Weltklasse Zurich DL 2019

[Powell]

Mistakes came happen in a 400...but you have to like her chances!

But the Zurich race makes you wonder whether she hasn't picked the wrong distance for Doha. Seyni could run scary fast if she learns to pace herself right, and Naser looks like she has the potential to run significantly faster. Not saying SMU isn't going to take it, but to me, it seems her risk of losing would be lower in the 200.

[ATK]

IMO SMU is way more of a "lock" in the 400. She doesn't even have to PR and she could likely win the 400m. In the 200m, she could run another PB and still lose if 2 ladies in that race run just slightly slower than their PB.

Regardless though, its clear SMU is a clear double favorite, its just unfortunate the IAAF doesn't know how to take a few hours to write a schedule to accommodate a likely double.

[Per Andersen]

His last hurdle was very good compared to Benjamin, smoother, while Benjamin went up to high.

He is a smoother and more efficient hurdler than Benjamin. Good illustration over the 10th hurdle. Benjamin was too upright while Warholm kept his forward lean. I think Warholm has hurdled much more in his career than Benjamin. As a multievent guy he got down to about 13.4 over the 39" hurdles as a junior.

[Fortius19]

Why??? Last year he improved his best from 48.22 to 47.64 - at the age of 22 and with only two years of experience as a full-time 400 hurdler. It's beyond me why anyone would have thought he had already reached his career peak at that point.

Just the fact that sub-47.5 is rare territory made me think he wouldn't get there. Only 17 guys or so have broken it. There's no standard rate of improvement. Kerron Clement reached his career peak at age 20 and has continued to run for another 14 years or so.

[Per Andersen]

Protsenko winning mHJ with a big SB of 2.32. Who would have seen that coming?

Well, somebody has to get to 2.32 in a big meet and it might as well be Protsenko who has 2.28 before this season + 2.30 from indoors. 2.32. The way it looks now,
2.32 is the new 2.40!
It seems everybody has regressed this season except Mike Mason who won in Paris. He has jumped these heights for years in rain or shine, between 2.26 and 2.33. I have known him for a long time and still think he has a shot at about 2.34 even if he is closing in on 33 years now.

[Weights&Shoes]

- Just WOW at that 400m Hurdles race....hopefully Samba can return for Worlds
- That Womens 200 was great, probably the best curve run I've seen from SMU
- Talk about a down year for the Mens 100...seems wide open

And finally, I would love to meet the person(s) from the IAAF responsible for the WC scheduling. I would love to slap that person upside their head. Stars with potential to do the 200/400 double shouldn't have to claw for a simple schedule adjustment.

Two of today's biggest (and young) stars in T&F run both events (SMU and Mike Norman), you would think the IAAF would want to take advantage of that. I said this before previously in another thread but major championships should always kick off with the 100 and 400 rounds. 400 doublers get one day off before the 200.

Hopefully the IOC gets the schedule right for SMU and Norman to double in Tokyo next year.

[ATK]

Hopefully the IOC gets the schedule right for SMU and Norman to double in Tokyo next year.

And for the rest of eternity....keep the schedule the same so that future stars wont have to deal with this.

[MDelano]

In an earlier post I referred to his 9th hurdle. That was the one he had major problems with. And yes, his recovery from that was very impressive.

Warholm switched from 13 strides to 15 strides after h8. He went 13 strides all the way just a week ago in Paris (47.26) but was nearly bounding between the last 2 hurdles.

Benjamin's last hurdle passage was a bit off because he had to take it with his non-preferred leg, switching from 13 to 14 strides.

[Wiederganger]

IMO SMU is way more of a "lock" in the 400. She doesn't even have to PR and she could likely win the 400m. In the 200m, she could run another PB and still lose if 2 ladies in that race run just slightly slower than their PB.

Up until Zurich, I thought Naser & Seyni could possibly challenge SMU in the 400 in Doha, but now SMU has just knocked 0.35 off her 200 SB and taken it to another level, I feel she just has too much speed for the others to handle. She can run a first 200 much faster and within herself and have more left in the tank.

The only (small) problems I can see are she has only run three 400's this season. Her times have been fast - all sub 49.6 - but a few one-ff races doesn't always reflect what you can do in a Champs after rounds. Naser has been getting a feel for the event all season, and run as fast as she has needed to. However, it's looking like SMU wont have any 200s in her legs, so there wont be any fatigue there like in 2017 (in the 200).

The other problem I saw was the enigmatic talent of Seyni. Up until the African Champs last week, I thought Seyni could spring a surprise, as she will benefit from SMU, not the other way round i.e SMU will pull Seyni to a faster opening 200, and she'll be closer, and could that be close enough to run past her with her phenomenal finish? But after Seyni's terrible 100 races at the AChamps, she just doesnt have the speed to hang on at all.

SMU could, and should, be jumping past Perec on the all-time lists by the time we exit Doha. That's too much for Naser & Seyni.

On the 200, Thompson's run reminded me of her Oslo run in 2016. She looks like she is back in a heavy training cycle. My instinct is that we will still see her winning in Doha in sub 22. But either way, let's not forget, we still have OVER FOUR WEEKS before the 200 in Doha! I think some people keep forgetting that. A lot can and will happen in these coming weeks.

[LuckySpikes]

how about winning the WC first?

Times-wise it's already the best season by any 400H athlete ever.