dunedine wrote:Actually, Okoye looks to establish himself steadily as an outside medal contender and is also building the consistency he was missing last season into his performances. So far he has thrown 62.48, 62.27, 66.67 and 66.25 in his four outings and all one has got to do is check out his last year card, marked by stark contrast. I'm very confident he could hit 68-69m when the season picks up and if he can pull that in London he will have as good a shout as anyone for a medal.
Last year, Okoye didn't throw in the US early in the season, so there really is no comparison. I think you underestimate the favourable conditions in La Jolla, Chula Vista, Salinas etc.. Look at the best results of Eric Cadee for example: 8 out of his 10 best results he achieved in either Chula Vista or La Jolla, and Cadee never even threw over 62 meters at major championships.
dunedine wrote:Actually, Okoye looks to establish himself steadily as an outside medal contender and is also building the consistency he was missing last season into his performances. So far he has thrown 62.48, 62.27, 66.67 and 66.25 in his four outings and all one has got to do is check out his last year card, marked by stark contrast. I'm very confident he could hit 68-69m when the season picks up and if he can pull that in London he will have as good a shout as anyone for a medal.
Last year, Okoye didn't throw in the US early in the season, so there really is no comparison. I think you underestimate the favourable conditions in La Jolla, Chula Vista, Salinas etc.. Look at the best results of Eric Cadee for example: 8 out of his 10 best results he achieved in either Chula Vista or La Jolla, and Cadee never even threw over 62 meters at major championships.
I don't underestimate anything and, further, Okoye's best mark of 66.67m was set at the MtSAC and none of the venues you mentioned above.
London 2012 - Jegede: I'm buzzing for a medal Fri, 27 Apr 15:29:00 2012 "Jegede believes the atmosphere would have helped him finish on the podium, although he insists reaching it at London 2012 will more than make up for this disappointment."
Flurry of Olympic qualifiers for London by the Brits at Stanford:
As Men 1500m Andy Baddeley 3:35.19 (WL) 5000m Chris Thompson 13:15.21, Tom Farrell 13:15.31 (PB) Women 5000m Barbara Parker 15:14.26 (PB), Steph Twell 15:15.24 10000m Julia Bleasdale 31:29.57 (debut)
Bs Men 1500m David Bishop 3:37.51 (PB), Chris O'Hare 3:37.95 (PB) Women 10000m Charlotte Purdue 32:03.55 (PB)
Also, U23 Chris Clarke, the 400m man, tied the Olympic B in the 200m (20.65) at the Steve Scott Invitational.
dunedine wrote:Flurry of Olympic qualifiers for London by the Brits at Stanford:
As Men 1500m Andy Baddeley 3:35.19 (WL) 5000m Chris Thompson 13:15.21, Tom Farrell 13:15.31 (PB) Women 5000m Barbara Parker 15:14.26 (PB), Steph Twell 15:15.24 10000m Julia Bleasdale 31:29.57 (debut)
Bs Men 1500m David Bishop 3:37.51 (PB), Chris O'Hare 3:37.95 (PB) Women 10000m Charlotte Purdue 32:03.55 (PB)
Also, U23 Chris Clarke, the 400m man, tied the Olympic B in the 200m (20.65) at the Steve Scott Invitational.
Who's Tom Farrell ?? and that's one hell of a debut from Julie Bleasdale. There is going to be some real comptetish to get on the 10k team with Jo Pavey, Charlotte Purdue, Gemma Steele, Freya Murry
mump boy wrote:i just looked Tom Farrell up, he's only 21 this is very impressive
Farrell was only 21 in March! UK U23 record and #10 on our all-time list.
Bleasdale is #5 on the all-time 10k list for us! Where has that come from? She was a good club runner for years but did she ever show this kind of promise? I see Nick Bideau is coaching her. Hope he can do the same for Andy Vernon (sub-28 this weekend).
Bleasdale ran 34:20.77 for 10,000m in 2005 so it wasn't her debut. Even so, it's a superb breakthrough! I vaguely remember her having some decent performances on the roads in 2005 before disappearing for a few years.
I thought Purdue would run a bit faster seeing as she ran 32:10 for 10km a few weeks ago. I think she can get the A standard though.
Actually, Julia Bleasdale ran a solo 15:25.62 over the 5K the previous weekend so I was confident she would get the A but not by such a margin, particularly impressed by her aggressive race as she even attempted to take it on around the 8th km.
Add to the above marks Andy Vernon's 27:53.65 over 10K, an Olympic B while Rob Mullett just missed out on the B in the 'chase with a breakthrough 8:32.80.
Unfortunately Farrell is at Oklahoma College, and any athlete who is part of the American College TF system will be beaten up by the needs of the College and will be made to compete not for his good, for sure. Last year the very promising Farrell did 13.26 for 5K by May and was f****d by the end of the season and his best for 1500 metres was also very early in the track year by our standards ; by the time the College/ NCAA season is over in June, Farrell will return to the UK and find at 21 he may not be at his best at the British Trials.
Actually, Tom Farrell is reportedly setting his sights mainly on making the British team in London and thereby has run only two races outdoors so far, while he didn't race as much as he used to in previous seasons indoors either.
We will see what his College have to say about it. Assuming they take part in the various competitions over the next 6 weeks so it will be most unusual that the Track Coach there makes a special allowance and forgoes potential good points from a 13.15 guy..
According to the commentators on FloTrack, Tom Farrell is 'redshirting', which I think means passing the collegiate season, this year specifically in order to make the British team. Interestingly they quoted/paraphrased him as saying that he couldn't pass up the chance of a home Olympics, but if the Games had been anywhere else he wouldn't have redshirted.
72 wrote:Unfortunately Farrell is at Oklahoma College, and any athlete who is part of the American College TF system will be beaten up by the needs of the College and will be made to compete not for his good, for sure. Last year the very promising Farrell did 13.26 for 5K by May and was f****d by the end of the season and his best for 1500 metres was also very early in the track year by our standards ; by the time the College/ NCAA season is over in June, Farrell will return to the UK and find at 21 he may not be at his best at the British Trials.
What is this "Oklahoma College"? We have a number of colleges and universities in the state. I have lived her 55 of my 80 years and am not familiar with this one.
Running unattached so he is not competing in the college season/champs. Mo Ahmed for Wisconsin is in a similar boat, with college competition for a top-level XC, distance school but he is racing this season. He does have a focus on the Olympics however. He says hitting the "A" standard (ran 27:34) allows him to completely ignore times the rest of the season and only worry about racing. He will have three 10,000s (Big Ten Champs, Regional qualifier - should be an easy race for him) and NCAAs (straight final)). He might run the 5000 too at the Big Ten meet if the meet is on the line. He has run one 1500 to get speed work in and did not run NCAA Indoors.
There were three Canadians with 27 in that race and two of them got the "A" standard (and Bairu was not one of them)
O'Hare was only the third Brit home in the 1500 but his run was far more impressive than the time suggested. He really attacked down the back straight and briefly led. He died badly in the last 50m but with more training under his belt I can see him getting under 3:35.
This one looks like a genuine medal contender for Britain and the new Carl Lewis-esque take-off looks to be working wonders with him! Greg Rutherford equalled Chris Tomlinson's UK record of 8.35m (2.0m/sec) at Chula Vista a few hours ago, looking really ominous for the summer!
Andy Pozzi eased to a 13.52 heat in the 110mh into a -1.1m/sec headwind in around 5-6C (!) this morning, easily an Olympic A and there looks more to come later.
Christine Ohuruogu hit the A in 50.93 in the 400m in Kingston yesterday, as did Andy Turner in 13.50 over the hurdles and of course Tiffany Porter in 12.65 looking well on the way to seriously rewriting her UK record of 12.56 secs.
Andy Pozzi improved to 13.35 (1.3) today and rises as a potential contender for a final place in London now, with Lawrence Clarke and Andy Turner both running 13.50 in the 110mh during the weekend.
Remarkable time for a British Universities meet. I'm assuming there was little competition if any. And wasn't the weather foul for this event? What was his previous best?
Remarkable time for a British Universities meet. I'm assuming there was little competition if any. And wasn't the weather foul for this event? What was his previous best?
13.73 (1.5) last August. Reduced indoor best from 7.87 to 7.56 this year also
Remarkable time for a British Universities meet. I'm assuming there was little competition if any. And wasn't the weather foul for this event? What was his previous best?
13.73 (1.5) last August. Reduced indoor best from 7.87 to 7.56 this year also
Remarkable time for a British Universities meet. I'm assuming there was little competition if any. And wasn't the weather foul for this event?
Drizzle and about 6 or 7C. The usual May bank holiday weather! Pozzi ran 13.52 in the heat, 13.72 in the semi. Second was Euro U20 medallist Jack Meredith who ran sub-14 for the first time over the senior hurdles. Lawrence Clarke ran 13.50 in a guest event.
do you posters realise that Pozzi's performance might well be a World Record.... for an under 8 degrees centigrade conditions. Probably worth in Florida conditions and a nice tailwind sub 13.30.
This weekend will be Okoyes first real test. He is throwing in Halle/Germany against Harting, Malachowski and Hadadi. Morse and Buhari will also be there and Sophie Hitchon too.
norunner wrote:This weekend will be Okoyes first real test. He is throwing in Halle/Germany against Harting, Malachowski and Hadadi. Morse and Buhari will also be there and Sophie Hitchon too.
Athletics: Roger Black backs Dai Greene as best British Olympic hope “On their day, there are five realistic chances of medals, if not gold medals, and that’s Dai Greene in the hurdles, Mo Farah twice, Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu,” said Black, who when pushed to pick a leading candidate added: “I wouldn’t put my house on anybody, because I know how hard it is. But if I had to I would put it on Dai Greene.”
Before anyone complains i know these people aren't medal contenders but for me they are just as exciting
Firstly, after the disappointment of missin out on marathon selection Jo Pavey ran a solo A quailifier for the 5k so we now have 3 people with the A and Helen Clitheroe hasn't run yet this year, Julie Bleasdale will surely also get it. She has already qualified for the 10k and Jo, Charlotte Purdue, Helen, Gemma Steel and Freya must also be in with a shout. I love the fact that there are actually going to be selection battles
Abi O ran 22.59 !! in Florida unfortunately the wind was 2.1 but this shows what grat form she's in maybe there's another Olympic final on the cards
And Eden Francis threw a B qualifier of 17.24 in the SP, i know this is nothing spectacular but she will be the first new UK woman to represent us at an Olympics since 1988 it makes her the 7th best alltime and the best since Judy Oakes threw 18.83 in 1998.
She is physically very impressive (which is more than i can say for some of our female throwers) and i see a lot more coming from her
mump boy wrote:And Eden Francis threw a B qualifier of 17.24 in the SP, i know this is nothing spectacular but she will be the first new UK woman to represent us at an Olympics since 1988 it makes her the 7th best alltime and the best since Judy Oakes threw 18.83 in 1998.
Judy Oakes threw 18.22m in 2000 and also competed at the Olympics that year*. Still exciting that GB could have an athlete in that event at London 2012.
*Po10 isn't the most reliable source for complete historical stats.
mump boy wrote:And Eden Francis threw a B qualifier of 17.24 in the SP, i know this is nothing spectacular but she will be the first new UK woman to represent us at an Olympics since 1988 it makes her the 7th best alltime and the best since Judy Oakes threw 18.83 in 1998.
Judy Oakes threw 18.22m in 2000 and also competed at the Olympics that year*. Still exciting that GB could have an athlete in that event at London 2012.
*Po10 isn't the most reliable source for complete historical stats.
i thought she went in 2000 but her Power of 10 stops in 98
and that's one hell of a debut from Julie Bleasdale. There is going to be some real comptetish to get on the 10k team with Jo Pavey, Charlotte Purdue, Gemma Steele, Freya Murry 
