Dear all,
Time is flying in Beijing!
My hotel is at least 1 hour by subway+bus from the olympic area, so it cuts 2h30 on my day. The rest is training, eating, interesting chats with people and working on my notes. I take some times to write you my impressions.
I arrived on 7th in the morning, i needed about 3 days to sort various problems out, accreditations, accomodation, location of various sites. I’ve stopped taking taxi when i realised that even with adresses written in chinese, they still drop you anywhere. I had as much as walk as drive, so i now take the subway. Subway looks like brand new with TV where you can watch events live. Not many volonteers can sustain conversation in english, they learned sentences by heart and can’t help you for anything else they are not devoted to. However, they are always polite and smiling, which is not always the case in these situations. I saw a bit of piece of blue sky yesterday, the sky is always covered by a big smog, which came down on the ground for a couple of days, serving torrencial showers.
I haven’t found time to visit anything yet, only the market on the other side of the street. They sell tons of good looking quality clothes. The seller’s first price is for example 450 yuans, if you hesitate and play the game, they can lower the price as low as 50… Those sellers are the only chinese i met who can speak english!
There are two training areas, one 40min far by car, the other one is the warm-up right close to the “bird nest”. We went to the first one on day 1, but this place is too far, so we now use the warm-up track. This explains why i haven’t seen much of other sprinter’s training. Different hours, different trainings. That’s usually the case that’s why i’m surprised to have not seen many.
I haven’t seen any of the US sprinters. Gay reportedely did a workout on sunday. I only saw Wariner who was doing a 300m sub max, i was busy with my guys, that’s all i can tell about him! I briefly saw Asafa but he just finished workout. I can tell that 2004 silver medallist Francis Obikwelu is in great shape, so is other former Nigerian Samuel Francis. Both are ripped and ready to run fast. Ronald and Olu had to train in different hours because of their federation respectice choices, but finally i managed to get them work together today for the last workout before the heats. Some blocks practice with guns, in separate races, we were able to get reaction times instantaneously. The guys were in 0.14 area, smooth action, we now have 2 more remaining days to get ready for the big show.
This will be the best 100m field ever. 6 sub9.90 guys. Sub10 might be required to enter into the final. 10.25-10.30 might be enough though to go through the first round :
100 Metres - M Heats
Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 10 fastest times (q) qualified.
Heat 1
Friday 15 August 2008 - 9:45
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Henry Vizcaíno [CUBA] CUB 10.25 10.18
3 Usain Bolt [JAMAICA] JAM 9.72 9.72
4 Fabio Cerutti [ITALY] ITA 10.13 10.13
5 Jurgen Themen [SURINAM] SUR 10.71 10.71
6 Vicente de Lima [BRAZIL] BRA 10.26 10.13
7 Francis Manioru [SOLOMON ISLANDS] SOL 11.05
8 Moses Kamut [VANUATU] VAN 10.87 10.64
9 Daniel Bailey [ANTIGUA & BARBUDA] ANT 10.12 10.12
Heat 2
Friday 15 August 2008 - 9:53
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Daniel Grueso [COLOMBIA] COL 10.24 10.24
3 Kim Collins [SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS] SKN 10.07 9.98
4 Roman Cress [MARSHALL ISLANDS] MSH 10.39
5 Asafa Powell [JAMAICA] JAM 9.82 9.74
6 Aisea Tohi [TONGA] TGA 11.10
7 Craig Pickering [GREAT BRITAIN & N.I.] GBR 10.19 10.14
8 Béranger Bosse [CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC] CAF 10.58 10.38
9 Dariusz Kuc [POLAND] POL 10.26 10.17
Heat 3
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:01
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Aziz Zakari [GHANA] GHA 10.23 9.99
3 Suryo Agung Wibowo [INDONESIA] INA 10.40 10.25
4 Simone Collio [ITALY] ITA 10.28 10.14
5 Martial Mbandjock [FRANCE] FRA 10.06 10.06
6 Andrew Hinds [BARBADOS] BAR 10.16 10.16
7 Jared Lewis [SAINT VINCENT] VIN 10.62 10.49
8 Richard Thompson [TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO] TRI 9.93 9.93
9 Rabangaki Nawai [KIRIBATI Rep of] KIR 11.17
Heat 4
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:09
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Idrissa Sanou [BURKINA FASO] BUR 10.38 10.14
3 Michael Frater [JAMAICA] JAM 10.00 10.00
4 Pierre Browne [CANADA] CAN 10.19 10.12
5 Massoud Azizi [AFGHANISTAN] AFG 11.11
6 Darrel Brown [TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO] TRI 10.02 9.99
7 Nobuharu Asahara [JAPAN] JPN 10.17 10.02
8 Ghyd Kermeliss Olonghot [CONGO] CGO 11.00 11.00
9 Holder da Silva [GUINEA-BISSAU] GBS 10.45 10.45
Heat 5
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:17
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Tyson Gay [UNITED STATES] USA 9.77 9.77
3 Danny D’Souza [SEYCHELLES] SEY 10.91 10.91
4 José Carlos Moreira [BRAZIL] BRA 10.25 10.16
5 Olusoji A. Fasuba [NIGERIA] NGR 10.10 9.85
6 Shanahan Sanitoa [AMERICAN SAMOA] ASA
7 Ángel David Rodríguez [SPAIN] ESP 10.14 10.14
8 Mhadjou Youssouf [COMOROS] COM 10.68 10.68
9 Lukáš Milo [CZECH REPUBLIC] CZE 10.26 10.26
Heat 6
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:25
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Kai Hu [PR OF CHINA] CHN 10.24 10.24
3 Ali Shareef [MALDIVES] MDV 11.17
4 Abdullah Al-Sooli [OMAN] OMA 10.55 10.55
5 Tyrone Edgar [GREAT BRITAIN & N.I.] GBR 10.06 10.06
6 Darvis Patton [UNITED STATES] USA 9.89 9.89
7 Ronald Pognon [FRANCE] FRA 10.13 9.99
8 Desislav Gunev [BULGARIA] BUL 10.27 10.27
9 Souksavanh Tonsacktheva [LAOS] LAO 11.26
Heat 7
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:33
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Obinna Metu [NIGERIA] NGR 10.16 10.16
3 Calvin Kang Li Loong [SINGAPORE] SIN 10.53 10.53
4 Francis Obikwelu [PORTUGAL] POR 10.04 9.86
5 Walter Dix [UNITED STATES] USA 9.96 9.93
6 Anson Henry [CANADA] CAN 10.23 10.12
7 Reginaldo Micha Ndong [EQUATORIAL GUINEA] GEQ 10.96
8 Dmytro Hlushchenko [UKRAINE] UKR 10.28 10.25
9 Jesse Tamangrow [Rep of PALAU - Pacific] PLW 11.47 11.47
Heat 8
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:41
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Suwaibou Sanneh [THE GAMBIA] GAM 10.43 10.43
3 Derrick Atkins [BAHAMAS] BAH 10.02 9.91
4 Andrey Epishin [RUSSIA] RUS 10.18 10.10
5 Sandro Viana [BRAZIL] BRA 10.19 10.19
6 Uchenna Emedolu [NIGERIA] NGR 10.21 9.97
7 Chun Ho Lai [HONG KONG, CHINA] HKG 10.38 10.38
8 Mohamed Abu Abdullah [BANGLADESH] BAN
9 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure [NORWAY] NOR 10.01 10.01
Heat 9
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:49
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Ruslan Abbasov [AZERBAIJAN] AZE 10.31 10.28
3 Gordon Teokotai Heather [COOK ISLANDS] COK 11.57 11.57
4 Sébastien Gattuso [MONACO] MON 10.53 10.53
5 Marc Burns [TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO] TRI 9.97 9.96
6 Samuel Francis [QATAR] QAT 10.03 9.99
7 Rolando Palacios [HONDURAS] HON 10.22 10.22
8 Jack Howard [MICRONESIA] FSM 10.86
9 Matic Osovnikar [SLOVENIA] SLO 10.16 10.13
Heat 10
Friday 15 August 2008 - 10:57
Lane Athlete Country SB 2008 PB
2 Moumi Sebergue [CHAD] CHA
3 Okilani Tinilau [TUVALU] TUV
4 Churandy Martina [NETHERLANDS ANTILLES] AHO 10.00 10.00
5 Naoki Tsukahara [JAPAN] JPN 10.71 10.15
6 Simeon Williamson [GREAT BRITAIN & N.I.] GBR 10.03 10.03
7 Wilfried Bingangoye [GABON] GAB 10.48 10.48
8 Franklin Nazareno [ECUADOR] ECU 10.22 10.22
9 Tobias Unger [GERMANY] GER 10.17 10.16
