Honestly Kelly-Ann Bickford of Houston running a 2:00.99 meet record seems like one of the biggest performances this weekend. Her PR indoors or outdoors was 2:02.59 before today.
Sahlman wins Big Sky 800 in 1:47 (season best) Nico came in 3rd with a 1:49 PR.
Allegations that Young doesnt have speed in shambles. Could definitely have a 1:48 on his record if he gets a good race off since he positive split'd this one.
Haha…everyone positive splits the 800. It’s the best way to run the 400 and 800.
Did anybody else notice that the facility record for the 3000m at Texas Tech (Big XII Champs site) is held by a high school sophomore, Elizabeth Leachman? 9:16.84 on January 20. I don't think I have ever seen a collegiate facility record held by a HSer before.
Christopher Morales Williams, 19, of Georgia and Canada, 44.49 short track world record. One to watch, and possible Olympics medal contender with how bad the event is now.
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I'm not holding my breath for that to get ratified but some observations:
i) That's a massive PR drop, I'll indeed be looking out for him the rest of the year but if his body is making such a leap I doubt at 19 he'll last all the way until an Olympic final, especially with no experience. ii) Hopefully Samukonga and Gardiner are healthy this year, the event definitely has the potential to get back to 43. Not to mention Tebogo who might have the talent to even break the WR in the event if he focused on it.
I'm not holding my breath for that to get ratified but some observations:
i) That's a massive PR drop, I'll indeed be looking out for him the rest of the year but if his body is making such a leap I doubt at 19 he'll last all the way until an Olympic final, especially with no experience. ii) Hopefully Samukonga and Gardiner are healthy this year, the event definitely has the potential to get back to 43. Not to mention Tebogo who might have the talent to even break the WR in the event if he focused on it.
Can’t see Tebogo moving up, but him/Lyles would be tremendous at it if they ever wanted to be…Not holding my breath for Gardiner staying healthy, ditto WVN. Thd young Jamaicans have promise, the young US guys have struggled a lot out of college.
Sahlman wins Big Sky 800 in 1:47 (season best) Nico came in 3rd with a 1:49 PR.
Allegations that Young doesnt have speed in shambles. Could definitely have a 1:48 on his record if he gets a good race off since he positive split'd this one.
Big Maatoug fan, the 33s last 200 a bit concerning considering Jepkurui closed in sub30s. Did she coast to the win, perhaps saving some energy for the 3000 tonight? How did everybody see her performance?
Maatoug didn't really back off that much until the final meters. She had the lead throughout, which wasn't necessarily the plan but everybody else took it out so slowly she felt she had no choice.
It was a race split cleanly in half. The first 800 was very slow. Then Maatoug took off at 800 with Workman on her heels. It went from 74 pace to 64 pace with nothing in between. Workman held on until early in the final lap when Maatoug began to separate. The margin grew and the race was already over on the middle of the backstretch.
She probably would have closed faster if there had been a gradual build up instead of basically a flipped switch and 800 near full.
This was a huge deal for Maatoug. Don't underestimate that. At Duke she has received plenty of praise and name recognition, after a string of fast times and high finishes. But until today it was always 2nd through 5th. This is her first ACC title and first significant victory since the Dutch indoor 800 title almost exactly 2 years ago.
Indoors is Maatoug's favorite season, as she emphasized again in a recent YouTube video on Stride Report. She said after the race that her strategy was to match every move and never relinquish the lead to Workman. You could see Maatoug looking up at the big screen throughout to check the situation behind her.
I wasn't surprised Maatoug scratched the 3000. What was the point? The rest of the Duke women fared so poorly during Saturday heats there was no chance at the team title, regardless of what Maatoug did at 3000. The former Duke coach Norm Ogilvie said during the Saturday telecast that Maatoug had been experiencing achilles issues and had missed some intended races as result.