Matt Shirvington

[white lightning]

I'll bet that Daniel Batman could be an excellent 60 meter sprinter.It's too bad he probably won't be in the World Indoor Championships because of the traing for the Commonwealths.With his height & build,he should be able to get into the low 6.5 range on a consistant basis.What is his p.b. for the 60.I can't recall ever seeing him run that in the last few years.He is built a little like Leroy Burell & Mo.Short,compact and very explosive.Good luck to him & all of the other Aussie Sprinters.

 

[white lightning]

This will be another big weekend in Australia.Some of Britains best sprinters will be racing against the Aussies in the 100 and 200 meters.Shirvo is bummed that he only made the 4 x 100 Relay Squad for the Commonwealth Games.He is looking for revenge.If the weather is right,I see some very fast times this weekend.I would love to see some times in the 10.10 - 10.15 range as it is still early in the year.

 

[JGNYC]

Shirvo came in 5th in this race in a time of 10.28. I guess you could say that his comeback is somewhat successful, but he is nowhere near his form of several years ago when he ran a 10.03, and it doesn't seem that he is going to make it back to that elite territory.
The good news is that Daniel Batman ran a 10.25 for 2nd and Adam Miller a 10.26 for 3rd.
Batman also won the 200m in 20.55.
I think these 2 have more upside than Shirvo at this point.

 

[white lightning]

I agree with you for the most part but I'm not counting out Shirvo yet!He ran a 10.28 and only lost by 4/100ths of a second.That's not too bad.He still has all summer in Europe to try and get his times a little better.Remember,it's still only February.While it is summer in Australia,most of the world hasn't even got the outdoor season going yet.

As for Batman and Miller,the sky is the limit.I believe that Adam Miller is only 21 and Batman is around 24 years of age.They have so much upside still.I just wish I could be watching some of these races from down under.
Austalia Sprinting is starting to get respect again.One last thing,Shirvington will still only be 29 for the Olympics in China,so he will have one last chance to get to a final in 2008.

 

[white lightning]

Shirvo will be racing again on Friday in Australia.This is one of the last big meets before the Commonwealth Games which will be there this year in March.I would love to see Matt Shirvington run a perfect race.

For anyone that has never see Matt's 10.03 race from 1998 into a negative wind,it is on Ato's website.You guys should check it out.He was so close to that magical sub 10 and he was only 19 at the time.His start in that race was as good as any that I have ever seen.He faded a little in the middle and then stormed back at the end.If only there would have been a tailwind or no wind.

 

[JGNYC]

What a shame!
He peaked at 19...who would have guessed? It seemed like it would only be a short time before he broke the 10 flat barrier. Eight years later, and he has never run that fast again.

 

[white is right]

It's amazing that he was that young and could run that fast and never get that close again. I wonder if over doing it in the weightroom slowed him down or broke him down. It's a fine line between doing a bulking routine and getting more powerful and getting slightly musclebound.

 

[JGNYC]

Actually, there are a lot of sprinters - black and white -that peak in high school, never to run that fast again.
In recent years there was Matt Bruno the California 100m & 200m state champion, who flopped at UCLA and was dropped from the track team. There was Casey Combest from Kentucky who still holds the HS 60m record, who burnt out after high school.
There's a 400m guy at Baylor, Mark Teter, who was the Texas State champ and a high school All-American. He has never approached his HS times, and he gets slower each year. He's a junior now, and I just saw that he was dropped from the relay team.
I have no idea why this happens, but it happens regularly. So it is very difficult to predict someone's progression based on their HS/teenage times.

 

[SteveB]

It's amazing that he was that young and could run that fast and never get that close again. I wonder if over doing it in the weightroom slowed him down or broke him down. It's a fine line between doing a bulking routine and getting more powerful and getting slightly musclebound.

It is probably not the weights that got these guys, it was probably girls or booze or something along those lines. Alot of these guys get away from home and turn there focus away from track, just when they are entering their prime.

 

[white is right]

True there is a former all world highschooler named Obea Moore that was a case of this (he is the poster child of this). He started drinking and hanging with the wrong crowd and went from the fastest junior 400 metre runner to an also ran in a few years. I think Bruno just matured early he was built like a bodybuilder at 18........

 

[white lightning]

This was just announced today.Asaffa Powell,the world record holder in the 100 meters will be in the race tommorow.It is his first race of the year.This guy is with out a doubt juiced out of his mind.The thing I like however is that he may help some of the Aussies to rise to another level.Maybe we can see Shirvo,Batman or Miller put up a new p.b. or at least come close.M.Frater is also in the lineup.It will be a very fast race.I would love to see Matt beat the world champion!

 

[freedom1]

Anyone know what Shirvo's second fastest time was? I thought I read somewhere that he did a 10.07.

Yes, it's disturbing to think he may have peaked already. I remember reading about his 10.03 into the wind in Track and Field News. They called him "Australia's amazing 19-year-old sprint find." I was sure he'd be the one to do it. I suppose it'll happen when we least expect it.

I wonder what Borzov would've run at the 72 games had Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson been in the field. I remember reading that Borzov said afterwards that he gave 90 percent. I thought Borzov's 100 time was weak, but his performance in the 200 proved he was legit. What if he would've been pushed in the 100? There are so many ifs. I read that Macro eased up a little at the end of his big win in Mexico City. Morne Nagel got a terrible start when he ran his PR of 10.13.

I have strange story. I remember watching the Martin Luther King Games on TV when I was a kid. It was probably the late 70s or early 80s. They showed the 100 meter sprint. Every competitor was black. Everyone in the audience was black. All the judges were black. It took place in Philadelphia. When they showed the 100 meter sprint. This white guy, and I mean white guy with white blonde hair from Sweden won! He was very muscular. I can't remember his name. It was the weirdest thing. I remember one of the announcers say "he was the first white man to ever win the 100 at the Martin Luther Kings Games if you're interested in that sort of thing." I'm not making this story up. I'll tell ya, it really gave me hope.

 

[JGNYC]

I think the guy you are thinking of is Chris Garpenborg from Sweden. I believe the race you are thinking of was the USA 100 meters championships.
I watched it on TV, and remember Keith Jackson remarking that he was the first white guy to win that championship in 'x' number of years "if you're interested in that sort of thing."
I believe it was '76. Anyway it was the last time a white guy won the USA championships 100 meters.

And I do believe you are correct...Shirvo's 2nd fastest time was a 10.07 in 1999. But I really think his time has come and gone. I don't think he will be running that fast ever again.

 

[white lightning]

Do you guys agree with me that Shirvo's style of sprinting is just awful.He has never been a very smooth sprinter.He looks to be fighting himself out there sometimes.If only a good coach could have gotten a hold of him around 5 or 6 years ago.I don't think it is too late but he is approaching that destiny very soon.

 

[freedom1]

Wow, thanx JGNYC. I looked up the name. Sure enough, Christer Garpenborg who had a PB of 10.25 was listed as winning the Swedish 100 meters championship from 74 through 79. He also came in second to Borzov in one of the European Indoor Championships. He must've been the guy. Maybe it was Martin Luther King stadium they were competing in. I remember MLK had something to do with it. I thought maybe I had dreamed it.

 

[JGNYC]

I remember aroound that same time Dave Jenkins of Scotland won the 400m at the US Championships. It was that same kind of 'wow' shock as Garpenborg winning the 100m.

 

[freedom1]

Yeah, usually there's not a white face in the crowd, but there's been some good moments here and there. I didn't see the Dave Jenkins win. That must've been cool. It was probably like when Schoenlebe won the 400 at the world championships. I remember one time watching a European meet where a 20-year-old sprinter from East Germany named Eugen Ray finished in a dead heat with Steve Williams. They reviewed the photo and gave the win to Williams, but it was still very exciting. Williams was the best sprinter in the world at that time. Of course Ray went on to do a Shirvo by quickly fading from the scene. Guy Drut taking 110 hurdles gold at the 76 games was one of the best. Another one of my favorites was when Marlese (sp?) Gohr of East Germany smoked Evelyn Ashford in the 100. Of course in the rematch Ashford won and set a world record. Not too long ago Kevin Little won the 200 at the world indoor championships. It can happen.

 

[speedster]

Oddly enough Eugen Ray was the number one ranked sprinter in the world by Track and Field News that same year as his dead heat with Steve Williams which occured in the 1977 World Cup.Looking at the T&FN rankings there was always at least one or two or sometimes more white guys in their top ten every year up to the late 80's and then they pretty much disappeared.

 

[freedom1]

Yes, to me, that has been the strangest aspect of this whole issue. It's like the white man's progression stopped after Marian Woronin ran 10.00, while the black man's continued.

Jim Hines broke the 10 second barrier at altitude in Mexico City in 1968. Mennea ran a 10.01 at altitude and Borzov a 10.07 at sea level not too long after that. Black athletes have continued to progress since Hines. Some are now in the 9.7s. Why have decades gone by with no advancement in white sprinter's times. There's an Asian sprinter, I don't remember his name off hand, from Japan who's recorded a 10.00. Why is the white athlete stuck in the mud? I think the premise of this whole site is correct. There's something more at work here than just physical superiority.

 

[white lightning]

I have always concluded that it is more pyschological than it is physical.It just doesn't make any sense.The numbers of white sprinters world wide were alot higher back in those days.Todays athletes in general are getting faster and stronger.There is absolutely no reason other than lack of participants,mental doubt,and being told that they are not cut out to be sprinters by virtually the whole world.With the white population of the U.S.,we probably could have many elite white sprinters.We still make up almost 70% of the country.We need a Wariner for the 100 meters and he will be coming in the very near future!I truley believe that!!

 

[white is right]

The number of white sprinters in Western European countries have declined to a trickle and the Eastern European countries have lost their sports systems. France used to produce white sprinters I can't tell you when was the last time I saw a world class French sprinter(ethnic not national), out of all the western countries only Germany(because of their size)and Great Britain produce any white sprinters...

 

[white lightning]

Shirvo's coach of only two years swears that he will still break the magical 10 second barrier.He blames alot of what has happened on the Aussies turning on Matt.Here is a good article from today about Shirvo going sub 10!
Enjoy it guys.

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,59 36,18354863%255E23218,00.htmlEdited by: white lightning

 

[freedom1]

Thanx for the great article White Lightning. It does sound like psychology has had a lot to do with Shirvo's troubles.

The last white sprinter I heard about from France was Gilles Quénhérvé. He got second in the 200 at the 87 world championships. He lost in a photo finish with Calvin Smith.

 

[JGNYC]

France has an up and coming 400m white guy named Brice Panel. He came 2nd in their 400m indoor championship this year.
He's still not world class at this point, but maybe can get there.

 

[mastermulti]

Matt is a great guy, a family man, a person who would happily talk to
each of us at a chance meeting.
I now race against his uncle Pat in masters events so I've learned a little
more about him.
He's running fast again but needs to rebuild his confidence.
In the 4x1 at the Com Games they put him at last change in the final. In
spite of Australia's 3-4m lead he got a rush of blood and started 1metre
or so before our third runner Adam Miller hit his mark....result...no baton
exchange.
It was simply because he wanted the best possible chance to stop Asafa
Powell running him down.
Just a mistake on his part.
But then again, GB, Ghana, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago all bombed their
passes.