Run to Win

Were you watching the 800 meter race in the Olympic Trials the other day? If not, you missed a great show. I’ve included a video after the break of the race.

The first 2 and a half minutes are athlete introductions, and the gun goes off right at the 2:30 mark. The race lasts less than 2 minutes so if you are strapped for time start at that point:
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Imagine yourself in a 600 meter dash, you are coming up to the second to last turn with 200 meters to go, you get cut off, and you fall on the track. Hard. What would you do?

If you are Heather Dorniden, you get mad, you get up, and you find another gear. Despite her competition having a 10 or 15 meter lead on her with 200 meters to go, and having to move from a standing start while they are in their final sprints, Heather Dorniden managed to not only catch up to the pack but to move right up to the front of it and win her heat. Her second place overall finish managed to bring the University of Minnesota to a Big Ten women’s track & field championship.

A video showing Heather’s fall and comeback follows after the jump. Her race is preceded by an equally amazing 2:05 800 meter run by Michigan’s Geena Gall, where she managed to create some monster separation from the rest of the pack. That 2:05 was a new Big Ten meet record.
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Olympic Silver Medalist Maryvonne Dupureur of France passed away yesterday at the age of 70. She ran 2:01.9 in the 800 meter at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, losing the race by 0.8 seconds in a world record setting performance by Ann Packer of Britain. She also competed in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, where she was 8^th in the 800m.

(Source: IAAF – Photo Credit: ASPTT)

I was checking the news wire this morning and saw quite a few articles of interest that I thought that I would share with you:

• Two national records were broken yesterday at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, both in the 4×800. The (15-16 year old) intermediate boy’s time was brought down to 7:41.30 by the Texas Stars, and the United Stars set the (17-18 year old) young women’s record at 8:50.72. (Source: USATF)
• The Tour de France is struggling to maintain its integrity after a lot of controversy over the past few days. No rider rode today in the leader’s jersey after the Tour leader was pulled by his team because he lied about his whereabouts during drug testing before the race. Two teams have pulled out following a rider testing positive in the doping tests. The Tour is not being canceled, despite protests from local French newspapers. I hope that the Tour is not canceled; just throw the cheaters out and let those who are remaining keep going. (Source: BBC Sport)
• The Walt Disney company is taking the plunge and removing cigarettes from their children’s movies completely. They are also going to discourage smoking in movies that they produce that is aimed at adults. While I do not see this as a bad thing, I also don’t see it as something that I think will make a huge difference. I think that these types of knee jerk reactions are a generally ineffectual, much like Homeland Security’s attempts to stop movie-plot terrorism attacks. (Source: BBC News)
• The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study that states that there may be a contagious element to obesity. Having friends that are obese may make it more likely that you in turn will become obese as the norms of what makes an acceptable body weight are adjusted. The study is not conclusive, and I am not so sure that I buy into their theories. I think that if you have friends that do not exercise, then you are less likely to exercise yourself, which can lead to weight gain. It is an interesting theory, though. (Source: New England Journal of Medicine)