The region’s biggest, and arguably the most important, sporting event is only a couple of weeks away, and good tickets are still available!
Sac State’s Hornet Stadium will be host to the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, June 22 – 25.
The Sacramento Sports Commission has a pretty good website with event details and useful information for visitors.
Will I see you there?
Virginia High School phenom, Drew Hunter, just beat his two-week old national indoor high school mile record today, running 3:57.81 at the Millrose Games
How low can he go?
More info at Flotrack.
Lauren Wallace reacts to the win.
On Saturday, UC Davis grad and SRA Elite Lauren Wallace scored an upset win in the 1000 meter Indoor Nationals, winning in a time of 2:40.42.
Check out the video here.
It’s definitely worth the three minutes.
Simpson wins in 4:04.96! (Photo courtesy of painani.org)
Quiet has settled on Hornet Stadium. The fans are gone. The races and jumps are over. Now the post-event analysis can commence.
All in all, I think the event was a tremendous success. USATF is reporting final attendance numbers of 32,700, which doesn’t include the crowds that showed up for the shot put at the State Capitol. This far exceeded the promised minimum 22,500 that Event Director John Mansoor had promised to USATF in pitching Sacramento as host for the event.
The race of the weekend would have to be the women’s 400 meters, where Francena McCorory edged out Sanya Richards-Ross in the last 100 meters and won in 49.48, which is the 5th fastest time by an American.
Or maybe it was the Women’s 1500, where we got to watch a super talented women’s field duke it out, Morgan Uceny fall down again, and Jenny Simpson win decisively, but not easily, over the surging Mary Cain and the tenacious Katie Mackey.
Huddle wins! (Photo courtesy of Painani.org)
It was another exciting day at the USA Outdoor Nationals!
As with yesterday, about half the fans left at the conclusion of the sprints and deprived themselves of seeing the most exciting race of the day.
It was the women again, this time in the 5,000 meters, who had the crowd on it’s feet with a fast, exciting, and close race. Molly Huddle led the race from the beginning and tried to shake all contenders, especially Shannon Rowbury and Marielle Hall, by accelerating through the miles and closing with a final 4:34 1600 meters.
The only person on Huddle’s heels by the final 200 was Shannon Rowbury, who shouldered past and started driving for the win. Huddle would have none of it and dug deep to pass a weaving Rowbury and take the win by 0.25 seconds.
“When I was still in contact with 100 to go, I knew I could do it. When I really need to do it, an emotional moment for me, very important, I can pull it out.” Awesome photo courtesy of Painani.org.
By John Schumacher
The USA Track and Field National Championships went off with a shot yesterday, with an unusual hosting of the shot put on the west side of the State Capitol building.
It was a brilliant idea and brought large, enthusiastic crowds to this often overlooked field event.
Michelle Carter and Joseph Kovacs came out on top, with Kovacs wowing the crowd with a world leading throw of 22.03 meters.
The remainder of the championship events move to California State University Sacramento starting today, and a schedule can be found here.
Complete results of yesterdays competition can be found here.
While you may have never heard of James Nielsen before today, he is now one of the most famous (infamous?) runners in modern track and field.
James Nielsen, purportedly ran the world’s first sub-5:00 beer mile. (We’re still waiting for verification by Beermile.com, or a bit more detail about when this was done and who witnessed it.)
Nick Symmonds (Beer Mile PR 5:31) has famously announced his intentions to break the beer mile world record. Now, it looks like he’s got a bit more work to do.
The dust has settled and USATF has reinstated Gabrielle Grunewald as the indoor 3000 meters National Champion.
In my admittedly inexpert opinion, based on repeated viewing of the available video, Grunewald didn’t deserve a DQ. Track–particularly indoor track–is a physical sport. Elbows are thrown and minor jostling is commonplace.
Truthfully, I can’t really fault Salazar for protesting or even appealing the initial dismissal of his protest. It’s pretty normal for a coach to advocate on behalf of his athlete, even to the point of obnoxiousness. What was disturbing to me (and many other observers) was that there seemed to be an extra-legal process that led to the disqualification, and that Salazar got deferential treatment.
If Grunewald had simply been DQed, there would have been complaints. There would have been accusations of favoritism, but if it appeared the rules had been followed the disturbance would have passed. But instead, the protests grew in volume. “USATF corruption” was a trending hashtag on Twitter.
Leaning for the tape (SRN photo)
On Tuesday, USATF announced the 2014 USA Track and Field Championship would be returning to Sacramento.
“Sacramento has a tremendous track & field culture and we are very pleased to be returning in 2014,” said USATF CEO Max Siegel. “The fan support in the region is fantastic, and the weather conditions serve sprinters, field event athletes and distance runners alike. We look forward to another successful partnership with the Sacramento Sports Commission.”
Mayor Kevin Johnson was no less enthusiastic.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Track & Field back to Sacramento,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. “Sacramento has some of the most passionate sports fans in the United States and I have no doubt that this community will support the event and the athletes like no other region in the country could.”
