Bolt Season Debut Toronto June 11 at Varsity Stadium!!

[skiboo]

Saw it on the news yesterday. Single most exciting thing in this town since that silly 150 between Bailey and Johnson. Not counting hockey of course. :roll:[/i]

[jney]

what meet is this? what size is the stadium, how many banks are financing his appearence?

[skiboo]

Couldn't find much but this confirms it. Just a smallish university stadium enough seats for a Canadian football crowd. Maybe 5,000.

http://olympics.thestar.com/2008/article/598152

http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=49582.html

[Novianv2]

I live in Toronto and I still can't believe it. I spoke with some coaches at U of T and prior to the announcement they thought the whole thing was bogus. Turns out they were wrong (I think).

In any case, it's a new track. Blue. Kind of soft. I wouldn't expect any blazing times; at least by Bolt's standards. The crowd should be raucous though. Toronto t&f fans love them some track and field. Our provincial high school championships have typically been a lot of fun. Not on the Texas or Kingston level but fun. My guess is Little Jamaica will be empty on June 11th.

[skiboo]

Varsity Stadium is the only non-dirt/asphalt track in downtown Toronto, a city of [metropolitan area] roughly 5 million people. You have to go well out of the downtown core to get to a couple of other stadiums that also seat about 5000 people and have synthetic surfaces. The Jamaican-Canadian fans will doubtless be out in droves for the event. Not much to say about track and field in Toronto other than that, except that general interest is about zero. Toronto has no clue how lucky it is to be hosting such a superstar - I wonder if they'll be able to come up with anyone for him to run against?

[dl]

Will this meet feature Bolt jogging 100m to collect his big appearance fee, or will there be other athletes and other events? Only half joking.

[skiboo]

Will this meet feature Bolt jogging 100m to collect his big appearance fee, or will there be other athletes and other events? Only half joking.

Edit to my previous post shows we're wondering the same thing. Lopes-Schliep and Felicien may hook up in the hurdles according to one of the links above. I expect any quality to appear for short seconds after which the meet will be effectively over. Sorry if I sound cynical, Bolt must have heard there was some great jerk chicken in town or something equally enticing.

[skiboo]

Update on the meet, for tickets locally go to:

http://www.ticketbreak.com/event_details/2783

Event Schedule is at http://www.festivalofexcellence.ca/inde ... 1FEDDE4088

Felicien and Lopes-Schliep should bring a great battle to the women's higher hurdles [higher than the mini-sticks in the one lap race, at any rate). Lopes has a 12.52 from Doha this year and Felicien is coming back in that underdog role she loves, 12.80 thus far.

Of course this may serve as a solid second event after the men's 100. Good luck getting ticks and enjoy the meet!

[sprintblox]

Event Schedule is at http://www.festivalofexcellence.ca/inde ... 1FEDDE4088

What is "110mH Triathlon Men" and "400m Triathlon Men"?

[skiboo]

What is "110mH Triathlon Men" and "400m Triathlon Men"?

There's a Triathlon Pole Vault at 5pm so must be the third event in this baby multi. Beggars cannot be chosers perhaps.

[sprintblox]

Oh, so they meant that kind of triathlon. I was wondering how swimming and cycling would be mixed into this or if it was a mistake.

[Sportsfanx1]

Will this meet feature Bolt jogging 100m to collect his big appearance fee, or will there be other athletes and other events? Only half joking.

You might just see the best 100m to ever run on Canadian soil. He won't be jogging. Plus, there are other Olympians that will be there. Lashawn Merritt (2008 400m Olympic champion) will run in his pet even I think. Also, Crawford finalist in recent Beijing 200m will be there running against Bolt in 100m along with some other well know runners...think middle distance will be there. Think this a once in life time opportunity for those kids and people in Toronto to see these athletes in the flesh.

[DentyCracker]

9.82 edmonton is not going to be beat
9.85 or so is what I expect

[tandfman]

9.82 edmonton is not going to be beat
9.85 or so is what I expect

I don't know how you can declare that 9.82 isn't going be broken if you expect the time to be 9.85. The difference between those two could easily be accounted for by a bit of wind.

[DentyCracker]

Let me rephrase 9.85 with a 1.6 is at best what I expect. If he gets a 2.0 he may threaten the Edmonton time.
However this is Bolt so anything is possible.
I really have stopped betting against him doing anything since the 100m in Beijing