I was just curious if any of you guys here think that Craig Pickering can eventually run a sub 10?He is only 19/20 and has run a p.b. of 10.22 last year.His 60 p.b. is a 6.71!Not too bad for a youngster who has alot of upside.Can he possibly be the first to break the myth?
Let’s see what he does this year. I haven’t heard anything from him yet, but he certainly shows promise. Let’s hope he’s not a Casey Combest.
Matt shirvo hit 10.03 into -0.3 as a 19 y.o. His career hit the shitter from then onwards. So nothing is garanteed in sprinting.
I think if all had gone well for him he could have got 9.90 with good wind maybe in his 20’s which is outstanding for a white man lol
I don’t know if Casey Combest is a fair comparison.First off,Combest was finished with sprinting by the end of high school for the most part & also got mixed in with wrong crowd/smoking weed,etc. Craig is being trained & coached by the best that England has to offer along side with others.He is also a better finisher than starter.Casey was just a explosive starter that tried to hang on.Craig Pickering has a good chance to become the next Allan Wells although he would have to run alot faster to just medal these days.
shirvo’s career got ebola after that run.
he was another great natural talent who managed to shoot his career in the foot, multiple times.
Pickering doesn’t seem to be of the same cloth as shirvo or combest but you never know. God i hope someone breaks the myth though, one day i shared the fact with my track teamates that 50+ black people have gone sub 10 and no whites or asains, now all the white people It’s just proof and fuel to the myth that we(white people) won’t win any points in the sprints. It’s getting to be a problem: “coach i am not running today i am gonna go vault, you know get some practice at something that i have a chance at(points at skin)”. stuff like that.
however i am wondering if we can adobt this as an adujsted sub 10:
10.03 -2.5 Viktor Bryzgin URS 22 08 1962 1r1 Leningrad 07 06 1986
you know who we can blame for the myth though:
10.00 2.0 Marian Woronin POL 13 08 1956 1 Warszawa 09 06 1984
when sub tens were rare and not asafa powell’s semi he could of just leaned a little further at the freaking line and we would of never had the myth.
combest was still a freaking man:
1999 High School Men’s Indoor List
55 METERS (6.14y)
6.19 Casey Combest (Owensboro, Ky)
Hand-timed:
10.06 in the 100 in the 1999 Winn dixie meet.
6.57 FAT in 1999 nike indoor nationals.
Woronin actually went 9.999 (but it rounds up ;)). Too bad he didn’t lean a little further or maybe reacted a little better (assuming he didn’t hit .1).
Any pictures of Combest? I heard he was really REALLY skinny.
Combest was a beast over 60 meters but for the most part,his 100 meters times will overrated.He was more of a 10.3 guy at that distance.Pickering has a good head on his shoulders and is confident/cocky as they come.You don’t see many white sprinters with his swagger & attitude.We need a few more guys like Mo.It’s kind of like when alot of white guys dance,even the ones that can c-walk all day long,have no confidence.The same in sprinting!
Shirvo still has a chance at 27.He seems to be back to semi-form this year winning a race a month ago in a 10.26!He has to get his confidence back which has been gone for along time.I think that Macrozonaris and Nagel are finished for good.
Two guys to watch other than Pickering are Matic Osovnikar & Andrey Yepishin. Matic finished 4th in the world indoors with a 6.58 to tie his p.b. He has run a best of 10.15 thus far from Athens.I see him breaking that this summer.Andrey Yepishin took the silver at the World Indoors in a time of 6.52!That translates into approx. a 10.04 if he can hold his speed with little or no wind.Predictions?
Like all Russians, Yepishin will probably falter outdoors (look at his previous seasons). I hope he does well and I was pumped for him indoors, but I just have never been able to fully trust the indoor russian results that are usually better than their outdoor results in recent years.
There used to be a few one dyestat him vs. Darrel Rideax (LB Poly/USC/NFL). I cant find them anymore.
Combest was 5’6-5’7 135-145 pounds. This boy looked like a miler. Very weird.
Actually, it was 9.991 - which is more depressing for him.
I was just doing some google searches and saw that Matic has a website.It is maticosovnikar.com He might have a good chance to do it because he has shown great improvements almost every year.At the world indoors he was coming on like a freight train for the last 30 meters or so.He just got a terrible start.That bodes well for his 100 meters times.
Nick Smith would have been my choice…This guy has acceleration to make people look pedestrian!!
Nick Smith has really only had 1 good race that I know of,a 10.28 a couple of years ago.He seems to be fading fast but maybe I could be wrong.I do know that Allan Wells thinks that Nick has alot of talent.He just doesn’t seem built to be a sub 10 sprinter to me.
The problem for Craig Pickering will be to not let the pressure get to him.Look at what it did to Matt Shirvington.Sprinting is as much mental as it is physical.Everything has to be perfect to even approach a sub 10.He is still my pick because most of these older guys don’t seem to have that swagger that I believe is needed.You have to believe you can do it before you can even think about acheiving it!
pickering does seem to be the likely canadate but there could be skinny 11 year old white boy whose still playing on a suburban elementry playground
who will go 9.75. We’ve just gotta wait it out. Until then horay for white 400m runners.
Good point D Nasty.There are so many kids that just never even come close to living up to their potential in track.Two recent ones are Matt Bruno & Casey Combest who was already mentioned.It is way too early to tell if Craig has what it takes but somehow I have a weird feeling about him that I haven’t had with some of the other white sprinters.Time will tell if my gut instinct is right.As Ato Boldon has said in the past,white sprinters will be stuck in the mud until they quite trying to go sub 10 and just try to win races and be world/olympic champions.That is not word for word but you guys get the idea.
I heard a rumor that Bobby Morrow has a teenage son that runs but I don’t know if it is true.Does anyone have info on this?Thanks.
Craig has the attitude to win. He is single minded and did well to win his european (?) title in such conditions. The next 2 tenths will be a battle hopefully he can win…
Craig also has great coaches around him and Jason Gardener is his training partner.Granted that Jason hasn’t been the 100 meters sprinter that England thought he would,Jason is still a very high level sprinter who is world class over 60 meters.Michael Johnson has even given his approval of Pickering.Almost everyone can see Pickerings potential.The million dollar question is if the kid can live up to the hype.I would be willing to bet that he can.I see him running a 10.10 - 10.15 this summer!