Weird sprinting results early in the season:
With disallowable tailwinds, we've had
Martin Keller 9.99
Julian Reuss 10.00
Richard Kilty 10.01
But with headwinds, we've had:
LeMaitre 10.17
Tumi 10.19
There are all kinds of calculators for how much wind affects performance, but suffice it to say that I'm more impressed by the illegal times than the legal ones. It's early in the season, and I wouldn't have expected those sorts of times from Keller, Reuss, and Kilty even in midseason form with a tailwind. They just haven't shown us this much so far in their careers, so I categorize them as pleasant surprises.
On the other hand, still nothing to get excited about from our biggest stars. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that, for once, LeMaitre's continuing mediocrity can legitimately be explained away by soreness from training or something. I would love to see him bust one loose in Manchester. Basically, though, I think Ato Bolden is right. LeMaitre trains year after year, day after day, with really slow training partners. Painfully slow training partners. Plus, he trains in the cold. He may be throwing away the golden years of his career by staying in Aix. At the very least, he should be training with Jimmy Vicaut, if not simply relocating to Jamaica or the US.
Tumi I expected much more from. He's a full 0.20 faster in the 60 than Zavacky, who essentially ran the same time. Based on his 6.51, Tumi should have no difficulty going sub-10 this year. His worst race should be better than 10.19 now.