EUGENE, Ore. (AP) To let the sprinters focus on the task at hand, USA Track and Field officials said they will wait until after the women’s 200 meters Saturday night at the Olympic track trials to finalize plans for breaking a third-place tie in the 100. Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh finished the 100 this past weekend in a dead heat for third. The top three finishers in each event at the trials make the U.S. Olympic team for London, provided they have met the qualifying standards. As it stands now, both runners are already eligible to be selected to the Olympic 400 relay team. So are Carmelita Jeter, who won the 100, and runner-up Tianna Madison. The trials took a two-day break and will return to action Thursday with qualifying for the 200. Felix and Tarmoh will take the track for the first time since their controversial finish. Felix is the favorite in the event, winning Olympic silver medals in 2004 and `08. USATF has fallen under scrutiny for not having a procedure in place to break a third-place tie. Immediately after the 100 race, the organization hastily scrambled to put together some options for the athletes. Felix and […]
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Hundreds of track-and-field supporters, some beginning their journey before the crack of dawn, were left frustrated in their quest to gain access to this week’s Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association/Supreme Ventures Limited (JAAA/SVL) national trials, as grandstand tickets for the event sold out within the first couple of hours. via Jamaica Gleaner
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By Gene Cherry EUGENE, Oregon | Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:48pm EDT (Reuters) – Jamaican triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt will not emulate his world record performances of 2008 and 2009 at the London Games, former holder Maurice Greene predicted on Tuesday. “I am going to tell you right now he can’t do that,” Greene told a news conference on a rest day at the U.S. Olympic trials. “This race in London is going to be a lot closer than a lot of people think. It’s going to be a very exciting race.” Bolt set world records in the 100 and 200 meters and 4×100 meters relay during a thrilling show at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, then bettered both individual marks at the Berlin world championships in the following year. “He hasn’t shown to be in that type of shape that he was in 2008,” said American Greene, the 2000 Olympic champion. “He is having a lot of problems at the beginning part of his race that he still hasn’t figured out.” Greene said the problems occurred between the start and 65 meters. For the last 35 meters Bolt’s speed was top notch. “You have to put together a race to withstand that cushion,” […]
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ROME (AP) — In Asafa Powell’s mind, he’s not competing against Usain Bolt. His target is simply winning any 100-meter race he enters. “I’m not here to compete against Bolt,” Powell said ahead of Thursday’s Golden Gala meet featuring the current and past world record-holders. “The finish line is my target, not Bolt or anyone else.” Bolt holds a 10-1 career edge over Powell in head-to-head meetings, with Powell’s only win in Stockholm in 2008. But with Bolt coming off a relatively slow performance of 10.04 seconds in Ostrava last week, Powell could seize an opportunity. It was the first time Bolt ran over 10 seconds in three years. “It’s simple,” Bolt said. “If you want to beat Bolt, if Bolt runs 9.79, you run 9.78. If he runs 10 flat, you run 9.9.” Since Powell set a world record of 9.74 in Rieti in 2007, Bolt has broken the mark three times, the last being 9.58 at the 2009 world championships in Berlin. Powell began this season with a 9.88 in a narrow loss to Justin Gatlin in Doha this month, then ran 10.02 in the rain in Shanghai. “At this meet, I don’t know what I’ll do,” Powell […]
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In this the latest instalment of her IAAF Online Diary, World and Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown outlines why she loves May so much… “I have a confession, I really enjoy competing in the month of May. The reason being it is the only month in the calendar of our sport that allows one to experience high level competitions in up to three continents. One can actually compete in Jamaica (unfortunately, for the first time that I can remember I did not compete there), Asia (Doha and or Daegu) and Europe (Ostrava and or Rome).” “I had a chance to experience racing in the Doha Diamond League (100m) for the first time, returned to the cities of Shanghai (200m) and Ostrava (200m) and thoroughly enjoyed my stops. Doha served as a lesson to this Jamaican that there is heat and then there is heat in Doha (lol), Shanghai is always one of my favorite stops on the circuit, not just for the shopping (lol) but it is always a fun place to compete and the organization and crowds make it real special. My second visit to Ostrava was just as pleasant as the first and like Shanghai, I am very […]
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KENNETH EDWARDS, Jamaica’s taekwondo representative at the upcoming London Olympics is 26 years old, but said he feels like 21, after spending the better part of this year in New York, training with renowned Jamaican coach Alvin Bernard. Edwards, a member of Jamaica’s combined martial arts team, historically qualified for London 2012, becoming Jamaica’s first taekwondo Olympic representative. To further hone his skills, Edwards was sent to Bernard’s Team USA Taekwon-Do Fitness in Fort Lee, New Jersey, to master Olympic-style taekwondo. Mainly a practitioner of International Taekwondo Federation-style (ITF) taekwondo, Edwards qualified in third place from the Pan Am region, fighting World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) style – the art used in the Olympics. Combined team captain Jason McKay believes the ‘Bernard factor’ could transform Edwards from outsider to possible medallist in London this summer. Bernard, who held national titles in the United States in both styles, was called on to make Edwards a lean, mean WTF-style fighting machine. A sixth-degree black belt, Bernard is an international instructor, international Class A umpire/referee, US national team coach and chief instructor at Team USA Taekwon-do Fitness. His interest in martial arts began at age 15 in Germany. Over the years, he has trained […]
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