Penn Relays 2012

[iain]

Start lists for USA vs The World are now up:
http://pennrelaysonline.com/Results/sch ... R_CONTENT=

Britain is down to run in the women's 4x400m and short medley. I would imagine the 4x400m will be Cox-Sanders-Ohuruogu-Shakes-Drayton (not neccassarily in that order). The medley might have Abi on a 200m leg and Simpson on the 800m, but that still leaves a 200m and 400m leg. Any idea who they might be?

[jjimbojames]

They really are going all out on the w4x400m this year, aren't they

As for the medley team - last time we did it, TBO and Nicola did the 200s, PSD the 400 and Jemma the 800m, so it could be anyone, depending on who's out there. Assuming the 4x400m girls are not doubling, I'd say it's more likely to be just who's training group is around. Is Linford's group going, as Adeoye's in good shape?

[iain]

Preview:
http://usatf.org/News/Record-internatio ... EM_ID=1720

[SteveK26]

I'm very interested to see how P S-D performs outdoors , after her good indoor world champs.
It really is time for her to revise her PB's (flat and hurdles) radically this year. She stalled in 2011, but I hope this year she makes the breakthrough into the 53's. Her early season relay splits will be interesting, and she certainly made a great start indoors.
I think most fans on this board think she has the talent to approach Sally Gunnells record; will she get close in 2012?

[jjimbojames]

If they stick with the same order as the WI, I'd say this is the order they expect to keep all year, however I'd quite like to see them move the girls around a bit - losing at Penn doesn't make a blind bit of difference and will let them try things out

PSD-Nicola-Shana-TBO would be interesting to see

[richard1980]

Id like to see them change it up too. Watched Nicola`s 400 at MT Sac online - she looked full of speed for 300m, went steaming into the bend.....then conked out. On her sky sports blog she and coach are currently trying to resolve the lingering endurance issue. I think these will be the 4 for the 4x4 final in London though! 4 girls who could/should all run sub 51 legs! Interesting to see that Christine clocks.

[sidelined]

Id like to see them change it up too. Watched Nicola`s 400 at MT Sac online - she looked full of speed for 300m, went steaming into the bend.....then conked out. On her sky sports blog she and coach are currently trying to resolve the lingering endurance issue. I think these will be the 4 for the 4x4 final in London though! 4 girls who could/should all run sub 51 legs! Interesting to see that Christine clocks.

What about Lee McConnell? She was faster than Nicola and Shana last year.

[mump boy]

Lee has never run a bad relay and should be on the team over box Shana and Nicola in current form (obviously i have no idea what lee's form is )

[jjimbojames]

Teams are out!

Looks like the 4x400 line up is Nicola-TBO-Shana-PSD, which should give a little more info. Opposition is fierce though - USA team could well be their London line up, whilst JAM is at least 3/4 full. Nicola will probably be 3rd at changeover, giving TBO something to chase down

SMR is Shana (200m) - TBO (200m) - PSD (400m) - Maz (800m)

http://www.usatf.org/News/USA-vs--The-W ... neups.aspx

[trickstat]

Id like to see them change it up too. Watched Nicola`s 400 at MT Sac online - she looked full of speed for 300m, went steaming into the bend.....then conked out.

In my experience, athletes lacking in race fitness have a tendency to fade in the last quarter of a race whatever the distance.

[damienc]

GB women finish second in medley relay behind the US. Only know Maz ran a 2.03 last 800!

[jjimbojames]

GB women finish second in medley relay behind the US. Only know Maz ran a 2.03 last 800!

Good placing but slow times. I wonder if the first three girls were saving themselves for the 4x4 in a couple of hours, as we must have been a couple of seconds behind JAM before Maz got the baton, looking at 800m splits

[paul]

http://pennrelaysonline.com/Results/results.aspx?en=446

Take out Korene Hinds and put in Kenia Sinclair instead,
and Jamaica would have been close to the WR,
so I doubt if GB were holding back!

[jjimbojames]

I was comparing the times to that WR - 8 seconds away from it, when the winning 800m was 2.02 seems a bit slow. Maybe conditions aren't great, but even with Kenia, the USA team would be 3 seconds off the 2009 time

[paul]

Yes. But I was giving Kenia to Jamaica, (a) because she's Jamaican and (b) because they led
at the last exchange.

ANyone got a stream for this BTW?

[jjimbojames]

I get that, my point was that Shana, TBO and PSD between them took over 1 minute 40. If we guesstimate PSD took 51 and bits (Indoor split) that would mean the 200s averaged around 24 seconds each for our girls

So either the 200s were slow, or PSD didn't run that quick

Haven't seen any links - hopefully someone is capturing them for YouTube...

[Guto Nyth Bran]

Not a stream but this is a running text commentary.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pret ... elays.html

[jjimbojames]

On the SMR results page there's a few photos - looks like Maz may have gone out a bit quick, as she got the stick behind the US, but is a couple of strides ahead in the next photo, but ends up losing by a smaller margin. Hopefully she'll be a bit stronger as the season progresses

[Guto Nyth Bran]

I get that, my point was that Shana, TBO and PSD between them took over 1 minute 40. If we guesstimate PSD took 51 and bits (Indoor split) that would mean the 200s averaged around 24 seconds each for our girls

So either the 200s were slow, or PSD didn't run that quick

Haven't seen any links - hopefully someone is capturing them for YouTube...

PSD's split was 52.4.

[Guto Nyth Bran]

Women's 4x400
1 USA 1 3:21.18
2 JAM 3.36.55
3 USA 2 3.27.08
4 GBR 3.28.71

Sanders ?
TBO ?
Cox 51.4
PSD 52.1

[Ecosse]

I'm guessing Christine ran around 52.4 looking at those times- not as promising as the indoors.

[Guto Nyth Bran]

Delano Williams ran a 46.5 split for his Jamaican school in the heats of the 4x400.
Backed it up with a 45.8 as they won the final.

[bevone]

Is there a feed for results? Having lived and coached inthe US in the mid 90's I dont think people over here really get how strong the US is. One year at the mt sac the high school teams were running 3.08 to 3.10 and there were something like 10 sub 46 second relay clockings (the 3.08 in 1997 was the hs record as foudn in the penn state programme - i won the jav that year which you can also see iin the records). two boys at the same HS ran 45 relay legs!!!! the uni teams were posting 2.59 to 3.03 as well. Two US teams beat out indoor world champs (Ok they are not in season yet) and i would be interested to see what the best college teams did. I believe standards have dropped in some events because the women basktball professional league is an outlet for women to make money in sport. However, many uni performances do not appear in the rankings unless doen at the main championships so the depth is hidden somewhat. Many of the football teams have quality sprinters who stop running track in uni. When I was out there, the european 400 u20 champion could not get into their varsity team until the third year and that was just the relay. It is a different world over there in schools especially.

[Guto Nyth Bran]

Is there a feed for results? Having lived and coached inthe US in the mid 90's I dont think people over here really get how strong the US is. One year at the mt sac the high school teams were running 3.05 to 3.08 and there were something like 10 sub 46 second relay clockings. the uni teams were posting 2.59 to 3.03 as well. Two US teams beat out indoor world champs (Ok they are not in season yet) and i would be interested to see what the best college teams did. I believe standards have dropped in some events because the women basktball professional league is an outlet for women to make money in sport. However, many uni performances do not appear in the rankings unless doen at the main championships so the depth is hidden somewhat. Many of the football teams have quality sprinters who stop running track in uni. When I was out there, the european 400 u20 champion could not get into their varsity team until the third year and that was just the relay. It is a different world over there in schools especially.

http://pennrelaysonline.com/Results/schedule.aspx

[mump boy]

I'm guessing Christine ran around 52.4 looking at those times- not as promising as the indoors.

Considering 3/4 of our team had already run earlier in the day and it is april there is nothing wrong with this result. I'm actually glad our girls don't feel the need to be running super fast this time of year, i'd rather they were peaking in Aug

[Ecosse]

I'm guessing Christine ran around 52.4 looking at those times- not as promising as the indoors.

Considering 3/4 of our team had already run earlier in the day and it is april there is nothing wrong with this result. I'm actually glad our girls don't feel the need to be running super fast this time of year, i'd rather they were peaking in Aug

For sure yeah, we shouldn't be expecting the fast times at this time in the season, it's just that they ran a wee bit better at the indoors than yesterday. If the Americans and especially Sanya Richards can carry this form right through till August it would be very impressive.

[bevone]

In fairness to some of our athletes, i think we should be managing expectations. The world 4x00 team on paper should have won and did. Outdoors, however, there are Russians, USA and Jamiacans who have better teams on paper and if we have one athlete posting a 52 leg we will be looking at making finals at best. The last OG we had 4-5 4th and 5ths and the team was improving at all levels but they got rid of Collins and most of his staff and the five or six performance centres which seemed to be working. The challenge was to turn those into medals and bring on the next generation.

Traditionally the home team does better at their own games and let us hope this is luck aspect that can change some of those 4th and 5ths into medals in london 2012.

[iain]

http://pennrelaysonline.com/Results/results.aspx?en=476
The third photo here seems to show that GB had a very bad first exchange.

[Guto Nyth Bran]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahutiPcQ ... e=youtu.be
Here's the 4x4

[SteveK26]

Having just watched the video, it seems that Nicola was over two seconds adrift (at least) of the lead Americans on leg one. That left GB in no mans land on the next three legs.
We need all four legs to compete if a medal is to be won in London.