2021 U.S. Outdoor Season

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile...OTC has trading cards of their athletes...cool idea I think.

[CKuykendall]

I mis-posted the following, Saturday afternoon, on the 2020-21 indoor season thread, and will post a revised version here, first paragraph below...

I almost hiked down to UT last night (Friday) in Austin, thinking that was where the Trials of Miles meet (aka Texas Qualifier) was being held. It turned out instead to be at Crusader Stadium, St. Michael's Academy (aka SMA), a Catholic high school here. The weather was overcast, 59 plus or minus. So we actually had a Stanford-like distance carnival, most of which was watchable for free on the Internet. There was good clarity on the camera work (including use of a drone), and the announcing (Kyle Merber and Chris Chavez in the booth, and Emma Abrahamson on the track doing post-race winner interviews) was better than a lot of the TV network track & field I used to watch, and drew some Internet praise although not unanimously. Currently, Saturday approaching noon in Austin, it's 69 with cloudiness that's expected to continue all day and tonight, the temperature hitting an expected 78 by the time the lesser events start at 4:30 p.m. CST, dropping to an expected 74 when the elite races begin at 7:00 p.m. CST.

****

The eventual temperature nearing the close of the Saturday evening competition was about 71, but with the humidity commented on as distracting some from the clockings. Merber and Chavez were joined in the booth eventually by Australia's Morgan McDonald, who as a Wisconsin senior won the NCAA 5000 here in Austin.

Josette Norris took charge, taking the lead, in the last mile of the women's 5000 on Saturday night. She eventually got caught by Elinor Purrier (15:08.61) and Weini Kilati (15:13.12), but the effort paid off when Norris in 3rd at 15:19.31 just slipped under the Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 15:20.00. The word from the announcers is that Kilati is hoping to get U.S. citizenship before the Trials.

Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany, aka "Koko" for short, who has broken 2:00 in he 800, 4:00 in the 1500, and 15:00.00 in the 5000, came close to breaking 31:00.00 in what I think I understand was her debut 10000. She nevertheless set a German national record 31:01.71. So where that record occurred (see second paragraph above), among all other possible venues on the planet Earth, may become the answer to a tough trivia question among German tracknuts. I'm guessing it was also a Texas-soil record. Francie Larrieu ran an American Record 31:28.92 in comparably mild weather on Wednesday or Thursday of the 1991 Texas Relays, at Memorial Stadium where the track has since been removed and the stadium expanded for Longhorn football only. Purrier may have run a Texas-soil record also. Somebody smarter than me would know.

[gm]

I can't recall or imagine anyone running faster than Purrier did in a Texas women's 5,000.

[gh]

best NCAA mark done in Austin


1985
1. Sabrina Dornhoefer (Missouri) Sr 15:42.22

[gm]

best NCAA mark done in Austin


1985
1. Sabrina Dornhoefer (Missouri) Sr 15:42.22

Sidebar: without looking it up, where did she go to high school?

[CKuykendall]

Sidebar: without looking it up, where did she go to high school?

I was on a stepstool trying to find something on my upper shelves, so while I was there, I cheated and looked it up. Waynesville, Missouri.

[gm]

I was on a stepstool trying to find something on my upper shelves, so while I was there, I cheated and looked it up. Waynesville, Missouri.

I was actually looking for Wurzburg, but hey...

[PearlDaddy]

Today is the opening day of the high school track season here in Iowa. And more importantly, this came out to inspire all those athletes:

2021 Drake Relays Releases Blue Standards for Iowa High School Student-Athletes

[Conor Dary]

best NCAA mark done in Austin


1985
1. Sabrina Dornhoefer (Missouri) Sr 15:42.22

I remember her well....AW athlete...

[gh]

USATF Juniors canceled

[Atticus]

USATF Juniors canceled

Huh! I just realized they were never scheduled!

[ATK]

USATF Juniors canceled

I'm a bit confused. The USATF release says they will use performance rank to pick members for the 2021 Pan Am Championships (July 23-25 in Iquique, Chile).

I'm seeing the U20 Pan American Games as July 16th - 18th

Also, I assumed athletes would be qualifying for World U20 Championships happening in Kenya this August, but there was no mention of that?

[gh]

traditional Penn Relays canceled,, but may be replaced by 3-part setup.

story posted on home page

[Atticus]

traditional Penn Relays canceled,, but may be replaced by 3-part setup. Story posted on home page

At least there is A college meet planned for that Saturday. Open and HS meets to follow?

[polevaultpower]

Also, I assumed athletes would be qualifying for World U20 Championships happening in Kenya this August, but there was no mention of that?

When the U18 meet was in Kenya, USATF said it was "too dangerous." USATF's financial situation has not improved since then, so I am predicting that Kenya will still be "too dangerous" for the U20 team.