Day 2 Finals Predictions

Today is the final day for the decathlon, and the finals of the women's 100 and 100 hurdles.

Decathlon:
1. Ashton Eaton 
2. Trey Hardee
3. Brian Clay

The decathlon will be a fight between Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee. Day two has more events that Hardee is better at, but with a 322 point lead Eaton may have enough to pull out the win. Hardee is a much better thrower and today has the discus and the javelin, they are pretty much equal in the hurdles an pole vault, and Eaton is a better 1500m runner. It is going to be an exciting finish with one of the best rivalries in USA track and field. Third place should be Brian Clay who should easily get the A standard if everything goes like it should.

Women's 100 hurdles:
1. Kellie Wells
2. Dawn Harper
3. Christina Manning/ Ginnie Crawford/ Kristi Castlin

This is one of the deepest fields in the world. A number of these women could potentially make the Olympic Final, but only 3 make the team. Kellie Wells has been the most consistent during the year so far, Harper is the reigning Olympic champ and has been running very well this year. The third spot is very open. Manning is the reigning NCAA indoor and outdoor hurdles champion and has been very consistent. Ginnie Crawford is the 2007 US champ and has looked very good. Castlin also has looked really good this year. Lolo Jones has not run very good this year, she barely made the semis only finishing third in her heat.

Women's 100:
1. Carmelita Jeter
2. Tianna Madison
3. Allyson Felix

These three have been the best this year over this distance. Jeter is the reigning world champ and knows when to peak for championships. Madison had a great indoor season, winning the US 60m title and finishing third at the world championships. Allyson Felix has decided to do the 100, 200 double saying it gives her the best chance to win a 200m gold medal. Felix has run a 10.92 this year in beating Veronica Campbell-Brown and Shelly-Ann Frasier-Pryce. The next best divers to try to challenge these three will be Jeneba Tarmoh, English Gardner, Bianca Knight and Alex Anderson.

Day 1 Finals Results

The 10k finals at the end of day 1 were very entertaining.

In the men's Race the pace was pushed to be an honest one because Dathan Ritzenhein needed the Olympic A standard of 27:45. Right from the gun Galen Rupp and Ritz pushed the pace with each having about an 800m stint before the other would take over. This also pulled the guys in the race to fast times. In the end Galen pulled away in the last three laps for an easy win in 27:25.33 a new meet record. In second place was Matt Tegenkamp who already had the A standard. Then finally in third place was Dathan in 27:36.09, well under the A standard and punches his ticket to London after finishing fourth in the marathon trials. In the end the top three were under the meet record, and the race pretty much played out as many thought it would with Rupp helping Dathan to get the A standard and with the third guy being Tegenkamp.

Results

Rupp, Ritzenhein, Tegenkamp (L-R)
The 10k USA Olympians

The women's race was a little bit different. The pace started off slow, after about the first mile Lisa Uhl had a shoe come untied so she stopped to tie it, while her teammate Shalane Flanagan ran to the front to control the pace so Lisa could catch up to the group. A little after Shalane took the lead Deborah Maier of Cal, decided it was time to push the pace, and at the same time she tried to move to the front Natosha Rodgers of Texas A&M (the recent NCAA champion) fell pretty hard and sprinted about 300m to get back to the group chasing Maier. Maier opened up about a 50m lead before the chase pack reeled her in. With about a mile to go the pace picked up and Amy Hastings, Shalane, Uhl, and Rodgers started to pull away. With about 200m left it looked like Shalane was making the winning move around Hastings, but Rodgers then passed Shalane and coming down the homestretch Hastings found another gear and took the win and a ticket to London after finishing fourth at the Marathon trials in January. Rodgers finished in second with a new PR, but since it still wasn't faster than the A standard she wont be going to London. Shalane ended up in third, which I still think is great considering she is training through trials since she is going to be running the Marathon in London. This left the last 2 spots for London open to the only other women with the the A standard Uhl who finished fourth and Janet Cherobon-Bawcom who finished seventh. 


Results

Uhl, Cherobon-Bawcom, and Hastings (L-R)
The Olympic 10k Team

So even though my predictions for placements were a little off the six that I thought would go to London are going.

Also the decathlon started today, and Ashton Eaton came out flying. In the first two events he set all time decathlon bests with a 10.21 in the 100m and a jump of 8.23m in the long jump. In the shot put reigning World Champ Trey Hardee threw a lifetime best of 15.72m. In the last event of the day the 400 Eaton ran a great time of 46.70 in terrible conditions. At the end of the first day (5 events) Eaton leads Hardee by 322 points with the reigning Olympic Champ Brian Clay in third 476 points back.

Eaton and Hardee