on 5'th Avenue in mind when they glorified the city streets in their oh-so-overplayed anthem about New York City. No matter. This year, the New York Road Runners, assembled two unusually strong and deep fields to contest the world's biggest and best road mile this Sunday afternoon on 5'th Avenue. To break down the men's and women's races, I am going to use fair gambling odds to assess the favorites, contenders and dark horses on both the men's and women's sides.

Column: Commissioner of Track for a Day

The unceremonious dismissal of USATF CEO Doug Logan really got me thinking. Track and Field is a sport struggling to draw spectators, and establish interest beyond it's one moment in the sun during the Olympiad every four years. Even with charismatic stars like Usain Bolt, track really struggles to draw a television audience and any mainstream interest in non-Olympic years. To try and fix that, I pondered what I would change if I were in charge of professional track and field. What are some of the ways to liven up the sport, make meets more fun, and keep all of the competition interesting? Though, I can't presume to be Pete Rozelle, here are some of the key changes I'd make in no particular order:

Weekend Half Recap: The Ageless Wonder Does it Again

I don’t know if you can remember much from the dark ages of 1993. I know I can’t. The most I can vaguely recollect is nap-time and a few rooms at school that as a 5 year old I identified by color. Still, as much as things have changed the last 17 years, many things remain the same. To whit, a Clinton is negotiating peace in the fractious Middle East, a much-ballyhooed new Windows operating system has been released, and Haile Gebresalassie is at the forefront of the distance running world- winning in style. Sure, there has been some evolution in all of these developments: For the first, it is wife Hillary, not the then-newly-inaugurated President Bill, now doing the honors, and for the second, it is Windows 7 being released and not 1993's Windows NT 3.1, which has probably found its way into the Smithsonian displayed with the telegraph by now.

It's Half Time

At the intersection between the 10,000m track/road races and the big city marathons, there is the half marathon distance. The event is often intriguing with track runners and marathoners uniting to compete against each other at the distance. As the summer track and road circuits wind down and big marathons approach, the time is ripe for some major half marathon showdowns to take the spotlight. On the slate this weekend are two of the biggest half-marathons on the schedule. The Philly half features the best American Marathoner in Ryan Hall, who will be taking on 2009 World Cross Country Champion and 2010 champion of the road circuit, Geb Gebremariam, as well as stud marathoner Abderrahim Goumri. In the women's race, 2008 Olympics 10,000m Bronze Medalist Shalane Flanagan takes on Ethiopian track superstar Meseret Defar, who is making her debut at the distance. Elsewhere World Half Marathon Bronze Medalist, American Dathan Ritzenheim takes on the living legend, Haile Gebresalassie, in the BUPA Great North Run. Should make for some exciting racing, and look to see if the hour mark is challenged by the two male Americans, and if the more seasoned Flanagan can challenge Meseret Defar. More on these two great competitions after the results and races are through.

Off Beat: Twitter Madness (track and field edition)

As the old saying goes, you can judge a person by the content of his.... tweets. Alright, maybe not, but for the purposes of this off beat edition the most reprehensible of all new media will take center stage. My twitter interest was sparked by NFL tweet king Chad Ochocinco who tweeted this gem just this morning (or is it mourning for the apparent rapid decline of our civilization?): "Hello world, be great today, find a way to be productive at something? If u a hoe,be a great hoe". I'd like to say "thank you, Ocho" for those profound words. If Angelina of Jersey Shore can be a bartender who does "great things" and Ocho thinks a hoe can be "great", I can only hope a track and field blogger writing about twitter can hit that lofty and elusive standard in modern-day culture. Now, onto track and field's best and most essential tweeters after we identify the worst and most disappointing of the lot:

The Three Comebacks: Webb, Willis, and Kamel

If you looked at the seasonal bests and ignored the names on the start list, the 1500 in Milan at the end of last week would seem to be at best a "B" level race for the equivalent of the pro circuit's weekend warriors. A glance at the names and the corresponding pedigrees of some of the athletes, however, revealed a race lineup with intrigue and some potential impact on the upcoming three years of global championships.

Almirew Yenew runs 7:28. Wait, Ye-who?

It's official: in 2010, the elite distance world hierarchy has gone into its own version of "Bizarro-World". What was already shaping up to be an inconceivable list of world-leaders composed of athletes who before this season were either unknown (Silas Kiplagat 1,500) or obscurities on the world scene (Chris Solinsky and now Josephat Menjo- 10,000) was just over a tenth of a second from adding yet another mysterious character to the fold. While it is being overshadowed by the commendable comebacks of Nick Willis and Alan Webb in the 1500 meters race, simply put, the previously unheard of 20 year old Almirew Yenew (left) ran one of the most impressive 3000s of all time.

Gold for the Greatest Season of All Time Goes to....

The results are in! After concocting a weighted scoring system(see below for calculations and explanation of scoring system), below are my results for the greatest season of all time. To see the stats of all 13 nominees, see yesterday's post. Feel free to comment and argue about the results! I hope to do a subjective ranking sometime later, but I think these actually came out reasonably well:

GOLD: Haile Gebresalassie 1998(62.75 points)- Geb takes the title anchored by the strength of his outstanding world records in the 5000 and 10000 that have more than stood the test of time even as the great Kenenisa Bekele has erased them from the top spot in each event. What separates Geb from the rest of the pack, however, was his incredible range in 1998 that allowed him to accrue extra points for spectacular performances in shorter events like the indoor 1500(3:31.76 indoors!) and the outdoors 3000(7:25.09).

(Updated)The Nominees for the Greatest Season of All Time men's 800m up

David Rudisha's amazing 2010 season has inspired me to compile a list of the greatest seasons for men 800m up the last 30 years (1980-present)
My criteria to make the list:
-At least 4 high quality races
-A world record/world title

Let's begin with the man depicted at the left, Steve Cram.

Steve Cram 1985:
800: 1:42.88 to defeat Olympic Champion Cruz, Johnny Gray and Sammy Kipketer
1000: 2:12.88 win in Oslo (#4 AT)
1500: 3:29.67 WR defeating Aouita in Nice, 3:31.34 first place Oslo
Mile: 3:46.32 WR Oslo (#11 AT)
2000: 4:51.39 WR Budapest

Things We Learned from the Continental Cup

After nearly four months on the European circuit, we would think we would have a pretty refined, accurate view of the elites on the circuit. Still, when the format subtracts rabbits and inserts even bigger cash prizes based solely on place, in many cases it's like a monkey wrench has been thrown into the mix. Still, for many of the year's top performers like Janeth Jepkosgei and Bernard Lagat, the Continental Cup format provided an opportunity for coronation. Below are some of the things we learned from the Continental Cup:

Continental Cup Preview: Distance Races, Sprint Headliners

The Diamond League Season is over, and it is now Dress Rehearsal time for the 2011 World Championships. It is time for athletes to pull on their spikes and jerseys, represent their beloved continents (including the ambiguous "Asia/Pacific" combo continent) and compete in the truest sense- running solely for place. No, it's not the world championships and no, it doesn't feature the best in every event, but the Continental Cup affords us a much-needed break from the tactics-free Diamond League prism of world-record chasing and its less attractive cousin, time-trialing. Mercifully, we should see some, by now quite palatable, sitting-and-kicking, random surging, and courageous front-running. So, without further ado, here is the guide to the best racing that should occur:

Off Beat: British Gus Johnson....Other Great Moments in British Announcing

At about 8:30 last night I received this text from my former roommate and teammate David Sigmon: "Dude! Do you have NBATV?".