Bolt and a Bunch of Triathlons!

Hi All,

It was very odd to turn on the TV and watch live track & field on a Thursday evening. Yep, TSN spent an hour of prime-time coverage last night to broadcast the Festival of Excellence, which was essentially a showcase for the new Toronto Varsity track stadium built around Usain Bolt's first 100 m race of the season. Bolt, who was paid a reported $250,000 for his visit to Toronto, was the main reason that almost 6000 spectators showed up to watch the meet. There were 50 Olympians that participated during the one-day meet, but other than Bolt and Canadian female hurdlers Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, there were not a lot of big names for the casual Canadian fan.

Those three big names did not disappoint, as Bolt cruised to victory in the 100m, and despite a couple of false starts and a very wet track, managed to run 10.00 flat. Here's the best video I could find this morning...



As I mentioned, the women's 100m hurdles featured Perdita vs Priscilla in a showdown between the 2003 World Champion and the 2008 bronze medallist from Beijing. Perdita, who has seemingly been injured since her infamous fall at the Athens Olympics.

Perdita's throne as the Top Canadian hurdler has been grabbed by Priscilla, who has also run the fastest time of the year in 2009 (12.52s). In Thursday's race, the two Canadians beat the rest of the field fairly easily with Priscilla holding off Perdita by .02 seconds (12.86 vs 12.88). Again, the wet track may have slowed them down a bit, but the two Canadians are hoping to stand together on the podium in Berlin later on this summer at the World Championships.

Other Canadians who had great results on Thursday include Nate Brannen in the men's mile, who won in 3:55:07, and Malindi Elmore who was second in the women's mile in 4:30:70. Other big names who won included Americans Brian Clay (easlly won the Pole Vault-110 m hurdles- 400 m triathlon), Khadevis Robinson (800m), Amy Acuff (high jump), and LaShawn Merritt (400m). And despite the terrible weather, the event hopes to develop into an annual event on the North American track calendar. And with last weekend's Prefontaine Classic turning into a Golden League event next year, there will perhaps be many more European and African track stars in North America who might be available to race in Toronto.

As I mentioned, the IAAF Golden League starts this weekend with a meet in Berlin. The Golden League offers a million dollar purse if any athlete sweeps their event in all 6 Golden League meets. So it's all about winning the 6 events. Last year, Pamelo Jelimo from Kenya won all 6 Womens 800m races, so she didn't have to share the million dollars with anyone (compared to 2001, where 6 athlets shared the prize). Of the marquee sprinters (Bolt, Powell, and Gay) only Asafa Powell is running, so the spotlight shifts to longer-distance runners and field athletes. Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and high jumper Blanka Vlasic might be the best bets, since Isinbayeva has won 14 meets in a row, and Vlasic has only lost 3 times in the last two years (although she has lost twice in clinching Golden League events and in the Olympics). Anyhow, I'll post results next week...i don't think any Canadians of note are racing this weekend in Berlin.

Some quick Triathlon snippets - last weekend saw the inaugural Rev3 Triathlon in Connecticut. This was billed as a big money Half-Ironman (but non IM 70.3 brand) race, with a cool $100,000 in prize money. It's nice to see that long-distance triathletes have a chance to make some decent prize money outside of the big races, since they normally don't have the chance to make the prize money that ITU athletes can during a given season. Anyhow, Matt Reed (who is having a great 2009) and MIrinda Carfrae (amen) both claimed $16,000 for their victories, with Carfrae's coming over a great female field that included Leanda Cave, Natascha Badmann, Joanna Zeiger, Joanna Lawn, and Belinda Granger. Canadian Lisa Mensink finished 6th. Nicely done Mirinda, who is peaking for her Kona debut in October...

This weekend there are two big triathlons on top, with Ironman Boise 70.3 and Escape from Alcatraz as well. I'll focus mostly on Alcatraz, since it gets a lot of big names, including defending champions Andy Potts and Leanda Cave. Alcatraz features a non-drafting, close-to-Olympic distance race, with a longer swim and slightly shorter bike and run distances. Potts should repeat easily, as he doesn't have his normal rivals like Matt Reed around this year. The women's race is probably between Cave, 2006 champ Becky Lavelle and multiple winner Michellie Jones, who used to dominate at this distance before moving up to the Ironman in 2006...should be a fun race to follow.