Sprinters to Watch this Year....

Jeffery Demps will come of age this year. I have a funny feeling he could produce something special on the track this year.

Anyone know of any other sprinters coming through?

What happened to that young Azerbaijan lad?

Frightening to think... at this years World Championships in Daegu the Jamaicans will be able to enter 4 100m runners. Bolt/Powell/Blake/Carter... As it looks on current form.

Does that mean that Steve Mullings with a PB of 9.89 (this year) may not even be in the individual event? He will just be a reserve for the relay squad???

How many countries can boast this kind of form? Or have ever been able to boast that kind of form...?

How is our (GB) 5th best sprinter doing?

*chuckle* To be honest, given the class of Usain Bolt, who's an automatic qualifier as defending champion, and the current form of Yohan Blake and Steve Mullings, as well as taking into account Michael Frater's last season's rise to the very elite, I would be more worried about whether Asafa Powell could make that quartet!

As regards the Americans, apart from Tyson Gay I tip Walter Dix to dip under 9.8 secs and I also count Justin Gatlin a lot, showing glimpses of his old form again. Keep an eye on Mike Rodgers too and I would agree on Jeff Demps though I don't know how much competing in two different sport could affect his chances. Rakieem Salaam and Maurice Mitchell are interesting new names too.

Coming to the British sprinters, I feel that Dwain Chambers is looking more and more like 9.8 stuff and that he's going to take over from Linford Christie as British record holder deep into the season.

From there on, my main tip to go sub 10 this season would be James Dasaolu if he can keep in one piece and go on a lengthy healthy run through the season. Simeon Williamson will be very much of an unknown quantity until he steps onto the track having missed so much action since 2009, HAA has recovered quickly from his hamstring injury and that's good news, as has MLF, and both could go from low 10.0s to even sub 10 secs.

Marlon Devonish and Craig Pickering look solid in these early stages where James Ellington could turn a big surprise this term and Christian Malcolm looks like he could run faster than ever over the distance.

Hello everyone, left 606 a long time ago due to the utter farce that the athletics board became, I would just like to say that this board is a breath of fresh air, well done (particularly Isabre).

Isabre, I totally agree on the potential of pretty much everyone you've just named, I would especially love to see DC have a late career flourish before he retires. However, I suspect what we will see is the Jamaicans and Americans will find it much more easy to break through to world-class and the Brits will struggle aside from a few encouraging performances in the low 10.xxs. This has happened every year for nearly the last decade. Why do people think we brits have struggled to break through in the short sprint lately?

(as a footnote, this is not intended to be aluding to anything some of you may suspect, let's for the sake of argument assume beyond doubt that everyone is clean, as we must until proven otherwise)

ps. ryanbailey, I think you are referring to Ramil Guliyev, who has tried to change allegiance to Turkey, but Azerbaijan complained and his results he will have to represent Azerbaijan for 3 more years.

As for his performances, he had a mediocre year last year so it's anyone's guess what he will do this year and if he can build on his excellent 2009

Welcome aboard Bigjon!

Over the weekend the BBC were strangely unmoved by Betty Heidler's Hammer World Record and ran a story about Jason Smyth instead. Smyth, from the City of Derry Club, improved his Northern Ireland record to 10.22 in Clermont, Florida. He is bidding to become one of the few athletes to compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games - he is visually impaired due to Stargardt's disease. In running 10.22 Smyth now has the B standard - I'm guessing he will align himself to the Republic of Ireland to make sure he selected unless he runs well inside 10.1 soon.

In terms of young British prospects - Danny Talbot is stringing a set of good performances together - last year I was encouraged by the progress of Tremayne Gilling and James Ellington, if they improve this year they should be high up in the rankings. Adam Gemili has come from nowhere to clock a windy 10.29 at the weekend. Word has it that Gemili, 17, is new to the sport so he could be capable of some dramatic improvements in the next year or so.

Welcome aboard BigJonAtkinson!

Actually, I've forgot to name Danny Talbot among the British sprinters to share the spotlight this season over 100m as I more of reckoned with him over the 200m. But after that huge early PB of 10.21 on Sunday he's definitely rising as an outside bet at least in the short dash territory.

Adam Gemili was ranked number 2 in the country last year at Under 17 level whilst apparently not a member of a club and presumably uncoached. Amongst those he beat was Ryan Scott who had a very good indoor season over 60m a couple of years back.

Talking of Danny Talbot, here's his 10.21 PB on Sunday courtesy of Athleticos Live:

http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/238787-2011-Loughborough-International-Athletics/video/491738-100m-Invitation-A-Men

Adam Gemili seems to have taken up athletics in earnest at the end of 2009 as last year was his first virtual season on the track. I guess that following that 10.29 (2.4m/sec) his official PB of 10.73 secs is set for some massive revision.

Triple European champ Christophe Lemaitre laid down a solid 10.08 with a slight tailwind (+0.6) and claimed he cramped up halfway through and predicted a possible dip under 10 seconds when he faces Powell and Bolt in Rome.

Has there ever been so many active sprinters capable of sub-10? It's a dizzying exercise trying to think about who might possibly line up for the final in Daegu.

bigjonatkinson wrote:ps. ryanbailey, I think you are referring to Ramil Guliyev, who has tried to change allegiance to Turkey, but Azerbaijan complained and his results he will have to represent Azerbaijan for 3 more years.

Ramil Guliyev will be probably waiting until he comes eligible to compete for Turkey as it seems since he posted a national record of 20.73 secs over 200m at Izmir on Sunday, cited as a Turk on the European Lists.

Dwain Chambers is around number 8 in the world rankings right now. Very close to many of those above him so looks a good bet to be a finalist in Daegu.

By the way, Justin Gatlin ran 20.20 (1.9m/sec) over 200m last weekend in Clermont in Florida so he's starting looking more and more like himself.

Just to let you know that I tweeted this article to Joice Maduaka who very kindly retweeted it to her followers.

Hobo wrote:Just to let you know that I tweeted this article to Joice Maduaka who very kindly retweeted it to her followers.

hahaha... I know, I saw it on Twitter myself earlier on, nice of Joice to take in interest in it.

Maybe we should talk about some female sprinters since Joice has had a look at this?!

VCB, Jeter, SAF and Felix are all looking great already this season. 100-400m at worlds this year is going to be great. I cannot pick a clear favourite. Hope SAF starts to run 200m at major champs as I've been very impressed with her over that distance lately, but I expect she's using it help out the tail end of her 100m race, her weakest part perhaps.

Immediately after my comment on Lemaitre, BBC ran a diamond league build up article on the subject of his preference for 200m, although he will still compete over 100m as well this year, but probably not next year.

To be fair, he notched a 20.33 into a -2.2 wind earlier this month which is a great time with that wind. Sub 20 to follow this season?

I hope he will continue doing ones and two's next year, I wonder what he would be like over the one lap?

Over 200m, I've got a feeling that Allyson Felix is going to dominate despite the presence of great Veronica Campbell-Brown and a startling outing by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in Kinston. The American is in frightening early form and I feel she's heading towards times we haven't witnessed since the 90s at least.

The 100m is harder to tell and it's going to be mainly between Carmelita Jeter and Fraser-Pryce, with Campbell-Brown a factor too. A few new interesting names around also but I would like to wait a little before I say more.

By the way, having mentioned Joice Maduaka herself, she's running both the 100 and 200m in Hengelo on Sunday.

I can't see Dwain running as lower than 9.9s. I'd like to see it, but i don't think we will, purely due to the fact he isn't going to get the right races. He needs to be racing against people who can also run those times! And he needs to be doing it more regularly.

The Rome men's 100m was just as i expected. Still impressed with Bolt/Powell/Lemaitre. Good times for early season. They will just build from there.

I bet Lemaitre is a little annoyed not to have broken 10 again.
Powell is going to bounce back from that this season.
Bolt will just continue to improve, but slowly.
Whilst Gay will be working very hard. Gay is clearly in the lead in terms of race fitness at the moment, with his 14.51s over 150m.

Dwain, though, is in the best shape of his life and would dare say substantially better at this stage than he was back in 2002 when he got to equal Christie's UK record of 9.87 secs, annulled later on when found guilty of doping offences.

His last two races in 10.01 (2.0m/sec) on Sunday and 10.05 (0.0m/sec) in Rio yesterday are the fastest he's ever run before June and I'm hearing that he also eased up towards the end yesterday.

Good run by Jeff Demps in the preliminaries. Head and shoulders better than the rest. Maurice Mitchell also running in heat 1.

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/livestats/m-track/ncaaprelim11/

Demps will be running in the semi's later today. Will be sub 10.

Good news as concerns the return of Simeon Williamson to action as he has signed up for both the Diamond League meetings in Britain, Birmingham and Crystal Palace, this summer:

http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/june-2011/02-06-11-sprints-dl/

What an incredible mens 100m race. Better than most olympic or world championship finals. Lost in 10.02s, better than most of the European sprinters all together. Utterly incredible.

And now the Jamaicans have 5 runners who can do 9.8s and below.

Phenomenal run in the womens 100m race too.

200m hasn't really hit anything yet this season.

Adding to the above mentioned over Ramil Guliyev, he set a new Turkish record of 10.16 secs into a considerable headwind of -1.3m/sec at the Urkainian Cup in Yalta on May 30.

I believe Dwain Chambers is running tonight against Yohan Blake, so someone please post the results or a link to watch.

Jamaica should enter Usain in both sprints as well as;

100m- Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Micheal Frater
200m- Yohan Blake, Steve Mullings, Marvin Anderson

talk about strength in depth; i couldn't see anyone else getting a look in , United States included!!

UN03 wrote:Jamaica should enter Usain in both sprints as well as;

100m- Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Micheal Frater
200m- Yohan Blake, Steve Mullings, Marvin Anderson

talk about strength in depth; i couldn't see anyone else getting a look in , United States included!!

Frater over Blake and Mullings in the 100m??!! Is that just so everyone gets a go, as they're both far quicker than Frater

100m: Bolt, Powell, Carter, Mullings
200m: Bolt, Blake, Powell, Ashmeade.

That is going purely on PB's.

You have to ask the question can all 3 double up and do a 4x100m. It makes you realise the Jams haven't got it all covered. They've not got the 200m covered. Dix/Spearmon/Gay are all capable of beating the rest (not including Bolt).

I wonder if Powell could step up to the 200m more consistently or rather with more like bang - like a 19.5 clocking. With the way Blake is running the 100m, i can see Powell not getting selected for an individual event.

I would personally go for Frater over Blake on this seasons form and championship record. Although Mullings is making a name for himself over 100m

Hmmm bit of a selection headache, I wish GB had a similar problem!

Word has it 'on the street' that the world record in the men's 100m will go this season but it won't be Usain Bolt the one that is going to set it all things equal... Let's wait and see what happens!

lol.. i wonder who said that??? Gay/Powell/Frater/Blake/Mullings?

Or more than likely Gatlin?

The 100m WR will not be going this year.

Nobody among them has said anything of the like, Ryan. That's why I said there is 'word on the street'.

The only guy currently capable of even getting near that record (aside from Bolt) is Gay and even then he'll have to make up over a tenth while avoiding injury. Unlikely I feel, I suspect the guy who will take the record from Bolt is not running in the seniors yet.

Well, Ron, just watch out Gay in New York on Saturday. No, he won't be setting any world record there but, all things equal, he's going to send some early shockwaves round the world. If he remains healthy down the season, I don't think that tenth will stand between him and Usain's world record.

Since seeing gay run 9.69 and knowing how hard he works, ive always thought if he stayed injury free he could post a time in the very low 9.6's.

I certainly agree with you too that tyson is well capable of getting closer, but not sure if he can break it. Having said that It'd be great for competition if he did and I'd personally love him to do it as the way he approaches the sport and acts at meets is an example to any sportsman and makes him one of my favourites!

I love Bolt's showmanship but equally have a soft-spot for the humble type!

True, I think it was bolt acknowledge recently in an interview that gay works harder than most sprinters in the world and when you combine that with the fact that he seems like a genuinley nice guy, he is definatley the man I would like to see break it. Although I agree completely, you cant not enjoy bolts showmanship.

Tyson Gay was only running at 75% when he clocked his 9.79s 100m season opener... apparently. This should mean exciting stuff to come.

http://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idCATRE7590FT20110610?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Thats a scary thought. Anyone else thinking Gay is looking like the man to beat this year?

I'm not really sure what Tyson means by saying that he's running at 75% at the moment but I don't think that regards the level of his fitness. He's definitely not at his peak yet and he looks as though he could run a great deal faster but I find quite hard to believe that he's operating at only 75% at the moment.

lsabre wrote:I'm not really sure what Tyson means by saying that he's running at 75% at the moment but I don't think that regards the level of his fitness. He's definitely not at his peak yet and he looks as though he could run a great deal faster but I find quite hard to believe that he's operating at only 75% at the moment.

True if that was only 75% then he would have to be in the sort of shape were he could go close to the WR.

I myself reckon that Tyson Gay is well capable of running a world record this season. But saying that he runs 9.79 secs on 75% to my mind equates to being capable of even reaching the 9.4s!

Using some very poor maths and not in any seriousness whatsoever, if you take the 75% figure and scale up his 9.79 to 100% the time would be 7.34secs...I think!

Ngonidzashe Makusha won the NCAA 100m in 9.89s +1.3m/s wind. How amazing is that?

Marvin Bracy won the Junior 100m sprint at the US national trials in a time of 10.05s with a wind of +2.2m/s!

Quite incredible for a 17 year old. I wonder what will happen when he grows up... lol...

Depends on how good he is at American Football really, or how badly he gets smashed up during the winter playing it.

ryan

i know we had this discussion before, but have you seen him?

he might be absolutely massive and fully grown now. remember we spoke about MLF, 10.04 legal when he was 19?

on the other hand he may become the greatest sprinter of all time. Whatever, there is no certain linear progression in athletics (which is partly what makes it interesting)