USA Olympic Trials 18th-27th June

[Ladyloz]

Think this deserves it's own thread I think, only a few days to go now. Always throws up some shocks and surprises. Hopefully Luckyspikes will work his magic and come up with a stream for us to watch in the UK.

Status of Entries | USA Track & Field (usatf.org)

Looking at the latest entry lists; a few things to note as follows:-

• Michael Norman and Allyson Felix have declared for both 200 & 400m. And Ato Boldon was telling everyone on Social Media that Felix was only going to do the 200m at trials.
• Trayvon Bromell has scratched from the 200m
• New NCAA champion Joseph Fanbulleh has not been entered for the 200m. I don't know if he can appeal or not but a shame if he's missing.
• Donovan Brazier has declared for both the 800 and 1500m.
• Cole Hocker and Cooper Teare have declared for both the 1500m and 5000m which surprised me. I assumed Teare would focus on 5K and Hocker the 1500m.
• Shelby Houlihan, Elle Purrier and Jenny Simpson have all declared for the 1500m and 5000m. Houlihan hasn't raced all year and Simpson is struggling for form, although you'd never rule her out.
• Tianna Bartoletta has declared for both the Long Jump and 100m.
• And finally JuVaughn Harrison has declared for both the High Jump and Long Jump after doing the double at the NCAA championships. At the trials the finals of these events are both on the same day so they're making him work for it. I'd love to get to see him attempt this rare double in Tokyo.

I wonder if the close proximity to the NCAAs will help the college athletes a bit as they can perhaps hold their peak for just a little longer? Normally the gap is around 2 weeks or so and in 2019 it was a lot longer as the US Champs weren't held until late July. Of course even those who do qualify may struggle to replicate their best form in Tokyo. There are always exceptions to this though, such as Grant Holloway in 2019.

[Ladyloz]

Bumping this - my post from last night was 'unapproved' for a bit, presumably for the terrible crime of adding a link!!

Interesting news overnight that Fred Kerley has scratched from the 400m and is running the 100 & 200 instead. Bit surprised and feels quite risky. He's run a decent 100m time of 9.91 but after Trayvon Bromell, the other 2 spots on the US team are wide open. For 200m his best time is 2024 and he probably needs to take a chunk off that to qualify. I'd say his medal chances if he qualifies for Tokyo are much better in the 400 compared to the shorter sprints.

[trickstat]

[*]New NCAA champion Joseph Fanbulleh has not been entered for the 200m. I don't know if he can appeal or not but a shame if he's missing.

From the Track & Field News forum it appears that he has Liberian parentage and may be aiming to compete for them at the Olympics.

[LuckySpikes]

Streaming already sorted! There's a site that works beautifully for American channels and it only has one 'pop-up' to close when you first click play on the video.

All the track events (including qualifying rounds) are being broadcast live by NBC or NBCSN. Of course, with the 8 hour time difference, they're not on at friendly times for us. I think NBC guard Olympic Trials coverage pretty tightly so I wouldn't expect YouTube fan recordings of the broadcasts to survive long.

It seems like field events and the Hep & Dec will be streamed on the NBC app (not available to us).

Predictions anyone? I've thought a good way to do it is to predict a dark horse to make the team (let's say no-one in the top 4 favourites for the event). That way, if you get it wrong ... well, they weren't expected to make the team anyway. But, if you get a few right then you look like a genius!

I'll have a go at doing that for all the distance races.

[philipo]

From the Track & Field News forum it appears that he has Liberian parentage and may be aiming to compete for them at the Olympics.

if he does so be it. Liberia hasnt got too many Olympians on the track.

[treadwater1]

Looking forward to the US trials, it’s hard to know who are the favourites in a number of events as some of their bigger names haven’t competed much. Lyles has been very quiet of late.

Mu is doing the 800, I think the US selectors prefer those wanting to be considered for the relay to take part in the 400, but with her performances this weekend she must stand a chance of selection. Potentially the next big US star, but again it’s hard to know how she will fair as we haven’t seen much from Wilson or Rogers

[MysteryBrick]

Mu will be on the 4x400 squad. The selectors aren't idiots.

[trickstat]

A major trigger for the US being less strict about only selecting relay runners who did the 400m at trials was GB beating the US in Tokyo in 1991 when they were without Michael Johnson. Worth remembering that they used Dalilah Mohammed and Sydney McLaughlin in Doha when their 400H times indicated they would be quicker than many of the flat specialists.

[MysteryBrick]

There is a plausible scenario where the US W4x400m team contains 1 flat 400m runner, and the rest of the team is Mu, McLaughlin and Little (Muhammed has not been in the form she was in 2019 thus far).

[LuckySpikes]

Startlists for Day 1 are up at https://results.usatf.org/

[Sovietvest]

Really strange thing for the guy who keeps tweeting the number 42 to do. That 200 will be a bit special.

Bumping this - my post from last night was 'unapproved' for a bit, presumably for the terrible crime of adding a link!!

Interesting news overnight that Fred Kerley has scratched from the 400m and is running the 100 & 200 instead. Bit surprised and feels quite risky. He's run a decent 100m time of 9.91 but after Trayvon Bromell, the other 2 spots on the US team are wide open. For 200m his best time is 2024 and he probably needs to take a chunk off that to qualify. I'd say his medal chances if he qualifies for Tokyo are much better in the 400 compared to the shorter sprints.

[Grassmarket]

if he does so be it. Liberia hasnt got too many Olympians on the track.

Or indeed any other surface.

[LuckySpikes]

OK, here are my dark horse picks to finish top 3 in the distance events ...

Men's
800 - The main contenders for the 3rd place behind Brazier & Hoppel would probably be Murphy, Harris & Rhoads; I'll go for NCAA champ Isaiah Jewett as my dark horse - he looks like a beast.
1500 - Centrowitz & Engels might be the favourites here but otherwise it's hard to know who the outsiders are. Does Cole Hocker qualify as a dark horse? I'll trust his wicked kick in a slow-ish final.
3000SC - H Bor, McGorty, Ferlic & Updike are the favourites here. So, my dark horse is Dan Michalski - he's on the upswing I think.
5000 - Lomong, Fisher, Chelimo & E Bor look to be the favourites here (possibly Kincaid too?). So, I'll go for Eric Jenkins to spring a mild surprise.
10,000 - As marginally the slowest of the 7 athletes with the Olympic standard, I'll go for Joe Klecker as my dark horse.

Women's
800 - Mu & Ajee Wilson are the clear favourites here, maybe with Kate Grace or Sabrina Southerland the other favourites to finish top 3 (Rogers & Green haven't been great this year). Many of the next group are doubling in the 1500 as well so, how's Michaela Meyer as a big dark horse? The new NCAA champ, she seems like a very smart racer and maybe against the pros she could take a big step up.
1500 - With Purrier, Osika, Cranny & Simpson being the clear favourites I'm going for Heather McLean, despite her most recent race being poor. She's got good 800 speed which will serve her well I think.
3000SC - Coburn & Frierichs are the two hot favourites and even though Colleen Quigley hasn't raced for an age I'd say she's still a favourite to make top 3. So, my dark horse is Marisa Howard - I like her aggressive style of racing that could pull her clear of the chasing pack
5000 - There's probably 5 clear favourites here - Purrier, Schweizer, Norris, Cranny & Schneider. For my dark horse, I like the look of Allie Buchalski. Having watched her recently I think there's plenty more in the tank there and she's got decent 1500 speed (4:06).
10,000 - Schweizer, Cranny & Sisson look like the top 3 favourites here then a next group of Infeld, Schneider & Monson. Am I allowed to pick Alicia Monson as my dark horse? She's got loads of upside. I'm not sure she qualifies as a real dark horse but if all 6 of those athletes are racing I can't see anyone outside of them finishing in the top 3. I'd really love to see Natosha Rogers do it but I think she's likely to be done for finishing pace in the last kilometre.

[LuckySpikes]

If you're trying the NBCSN stream on freestreams-live1 , be persistent with it. You can get it to work eventually. See my notes in the latest Live Streaming Links document.

The NBC link, however, should work quickly.

[LuckySpikes]

Update: The sdw-net link for NBCSN is now working.

[RunUnlimited]

Impressive solo run from Abby Cooper who in the heat of the 5000m, broke away from the rest of the field with 6 laps to go, and finished with closing laps of 70 seconds, 70 seconds, and 68 seconds, to get under the Olympic qualifying standard (15:10.00) with a 15:07.80 season's best time. Now she can concentrate of finishing in the top 3 in the final later on in the Trials, rather than worrying about achieving the time as well.

[LuckySpikes]

Impressive solo run from Abby Cooper who in the heat of the 5000m, broke away from the rest of the field with 6 laps to go, and finished with closing laps of 70 seconds, 70 seconds, and 68 seconds, to get under the Olympic qualifying standard (15:10.00) with a 15:07.80 season's best time. Now she can concentrate of finishing in the top 3 in the final later on in the Trials, rather than worrying about achieving the time as well.

Yes, really pleased to see "Abbey D" back in good shape.

It seems the 123tv link for NBC isn't working now - it's been working beautifully for the last couple of days! So, I've added the NBC link on sdw-net to the LSL document.

I'm going to try over the next couple of days to nail down a reliable source for streaming.

That's it for me tonight. I haven't got the energy to stay up for the M 10,000!

[marra]

10000m was a pretty decent race in the end - slowish but a brutal sprint over the last lap. Just a shame, given the events of this week, which club was leading the charge. On the other hand, good advertising for burrito vendors, I guess.

Safe to say the Shot was the event of the day though!

[Ladyloz]

Brilliant from Ryan Crouser. And good to see Randy Barnes off the record books.