Teen Sensation Athing Mu
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
• ALL THE BEST IN RUNNING, JUMPING & THROWING • www.trackandfieldnews.com MAY 2021 The U.S. Outdoor Season Explodes Athing Mu Sets Collegiate 800 Record American Records For DeAnna Price & Keturah Orji T&FN Interview: Shalane Flanagan Special Focus: U.S. Women’s 5000 Scene Hayward Field Finally Makes Its Debut NCAA Formchart Faves: Teen LSU Men, USC Women Sensation Athing Mu Track & Field News The Bible Of The Sport Since 1948 AA WorldWorld Founded by Bert & Cordner Nelson E. GARRY HILL — Editor JANET VITU — Publisher EDITORIAL STAFF Sieg Lindstrom ................. Managing Editor Jeff Hollobaugh ................. Associate Editor BUSINESS STAFF Ed Fox ............................ Publisher Emeritus Wallace Dere ........................Office Manager Teresa Tam ..................................Art Director WORLD RANKINGS COMPILERS Jonathan Berenbom, Richard Hymans, Dave Johnson, Nejat Kök SENIOR EDITORS Bob Bowman (Walking), Roy Conrad (Special AwaitsAwaits You.You. Projects), Bob Hersh (Eastern), Mike Kennedy (HS Girls), Glen McMicken (Lists), Walt Murphy T&FN has operated popular sports tours since 1952 and has (Relays), Jim Rorick (Stats), Jack Shepard (HS Boys) taken more than 22,000 fans to 60 countries on five continents. U.S. CORRESPONDENTS Join us for one (or more) of these great upcoming trips. John Auka, Bob Bettwy, Bret Bloomquist, Tom Casacky, Gene Cherry, Keith Conning, Cheryl Davis, Elliott Denman, Peter Diamond, Charles Fleishman, John Gillespie, Rich Gonzalez, Ed Gordon, Ben Hall, Sean Hartnett, Mike Hubbard, ■ 2022 The U.S. Nationals/World Champion- ■ World Track2023 & Field Championships, Dave Hunter, Tom Jennings, Roger Jennings, Tom ship Trials. Dates and site to be determined, Budapest, Hungary. The 19th edition of the Jordan, Kim Koffman, Don Kopriva, Dan Lilot, but probably Eugene in late June. 4-5 day IAAF World Championships will be held Paul Merca, Larry Newman, Lee Nichols, Rich tour. This is certain to be a fantastic meet at the Hungarian capital’s beautiful track Perelman, Becca Peter, Jack Pfeifer, Shawn Price, as it will determine the team for the World stadium, August 19-27 (new dates). Buda- Harv Rentschler, Kirk Reynolds, Michael J. Roth, Championships in Eugene in July. $100 pest is a delightful travel destination, with Brian Russell, Rich Sands, Kevin Saylors, Charles deposit per person now accepted. lots to see and do. And we’re sure to offer Shaffer, Jim Spier, Jesse Squire, Don Steffens, Larry Story, Paul Swangard, Carol R. Swenson, Gary an attractive Diamond League extension ■ World Track & Field Championships. Trigueiro, Jules Trigueiro, Steve Vaitones, Howard before or after the Championships. $250 Willman, David Woods Eugene, OR, July 15-24, 2022. The first out- per person deposit now accepted. door Worlds to be held in the USA. Lodging INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS at the Village Green resort in Cottage Grove (busing included) and at motels in Eugene. Ian Hodge, Jonas Hedman, Mike Hurst, Mirko ■ 2024 Jalava, Paul Jenes, Alfons Juck, A. Lennart Julin, Almost 300 signed U.S. Olympic Trials. Dates and site to Duncan Mackay, Peter Matthews, Phil Minshull, up already. Current be determined. Probably late June. $100 deposit now accepted. Jon Mulkeen, K. Ken Nakamura, Bob Ramsak, deposit require- Sergey Tikhonov, Chris Turner, Mel Watman ment is $2,100 per ■ person for this his- 2024 Games, Paris. Dates are July 26-August 11. $100 deposit now accepted. PHOTOGRAPHERS PARIS toric meet. Claus Andersen, Errol Anderson, Greg Armstrong, John Burke, Gladys Chai, Rich Clarkson, Giancarlo BUDAPEST Colombo, Tony Duffy, Jean-Pierre Durand, Don www.trackandfieldnews.com/tours Gosney, Jeff Jacobsen, Anthony R. Jones, Kirby EUGENE Lee, Bill Leung, Jiro Mochizuki, Kevin Morris, David Peterson, Shawn Price, Victor Sailer, Mike TRACK & FIELD NEWS TOURS Scott, Mark Shearman, Kim Spir 2570 W El Camino Real, Suite 220 Track & Field News was published continually as Mountain View, CA 94040 a print magazine from its inception in February of 1948 through the December 2017 issue. The Phone 650-948-8188 / Fax 650/948-9445 2018 issues (January through December) were E-mail: [email protected] produced in digital-only format. Track & Field News May 2021 — 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume 74, No. 5 May 2021 From The Editor — What’s Your Favorite Olympic Men’s 1500? ...........................4 Texas Relays — Tara Davis Joins The 23-Foot Club ......................................5 Hayward Field Is Once Again Open For Business! ......................................8 JTG #1 — Hurdler Kenny Selmon Is Back. .9 JTG #2 — Blistering 100 For Sha’Carri Richardson. .11 DeAnna Price Raises Her American Hammer Record ...................................12 Johnnie Blockburger Emerges As 400 Find Of The Year .................................14 Collegiate & American Junior Records For Athing Mu ..................................15 Tom Jones Memorial — Much Speed On Display ......................................16 JoVaughn Martin Dashes Out Of Nowhere To Share World Lead .........................18 Drake Relays/JTG #3 — The Pros Show Fine Form .....................................19 U.S. Men’s 5000 Scene: The Kids Are Alright ..........................................21 USATF GP/JTG #4 — Shaunae Miller-Uibo Blazes A 49.08 ...............................22 High Schooler Hobbs Kessler Mixes It Up With The Pros ................................24 LSU Alumni Gold — Collegiate 400 Lead To Noah Williams .............................25 Keturah Orji Raises American Triple Jump Record .....................................27 2021 NCAA Men’s Formchart #2 — LSU Looks Unbeatable ..............................28 2021 NCAA Women’s Formchart #2 — USC Has New Challenger ........................30 2021 NCAA Outdoor Time Schedule .................................................32 Eliud Kipchoge’s Olympic Warmup: 2:04:30 ...........................................33 Paige Sommers Scales New Prep Outdoor High Of 14-8½ ...............................34 Focus On The U.S. Women’s 5000 ...................................................35 Karissa Schweizer Is Ready For Some Real Racing .....................................37 Shannon Rowbury — Not Fade Away ................................................38 Jenny Simpson Still Going Strong… But In Which Event? ...............................39 Rachel Schneider Turns To Longer Distances ..........................................41 T&FN Interview — Shalane Flanagan ................................................42 ON YOUR MARKS ...............................................................47 LANDMARKS ...................................................................48 STATUS QUO ....................................................................49 TRACK SHORTS .................................................................50 LAST LAP ......................................................................52 FOR THE RECORD ...............................................................54 U.S. CALENDAR .................................................................55 • cover photo of Athing Mu by Errol Anderson/The Sporting Image • Track & Field News May 2021 — 3 FROM THE EDITOR — What’s Your Favorite Olympic Men’s 1500? TACTICS? Based on recent conversation on our Message Board, themselves in the foot by not selecting Seb Coe… /Cordner Nelson/ there are still those who think that Matthew Centrowitz’s Rio 1500 1992 — Fermín Cacho 3:40.12 win was a rather feeble performance, based on how slow it was. I, The victory of wildly popular Fermín Cacho was not really a on the other hand, rate it as the second best Olympic men’s 1500 I’ve generous gift for his own achievement and the glory of Spain. It seen in my 50-plus years at T&FN. only looked that way. To begin with, the field was so decimated by What a masterful display of tactical running it was! One of those injuries and accidents as to become the weakest of the men’s events, races where — for me at least — the clock was completely irrelevant with a crop of young runners taking over… /Cordner Nelson/ as Centro outthought a high-powered field in the beginning and outraced them at the end. The fact that his winning time was the 1996 — Noureddine Morceli 3:35.78 slowe s t s i nc e 1932 i s i r r e le va nt; it wa s rac i ng e nt e r t a i n me nt at it s f i n e s t . Even slow pacing and a late-race melee couldn’t obscure a mag- So which of the 12 Games 1500s I’ve seen since starting at the n i f ic e nt p e r for m a nc e. No u r e dd i n e Mor c e l i, s o s or e ly d i s app oi nt e d i n magazine was more entertaining than Centro’s? That would have to Barcelona, romped the final 800 in 1:48.8 to emphatically nail down be Hicham El Guerrouj vs. Bernard Lagat, Athens ’04. I wasn’t in the the only missing link in his legacy as the world’s greatest miler. announcing booth at that point, and was standing about 20 rows from “It was a very special moment in my life,” he said… /Sean Hartnett/ the track about 50m from the finish. The perfect vantage point as 2000 — Noah Ngeny 3:32.07 OR the two superstars went at it, hammer & tongs, up the final straight. One of the great finishing duels of all time, in any event at any meet. The 1500 echoed of Noureddine Morceli in ’92, prematurely an- But the bottom line is that there are no bad Olympic 1500s; some nointed by virtue of his undefeated world champion season in ’91. are just greater than others. To illustrate what I mean, what follows, There were also echoes of Jim Ryun in ’68, also undefeated in the c