Run to Win

The world’s fastest man has now adopted the world’s fastest sprinter, a cheetah cub that was abandoned by it’s mother on a game preserve.

Naming it Lightning Bolt, the cub was among a few that were rescued by Bolt and some friends that were traveling to Kenya for a short trip.

The world record-holder in the 100 and 200 meters paid $13,700 to formally adopt the cub. He will also pay $3,000 a year to care for Lightning Bolt, who will be raised at an animal orphanage in Nairobi.

The money will go to the Kenya Wildlife Service, and some will be used to protect Kenya’s endangered species, KWS director Julius Kipngetich said.

That’s one way to get over your fear of large cats, I suppose…

(More info: ESPN)

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 week last year covered a range of topics.

• A common question that I get asked is a variant along the lines of “Why do my feet go numb?” There are quite a few reasons that you might get a numb foot while you are running, and I go over what they are could be as well as how to prevent the problem.
• Finishing up a month about the media, Scott discussed Usain Bolt was still beatable as the USA did well in the men’s sprints.
• This website got hacked by some script kiddies after I waited too long to update the software I use to run the site. Let this be a lesson: Update regularly. There are much worse security vulnerabilities around for outdated versions of Wordpress these days.
• This week two years ago I was thinking a lot about marathons.
  • I explained 50 Marathons in 50 Days is impressive.
  • I discovered that it took 5 weeks of low mileage to decondition, and that I was able to regain that level of fitness in about two months. I also began lifting weights with a wedding ring on, which remains a surprisingly popular article.
  • The B.A.A. published a press release that they were going to move up the start of the Boston Marathon by 2 hours to 10:00 a.m. I predicted that there was going to be a blizzard due to the earlier starting time, and I was not too far off of the mark. A Nor’Easter blew through right before the race, which made it difficult for me to get home as the train tracks were washed out and the roads were all flooded and blocked.

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:
(Click here to continue reading…)

Usain Bolt has proven to be the first person to break Asafa Powell’s mark of 9.74 seconds in the 100 meter race on a track.

He was up against American sprinter Tyson Gay (9.85 seconds) this weekend at the Reebok Grand Prix, and was aided by a false start that wasn’t called back until the runners were 20 meters down the track.

“I was glad for the first false start,” Bolt said. “My first start wasn’t that good. I knew if I got Tyson on the start, I’d get him.”

Gay said he knew it was over after he saw Bolt push out.

The Olympics this year should provide some great competition, which is as it should be.

Bolt is normally a 200m/400m runner, but his recent successes almost guarantee that he is going to stick with the 100m as his signature race in Beijing.

(Photo Credit: Victah Sailer courtesy of Runner’s World – More Info: AP)

Update: I crunched a few numbers about how fast Bolt was moving:

Tyson Gay followed up his gold medal in the 100 meters with another gold in the 200 meter race yesterday in Osaka. Usain Bolt of Jamaica came on hard after a bad start, but Tyson Gay was able to keep a lead of about 2-hundredths of a second to win the goal.

Jeremy Wariner took in the gold in the 400 meter race as he led an American sweep despite being the last person off of the line. He ran a personal best 43.46 seconds, which is the fastest on a track so far this year. LaShawn Merritt and Angelo Taylor took the silver and bronze medals.