Wariner's 20.66 opener

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Healthy Jeremy Wariner starts fast at TCU with gold as goal

Posted Friday, Mar. 16, 20120 Comments PrintReprints
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Topics:Athletes, Surgery

Tags:TCU, primes, University of Texas at Arlington, triple jump, hamstring

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By Charean Williams

cjwilliams@star-telegram.com

Jeremy Wariner ran a time of 20.66 to win the 200-meter dash at the TCU Invitational on Friday. It was a faster outdoor debut for him than last year at the same meet.

That after he ran a 20.91 at a February indoor meet in Arkansas, the first time Wariner had run indoors since 2004.

Slowly, but surely, Wariner is close to running fast again.

“People can see that I’m slowly getting back,” Wariner said. “My times are pretty quick right now, early on.”

This could be the best year of Wariner’s life. He and his wife, Sarah, who were married Nov. 5, are expecting a child Oct. 15. They jokingly have nicknamed the child Turbo.

Before that, Wariner hopes to not only compete in his third Olympics, but win his second individual Olympic gold medal. After winning in the 400-meter dash at the Athens Games, Wariner had to settle for the silver in Beijing four years ago.

“If he’s healthy, he should be [the favorite],” said Clyde Hart, Wariner’s coach. “He’s at the prime when 400 runners run well. I expect him to have a good year. It’s an Olympic year, and our goal, just like everybody else’s, is the gold. If you don’t reach it, you get what you get. Right now, we’re going after a couple of gold medals in the Olympics.”

Wariner, 28, was ranked either first or second in the world in the 400 by Track & Field News every year from 2004-2010. He won an Olympic gold, two world titles, Olympic silver and a world silver in that seven-year span. But he has not run a sub-44-second time in the 400 since a 43.82 in 2008. Injuries mostly are to blame.

Wariner had surgery on his right knee in December 2009 after tearing cartilage. That eventually led to a sore hamstring that cut short his 2010 season. Last year, he tore a ligament in his left foot and needed surgery on his left knee.

Wariner had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Aug. 14.

“I feel great,” Wariner said. “The knee is feeling good. My toe is feeling real good. The hamstrings are fine.”

Wariner is noticeably leaner. He said he is down to 153 pounds, which is where he was in 2006-07.

“I want to show people that I haven’t gone anywhere,” he said. “Last year I just got hurt, and I am going to be back where I was.”

Wariner had hoped to run the second leg of the 4x400 relay Friday, but Marcus Boyd, who led off, cramped and didn’t finish. Wariner is scheduled to run the 200 and the relay March 24 at UT Arlington.

Silmon paces TCU

TCU picked up seven first-place finishes in the TCU Invitational, led by sprinter Charles Silmon. The junior had a personal-best 10.18 in the 100, the fastest collegiate time in the meet and second only to Olympian Wallace Spearmon, who ran a 10.06.

“That was one of the only races of the day that wasn’t wind-aided, so I’m happy for him,” TCU coach Darryl Anderson said of Silmon.

UTA fares well

UTA senior Isiah Clements was “a little under the weather,” but he didn’t let that detour him from winning the high jump. He cleared 6 feet, 8 inches.

UTA’s Omar Barnes won the triple jump, going 48-4.

Charean Williams

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Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/16/3815960/healthy-jeremy-wariner-starts.html#storylink=cpy

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Nice to see him running well again, the Olympics are always better with him in the mix. Also nice to see Spearmon back in 10.0x shape.

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The crazy part is, he is only 28!! insane

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Yup. Remember he was only 20 when he won Athens.

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I think I saw some statistics once that showed that the average age of medallists or champions in the 400 is among the lowest of all disciplines, lower than in the 100. Quincy Watts, Steve Lewis and now Kirani James come to mind.
A bit contrary to what you might expect, talent more important than training, because endurance is thought to be more trainable than speed.

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Age Based Medal Statistics 100m v 400m

The following figures are based on ages of the athlete in the year of the Olympics. (Stats are the average for the 8 Olympics from 1980 - 2008)

100m: Gold medallist = 26.1yrs / Silver medallist = 25.3yrs / Bronze medallist = 25.1yrs / Average age of all medallist = 25.5yrs

400m: Gold medallist = 24.4yrs / Silver medallist = 24.4yrs / Bronze medallist = 24.5yrs / Average age of all medallist = 24.4yrs

Other information:

The USA has won 8 of the 24 medals on offer at the last 8 Olympics in the 100m (3 Golds, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze)

The USA has one 16 of the 24 medals on offer at the last 8 Olympics in the 400m (8 Golds, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze)

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A couple of years ago I checked the top 50 athletes on the Australian men’s All Time 400m list. The average age of a PB was something like 23 years and 5 months.

There are the odd exceptions but I found the further someone gets away from the age of 24 years, the less likely they will run a PB and the bigger the gap between their PB and their season’s best.

So it does not surprise me that Warriner’s PB is something like 4 years old. At the age of 28 it is very unlikely he will ever get to PB shape again. But he can still be the best in the world hovering around the low 44’s - just depends if someone goes into the sub 44s range - that will put it beyone Warriner.

Mind you like everyting in our sport - it’s not an exact science and there’s times when athletes will perform well outside the norm based on historical data. E.g: A 29 year old I started coaching in 2004 with a PB of 48.20, retired in 2008 with a PB of 46.63 at the age 33. But based on what I’ve been able to research (in Australia), an athlete who runs a PB at athe age of 23-24 and remains in a similar environment is unlikely to ever better that once they get beyond 24.

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Sprinters peak:

        Decades ago 22-24
        One or two decades ago 24-26
        Few years ago 26-28
        Now and for the next few years 28-30.

At least for the 100m. I see no reason why it should be different for the 400, perhaps the different training methods.

Typically, most 400 programs are concentrated in special eundrance and similar tempo sessions. Rarely do they coneccntrate on continually advancing speed throughout a career and creating a speed reserve. Which, in turn causes them to peak earlier. That’s my take anyway…

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Wallace Spearmon Runs Very Fast, Very Early to Beat Jeremy Wariner at UTA Bobby Layne Invitational

By LetsRun.com
March 24, 2012

Wallace Spearmon is back.

A week after running a wind-aided 10.06 100m, Spearmon blasted a world leading 19.95 200m to easily defeat Jeremy Wariner at the UTA Bobby Layne Invitational in Arlington, Texas.

Spearmon, a three time individual World medallist in the 200m, suffered from an achilles injury in 2012 and called it a season after not making the finals of USATF nationals. Spearmon got a call from friend Usain Bolt to cheer him up, but he was left watching the 2011 World Championships from home. Any concerns that the achilles injury would curtail Spearmon’s Olympic year are gone.

Running this fast this early is very, very rare. According to the IAAF all-time lists, this is the earliest anyone in the world has ever gone sub 20.00 seconds in the Northern Hemisphere outdoors. Pushing it out a month, only three people have gone sub 20.00 in April in the Northern Hemisphere: Spearmon, Bolt and Jeff Williams.

This was Spearmon’s 22nd sub 20 clocking of his life tying Usain Bolt. Michael Johnson has 23 sub 20 clockings and Frankie Fredericks has the most at 24.

Jeremy Wariner improved from his 20.66 wind aided 200m the week before to finish a distance second in 20.53, just edging Canadian Olympian Jared Connaughton.

Doc Patton, second last year at USATFs in the 200, who didn’t make the finals of the US 60m last month, ran a very quick world leading 10.06 in the 100m.

La Shauntea Moore, sixth at USATFs in the 200 last year, ran a world leading 22.94 in the women’s 200m.

With the Olympics the first week in August the stars are clearly getting ready earlier this year. It was also a beautiful 80 degree day with a favorable light breeze in the sprints.

UTA Bobby Layne Key Results below. Full results here, recap from UTA website here

Click on the thumbnail to see an excellent shot of the finish tweeted by Max Faulkner of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Trust us you won’t be disappointed the thumbnail does not do it justice.

Update: FW Star Telegram Article on Race: Spearmon: “I’m back”

Men’s 200:
Event 209 Men 200 Meter Dash

Name                    Year School                  Finals  Wind H# Points

===============================================================================
Finals
1 Spearmon, Wallace Saucony 19.95 1.8 1
2 Wariner, Jeremy Adidas 20.53 1.8 1
3 Connaughton, Jared Canada 20.54 1.8 1
4 Hubbard, Jamil unattached 20.77 1.8 2
5 Boyd, Marcus Michael Johnson 20.89 1.8 2
6 White, Steven North Texas 21.19 1.2 4
7 Isles, Carlin unattached 21.20 1.9 3
8 Collins, Clinton North Texas 21.30 1.7 5
9 Baker, Ethan Oklahoma 21.33 1.2 4
10 Robertson, Paris Abilene Christian 21.39 1.2 4
11 Betters, Lejerald unattached 21.50 1.8 1
12 Fortson, Danzell unattached 21.63 1.8 1
Men’s 100m:
Event 205 Men 100 Meter Dash

Name                    Year School                  Finals  Wind H# Points

===============================================================================
Finals
1 Patton, Doc Nike 10.04 1.1 1
2 Silmon, Charles Tcu 10.22 1.5 5
3 Isles, Carlin unattached 10.24 1.1 1
4 Gray, Cordero unattached 10.25 1.1 1
5 Edgar, Tyrone unattached 10.30 1.1 1
6 Norman, Solomon Saucony 10.34 1.1 1
Women’s 200m:
Event 109 Women 200 Meter Dash

Name                    Year School                  Finals  Wind H# Points

===============================================================================
Finals
1 Moore, La Shauntea Nike 22.94 1.3 1
2 Hodge, Virgil Unat-Tcu 23.50 1.3 1
3 Corinealdi, Chaniqua Tcu 23.73 1.2 2