Grace Jackson's 21.72.....

[liuxuan]

i'd never noticed before, but after deciding to look into Grance Jackson in a little more detail, I noticed that, apart from that one day in Seoul, where she ran 22.13 in the semi, then a remarkable 21.72 in the final, she didnt have that many fast times, relative to the 21.72! at first I was surprised she had never broken 22 seconds outside of that race, and then i realised that the fastest time she had run prior to that day was 22.20 in 1984, and the fastest she ever ran afterwards was 22.36.

I thought this was really strange, especially since given her stature she was very physically gifted. What other athletes have had such an advance in their pr in one race over the short sprints?? Most medallists at the olympics who post times under 22 seconds have normally done so more than once, or at least come within half a second of it.

[mump boy]

Re: Grace Jackson's 21.72.....

i'd never noticed before, but after deciding to look into Grance Jackson in a little more detail, I noticed that, apart from that one day in Seoul, where she ran 22.13 in the semi, then a remarkable 21.72 in the final, she didnt have that many fast times, relative to the 21.72! at first I was surprised she had never broken 22 seconds outside of that race, and then i realised that the fastest time she had run prior to that day was 22.20 in 1984, and the fastest she ever ran afterwards was 22.36.

I thought this was really strange, especially since given her stature she was very physically gifted. What other athletes have had such an advance in their pr in one race over the short sprints?? Most medallists at the olympics who post times under 22 seconds have normally done so more than once, or at least come within half a second of it.

i think she just had one of those moments she also ran sub 11 for the 100 at that meet i think she came 4th

i wish she's taken the 400m more seriously she had the physique to run superfast but i don't think she ran it at any champs and very rarely on the circuit, her best of 49.57 would have taken some serious revision if she'd tried

[Pierre-Jean]

Same goes with Juliet Cuthbert - 21.75 in Barcelona'92 - best pre-Games 22.15, best post-Games 22.24.
Grace Jackson ran the 49.58 in Nice and the same day 22.27 into the wind, so i guess a great performance was in "incubation" and came out in Seoul.

[Rog]

Another example, despite the success of her career overall, is Perec - she only broke 49 twice, both times in Olympic finals. She couldn't break 50 in the 94 Euros, for example. She was able to time her peak over a four year period, however.

I think with Grace, it was a case of being particularly inspired in Seoul, and I think she was maybe the only sprinter who seemed to be inspired by FloJo to surpass herself - you could see she was really chasing after her in the 200 final.

I think Grace could have run well in Rome 87, but she wasn't selected - I think there were issues about her not competing in Jamaica in their trials. She ran well in the US that year.

[Pierre-Jean]

Few observations on Pérec : 1994 was the year she joined John Smith so maybe she need some time to adapt, but the two main reasons she didn't broke 50sec in Helsinki was because she broke a toe earlier in the season, and the silver medallist only ran 51.24, so she wasn't pushed obviously.
However, Bryzgina's 49.05 in 1992 and Cathy Freeman's 48.63 in 1996 pushed Pérec to her fastest times. Unlike Marita Koch, Pérec was not one to run alone against the clock. She won 28 out of 34 of her 400m races over her whole career (1988-2000), who knows what she could have done with more opposition, for example from Torrence, Privalova, or Jackson if they had focused on the 1 lap.

[Rog]

Few observations on Pérec : 1994 was the year she joined John Smith so maybe she need some time to adapt, but the two main reasons she didn't broke 50sec in Helsinki was because she broke a toe earlier in the season, and the silver medallist only ran 51.24, so she wasn't pushed obviously.
However, Bryzgina's 49.05 in 1992 and Cathy Freeman's 48.63 in 1996 pushed Pérec to her fastest times. Unlike Marita Koch, Pérec was not one to run alone against the clock. She won 28 out of 34 of her 400m races over her whole career (1988-2000), who knows what she could have done with more opposition, for example from Torrence, Privalova, or Jackson if they had focused on the 1 lap.

If Torrence had concentrated on one lap, I'm pretty sure she would have been too strong for Perec. I think Privalova would have had the beating of her too, more often than not. Remember the 93 Worlds, with neither at their very best - after running all the rounds of the 100/200, Torrence ran a 49.0 first leg before Privalova ran a 48.4 anchor, despite neither concentrating on the 400 event. You've got to think that if they had specialised over 400, they would have been capable of 48.25 too - and given their consistency, they'd have run in that ballpark much more often than Perec did. In fact Torrence could have broken 48, I think.

I think part of the drop in standard of the women's 400 since the 80s is a reflection of the fact that a lot of the most talented sprinters - Torrence, Privalova, Ottey, Jones etc - have concentrated on the 100/200, despite the fact that they could have been equally as good at the 400. Even today the athlete with the most potential for running a really fast 400, Allyson Felix, is specialising at the 200!

[nevetsllim]

The athlete who immediately came to mind was Juliet Cuthbert but Donna Fraser made a tremendous improvement in 2000 - 50.77 in the QF, 50.21 in the SF and 49.79 in the final in Sydney.

[gh]

Re: Grace Jackson's 21.72.....

i'd never noticed before, but after deciding to look into Grance Jackson in a little more detail, I noticed that, apart from that one day in Seoul, where she ran 22.13 in the semi, then a remarkable 21.72 in the final, she didnt have that many fast times, relative to the 21.72! at first I was surprised she had never broken 22 seconds outside of that race, and then i realised that the fastest time she had run prior to that day was 22.20 in 1984, and the fastest she ever ran afterwards was 22.36.

I thought this was really strange, especially since given her stature she was very physically gifted. What other athletes have had such an advance in their pr in one race over the short sprints?? Most medallists at the olympics who post times under 22 seconds have normally done so more than once, or at least come within half a second of it.

Without going back to look up a specific race description for details, the one thing that happened to Jackson in Seoul that probably never happened to her before or after was to run a world-class curve, but be passed in the middle (?) of the bend by the woman on the lane inside her—and at the halfway point find herself 0.14 down!

She had Flojo as a rabbit! (lanes 5 and 6)

[Gabriella]

Jackson had an inspired run in Seoul. As PJ said, she was in the form of her life leading up to the Games; she ran a lot on the circuit and was consistent between 22.3 and 22.6, having some great battles with Dannette Young in Europe. I don't have the stats to hand, but I remember Jackson having a decent second 50m (I think she reached the 100m mark in 11.2+, maybe 11.27?) and then used all her strength and stride length in the straight. She definately benefitted from a good lane draw too.
Heike Drechsler, on the other hand, had the misfortune to draw lane 1, with was ridiculous as she was 2nd in her SF, but it was because the first SF was faster overall, so Moller, 3rd in SF1, got one of the middle lanes. Drechsler was 3rd fastest at 50m (behind Flo Jo and Ottey) yet faded to 7th at 100m (11.36) obviously suffering with her height in lane 1 and much slower than she shoud have run considering she was 100m bronze medallist in 10.85w. She ran a fierce last 50m though, stealing the bronze from Ottey on the line. Not bad considering she'd run the SF a couple of hours earlier and had competed in the LJ final that morning!
Ottey tied badly in the last 10m, she didn't even dip, and has the rather sad distinction of being the only woman to have run sub 22 in a race and not medal.

Another one to improve in such a way is Anja Rucker at the 99 worlds. Her pre 99 best was 51.16, she opened with a 50.9 in Germany then went 50.62 QF, 50.09 SF and 49.74 F to set 3 PB's in a row.

[Gabriella]

I think part of the drop in standard of the women's 400 since the 80s is a reflection of the fact that a lot of the most talented sprinters - Torrence, Privalova, Ottey, Jones etc - have concentrated on the 100/200, despite the fact that they could have been equally as good at the 400. Even today the athlete with the most potential for running a really fast 400, Allyson Felix, is specialising at the 200!

Rog, I completey agree with you here. Add to that list Jackson herself, who messed around with all 3 disciplines, which you just can't do successfully if you're name's not Marita. She could have been fantastic over 400m. So could Drechsler too, with that 21.71 over 200m, and her height, but she'd have had to give the LJ up. I'd also liked to have seen Malchugina give the 400m a go, and Silke Knoll, who ran a good 50.85 in 95 of the back of 100/200 training.
Nowadays Felix and Richards are the best allrounders and as yo usay Felix is a 200m specialist.

[mump boy]

marcin urbas in 99 ran 19.98 in 200m semi after running pb of 2032 in QF he ran 20.30 in the final and then never ran faster than 20.40 in any other year not sure what else he ran that season

[John G]

Few observations on Pérec : 1994 was the year she joined John Smith so maybe she need some time to adapt, but the two main reasons she didn't broke 50sec in Helsinki was because she broke a toe earlier in the season, and the silver medallist only ran 51.24, so she wasn't pushed obviously.
However, Bryzgina's 49.05 in 1992 and Cathy Freeman's 48.63 in 1996 pushed Pérec to her fastest times. Unlike Marita Koch, Pérec was not one to run alone against the clock. She won 28 out of 34 of her 400m races over her whole career (1988-2000), who knows what she could have done with more opposition, for example from Torrence, Privalova, or Jackson if they had focused on the 1 lap.

If Torrence had concentrated on one lap, I'm pretty sure she would have been too strong for Perec. I think Privalova would have had the beating of her too, more often than not. Remember the 93 Worlds, with neither at their very best - after running all the rounds of the 100/200, Torrence ran a 49.0 first leg before Privalova ran a 48.4 anchor, despite neither concentrating on the 400 event. You've got to think that if they had specialised over 400, they would have been capable of 48.25 too - and given their consistency, they'd have run in that ballpark much more often than Perec did. In fact Torrence could have broken 48, I think.

I think part of the drop in standard of the women's 400 since the 80s is a reflection of the fact that a lot of the most talented sprinters - Torrence, Privalova, Ottey, Jones etc - have concentrated on the 100/200, despite the fact that they could have been equally as good at the 400. Even today the athlete with the most potential for running a really fast 400, Allyson Felix, is specialising at the 200!

Clearly you're right about Privalova - OG Champ over the tougher 400mH. Having seen her tie up at 180m in so many 200m races, I seriously doubt Ottey had a great 400 in her.

The big question mark over the many 100/200 runners who ran fast one-off 400s or relay legs, is could they have lasted the rounds of a major champs?

I'm not sure that too many athletes have ever made the transition from world class 100/200 runners up to world class 400 runners competing in the major champs. Kathy Cook , Szewinska and Cheesborough spring to mind. I think most of the great 200/400 runners have reached world class at 400 before they were world class at 200 (Koch, Perec, Kratochvilova, Richards, Freeman,

[mump boy]

Clearly you're right about Privalova - OG Champ over the tougher 400mH. Having seen her tie up at 180m in so many 200m races, I seriously doubt Ottey had a great 400 in her.

i'mnot ure that The Queen tying up had anything to do with lack of stamina i'm afraid it had more to do with her being a massive choker !!

[gh]

J....

Another one to improve in such a way is Anja Rucker at the 99 worlds. Her pre 99 best was 51.16, she opened with a 50.9 in Germany then went 50.62 QF, 50.09 SF and 49.74 F to set 3 PB's in a row.

Ingo Schultz '01 also comes to mind.

PR of 45.79 to start the year, ran 45.27 PR in June, then PRed at 45.11 and 44.66 in the Edmonton heats and semis before taking silver in the final with his No. 2 time ever, 44.87.

(of course, the minor-altitude component had a bit to do with that)

[Gabriella]

[quote=mump boy]

I seriously doubt Ottey had a great 400 in her.

i'mnot ure that The Queen tying up had anything to do with lack of stamina i'm afraid it had more to do with her being a massive choker !![/quote:33qwajoq]

Ottey ran 51.12 outdoors in 83, so we can assume she would be faster had she run a 400m during the 90-93 season when at her peak over 200m.

I think she ran a 52.2 indoors in 89 too which isn't bad. It was in the UK, and at the same meet Grace Jackson ran over 200m. I remember it vividly because Jackson said before the race she wanted to break the 200m indoor WR (which was 22.27 at the time). She said "Heike is as tall as me so I shouldnt have any problem running indoors" and then she went and ran something like 23.6. At the same press conference she also said she would run the 400m more in 89, "I want to run under 50secs everytime I step on the track". Again, she didn't quite deliver. She didnt really do much after 88, apart from make the Barcelona final.