Ian Fallas - Crystal Palace 2008 Day 1 Observation

Obviously the men's mile was the highlight of the first day, so I will save that for last. Some other noteworthy events:

M100m - Powell looked like he shut it down at 50m in his heat, and still cruised for a 10.06 into the (virtualy non-existent) wind. He had some pressure in the final though, with some impressive Caribbean depth once again: 6 of the top 7 were from the Islands. Powell's 9.94 was also just good enough to beat the ghost of Tyson Gay.

Women's Pole Vault

WPV - If Monica Pyrek had been there, I'd have been seeing the complete history of women's pole-vaulting: Dragila, Feofanova, Isenbaeva, Stuczynski?

Isenbaeva had a real scare on her opening, missing her opening height (4.74) twice before grazing the bar on her way up and clearing. Stuczynski made a strange choice after missing her first attempt at 4.93, passing up to a WR 5.04. At that stage, she had just the one miss.



I'm thinking she may have been more keen to get a feel for WR height, which may decide it in Beijing, than seal a win in London. Anyway, her taste of 5.04 would have been more scary than encouraging: she launched about 30 degrees sideways on her 2nd try, and could have easily hit the upright had she not deftly bailed out. Isenbaeva, found her dominant form after the intial stutter, and had a decent 3rd try at the WR. Full marks to her for spending about 15 minutes working the crowd before she put her sweats on.

Women's 4 Event Challenge

W 4-event Challenge, 100mH - Where do the women's hurdles get placed again? Someone had clearly gotten it wrong when 6 out of 8 women popped up in the air on the 3rd hurdle. Another, Phylis Agbo, side-stepped out of lane 8 and only Gi-Gi Johnson proceeded unfazed to the finish. They all came back an hour later and confirmed the obvious: Johnson is the superior hurdler.

Men's High Jump

MHJ - A world-leading PB by Andrey Silnov tonight: 2.38, after just making 2.35 on his 3rd attempt. Last weekend, he had a still-decent 2.30 at the Russian Championships which placed him.... 4th. Ouch!

Emsley Carr Mile

M Emsley Carr Mile - My predictions were reasonably close, with a few notable errors: the biggest one being Mike East, who had an impressive return to form. Note from the pictures that A) Sully was well placed, mid-pack, the whole way (looked great in 4th with 140 to go, but his kick withered shortly thereafter) & B) The two rabbits (Kiptum and Gathimba) are visible only in the first picture (a mere 109 metres into it). The pack basically declined the rabbitting, sticking to steady 60-second laps until the bell. Maybe the sight of those rabbits 20 metres ahead did something to spur the field, but I really wonder about the practice of rabbitting when I see stuff like this. Regardless, those times are pretty good when you consider that they all hit the bell around 3:00.



Emsley Carr Mile Results

1 Shedrack KORIR KEN 3:54.68
2 Andrew BADDELEY GBR 3:54.76
3 Bernard LAGAT USA 3:55.20 SB
4 Craig MOTTRAM AUS 3:55.44 SB
5 Michael EAST GBR 3:55.54 SB
6 Tom LANCASHIRE GBR 3:55.69 PB
7 Kevin SULLIVAN CAN 3:55.87 SB
8 Chris LUKEZIC USA 3:56.03 SB
9 Mitchell KEALEY AUS 3:57.27 PB
10 Nick MCCORMICK USA 3:58.04 SB
11 Chris WARBURTON GBR 3:58.20 PB
12 Bobby CURTIS USA 4:00.21 SB

Ian Fallas
Canada East