Those last two laps were insane. Second last lap 61 seconds and last lap 56. The crazy thing is in the last 150m Mo looked like a 400m runner, not a 10,000m man. Plus almost getting body checked off the track with 300m to go and pulling himself together. Also awesome race by our young Canadian Mo Ahmed taking 28 seconds off his PB coming in at 27.02 and setting a Canadian record too.

Here is the crazy part....the guys getting lapped were sub 28 men!!!!

 

ultimate compliment....Usein doing the big "M"

From my calculation Mo ran a 4:05 final mile at the end of a 10,000m. They would basically be only a few second off Bannister and Landy's early attempts at the sub 4 mile after an 8400m "run commute" to the start line of that mile.

OK, bring on the a big day saturday....400m heats with Van Niekerk from South Africa, womens 100m with Schippers and Thompson and 100m finals. The crazy thing about the 100m semi finals is there are 3 athletes from Japan and that kid Brown looked really awesome. this bodes really well for Japan in the 4x100m next weekend, probably proving their medal in Rio was no fluke. Bolt is in the heat with Christian Coleman, season's best 9.82! Bummer that deGrasse from Canada (Olympic 100m bronze and 200m silver) is out with a hamstring tear during training on Monday!!!

In this morning's 400m qualifying session Wade Van Niekerk from South Africa barely qualified. Not sure what happened as I am just looking at the IAAF results page but it shows him as the 16th qualifier in the a tourist time of 45.27. Maybe he had the auto qual and just shut it down. Meanwhile Maklawa cranked out a 44.55 for the first qual time.

Well not what I was hoping for but honestly Gatlin kind of grew on me in the last day in the interviews that I heard and today, with this he totally won me over:

You know I am not a fan of Gatlin. But I feel sad that he gets booed.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

The guy has been banned for doping twice. As far as I'm concerned he shouldn't be in the sport. Pretty relaxed about people booing him.

Not sure what happened as I am just looking at the IAAF results page but it shows him as the 16th qualifier in the a tourist time of 45.27. Maybe he had the auto qual and just shut it down.

I watched and it looked like he was going out for a Sunday jog in the first 150 meters. Maybe he just took it too easy and in the 400, it's hard to turn on a switch and make up ground later. It looked to me like he knew he didn't have to go too hard to qualify, maybe he miscalculated what he could get away with.

I really enjoyed the 10,000, it looked like a rugby match in the last 200m. It's incredible watching Farah, he knew he had the strongest kick and just seemed to set himself up for the last 100m and wait until he had to and just kicked.

Also great to see Mohammed Ahmed set a Canadian record. It's hard to believe that a finishing time of 27:02 will "only" get you 8th place.

What happened today in womens 10,000 & mens 100 was T&F killing itself. What an absolute farce. And 24hrs after the medal ceremony for silver/bronze Goucher/Pavy respectively earned 10 years ago.

Nevermind last nights mens 10,000. Really? Undefeated for 6 years but won squat before moving to Salazar. While the race itself most exciting in a decade with crazy lap fluctuations its not believable.

I have to get myself to a place i have with cycling. Treat it like sport entertainment like my love for NFL, NHL because today was an utter joke.

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@rhyspencer

OK, in the women's 10,000m final that was a bit too good to be true.....but Rhys, enjoy the show. I have one image for you. Just memorize it and then watch the track show like we watch Contador, or Vino, or NFL or Premier League (hopefully not Kona or ITU, but I'll also believe that when hell freezes over....not pointing to anyone in particular in the pro field, but with 50 men at Kona, well there are some that are just as doped as in the 100m finals) ...it's all the same thing over and over and over. Hopefully the testers can keep enough a lid on it to keep it kind of level:

Thats not the dirtiest race in history anymore. Womens LONDON 2012 1500 is.

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@rhyspencer

What this means is he was stupid enough to get caught twice. I can't imagine that all 9 finalists were on bread and water today. I don't love Gatlin in the same way I don't love Vino.

Serious question. If you were working at Jamaica anti doping, Russia Anti Doping, or Kenya anti doping, what incentive do you really have from your national media or government to catch your guys. It's pretty well the same incentive that the owner of the Patriots or Manchester United or Bjarne Riis had to bust their own players. The entire system is screwed up. National Anti doping agencies can't possibly have a proper incentive to bust their own nation. It's almost like you need Russian anti doping guys busting Americans, Americans busting Chinese, Chinese busting Germans, Germans busting Kenyans, Manchester United busting Juventus.

Busting your own superstars? Well the entire system is broken, the busting of Lance by his own country being a notable exception. If the Spanish Anti doping were in charge of busting British or South African or US stars ITU stars, and everyone trying to do out of competition on each other, then we're talking.

Just a quick thought. With one of the slowest 100's in recent memory at a championship or Olympics, any chance we actually saw one of the cleaner groups in the 100m finals?

Seoul 1988

9.79, 9.92, 9.99, 10.04, 10:11, 10:11, 12:26

London 2017

9.92, 9:94, 9:95, 9.99, 10;01, 10:08, 10:17, 10:27

Throwing out Ray Stewart's 12:26 and Ben's 9.79 we're looking at not much different field today,

Announcers for CBC in Canada said headwind so times slower. I do think it's "cleaner" in sense not taking horse steroids (or such high powered anabolic) but still dirty. My belief is Salazar program and USA sprint athletes are on micro doses of drugs that WADA doesn't even know about or that are technically legal (such as thyroid mess for distance runners)

Ethiopia is rife with EPO. I mean Ayana coach busted and she lapped the fucking field. That is so blatantly BS

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@rhyspencer

Possibly. Although Gatlin is running quicker now "clean" than when he was doping.

...at 35yrs old.

I'm glad he was booed.

OK, all you guys piling on Gatlin, and rightfully so, but do you guys think the rest of the field were choirboys, and you only deserve to get boo'd after you are busted, but if you'd all turbo'd up and smart enough to not get caught, then its fine? If that is the case, I can see booing someone for just being stupid enough to get caught and cheering those guys smart enough to not get caught.

In all seriousness, of all athletes in track Gatlin probably pissed me off the most, but whatever. If Bolt was busted tomorrow, I would not be surprised nor disappointed. I am just assuming he's using everything that he can that is either legal or not detectable. If he happens to be a bread and water guy, then then that would be a bonus just like it would be a bonus if Froome is on bread and water only. But I'll just watch the show and not get too surprised either way and hope the testers are doing their jobs.

That stumble was scary I don't know how he didn't turn his ankle. It was a good race. What I think is cool is how varied track seems to have got these day. The Ugandan guy in second place. Not even on my radar. South Africa has all sorts of good runners. Things are slowly getting better in Africa I think.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Bolt has passed every drug test thrown at him in the last 10 years. It would be naive to state, categorically, he's therefore clean, but he has to be given the benefit of the doubt irrespective of how dirty the world of sprinting is.

Bolt has passed every drug test thrown at him in the last 10 years.


So, people really haven't learned anything from that whole Lance thing...

Lance failed at least 6 tests, I believe, Bolt hasn't failed one.