INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 22, 2006 (AFP) - Two thunderstorms all but washed out Thursday’s schedule at the US athletics championships.
Four finals were scheduled - the triple jump, javelin and 10,000 meters for women and the men’s 10,000 meters - along with preliminary rounds in eight events.
The first storm struck at about 2:00 p.m. (18:00 GMT), with heavy rains and lightning that forced meet officials to evacuate the stadium.
After a 90 minute delay, action resumed with preliminaries in the men’s and women’s 800 meters, men’s 400 meter hurdles, and the men’s and women’s 400m.
Top 400m qualifiers were No. 1 world-ranked Sanya Richards among the women (51.02) and world and Olympic 4x400m relay gold medallist Darold Williamson for the men (45.05).
The second storm struck at 7:25 p.m. (23:25 GMT), washing out all finals and preliminary rounds in both the men’s and women’s 100 meters.
After a two-hour delay, meet officials called it a night.
All four finals and the 100m heats have been rescheduled for Friday.
The 100m events feature sprint stars Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones.
Before the rains, USA Track and Field announced plans for its 2008 Olympic marathon trials.
The New York Marathon on November 2, 2007, will determine the men’s team. The women’s trials will take place April 20, 2008, in Boston, one day before the Boston Marathon.
The top three finishers at the marathon trials qualify for the US Olympic team for Beijing.
Gatlin just ran 9.99 into a strong headwind (I think -1.4). I doubt he ran all the way through the line too, but I haven’t seen it so I can’t really say. If the wind goes the right way, we may see the WR go down!
Marion won the 100m final in 11.10 into a .9 headwind and Justin won in 9.93 into a 1.2 headwind
Yeah I know. I wonder what the difference was like between the semis and finals from a weather standpoint. The closest guy in Gatlin’s semi was still over .3 behind him, so I have a hard time thinking he ran through the tape.