by Larry Eder
Usain Bolt, photo by PhotoRun.net
The 2015 adidas Grand Prix was a huge success. A celebration of track and field with highlights of some fine field events and some great sprint and distance races. Here, Elliott Denman reminds us what is at the core of our sport!
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
NEW YORK – What happens when nearly 10,000 folks show up for a Diamond League track and field meet, descending on Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in numbers that seemed to back up traffic in one direction all the way to the Manhattan end of the RFK Triboro Bridge, and nearly to Ward’s Island the other way, pay good cash money to get in, and are then sent home not having seen a world record, or anything close?
Well, tough luck, everybody.
Let’s just hope you got to enjoy the “Flagship Sport of the Olympic Games” for the old reasons. Let track and field’s old-time virtues reign.
Yes, yes, yes, some veteran track meet-goers have forever been telling you that good, solid, old-fashioned competition, mano-a-mano style, is what it’s all about and not how many – or how few – clicks of the automatic timing system they managed to activate.
Few have believed them -but believe them now.
Sultry temps and unhelpful winds surely were contributing causes for the 11th edition of the adidas Grand Prix winding up with no serious dents on the global charts.
Francena McCorory, photo by PhotoRun.net
Francena McCorory’s 49.86 women’s 400 performance, taking the 2015 world lead, was about as good as it got, despite all the mega-hype and steady buildup.
But fans – some relegated to standing-only vantage points – still got to witness a solid display of the talent certain to play dominating roles at the upcoming editions of the IAAF World Championships in Beijing and the Olympic Games in Rio DeJaneiro.
Consider the goings-on:
Usain Bolt, photo by PhotoRun.net
1. Usain Bolt “only” runs 20.29 (yes, in the face of a 2.8 headwind) and barely fends off furlong foe Zharnel Hughes (20.32.) Is Bolt over-the-hill or simply not over past infirmities? Is he destined to face dismay – also called Justin Gatlin – in Beijing 11 weeks hence? Not once (the 100), not twice (the 200) but maybe, amazing as this might ever have seemed, thrice (the 4×100 relay) ??
David Rudisha, photo by PhotoRun.net
2. World 800-meter record-holder/Olympic champion David Rudisha, another who’s had to deal with leg issues, wins the two-lapper in “only” 1:43.58. But closing fast on him was Boris Berian in 1:43.84. Boris who? Well, bet
ter recognize Boris Berian as the USA’s next real thing. That’s Boris Berian, you know, of the Big Bear Track Club; that’s Boris Berian, you know, out of Adams State College. If you didn’t know before, you better know now.
ter recognize Boris Berian as the USA’s next real thing. That’s Boris Berian, you know, of the Big Bear Track Club; that’s Boris Berian, you know, out of Adams State College. If you didn’t know before, you better know now.
Ben True, photo by PhotoRun.net
3. Ben True wins the 5000 meters in 13:29.48, outkicking New Zealander Nick Willis (13:29.78), Eritrean Nguse Amsolom (13:30.22) and a pack of other pursuers. Sure that’s slow, not even worthy of world-class 10,000-metering pace. But it was enough to make Ben’s fans true believers. He’d been a ski champion as well as XC champion at Dartmouth. He’s been proving himself on the road running circuit all along. Now he’s making noises on the track. True or false, will he, can he, be in the mix at all the big ones just ahead?
Tyson Gay, photo PhotoRun.net
4. Tyson Gay wins the 100 in a not-even-close-to-his-best 10.12 (into a 1.7 headwind) but barely noses out Nesta Carter (10.15), as well as Keston Bledman (who got to run it, and to stay close-up once in it, only to be officially listed as a DQ, after a controversial “flinching” in the blocks.) Well, are all those cynics (most seemingly based in Britain) continuing to label the fastest American in history (a 9.69 man in 2009) as a “drug cheat” finally exacting a psychological toll? (Gatlin often faces the burden of the same descriptives.)
Well, let’s just wait and see.
English Gardner, photo by PhotoRun.net
5. English Gardner wins the women’s 100 in 11 seconds flat. She does it after a semi-stumble out of the blocks. She does it looking like her former self, the original South Jersey kid who proved unbeatable as an Oregon duck, but then came injured. Is this petite package destined to come up huge, as many have been predicting for years? Is she the new Wyomia Tyus, the next Gail Devers? Or simply herself, the Voorhees (N.J.) kid?
“I literally almost fell,” she said of the near-mishap.
But then “I got myself together and stood up tall.”
The same can be said for every last cast member of the 11th adidas Grand Prix. They gave the crowd a show worthy of the ticket prices.
It was good old-style racing for the sake of racing. It did not, however, send the stats-keepers scurrying to update all charts.
My personal bottom line?
Hope the what-have-you-done-for-me-latelies? in the audience got to understand all that.
