Run to Win

Once upon a time, Justin Gatlin broke the 100 meter world record by 1/100th of a second. It was then determined that his time was actually 9.766 seconds, which meant that his officially recorded time was equal to the world record of 9.77 seconds at that time.

His time was later annulled when he received a 4 year ban from track and field for using performance enhancing drugs.

This was Justin’s second ban, as he hadn’t paid enough attention to the rules when he was in college when it was discovered that medication he’d been taking since childhood was not allowed.

Due to the extenuating cirumstances of that first ban, he received a 4 year ban from the sport that started in 2006 rather than receiving a lifetime ban.

Now, he’s back.

He isn’t quite as fast as he was 4 years ago, but after 3 races he’s now notched 3 wins. He began his racing in Estonia, where he won in 10.24 seconds on August 3rd and in 10.17 seconds on August 8th.

Now, he has moved on to Finland, where his qualifying heat time of 10.19 seconds was a precursor to his winning time of 10.28 into a 2 meter per second headwind, winning the race by 0.12 seconds over Rubin Williams.

It will be interesting to see how well he can improve now that he is 4 years older, although from the looks of things he doesn’t seem to have lost much from his competitive edge.

Tyson Gay is, as I like to say, not quite slow…

On a straight track in Manchester, U.K. this morning he ran a 19.41 second 200 meter race, beating Tommie Smith’s 19.5 second race on a cinder track in San Jose, California back in 1966. He faced a slight headwind, which seems to be when he races best at this distance.

Tyson Gay is the first man to run under 10 seconds in the 100 meters, under 20 seconds in the 200 meters, and under 45 seconds in the 400 meters, which he did in Gainesville, Florida back in April with a 44.89.

“Going into the race I knew it was going to be tough to beat the record,” said Gay.

“It was pretty hard for the first 100m or so and I was extremely tired. Kim Collins had an excellent start and I think that motivated me to get down the street. It was truly amazing and it was tough record to break.”

Up next, Gay is looking at the IAAF Diamond League series where he hopes to rival Usain Bolt’s dominance in the sprints.

(More Info: IAAF)

In another wind-aided run of 100 meters, Tyson Gay ran (as I like to put it) not quite slow to finish in 9.75 seconds. That’s the 7^th fastest 100 meters ever run under any conditions, although it is not eligible for the record books given the assist from Mother Nature.

He only ran the first round of the preliminaries and then called it good for the week, as he prepares for a showdown with Usain Bolt at the World Championships.

That’s gonna be a good race, despite being over by the time you could blink.

(More Info: ESPN – Photo Credit: Sky Sports)

This week last year centered on racing, covering distances from the 100 meter to the 50 kilometer.

• First, Asafa Powell set a new 100 meter world record in Rieti, Italy with his time of 9.74 seconds. He has since run faster than that, but no longer holds the record.
• Second, the Back Cove Weekly Race Series finished up. 2007 was the first year that I was one of the sponsors, and I managed to win free shoes for a year by having the fastest 6 times on the course. I only won by an average of 1 second per race!
• Third, I wrote about my first ultramarathon experience at the Pisgah 50k Mountain Race. I had quite a few articles about the race, so anybody that is thinking of running might want to take a look through. The race is either today or tomorrow this year, and I wasn’t able to make it back. Hopefully next year.
  1. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Pre-Race Review
  2. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Race Review
  3. Pisgah 50k Trail Race (2007) – Post-Race Review
  4. Pisgah 50k/23k Trail Races – 2007 Race Results
• This week 2 years ago also saw the Back Cove 5k Race Series finishing up, that time with Mike Caiazzo and Lindsey Davis taking the series honors. I won the last race, and placed 3^rd overall. I added on to my icing series from a few months earlier by explaining how to ice sensitive areas on your body such as your eyes or testicles, and I reviewed Breaking Away, a movie about cyclist in the 70s. On the news front, New Jersey began testing kids for steroids in an attempt to catch them young.
• This week three years ago, I pointed to some resources about deadlifting, namely a video on how not to deadlift and one on proper deadlift form.

As predicted, there was no new world record this afternoon in Brussels. Usain Bolt did win the race in 9.77, which is still very speedy. He was 0.06 seconds ahead of Asafa Powell, who got a much better start and led over the first 50 meters.

The first American to finish was Travis Padgett in 5^th place in 10.15 seconds.

The meet was streamed live at Track Shark, which should also carry future Golden League meets. Results are available at the IAAF website.

World record holder and Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt is scheduled to face off against former world record holder Asafa Powell this afternoon in Brussells in the 100m for what was supposed to be a showdown between the 3 fastest men on the planet. Unfortunately, Tyson Gay pulled out of the meet yesterday to avoid further aggravating his hamstring injury.

Both runners are coming into the race strong. Bolt set the world record mark at 9.69 seconds during the Olympics, and won at Weltklasse in 9.83 seconds last week. Powell had a disappointing 5^th place finish in the Olympics, but set a personal best mark of 9.72 seconds in Lausanne, the 2^nd fastest unaided 100m race in history and equal to Bolt’s former record set last May.

The meet is going to air tape delayed on ESPN at 11:00 EDT tonight (and on Sunday on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. EDT), but you can watch the 100m race live on SportsCenter this afternoon on ESPN at 2:25 p.m.

Both men are going to try to chase down the world record, but I don’t think that the weather is going to be conducive to lowering the mark set in Beijing and expect that it will hold for at least another week or two.

Update: As predicted, no world record. Bolt ran 9.77 and Powell ran 9.83.

(Photo Credits: Victah Sailer (Bolt) & Jonas Witt (Powell))

This has been a jam-packed weekend; there was a lot going on! If only NBC actually broadcast the races, I’d be all set. I’d sit there and watch commercial after commercial.

First, the women’s marathon. I almost cried when Deena Kastor broke her foot barely 3 miles into the race. Magdalena Lewy Boulet made it a bit further, but also dropped out due to an injury. Blake Russell was the only American to finish, taking about half a minute longer than it did in the Trials back in April and coming in 27^th overall.

It was an exciting race, though. After a pedestrian pace over the first half of the course (I could have kept up), Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania was the only runner to have the courage to go for it. Nobody ever came close to catching her as she crossed in 2:26:44. The race for the next two medals was close, though, as Catherine Ndereba edged out Zhou Chunxiu for the silver medal. Catherine was the only woman to medal that I had predicted before the race, as Paula Radcliffe fell apart and finished in 23^rd. (Deena was my other pick.)

The men’s 100m proved pretty interesting, as Tyson Gay failed to make the finals so he didn’t win the silver medal I thought he’d get. Usain Bolt ran away with it as expected, though, crossing the line in a world record 9.69 seconds despite showboating the last few steps.

The women’s 100m finals was very interesting, with 3 quarters of the field made up of Jamaicans and Americans. The Jamaicans swept, though, keeping every other country off of the medal stand.

On the 1500m front, Bernard Legat missed making the finals by 0.02 seconds. He didn’t even realize it until after he’d left the track.

And of course, last but not least, we go back to Friday and the women’s 10,000m, where Shelane Flanagan managed to set the American record in 32:22 to bring home the bronze medal.

I realize that I’m skipping over the women’s steeplechase, but I don’t want to know the results of that race until I find a video somewhere of the entire race.

It was not too long ago that Tyson Gay ran the fastest 100 meters that any human has ever done. He had the assistance of a good tailwind, which will keep him out of the record books, but that is still impressive none the less.

Even so, he is stronger in the 200 meter distance than in the 100 meter distance, and was one of the favorites to challenge Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell at the Olympics. Unfortunately, he pulled his hamstring during the Trials and so he won’t be competing.

“Before I went out on the track I felt a little tightness in my hamstring. So I had kind of a bad feeling. When I came off the curve the first two steps were fine, and then I felt it, sort of a pull, about 40 meters in. Once I was on the ground it didn’t hurt as much as when it happened.”

If you haven’t seen Tyson Gay’s fall yet, here’s a video:
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