Dibaba - Female TFN Athlete of the Year

[Bruce Kritzler]

Dibada, Isinbeyeva, and Jelimo in a close battle for Athlete of the Year. Suspect having two (three, with 3k) events helped put Dibaba on top.
Five runners and five field eventers in top 10.
No American in top 10 for first time since?

[gh]

Last time it happened (surprise!) this Board was already up and running

[Bruce Kritzler]

Looking over recent years, I was surprised to see Caroline Kluft has never been Athlete of the Year, or even close?? Is it because of lack of competition in her event?

[Brian]

Re: Dibada - Female TFN Athlete of the Year

Dibada, Isinbeyeva, and Jelimo in a close battle for Athlete of the Year. Suspect having two (three, with 3k) events helped put Dibada on top.
Five runners and five field eventers in top 10.
No American in top 10 for first time since?

Wonder if the relative lack of depth of the competitive fields (compared to the top two) worked against Jelimo...? Certainly the Russian drug busts figured into the Big Picture.


Drugs bad.

[Vault-emort]

ummm.... which of the recent Russians (with or without drug controversies) were as close to the WR as Jelimo or as consistent in their series of times??

[gh]

Re: Dibada - Female TFN Athlete of the Year

....
Wonder if the relative lack of depth of the competitive fields (compared to the top two) worked against Jelimo...? ....

What worked against Jelimo is that the first two had World Records. WRs trump all (unfortunately) in the eyes of many/most voters.

[eldrick]

ummm.... which of the recent Russians (with or without drug controversies) were as close to the WR as Jelimo or as consistent in their series of times??

going into games, soby actually had a quicker 800 time than pamela - 1'54.85 to 1'54.87 & with more experience wouda probably made her favorite

we didn't know then pamela actually had 1'54-flat ability in her this year, but on paper, soby had a good chance of beating her before games

[gh]

Except that Soboleva was already a drug positive at that point and—at least from T&FN's point of view—wasn't even ON the list, let alone leading it.

[mump boy]

and she was a russian going into a champs with a fast time therefore we all know she would have gone out in the heats it's the first rule of track :?