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:

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.

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

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

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.