Track and Field
I became more mesmerized by Allyson Felix with each round of the 200m. If ever anyone could be thought of as a beautiful two-legged gazelle, it is she. I know the Jamaican girls seem poised to repeat their dominance, but I think Felix will be a spoiler in London in the 200m.
(“US Trials: Preview of Olympian Feats to Come,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 2, 2012)
This quote only hints at how fond I am of Allyson Felix. Hence, I was crestfallen when injury prevented her from qualifying in the 200m, after qualifying in the 400m, at the U.S. Trials. Not least because this would have made it easier for me to root against her in the 400m knowing that she had the 200m pending to defend as reigning Olympic champion.
As things stood tonight, I had a born duty to root for fellow Bahamian Shaunae Miller to win the Women’s 400m. Granted, it helped that Miller displays all of Felix’s speed and grace – only in a much taller frame. She’s 6’1”.
- Shaunae Miller of The Bahamas won gold in 49.44; Allyson Felix of the USA, silver; and Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, bronze.
Of course, there was nothing graceful about Miller’s dive across the finish line to win by the tip of her titty, tit, tits (i.e., 0.07 of a second). On the other hand, her lane assignment (7) was almost as disadvantageous as Wayde van Niekerk’s (8) in the Men’s 400m. So I’ll cut her some slack…. Not to mention turnabout being fair play, given that American David Neville took an uncannily similar dive to deny Bahamian Chris Brown a medal of any kind in the Men’s 400m at Beijing 2008.
But, hey man, it’s Better in The Bahamas tonight! Especially given that this is our first medal of these Games. Now the world knows why the then relatively unknown Miller carried our flag during the Opening Ceremony.
Perhaps Felix can derive some consolation from the fact that she is now the most decorated athlete in the history of American Track and Field – with 4 golds and 3 silvers.
Speaking of my fondness for certain athletes:
If you tune in to watch Emma Coburn of the United States win the Women’s 3000 Steeplechase, you’ll see why she had my eyes glued to the TV for the 9:32.38 time it took for her to win the trials in this event. (Time for a cold shower…?)
(“US Trials: Preview of Olympian Feats to Come,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 2, 2012)
Well, I wasn’t that hot and bothered, but you get the point.
Alas, she did not make the podium at London 2012, finishing 8th. And midway through this race, it looked like Coburn would be denied at Rio 2016 too. Because that’s when a tiny, 19-year-old rent-a-runner from Kenya, competing for Bahrain, took off like a bat out of hell, and the only runners who seemed capable of giving chase were two of her former compatriots.
But then a funny thing happened on the way to the podium. Coburn would not be denied. She actually looked like a white Canadian lynx chasing after three black Siamese cats.
The only question was whether, like most predators, she would settle for catching the slowest one or go after the fastest. She settled.
- Ruth Jebet of Bahrain won gold in 8:59.75; Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi of Kenya, silver; and Emma Coburn of the USA, bronze.
But, given her “traitorous” victory, it behooves Jebet to think long and hard before returning home to visit family….
Field Events
“Field” is clearly the underappreciated stepbrother of “Track” in this sport. As a case in point, I challenge you to name the winner of a single Field event from London 2012…?
To be honest, the only reason I remember the winner of the Women’s Pole vault is that Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia has been all over the news lately pleading her case, to no avail, against that infamous IAAF ban.
Apropos of which, Darya Klishina of Russia won her appeal just yesterday to participate as her country’s only competitor in Track and Field. She’ll compete in the Women’s Long Jump, which gets underway tomorrow. She’s not a medal contender, but her ordeal alone should inspire interest in how she performs.
Beyond this, I can’t think of another Field event I’m particularly interested in watching.
Mind you, if Usain Bolt were as good an athlete as either Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis, I would’ve been interested in watching him compete in the Men’s Long Jump (or any other field event to demonstrate his mastery of Track and Field). As it happens, I merely caught highlights of an American-led upset of defending Olympic champion Greg Rutherford on Saturday.
- Jeff Henderson of the USA won gold in 8.38m (27’4”); Luvo Manyonga of South Africa, silver; and Greg Rutherford of Great Britain, bronze.
Weightlifting
There hasn’t been much (Western) interest in Olympic weightlifting since Montreal 1976, when larger-than-life Vasiliy Ivanovich Alekseyev of the Soviet Union commanded rock-star attention.
In fact, watching coverage of Rio 2016 from America, you’d be forgiven for having no clue that weightlifting is an Olympic sport. To be fair, this might have something to do with quadrennial results, which suggest that a Westerner winning gold in weightlifting is as improbable as an Easterner winning gold in Track sprinting.
Sure enough, this is how results are playing out: Westerners have won only 2 of the 42 medals awarded in women’s and men’s weightlifting to date, and those two were bronze.
This is a curious thing, of course. After all, given the average size of Americans alone, one would have thought they would be better (natural) weightlifters than, say, Kazakhs or Uzbeks, who are atop the medals leaderboard in this sport. I’m just sayin’.
Apropos of the “Great Alekseyev”, a field of 17 – not one Westerner among them – competed in the Men’s 105kg class today for acclaim as the “world’s strongest man.” Those in “Group A” lifted medals follows:
- Ruslan Nurundinov of Uzbekistan won gold; Simon Martirosyan of Armenia, silver; and Alexandr Zaichikov of Kazakhstan, bronze.
Meanwhile, 6’8″, 414-pound American Brian Shaw is currently down in Botswana, Africa, defending his title in the annual competition to determine “The World’s Strongest Man.”
And it’s easy to believe he really is the strongest, given that Shaw defeated no less a strongman than “The Mountain” from Game of Thrones (aka Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson of Iceland) for the title last year.
MEDAL COUNT: USA – 75; China – 46; Great Britain – 41
Related commentaries:
US trials….
IAAF bans Russia…