Inside Track: Game has changed for Crawford
Tue Jun 09, 2009
By Joe Battaglia / Universal Sports
Two weeks ago, Shawn Crawford found himself tuning in to watch the Reebok Grand Prix on television. Of particular interest, of course, were the two men’s sprint races.
He couldn’t help but marvel at the performance of Tyson Gay (stats), who clocked a personal-best 19.58 seconds, the third-fastest time in history, to win the 200m.
“Honestly, my reaction was, ‘Whoa! Would you look at this,’” Crawford said in a recent phone interview. “Tyson looked real good. To tell you the truth, he looked so good when he ran that turn and was so strong at the end of the race, all I could say was, ‘Whoa,’ and, ‘I need to get on my grind.’”
As one of the world’s elite veteran sprinters, Crawford (stats) said he finds himself looking to the younger generation of runners for inspiration.
“I know I’m 31 and one of the older cats in the game, but when I watch them run they inspire me like I’m young and just coming into it,” Crawford said. “It’s like, ‘Man, I want to work hard so I can run just like that.’ It’s weird to be looking up to the younger runners like I looked up to Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene when I first came into the game. The young cats inspire me just like I was back in the day.”
On Thursday night, Crawford will take aim at the fastest cat in the game today, world-record holder Usain Bolt, in the 100m at the IAAF Festival of Excellence in Toronto. It will be the first time the two have competed against each other since the Olympic 200m final, which Bolt won in a world-record 19.30 seconds and which Crawford was later awarded silver.
Crawford goes into this race with a first-hand perspective on Bolt’s incredible speed and with an appreciation for how the Jamaican changed the sprinting landscape last summer in Beijing.
“I knew he was fast, but once you experience it in a final like that, it’s like, ‘Damn, he is faster than I thought,’” Crawford said of Bolt. “He changed the dynamics a lot. To take a quote from Ato Boldon when he was commentating on that race, the performances have gone into the realm of video game times. Usain raised the bar and raised the awareness for the other sprinters. We’ve got to put our working boots on and go out and work because it ain’t no easy job out here anymore.
“These times are real. Usain opened all of our eyes and made us see that we’re all chasing him and if we’re going to catch him, we have to drop down and run those video-game times too. It changed the game up, but I think it changed the game for the better because now there are going to be faster times and the sprint game is going to be elevated to a whole different level. It’s going to be out of this world.”
Throughout his career Crawford said he prided himself on focusing solely on his performances, but now he can’t help but find himself thinking about Bolt during training.
“The funny thing I’ve found myself doing this year that I never did before is thinking about another athlete,” Crawford said. “Now, when I’m in practice, I’m like, ‘You know Usain would be doing this,’ or, ‘You know he wouldn’t be stopping now.’ I usually would not even think about what my competitors are doing. I would be thinking about what I needed to do to better my race. But now, I’m like, ‘I know how this guy is.’
“It’s like going to war or going into any competition and studying your opposition. You want to know their strengths and weaknesses. It seems like the opposition we’re studying now has no weaknesses. So every weakness that we have, we have to try to eliminate them.”
For Crawford that has meant trying to regain the sprint form he showed at the peak of his career in 2004, when he finished fourth in the 100m in 9.89 seconds and won gold in the 200m in 19.79 seconds at the Athens Olympics.
It has not been easy. Five years ago, Crawford was part of Trevor Graham’s sprint-oriented group and spent the majority of his time honing sprint technique. He now trains with Bobby Kersee’s group, which is more quarter-mile-based, meaning the bulk of his training is focused on building strength and endurance.
“Trying to get back to that form is a little bit difficult right now because the things I practice now aren’t the things I practiced back then,” Crawford said. “Back then, it was like drag racing in practice every day. Now, we do a lot of tempo work and you don’t get the chance to go pedal to the metal and work on form while going all-out. When that’s the case, it’s going to be more difficult to get into a race and drop the hammer down when you’re not used to dropping the hammer down every day in practice. In my mind, I’m a Ferrari and I just want to go fast all of the time. But I’m starting to come around.”
But he knows he still has work to do.
Crawford said he plans to double at the USA Outdoor Championships, and if he is going to make the team for the World Championships, particularly in the 100m, he is going to need to make significant time drops.
At the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday, Crawford clocked 10.21 seconds in the 100m B race. By his estimation, under perfect conditions at Nationals, it is going to take a time faster than 9.85 seconds to make the U.S. squad, meaning he would have to shave nearly a third of a second of his season best in the next two weeks. While that may seem like a tall order, Crawford said it is not an impossible one.
“I think it’s real feasible because there are a lot of technical things you need to work on in the 100 and you can get a lot of speed work in in a matter of weeks,” Crawford explained. “It’s amazing the time that you can drop with just a tweak here and a tweak there.
“It’s like a motor. You can take a car out to the track and run a certain time and with the same engine and everything, you can tweak the suspension a little so you come off the line better, adjust your air/fuel ratio and your time is dropped drastically. Sprinting is kind of like the same thing. The motor is already built, now it’s just about fine tuning.”
[b]Bolt race in Toronto to be streamed
ESPN360.com has reached an agreement to offer exclusive coverage of the IAAF Festival of Excellence live from Toronto this Thursday, June 11 beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
The meet will feature Jamaica’s Usain Bolt running in the 100m, his first race on the track since sustaining foot injuries during a car accident in April. The race will be the final even of the meet and is scheduled to start at 8:22 p.m. ET.[/b]
London calling
Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva (stats) announced that she will compete in the Aviva London Grand Prix on July 24-25 as a final tune-up for her world title defense in the pole vault.
Isinbayeva has won at Crystal Palace each of the last six years, and has set three of her 14 outdoor world records in those victories. She said the meet will be one of only a handful she will compete in this summer before the World Championships in Berlin.
“I’ve won in London six times now, and I’ll be there again this year as the event is a very important part of my season,” Isinbayeva told the IAAF. “My coach and I have selected five events I want to compete at this summer as I prepare to defend my World Championship title in August, so every meet will be really significant to me.
“With the World Championships taking place just a few weeks after the Aviva London Grand Prix, I want to make sure I am in good shape and performing at my best there. It will be my last proper competition before heading out to Berlin, so I want to know I am in the best possible form.”
Out in the street
Unable to lure Usain Bolt (stats) to their Golden League meet, organizers of the DKB-ISTAF are hoping the Jamaican sprint star would be amenable to running a street race in Berlin this fall.
Bolt starred in a 150m street race in Manchester earlier this year - running a world best time of 14.35-seconds (watch video). ISTAF meet director Gerhard Janetzky was excited by the event and wants the three-time world record holder to hit the streets again in October, this time in the German capital.
“I want Bolt in October,” Janetzky, who noted that ISTAF did not have the funds to sign Bolt for Sunday’s Golden League opener, told the Berlin newspaper B.Z. “Then we have the next edition of the ‘Berlin Runs’ event. It is my dream to have a street sprint with him like the one in Manchester.”
Mills goes clubbing
After years of shunning the spotlight, celebrated Jamaican sprint coach Glen Mills has given into the prodding by friends and supporters and started his own track club.
Last Wednesday, the Racers Track & Field Club was formally unveiled at a ceremony in Kingston. On hand were 15 of Mills’ 21 athletes, including Usain Bolt, who he coached to three gold medals and three world records at the Beijing Olympics last summer.
Mills, the head coach for Jamaica’s national track and field teams for over 30 years, was presented with sponsorship checks from local corporations totaling more than $400,000 and announced medium and long-term plans for the club under the motto “We Take Competition Seriously.”
“We’ll focus mainly on expansion of the coaching staff, development of the hurdles program, expansion of the women’s program and provision of academic and financial advice,” Mills told the Jamaica Observer. “Long-term plans include permanent training facilities, administrative office facilities, and of course financial viability.”
Mills added that while the club hopes to maintain the high standards that Jamaica has set internationally, it also hopes provide athletes with the social tools that will ensure their stability on and off the track.
“We see ourselves as a vehicle to the athletes’ overall development,” Mills said. “It’s our goal to develop top-class performers and help them create a balanced development in their character and career goals.”
Twilight
After putting on a thrilling edition of the Prefontaine Classic (watch video) on Sunday, meet organizer Tom Jordan is not resting on his laurels and is already considering ways to improve the event next year.
One change could be moving the meet, which is schedule for July 3, 2010, from the daytime to the late afternoon or early evening. On Sunday, the event started at 10:45 a.m. locally to accommodate NBC’s broadcast schedule, a time which is not particularly fan-friendly.
“The folks at Nike and I are in agreement that what we need to do is hold the meet in conditions that are the best for the athletes and the fans, and that means afternoon, or preferably twilight,” Jordan told Ron Bellamy of the Eugene Register Guard. “A twilight meet in July, here at Oregon, with a full crowd, what an atmosphere that will be. That’s our goal for next year.”
Robles to open in Greece
Cuba’s Dayron Robles (stats), the Olympic champion and world record-holder in the 110m hurdles, will open his outdoor season on Wednesday in Salonica, Greece.
“I feel fine and I’m anxious to begin competing and see how it goes in every race,” Robles told The Associated Press. “I don’t have any pressure. The important thing is to relax and be confident in my chances.”
Robles, who shifted his training camp from Ecuador to Guadalajara, Spain, has not competed since getting injured in February in France at an indoor meet. He said he is hoping to compete in eight to 10 meets before the World Championships in Berlin in August.
Ramzi hearing postponed
The testing of Rashid Ramzi’s ‘B’ sample and subsequent hearing before the International Olympic Committee has been rescheduled for June 18.
The test and hearing was originally to be conducted in Paris on Monday.
According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field’s governing body, the Bahraini middle distance runner requested the postponement to allow his team of experts more time to prepare a defense.
Ramzi (stats) won the men’s 1500m in Beijing in August, the first Olympic gold medal in Bahrain’s history. In April, it was reported that a retest of blood samples given by Ramzi in China tested positive for CERA, an advanced version of the blood-boosting drug EPO.
If Ramzi’s ‘B’ sample also tests positive for CERA, the IOC is expected to strip him of his Olympic medal, causing all of the other places to move up one spot in the standings. Asbel Kiprop Kipruto (stats) of Kenya would become the gold medalist, Nick Willis (stats) of New Zealand would get the silver medal and Mehdi Baala (stats) of France would receive the bronze medal.
Quite a feat in defeat
[b]In finishing runner-up to Dwight Phillips (stats) in the long jump on Sunday at the Prefontaine Classic, Olympic gold medalist Irving Saladino (stats) of Panama only the seventh man ever to jump 8.53m/28-0 in a meet and lose, something that has happened only 10 times in history.
According to Track & Field News, the list of non-winners with great jumps includes Carl Lewis (stats), who jumped 8.91/29-2¾ at the 1991 World Championships and 8.53m/28-0 at the 1992 Olympic Trials; Larry Myricks (stats), who jumped 8.74m/28-8¼ at the 1988 Olympic Trials and 8.63m/28-8¾ at the 1987 USA Outdoor Championships; Mike Powell (stats), who jumped 8.64m/28-4¼ at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 8.63m/28-8¾ at the 1991 USA Outdoor Championships; Yago Lamela (stats) of Spain, who jumped 8.56m/28-1 at the 1999 World Indoor Championships; Phillips, who jumped 8.54m/28-0¼ in Hengelo last week; and Robert Emmiyan (stats) of Armenia, who jumped 8.53m/28-0 at the 1987 World Championships.[/b]
Record height in UK
British Olympic pole vaulter Kate Dennison (stats) set a new national record on Sunday, clearing 4.51m/14-9½ at the Josefa Odlozila Memorial meet in Prague.
Dennison’s mark broke the previous record of 4.47m/14-8 set in 2005 by Janine Whitlock (stats) and qualified her for the World Championships in Berlin this August. Dennison now holds British records both indoors and outdoors.
“I knew I was in good shape in training and I would have loved to have taken the bar higher,” Dennison told the BBC. “Obviously my main focus is on the World Championships. It’s great to get the standard out of the way early so I can focus on jumping higher. I’ll need 4.50m-4.60m to make the final (in Berlin) so if I can jump like that before I go that would be great.”
Continental record in Brazil
Fabiana Murer (stats) broke her own South American record on Sunday in the pole vault at the finals of the Brazilian Trophy of Athletics. Murer cleared 4.82m/15-9¾ to win the event and improve the continent record she established in 2008.
Murer’s mark is the best in the world this year, supplanting American Jenn Stuczynski (stats), who cleared a then-world best 4.81m/15-9¼ at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York on May 30.
Murer is hoping to contend for a medal at the World Championships this August in Berlin, something that would erase the bad memories of the 2008 Olympics. After having her pole lost by meet officials in Beijing, she was forced to borrow one from another competitor and finished 10th at 4.45m/14-7¼.
For the love of country
Russia’s Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion and world record holder Gulnara Galkina-Samitova (stats) has committed to compete at the European Team Championships in Leiria, Portugal on June 20-21. However, Galkina-Samitova has decided to skip her forte in favor of the flat 3000m, an event she also ran at the European Cup in 2004 and 2007 to help Russia maximize its scoring potential.
“I haven’t even started training with the barriers yet, that’s why I’m not doing the steeplechase,” Galkina-Samitova told European Athletics. I’ll start steeplechasing at the beginning of July. In fact, I also wanted to double at the Team Championships and do the 1500m but my coach told me ‘just one event’. Russia has a lot of other good 1500m runners as well.”
Galkina-Samitova said she is unsure whether she will be able to drop down to the world-record time of 8:58.81 she set in the steeplechase at the Beijing Olympics again this summer, but she is taking all of the same steps in training to do so.
“The plan is for the season to follow the same lines as what happened before the Olympics last year,” she said. “All my training is geared towards the World Championships in Berlin in two months time and my plan is to get there in the best shape possible."
More mile success
While 22-year-old collegian Jenny Barringer (stats) was running the fastest American 1500m time in the last seven years (read more) at the Prefontaine Classic, Great Britain’s Stephanie Twell, 19, (stats) was making her mark at the distance oceans away.
The world junior champion at 1500m shaved two seconds off her personal best, winning the event in 4:03.62 at the Janus Kusocinski Memorial meet in Warsaw, Poland. Twell’s time, the seventh fastest in the world this year, is likely to earn her a spot on the British squad for the European Team Championships. She is likely to also be considered at 5000m after running 15:18.47 in Belgrade last weekend.