Wallace Spearmon LEGAL 19.95!

[JumboElliott]

Also with them is Jarred Connaughton and (I think) Rae Edwards.. That's a pretty decent training group.

[bman]

What is the coach's name?

[ATK]

What is the coach's name?

Monte Stratton

[JumboElliott]

I was wrong about Rae Edwards, but yeah.. It's a pretty good group.

[sprintdoc]

So how many coaches is Wallace on now since turning pro? Five? Six? I know he started under Brauman as pro then his dad and then Holloway or some coach in Florida and then Vince Anderson at A&M and now Monte Stratton.

On the point of lane 1 sub 20 I would say about 9-12 could but rarely does anyone with the talent to do so have to race out of lane 1.

I can't believe there has not been more backlash against the 3 heat semi which has sent many a more deserving athlete to a worse lane in 2 and 4. If an athlete loses in semi to say Bolt and lets say Dix falls in the heat as well due to trials qualifying times when athletes are not going 100% then it places any other athletes in unfair and uneven qualifying position. Lets say it should happen to be Spearmon who then runs hard to get in and takes 3rd behind Bolt and Dix in 3rd best time of the 3 semis combined and by draw is either placed in 1 or 2. This is a complete injustice. With 2 heat semis with the top 4 advancing this never occurs to someone who legitamately could win a medal. Could someone please explain the decision to follow this? gh? bob hersh?

Also to those thinking there will be 8 under 20 in the final let me remind you that we are talking at the end of the Games when many will have run the 100 also and be on their 5th or 6th hard race of the meet. Rarely do we see that sort of performance in the sprints at a championship event due to the effects of the rounds and the general likelihood that injuries and fatigue will take their toll. Realistically 4-5 is probably more likely - if that considering we are talking London where 4 of the last 5 years during the London DL meet weather has not been agreeable to great sprint times which is even more likely to have an impact over a week long competition at least on a handful of days.

[preston]

I can't believe there has not been more backlash against the 3 heat semi which has sent many a more deserving athlete to a worse lane in 2 and 4. If an athlete loses in semi to say Bolt and lets say Dix falls in the heat as well due to trials qualifying times when athletes are not going 100% then it places any other athletes in unfair and uneven qualifying position. Lets say it should happen to be Spearmon who then runs hard to get in and takes 3rd behind Bolt and Dix in 3rd best time of the 3 semis combined and by draw is either placed in 1 or 2. This is a complete injustice. With 2 heat semis with the top 4 advancing this never occurs to someone who legitamately could win a medal. Could someone please explain the decision to follow this? gh? bob hersh?

I would not consider 2 or 4 a bad lane. I wouldn't consider 1, either, but that's me; however, athletes get the lanes they run for. This is a competition and athletes should be forced as much as possible to give their best effort (how much different is 3rd best in your scenario where you get lane 1 to 4th best in the USOT or JOT where you get 4th and are possibly 4th in the world? Life ain't fair); that's what a 3-heat semi does by adding a timed component - which is not available in the 4Q format (example: 5th and 6th in one heat are faster than a few of the auto Q in the other). Also, your scenario is unlikely to happen. if I'm not mistaken they try to seed athletes from the same country into seperate heats. So its unlikely that 2 USA's or JAM's would share the same semi, especially if 3 of each qualify which is most likely.

gh, offered the best solution for the 3-heat semi during Daegu: build a 9-lane track and take top-3.

[ATK]

gh, offered the best solution for the 3-heat semi during Daegu: build a 9-lane track and take top-3.

Why waste the time and money of building more lanes, when they can just create 2 semis with top 4 qualifiers?

[gh]

I can't swear to it, but I believe I've been told that the prevailing wisdom is that one never wants to cut the field by more than half. So as soon as you get more than 32 sprinters (or many more, at least) in the first round, the number of runners wanted in the semis rises from 16 to 24.

The answer to that, of course (if true) would be make the standards tougher so you don't have such a monster field to begin with. Anything but 2+2 from three semis.

[26mi235]

On some nine-lane tracks, the 200/400 are sometimes run in 2-9 so "Lane 1" is actually in Lane 2 on the track.

[EPelle]

Follows up with a 20,02 (+1,7) at Drake:
http://www.nmnathletics.com/fls/15700/l ... M_ID=15700

[Fortius19]

Great run! But for someone who is counting his sub-20s, 20.02 must have been a bummer.

[JumboElliott]

Wallace has to be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point.

[chuku69]

Wallace has to be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point.

So that's the way u analyse. Wallace should be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point without seeing Bolt, Blake & Dix and others run a couple 200m's. Smh

[ATK]

Wallace has to be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point.

So that's the way u analyse. Wallace should be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point without seeing Bolt, Blake & Dix and others run a couple 200m's. Smh

Anytime Spearmon makes an Olympic or WC team, I would put him as a clear favorite for a medal regardless of what he or anyone else has been doing in the season.

There hasn't been a single Championship that he competed in an hasn't achieved a medal at. (besides the Beijing fiasco) He comes ready to perform when it counts.

[Speedster]

What looks promising too is that he's running a more complete race building from 50m, hitting the sweet spot, transitioning and maintaining in the straight. He looks good and he's unlikely to double meaning he'll probably be fresher than Bolt, Blake and Dix.

[preston]

and he's unlikely to double meaning he'll probably be fresher than Bolt, Blake and Dix.

Fresher has nothing to do with it. Sprinters have been doubling for years; the load isn't too much where they lack freshness. If Spearmon, who has run the 100m at USATF in 2008 and 2009, were to qualify top-3 he would look hard at running the 100m in London, imo.

Also, 19.95 and 20.02 only tells us that he's hopefully back to full health, it doesn't tell us how good he is right now because Spearmon has been one of the most prolific sub/near-20 sprinters in history (he was tied with Bolt and by the end of this season he will pass the leaders Fredericks and Johnson), and these types of times at this time of year is what he has done in previous seasons. This is par for the Spearmon historical course. We really have to see a sub-19.7 performance by the end of USOT to say that he's "ahead" of where he's been in the past.

I don't know if he's running the 100m at the USOT again but if he makes the final in the 100m, something he hasn't done previously, then I would expect something FAST in the 200m.

[chivez]

What is Xavier Carter doing this year?

He was a promising young athlete for the 200m.

[26mi235]

Wallace has to be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point.

So that's the way u analyse. Wallace should be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point without seeing Bolt, Blake & Dix and others run a couple 200m's. Smh

Anytime Spearmon makes an Olympic or WC team, I would put him as a clear favorite for a medal regardless of what he or anyone else has been doing in the season.

There hasn't been a single Championship that he competed in an hasn't achieved a medal at. (besides the Beijing fiasco) He comes ready to perform when it counts.

-

Yes, but you can say the same thing about Bolt, Dix, Blake (small sample), Gay.. Thus, if they all run it, something has to given, and that is before you add in 'Frenchy' et.al.

[ATK]

Wallace has to be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point.

So that's the way u analyse. Wallace should be a clear favorite for a medal in London at this point without seeing Bolt, Blake & Dix and others run a couple 200m's. Smh

Anytime Spearmon makes an Olympic or WC team, I would put him as a clear favorite for a medal regardless of what he or anyone else has been doing in the season.

There hasn't been a single Championship that he competed in an hasn't achieved a medal at. (besides the Beijing fiasco) He comes ready to perform when it counts.

-

Yes, but you can say the same thing about Bolt, Dix, Blake (small sample), Gay.. Thus, if they all run it, something has to given, and that is before you add in 'Frenchy' et.al.

Blake has only competed once. Dix has competed 2wice so he is getting there but still new.
Bolt was there in 2004 and 2005 and didn't medal
Gay was there in 2005 and 2008 and didn't medal

Spearmon was there in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and medaled all 4 consecutive times.