I couldn’t concur more. During '86, I found him to be cordial and always pleasant to be around. I met him at PAC-10 one week after he popped that 44.32 and he seemed just as surprised with that performance then. And he didn’t seem disappointed with the 44.58 there. And you needed to be there for the 43.x anchor he ran trying to run down Atlee!
I remember talking to Ian Morris, at the time running for ACU in another meet crosstown, only hours after watching those races, and Morris shook his head and said something to the effect, “Man, I’m going to have avoid him this summer”. At the time, he was as dominant a 400m runner during the spring as I had seen in awhile.
Due to the number of quotes attributed to Grover Hinsdale in an article on Angelo Taylor in the most recent issue of Track and Field News, I think he(GH) might be more of a consultant or might even be relegated to fan status at this point.
In the article, it is pointed out that since last fall, Taylor has trained with an Atlanta area group guided by Innocent Egbunike!!!-7th in the 1984 L.A. olympics 400m.
How’s that for another blast from the past?!
Also, in the article, AT says that IE coached 88 olympic 400m hurdle silver medalist Amadou Ba, showing that IE does have hurdling coaching experience.
Amadou Dia Ba was actually coached by French Fernand Urtebise throughout his career. Maybe Egbunike coached Dia Ba in the very last years when his was well past his prime and no longer a factor in the internatioanl scene.
How right you were about the open 400. He had put up big relay legs in years past and some had wondered what he could do in this race.
While AT’s hurdling technique has, at times, been lacking, how about Kerron Clement?
It is so frustrating as a fan to watch this guy stutter step to ensure he goes over the hurdle with only his right lead leg. It’s hard to believe that he has had this problem for so long and that he and his coach have not corrected this. Why not learn to alternate? This is considered, of course, an absolute basic/fundamental for an intermediate hurdler. Some claim this has already been done(correcting this) but if so, why does he never do it in races? I’ve seen otherwise uncoordinated middle school age kids alternate, why can’t a top professional athlete do the same? At age 21, his p.r., dates back to the 2005 U.S. nationals-47.24. There are those days when he comes up to most all of the hurdles perfectly in stride to go over with his one and only lead leg but obviously every race won’t unfold this way. He slows down drastically to ensure he goes over only with his right.
He should be challenging Kevin Young’s world record but instead he’s going about a second slower. With that he’s still an excellent, world class athlete but he seems to be regressing. It seems that KC is the guy who has the athletic ability(save the hurdle technique) to take the record down to mid 46 if not a bit lower.
My colleagues think I’m nuts, but I’m of the opinion that Taylor has a huge upside for the WC. The sheer fact that he is virtually starting up again makes this frightening!
Certainly Merritt has the potential to be with Wariner. However, I believe that Taylor could offer a challenge right now. As you have had experience to know, round management will be key.
You are right on point here. While it seemed with Taylor a matter of technical accomplishment, there appears to be range and judgment problems in addition to the obvious technical ones.
Assuming that his coach is knowledgeable enough to address these issues, could this be a communication problem as opposed to a technical adaptation?
A guy on the T&FN website a few weeks back pointed out that Rickey(sp?) Harris has had the same problems with inconsistency-same coach, UF head coach Mike Holloway. It was said that Harris(not sure if this is true)has not improved upon his 400h time since his soph. or junior years at UF. It seems that with KC, the coach should say you ARE going to alternate or it’s time to move to the open 400 . Some have suggested that it is merely a case of KC lacking in confidence to alternate. It seems as though they could have built his confidence through 100’s of reps in fall/winter training(not to mention the comp. season) as well as low key, early season races. KC has said he loves the 400h since he finds it so challenging. That’s a bit of an understatement.