2007 World Championships of Track & Field

[white lightning]

All I can say is Holy Cow! Johan Wissman ran a 44.56 to qualify for the 400 meter finals tommorow. He could be another Wariner. It is another new national record for this amazing sprinter. Jeremy Wariner ran a 44.34 to also advance to the finals. Wariner is the heavy favorite but nothing would make my day more than to see a new world record by Wariner,and a silver or bronze by Wissman! On a side note,it sucks that Rock isn't there to defend his individual silver medal.

In the 200 meters semis,only Gousis of Greece made it to the finals with a 20.33! Hession ran a 20.50 for 5th place I beleve. Gousis would have to run a sub 20 to have a chance to medal. I'm rooting for him but it's doubtful as Kenteris had better top end speed.

 

[white is right]

Wissman is probably the best of the rest after the top 3. He may medal if one of the two other Americans try and duel with Wariner and gas out. It will be interesting to see if Merritt or Taylor try to win or try to protect their positions in the middle of the race. The only way Wariner loses is if he tries for the world record and gases or has an injury.

 

[white lightning]

I love the fact that Wissman is running in the 400 now as he has great upside in this event. However,as I have said countless times before, I really hope he continues to run the 200 meters. He is a very exctiting 200 guy who I still think can continue to progress. I hope he doesn't just become a 400 meters sprinter. There are so few european 200 meter sprinters with much talent. We need him to continue competing at both events.

It's really funny to see the looks on some of the other sprinters faces when they see a blonde guy blowing by them. How can this be possible?

 

[highschoolcoach]

Black men and women definitely dominate the 100 and 200 meter dashes this year, but things may be different at the next world championships. Craig Pickering, Sally McLellan, and Tezhan Naimova are very young and will undoubtably improve.

Nicola Sanders was 2nd in the 400 and Jana Rawlinson won the 400 hurdles. I looked it up and the UK has a population of 60,609,000 and Australia a population of 20,264,000. The USA has a population of 298,444,000 (more than 3.5 times their combined populations)and has no world-class women women in those events. As always, I ask why not? Ryann Krais may become a world-class 400 hurdler, but, then again, may not. She can be a heptathlete and probably will.

Anyone care to theorize why white American women cannot (or do not)run fast?

 

[PitBull]

highschoolcoach,

I think I have an answer, at least in part, to your question. There are
great white women track athletes in the USA, but rarely are they featured
in the media. Case in point, Suzy Favor Hamilton. This lady is a world
class middle distance runner, smart, good looking as can be, yet if you
asked most americans to pick her out of a crowd of athletes, they wouldn'
know her from Adam. She is absolutely custom made for the media and
advertising world. Contrast that Marion Jones, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Flo-
Jo, and a few other black women track athletes. The people who run the
media and the press know darn good and well that if you hide such role
models, you can discourage young white women from participating in the
sport. because they think its just a black thing. Almost nobody has heard
of Suzy Favor Hamilton outside of track and field. And there is a reason
why.

 

[highschoolcoach]

highschoolcoach,

I think I have an answer, at least in part, to your question. There are
great white women track athletes in the USA, but rarely are they featured
in the media. Case in point, Suzy Favor Hamilton. This lady is a world
class middle distance runner, smart, good looking as can be, yet if you
asked most americans to pick her out of a crowd of athletes, they wouldn'
know her from Adam. She is absolutely custom made for the media and
advertising world. Contrast that Marion Jones, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Flo-
Jo, and a few other black women track athletes. The people who run the
media and the press know darn good and well that if you hide such role
models, you can discourage young white women from participating in the
sport. because they think its just a black thing. Almost nobody has heard
of Suzy Favor Hamilton outside of track and field. And there is a reason
why.

This is certianly a good explanation. Being such a track nut and having a good long-term memory, I would not notice. I remember that Mary Decker (seemingly) got lots of publicity, but that was 25 or more years ago. Grace Upshaw has done quite well in national competition and is a virtual unknown. Didn't she win the U.S. championship in the LJ? But, i don't recall seeing anything about her in Sports Illustrated.

I am of the opinion that tradition and role models and attitude have a lot to do with accomplishment, and white women don't have much. Yes, we need some white women who are world-class speedsters and people need to know about them. Being involved in high school athletics i can't help but observe that the same schools tend to win consistently and others tend to lose consistently. I think that it's primarily because of tradition and role models and attitude, not talent. Every school has talent, but at some it is developed and at others it is not.

 

[sunshine]

White athletes lost out in women's triple jump but placed silver and bronze. Chinese hurdler wins again and Wariner takes the 400M. He has been running strong for several years so some good news out of WC's but frankly not enough.
100 and 200 meters need to be addressed and for now despite a few names mentioned above things still look bleak for the big show next year.

 

[highschoolcoach]

This world championships of track & field was dominated by black athletes, but also showed that there are GREAT athletes of other races as well. Jermey Wariner won the 400 in 43.45 and Xiang Liu the 110 hurdles in 12.95. Maybe there are more blacks than whites with great speed, but there are Caucasians and Asians who are GREAT, and there will be others.

What has to be overcome is the too prevalent attitude, especially in the USA, that, because the majority of the best sprinters are black, that there are NO great white (or Asian)sprinters. That, of course, is not true, but it's easy to be lazy and just always recruit and develop a black athlete in preference to a Caucasian or Asian one. I truly wonder what Jana Rawlinson and Xiang Liu would be doing if they had grown up in the USA. Truthfully, probably not running track. They would have been convinced at an early age that they lacked speed and should do something more appropriate to their abilities.

I was surprised that the Eastern Europe nations did not do better in the sprints. It's quite possible that they are going to take this year's results as incentive to discover and develop their as yet undiscovered and undeveloped great talents. I sure hope so.

In closing, I wonder how Jeremy Wariner manages to run such great times when he lacks the speed to be world-class 400 meter runner.

 

[sunshine]

HSC I was also surprised and disappointed with lack of speed showing by Eastern Europeans, especially the women who I thought were ready to excel. We can hold out hope they are waiting in the weeds for Beijing but that seems improbable.
As for early age white Americans for sure, they are taught early on not to mess with the FORMULA of blacks win sprints and whites should never run. SAD!!!

 

[white lightning]

The time by Wariner was nothing short of spectacular. He still might break the world record this year yet.

In the womens 400 Meters Hurdles, white women had a clean sweep of the medals just like the long jump. How about Lebedeva from Russia. The Worlds Greatest combonation long and triple jumper ever!

Keep your heads up guys. Wariner now is a double World Champion and Olympic Champion. If he wins next year in the olympics, it will be hard to argue that he isn't the greatest 400 meter sprinter of all time and all at the young age of 23. Think how much more he can acheive.

America still disciminates and discourages white athletes in general including sprinters but their are small signs of things changing. Look at Wariner and Rock. Look at how many more american born white basketball players are starting to rise up. Now look at running backs like Brian Leonard, Heath Evans, and many college backs with star potential like Kyle Bell. Just wait until Sam McGuffie hits college next year. They will call him the white B.Sanders.He is that good!

The Europeans will rise up and continue to make an impact. One thing to remember is that most of the sprinters we root for are just babys as far as their experience goes.They will get better.V. Borzov is one of only three Olympic Sprinters to ever win two gold medals in one olympics in the 100 & 200. Carl Lewis and Bobby Morrow are the other ones. There are other Borzov/Morrow types. We need more guys like Pickering to make an impact to be role models & heros for todays kids.Edited by: white lightning

 

[Guest]

sunshine is way too pessimistic. Complaining about progress?

 

[Poacher]

Interesting competition in the decathlon.

After five events Jamaican (huh?) Maurice Smith is leading the field with 4525 points. Right behind him are: Karpov (4439), Sebrle (4434), Drozdov (4353) and Pappas (4342).

American Brian Clay (Asian/ black) dropped out of competition with a leg injury.

The five events remaining are: 110 meter hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin and the 1500 meter run.

I would think (stereotypically so) that the Jamaican's undoing wil be the final three events. But who knows. Watch it if you get the chance, should be entertaining if not educational. Edited by: Poacher

 

[white lightning]

In the 4 x 100 Heats,Great Britain finished 2nd in their heat to advance. Craig Pickering ran a very good leg. Germany,Poland,and Japan also advanced. I'm not sure about Australia.

In the 110 Hurdles, the guys from the Ukraine ran a 13.22 for a new p.b. I forget his name. I'm really dissapointed in Stanislav Olijars. I thought he had potential to be an olympic champ several years ago. It was good to see Liu win the event again. He is almost as dominant as Wariner.

 

[Vindicator]

Jeremy Wariner's victory and new PB in the 400m is a terrific achievement and a great example for white sprinters. His 43.45 time puts him ahead of Quincy Watts on the all time best 400m list. Wariner is now the 3rd fastest 400m sprinter in history and has the fifth fastest time ever run.

At only 23 years of age, Wariner is already the second best 400m performer in terms of consistency with 12 of the 50 fastest 400m times.

Good web site to check out:

All-time men's best 400 meters

 

[white is right]

Interesting competition in the decathlon.

After five events Jamaican (huh?) Maurice Smith is leading the field with 4525 points. Right behind him are: Karpov (4439), Sebrle (4434), Drozdov (4353) and Pappas (4342).

American Brian Clay (Asian/ black) dropped out of competition with a leg injury.

The five events remaining are: 110 meter hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin and the 1500 meter run.

I would think (stereotypically so) that the Jamaican's undoing wil be the final three events. But who knows. Watch it if you get the chance, should be entertaining if not educational.

I think the Jamaican is more of a day one guy. I was mildly disappointed in Wariner in the 400 or maybe I was mildly disappointed in the weather as he could have ripped a 43.3X or lower if the weather was better, anway he looks like he will break the record in the next few years.Edited by: white is right

 

[Poacher]

In painfully stereotypical fashion after the race (400M) Leshawn (or however you spell it) Merrit went on and on about how he thinks Wariner is "beatable" while Wariner had nothing but praise for Merrit.

Yeah Leshawn, over the last fifty he was pulling further and further away from you with every stride, he's real beatable. Better work on your finishing speed son. Don't go turning to HGH or some other nonsense in your frustration either. If it had been a 450 Wariner would have won by 15-20 meters.

 

[highschoolcoach]

What has to be overcome is the too prevalent attitude, especially in the USA, that, because the majority of the best sprinters are black, that there are NO great white (or Asian)sprinters. That, of course, is not true, but it's easy to be lazy and just always recruit and develop a black athlete in preference to a Caucasian or Asian one. I truly wonder what Jana Rawlinson and Xiang Liu would be doing if they had grown up in the USA. Truthfully, probably not running track. They would have been convinced at an early age that they lacked speed and should do something more appropriate to their abilities.

Does anybody remember Kathy Hammond? She was the California blonde who won a bronze medal in the 400 meter dash in the 1972 Olympics, losing to 2 German women. Since then, as far as I know, white American women sprinters have been nonexistent. Was Kathy Hammond just a freak, or have there been other Kathy Hammonds who became distance runners, cheerleaders, soccer players, etc.?

In case your wondering, i am so interested in womens track and field because my first coaching job was girls track and field and i had the state champion in the 100 yard dash, who was white. Also, at that time, the best women sprinters were white women, Renate Stecher and Raelene Boyle, being 2 of them. In addition, I only have daughters, who are talented runners, so I naturally tend to check the girls results much more than the boys.

 

[Poacher]

Roman Sebrle does it again! Decathlon champ!

He was pushed by the Jamaican Maurice Smith (black hope in the decathlon?) who was done in by a terrible performance in the javelin.

The Dec rewards consistency in all events. One glaring weakness and you're done. But every moment you spend training to shore up your weak event is one moment you're not spending on the others.

Congrats Roman!

 

[Guest]

In painfully stereotypical fashion after the race (400M) Leshawn (or however you spell it) Merrit went on and on about how he thinks Wariner is "beatable" while Wariner had nothing but praise for Merrit.

Yes, that was disappointing. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now, and consider it a competition thing, and not a race thing.

 

[white is right]

HSC I was also surprised and disappointed with lack of speed showing by Eastern Europeans, especially the women who I thought were ready to excel. We can hold out hope they are waiting in the weeds for Beijing but that seems improbable.
As for early age white Americans for sure, they are taught early on not to mess with the FORMULA of blacks win sprints and whites should never run. SAD!!!

I suspect a lot of girls are discouraged by their parents. I know Liu if he were American would probably be a MIT whiz who would be plotting to take down a Vegas casino with a team of card counters..

 

[backrow]

Poland took bronze in 400 meters relay

 

[yanling]

Russia took the bronze in the men's 800 (though I believe Yuri is a legit gold medal threat for Beijing) , and, as I predicted, Chiang won the 110H again. Maybe he WOULD be an MIT whiz had he grown up in America, after having been told by the track coach at his high school to give up running and pick up a ping pong paddle.

 

[Deadlift]

White women swept the high jump and White men swept the javelin!

The javelin throw is sure fun to watch -- the approach, the launch, everything!

 

[white lightning]

Craig Pickering ran the fastest split of anyone on the 2nd leg of the 4 x 100 Relay Finals.Here is the article.
He needs to do this in the individual races.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/6975110.stm

 

[Angelcynn]

So did Nicola Sanders for the womens 4x400 relay. Ohuruogu won the normal 400m final with a time of 49.61 seconds with Sanders claiming silver. Sanders recorded 48.8 seconds in the relay? That is soooo frustrating! But congrats to Sanders

, she really is a pure athlete even though you wouldn't think it by looking at her.