Oh boy! Katerina really needs to sort her throws out. Even if she's close to her PBs in the Shot & Javelin she needs to do extremely well in the other events to compensate and have a chance of global medals.

Thanks for the Dutch lessons everyone though there still seems to be no consensus.


She ran 12.50 last year and made the Beijing team but she false-started in the semis.

She's also a very good 400 hurdler (54.09 PB) and ran both events throughout her college career.

Here's a good Spikes piece on her - http://spikes.iaaf.org/post/the-making-of-keni-harrison .
It seems she's a real student of the hurdles.

They aren't coming from nowhere, although for us it might look like they are. They've been successful in the US college system (same with Jamaica's Omar McLeod).

We've also seen it with Nelvis last year too, but then all US hurdles underperformed/messed up in Beijing.

The closest we've seen to Kendra is Brianna and she looked phenomenal that year (2013). At that time we'd have said we can't see her dropping off back to the 12.50s too but she has (not sure why?). So you just never know. Kendra and Brianna at their best would be a real battle royale though.

Bets to make the US team? I'll go K.Harrison, Rollins and Stowers based on what we've seen this year but can we ever count out Harper-Nelson? I know yesterday wasn't great for her but she always makes it somehow. When you think they could leave athletes like Castlin, Queen Harrison and Nelvis at home it's like making the US team is harder than running an Olympic final in all honesty.


I've decided Makwala just isn't that great and so I don't expect much from him. His best times were set on fast tracks/tracks notorious for producing times which can't be replicated elsewhere. He can apparently run sub 20 too (set at the nutorious La Chaux-de-Fonds). But remember that he failed to make the commonwealth final despite being a favourite. When he needs to perform, he doesn't/can't.

Oh, must have missed that Beijing-start, or probably just forgot...

Yes, of course they don't really "come from nowhere" but more like on the big scene... The Norwegian commentators said sometimes its quite different running a small race to running a big one with a lot of other athletes as good as yourself, but Kendra did incredibly well.

She will get LOADS of attention now, on a completely different level than earlier. She might move on without any problems, but you just never know.

She clocked in on 12.22 and we were like wow, then they changed it to 12.24, but only 0,7 wind, and with a perfect start it could easily have been a new WR.

I think DHN somehow makes it, and it only takes a small mistake for KH to miss Rio.

Makwala really isnt that good, and also usually chooses quite a bad strategy for running

How about this - Kim Collins 9.93 (+1.9)! Gemili 10.19.

I wish it was a new world record. I'm bored of seeing certain names (especially on the female side) listed as being WR holders. Hmm KH messed up in Beijing and Portland so her track record (no pun intended) at championships isn't great so far.

Hes bloddy mazing

She's still young. That can change in a flash. Look at Laura Muir in 2014 - she totally cocked up at the Euros & Commonwealths and then ran brilliantly in Beijing last year. I'm sure there's many other examples of big talents taking a year or two to find their championship feet.

True. But all pressure will be on her at US Trials, and many failed before her...

KJT jogs the 800m to a time of 2:16.81, finishing 6th overall with 6304 points.

My heart goes out to Ivona Dadic, the Austrian athlete set a NR of 6196 points in front of her home crowd... but was just 4 points off Rio qualification!

Oh no. Thats horrible

Nice work by BTE, having retained her title with a 6765 WL - for now, she's in the driving seat w.r.t Rio. Laura Ikauniece-Admidiņa also had a great day after lifting her own NR to 6622.

The winning mark at the Hypo-Meeting is usually unchallenged until the corresponding major, though it'll be interesting to see what Akela Jones does in the NCAA T&F Champs this summer.

-----

KJT has a qualifying mark, but I've not seen enough this weekend to see her winning this summer's Olympic title (that triple foul in Beijing clearly haunts her still) - as ever, time will tell, given how the WCh hep turned out last year. JEH wouldn't have coasted the 800 like that - indeed, last's year's performance is a case in point.

Here's the full hep breakdown

Ashley Bryant finishes 9th overall with 8056 points... just 44 points outside Rio qualification!

Hopefully he can get the standard elsewhere

Highlights from Gotzis on BBC1 on Saturday, just before the Diamond League highlights.

So KJT has a dire second day, but still manages to qualify. That's something, I guess...

Kendra's performance over the hurdles in Eugene was 'silky smooth', however, she has to get through those trials in order to get to Rio. The field in the trials will arguably be better than the Olympic final itself. 'tis a shame she didn't dip on the line.


As for the Daphne Schippers pronunciation business, I'm sure Stuart Storey says it right, but it just sounds horrible. I stick to butchering it in English.

A post (not mine) on the trackandfieldnews forum: KJT has no heart. She will never beat Ennis or Eaton.

Thoughts?

Meeting Citta di Gavardo today:

Dina A-S 1st 11.22 (+ 0.6)

Kilty sub-10!!!

1 Bruintjies 9.89
2 Kilty 9.92

+4.4 m/s though.

Sadly my interest in Athletics going into the Olympics is at an all time low. Mainly because of the events of the last few months

However the Heptathlon is the expectation and for the medals there are four main contenders in the battle of the hyphen.

BTE and Jess (if fit) are the most consistent. KJT is really explosive at her best events but her throws are dire. The Latvian has really emerged as a contender in the last year.

Two outsiders I like are Nafi Thiam although she needs to improve her weak events and Nadine Visser who was not at Gotzis.

Want to echo the amazement on here at Harrison's performance, incredible!! Hurdles are such a strange one to predict though. Will she sustain this form like Rollins did throughout 2013 (but then fell off afterwards) or regress after an amazing start like Stowers last year? Will she continue improving and take down that WR?

Great to see McLeod dominating the men's equivalent, I'm a big fan. Bowie's looking extremely dangerous in the women's sprints too.

If she ever sorts out her hurdling technique the WR is hers for the taking. It was a fantastic race right to the line.


It was really something else. Second fastest time ever! She didn't even look like she was straining! Hope she can make the US team, but the 100m hurdles is such a precarious event - anything can happen.

Eugene was a wonderful meeting this year.

Two new names to add to this from the BMC Grand Prix in Watford on Saturday:

Adelle Tracey 2:01.24
Alexandra Bell 2:01.32

Thanks for doing that list by the way. It was great.

Catching up on the athletics as been busy this weekend.

Not really sure what to make of KJT. She is without doubt ridiculously talented but talent alone is never enough at the highest level. In spite of what she says there clearly are still some mental demons with the Long Jump. I have long maintained that until she sorts her throws out though it puts too much pressure on her jumps to be amazing. She threw over 13 m for a shot PB and then regressed badly in Gotzis. As they say one swallow doesn't make a summer. Her Jav has also been poor this year.

Well done to Brianne on her win. She did well, seems her upper limit is 6750-8000 which may or may not be good enough to win. Personally I still think Jess is going to triumph again. Latvian Laura's confidence has clearly grown since winning World chas bronze.

Such a shame the Pole Vault fiasco. I doubt John Lane would have qualified anyway but might have got European standard. Ashley Bryant got close and may have got the standard if he had not jumped on a borrowed pole. British Athletics have said they will take this into account Re:selection. Although he is just short of the standard he could well get an IAAF invite if his ranking is high enough. As he has the European Standard hes should go to Amsterdam to try & finish the job definitively.

If Morgan was carrying an injury a very silly decision for her to compete which unsurprisingly didn't work out. No doubt not helped her confidence and probably delayed her recovery. Not just her fault as this is where a good team comes into play especially for a 19 year old. Perhaps at the end of this season time for her to move on from Daddy?

Wonder if we'll see the womens hurdles record go this season, Sally Pearson & Brianna Rollins have come close in recent years but perhaps Kendra Harrison will finally be the one to do it.

As with the women's hurdles the 200m will be one of the races in Rio. Ans SAFP is in poor form at the moment. Will need to improve to make the Jamaican team never mind trying for 3 golds in a row

Some notablle results from Brits not mentioned. Ashleigh Nelson equalled her 100 PB of 11.19 Charlie Grice has been training with Mo in recent Months and seems to be helping him. He set a PB in the 800 recently followed by a PB in the mile this weekend. Look forward to seeing what he does over 1500

We are now in a very rare situation where many of the women's major WRs could conceivably be broken by active, in-form athletes. This must be the first time that so many records have been in contention since the Chinese Doping Era in the early 90s.

100m Hurdles
800m
1500m / Mile
3000m Steeplechase
5000m
Hammer
4x100