T&FN office got a release today from J.J. Johnson's flak, saying he was ready to challenge the World Record. (highly) unlikely, of course, but a PR guy has to do his job.
Someone in the office suggested a pool on how fast he (Johnson, not his flak) actually runs in Monaco and it struck me that w/ JJJ, lane draw is incredibly crucial. As I pointed out on another thread, his 19.88 world-leader back in '01 came out of lane 9. After seeing him run in inside lanes in Paris, I understand why. He's incredibly long-legged and doesn't handle curves well. Put him out in one of the long bends and he's OK.
Assuming they seed Monaco based on World Rank positions (I'm checking on that), he'll be in the second group. That means that rankers 1-4 do a random draw for the "preferred lanes" of 3-4-5-6. JJJ will be in the draw for 1-2, 7-8. Does anyone who knows sprinting think that running the 200 out of 7 or 8 remotely approaches the punishment of being in 1 or 2? Indeed, I suspect that on many tracks, being in 7 or 8 is far superior even to being in 3, given that a properly-run 200 is balls-out all the way, not sit-and-kick on the guy you are trailing. Yes, it helps to know where the competition is, but running less of a curve has to be a greater help.
I think the IAAF needs to rethink "preferred lanes" for the 200 (especially) and the 400.
Someone in the office suggested a pool on how fast he (Johnson, not his flak) actually runs in Monaco and it struck me that w/ JJJ, lane draw is incredibly crucial. As I pointed out on another thread, his 19.88 world-leader back in '01 came out of lane 9. After seeing him run in inside lanes in Paris, I understand why. He's incredibly long-legged and doesn't handle curves well. Put him out in one of the long bends and he's OK.
Assuming they seed Monaco based on World Rank positions (I'm checking on that), he'll be in the second group. That means that rankers 1-4 do a random draw for the "preferred lanes" of 3-4-5-6. JJJ will be in the draw for 1-2, 7-8. Does anyone who knows sprinting think that running the 200 out of 7 or 8 remotely approaches the punishment of being in 1 or 2? Indeed, I suspect that on many tracks, being in 7 or 8 is far superior even to being in 3, given that a properly-run 200 is balls-out all the way, not sit-and-kick on the guy you are trailing. Yes, it helps to know where the competition is, but running less of a curve has to be a greater help.
I think the IAAF needs to rethink "preferred lanes" for the 200 (especially) and the 400.
Comment