white lightning
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- Joined
- Oct 16, 2004
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What's interesting to me, is that Del Ponte and Femke Bol have the same coach, Laurent Meuwly of Switzerland.
He also coaches all the Dutch 400m runners. The Dutch men and women both won the gold medals in the 4x400 meter relays.
They also took the silver and bronze in the men's 400m. So this coach is having an incredible positive effect on all the runners that he is working with.
I just wish Dafne Schippers would join his training group before she's too old.
Schippers best in the 60m is 7.00. Unhearlded Del Ponte is right behind her now, with her 7.03 win.
I had roughly calculated about 400mm from a 6.99 (based on finishing speed of 10mps). She has gone ahead in leaps and bounds.when you think of Del Ponte's time in the 60m, she was just over 1 stride length from going sub 7 seconds....food for thought.
Two new rising stars in the 800m - 19yr old Keely Hodgkinson of Britain and Patryk Dobek, a former 400m hurdler, of Poland.
. . . Meanwhile, Patryk Dobek, is a really incredible story. He just started running the 800m in February!! February 12th to be exact. He's only run 3 finals since then, and won them all, including the European Championships!! That is incredible! Can't wait to see what he does this summer.
Jeremy Wariner had this thrown out when he was a shade past his peak, he never took the bait and ran real 800 meter races until he was obviously shot and too faded to become world class at this distance.More on Dobek from Letsrun.com
"The Most Remarkable Story From Europeans – Patryk Dobek Moves Up To The 800
One of the constant obsessions during the 20+ years of LetsRun.com’s existence has been fans wondering, “How fast could sprinters be at 800 if they move up?” as shown here and here.
Well at the European Indoor Championships, something remarkable happened. Poland’s Patryk Dobek — the former 400 hurdler who as of one month ago had never run an 800-meter race in his life — ran the 800 and did quite well. In case you haven’t seen the results, I don’t want to ruin it for you. Just watch the video below.
One thing I’m wondering: is Dobek the first guy in world history to run 1:46 in the third 800 competition of his life?
Update: We have learned that Dobek has actually raced one 800 prior to this season as a kid. According to this Polish database, he ran 2:08 at age 15 in 2009."