track links for 2010-06-05: Lagat sets new 5000m AR; Bryan Clay wins Gotzis

• Lagat sets American record in Diamond League Oslo 5000m - A great run, but his son is disappointed he finished 3rd!  The 5000m at Pre could be very interesting if Lagat, Solinsky, and Rupp all run.
  
• Nike Elite Stories: Bryan Clay - Good article on Clay.

links for 2010-05-05: Apple's control freakishness; Chrome update; SOA embraced; Android tablets; Solinsky AR splits

• The upside to Apple's control freakishness - I like this from Tim O'Reilly: "It is becoming increasingly clear that the Internet is becoming not just a platform, but an operating system, an operating system that manages access by devices such as personal computers, phones, and other personal electronics to cloud subsystems ranging from computation, storage, and communications to location, identity, social graph, search, and payment."
• Google Chrome update: Speed, performance and a deeper push into browser computing - Upgraded, still had it freeze on me once, but now it pops up a dialog telling me what page is the culprit and I had Flash enabled at the time.
  
• Just as vendor-speak turns from SOA, the users are actually embracing it - No surprise here.  Vendors and analysts are always talking about the next great thing while there is a lot of money to be made just delivering and implementing the last thing.
  
• Android based tablets on their way - Already running Flash and Air.
• Chris Solinsky's splits from his 10000m AR - It appears he could have run faster with more even pacing!  Bodes well for his 5000m AR attempt at the Pre Classic in July.

Chris Solinsky shatters the 10000m American Record

An historic event occurred last night at Stanford as Chris Solinsky ran 26:59.6 to shatter the American Record that was 27:13.98.  It was a fabulous run but what was more surprising was that this was his debut at the distance and the race had been billed as Galen Rupp's attempt to break the record and Chris upstaged the runner from the sister training group.  Also, Chris becomes the first non-African born runner under 27 minutes.

The IAAF story above has a good recounting of the race and you can see Flotrack's finish of the race but a quick summary is the rabbits took it through mid-race on 27:10 or so pace and then Rupp took over the lead and pulled everyone along with Chelanga, Salel, and Solinsky close behind (Bairu may have been there too).  Rupp made a move with 3 or so to go, Solinsky went with him and passed him with about 2 to go and closed in about 1:56.  Rupp finished 4th in 27:10, breaking Meb's former AR time, but Salel and Chelanga beat him, Chelanga setting a new Collegiate Record.

Quite an impressive race, especially considering it was his debut, but clearly shows he is likely in sub-13 5000m shape which it appears is his goal for the year, or rather breaking Dathan Ritzenhein's AR of 12:56 is the goal.  He'll be running one in Oslo in early June and then another at the Pre-Classic in July.

It is shaping up to be a great summer for American distance running.  Look for Rupp to come back strong and Matt Tegenkamp who went sub-13 last year should have a another go at the AR.  Enjoy!

track links for 2009-04-22: Tyson Gay breaks sprint barriers; Penn and Drake Relays

I'm a big track and field fan so with the start of the outdoor season, I'll start periodic "track links" entries, the first today.

• With sub-45 run, Gay becomes first to break three major sprint barriers - Amazingly, no one else has ever gone sub-10, sub-20, and sub-45.  This could mean a great year for Tyson.
• The Penn Relays - Start today!  Some great early season high school and college action with some "USA vs the World" action thrown in in the relays.
• The Drake Relays - The action isn't only in Philly.  Lagat headlines the invitational mile.
• Comprehensive broadcast schedule - Great resource to see what is on TV and streaming.

University of Washington Invitational Indoor Track Highlights

Being in Seattle, I'm fortunate to get some great indoor track action each winter as UW hosts a number of events at Dempsey Indoor.  Two weeks ago they held the UW Indoor Preview and yesterday was the UW Invitational.

I was there yesterday and being a fan of distance running, was excited to see that Olympians Galen Rupp, Chris Solinsky, and Jen Rhines were all scheduled to run.  Flotrack and Runnerspace were there too and had some good coverage and videos.  But I have my own video of a few races from a different angle (see below).  Flotrack's are better, but hey, I was there and took it so you get it too.

First up was the men's mile with Rupp and Solinsky.  Both of the headliners started out mid-pack but moved up so that they were at the front with a lap to go with Rupp leading.  Coming off the turn with just the straight to go though, Solinsky had taken the lead and would go on to hold off Galen 3:55.75 to 3:56.22.  An outstanding early run for both as they do some under distance racing in preparation for the outdoor season.

In the women's 3000, Jen Rhines and Amy Hastings were the class of the field and went to the front and alternated taking the lead up to 1 lap to go.  With a lap to go, Rhines took off and gapped Hastings, but at the top of the straight, Hastings started to gather her in and with Rhines moving out into lane 2, Hastings had an opening and was able to eke by winning in 8:58.45 to Rhines' 8:58.47.  A great race.

Last, and less than 2 hours after finishing his mile, Rupp came back in the 3000 set to face Scott Bauhs and Aaron Braun.  The three of them separated themselves from the pack mid race and with a lap to go it was the three of them right together.  Braun got a bit of a gap on the back straight, but then Rupp and Bauhs made their move and as they approached the finishing straight Rupp had pulled alongside Braun with Bauhs close behind.  In what may have been his one mistake, Bauhs tried to get in between his competitors but there wasn't room and he had to make a second move outside and came up just short to Rupp's 7:51.48 in 7:51.65 with Braun just 0.03 back at 7:51.68.  Another great race!

From the interview with Galen, it sounds like he'll be in Boston next week to run the 5000 against Lagat and others.  And there will be action back at Dempsey in 2 weeks and I'll try to be there again and post another report.

Here is the video with highlights from all 3 races:

Mid-July Track Update, Paris Golden League, Heusden, and more

It's been several weeks since I wrote about track and field, and with this weekends action in Europe, things are heating up with some good competition, outstanding times by some stars, and standard chasing by some Americans.

The big meet of the weekend was the Paris Golden League event Friday night.  The highlight of the night was Usain Bolt running 9.79 in the 100m for a meet record, made all the more impressive by the conditions he had to run it in (cooling and heavy rain).  It's unfortunate that Bolt and Gay (world leading 9.77 this year) won't meet before the World Championships in Berlin.  The mens 3000m also had an outstanding showing by Bekele running 7:28.64 by taking it out strong behind the pacemaker and slowly building a gap over Lagat.  Lagat still finished well in a PB of 7:33.15 for second and Chris Solinsky ran a solid 7:37.72 for fourth.

In the 400m, Jeremy Wariner won the mens in an ok 45.28 due in part to the wind and rain, but Sanya Richards threw down an impressive 49.34 so the weather cannot have been that bad.  In other women's action standard chasing Maggie Vessey was a DNS in the 800m (tightness in leg during warmup or something, perhaps another shot Tuesday in Gent) but Anna Willard made the USA proud winning and setting a PB in 1:58.80 and this isn't even her event for Berlin!  And in the women's 100m Kerron Stewart continued her impressive year winning handily in 10.99.

The standard chasing continued he Heusden in Belgium on Saturday with a number of good showings.  These were headlined by Matt Tegenkamp running 13:07.97 to get second in the 5000m to meet the A standard making it so his teammate Evan Jager can make the team (has the B standard) joining their other teammate Chris Solinsky and defending champ Bernard Lagat in Berlin.  Jager, dropping down for a little speedwork also set a PB in the 1500 B heat in 3:38.33 so he is running well.  Nate Brannen won the 1500 A heat in 3:36.53 which did not quite meet the A standard.

Heusden was also the site of Pamela Jelimo trying to come back to form after a couple very disappointing times well over 2 minutes, and succeeded winning in 1:59.59.  Leonel Manzano also dropped down in distance to run the 800m and did so successfully finishing in 1:46.20 which I believe is a PB.

Today in Rethymyno Greece there was some good sprint action including LoLo Jones running a world leading 12.47 100m hurdles and Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie running a 22.32 world leader.

This weekend's big meet is the London Super GP where Bolt and Powell will run the 100m, Gay the 200m, and a host of others in other events at the 2 day event, but during this week Gent on Tuesday should see a number of Americans looking to run fast times including Maggie Vessey trying to get sub-2:00 in the 800m.