Admittedly this past weekend for Boling did not go quite as I had expected. However, its also not necessarily all that bad - none of us can know for sure as none of us are in his training circle. He doe not appear to be injured, and as Freedom1 said here the other day, there is no way possible he has peeked yet considering he ran a world-leading 20.12 indoor and is only 22 years old! PRs for this year are definitely still attainable.
The issue clearly seems to be his training and lack of what appears to be real sprint work. White Lightning, myself, and others have alluded to this many times. He clearly has lots of stamina given his beginning of April 43.7 split at the Texas Relays. Honestly, the longer you can hold off on your speed work for a season the better the potential time when needed at peak, but only assuming you are able to stay relatively competitive without it during the early meets. That strategy paid off indoors. It also appears to be paying off for his teammates:
1. Elijah Godwin came in second at Conference in the 400m in 44.55
2. Will Sumner won the 800m at Conference in 1:46.20
3. Caleb Cavenaugh was third in the 400h in 49.07
4. Christopher Morales Williams ran a career-best 45.87 400m. His previous best from high school was 46.27. He just missed the finals by 2 tenths.
5. Keshaun Black ran a career-best 200m in 20.82 though only a 10.31 in the 100m
These guys will all run faster the next time out.
Then there is Boling. He ran a 20.52 200m in the final and did not even make the final in the 100m. This clearly was not what they had drawn up as the plan. I dont think they were necessarily planning on fireworks, but this was definitely slower than what they wanted. It probably is very much a mental thing. Sprinters often need to feel like they are running fast to perform. Whatever they are doing Boling is clearly struggling and he's not running relaxed which is a clear sign that the training is not working for him. Not everyone can be trained the same. it's easy to blame the coaches and maybe it is there fault. But I could also see the shortcomings being Boling's. I guarantee whatever they are doing he signed on for - he's too big not to get his consent. I dont think he's trusting in it - he's trying to run faster right now than what his training will allow and he's not sticking to his mechanics and running relaxed and with confidence. He's panicking and he's forcing and consequently, he's running even slower. Maybe he cant handle not competing with any speed work?? That's too bad. Because if he could the results could be amazing come July when it matters most.
As it is everything is still correctable. But he's got to relax and they need to have a coming to Jesus meeting to figure out what they are going to do and what they are going to commit to.