Wayde van Niekerk dips below 44 seconds in 400m

This is fantastic! To anyone asking where did this come from now? This is no fluke, Wayde has been making steady progress the last few years in one the most difficult events in athletics. Difficult you say? Yes, ask anybody who has ever prepared for and competed in 400m at the highest levels. Your performance is determined by your ability to convert all your available energy into as much speed as possible for 400m.
If you misjudge this you hit the wall. You would have seen athletics look like someone is adding bricks to a hidden back pack and they become unable to lift their legs as high or as fast. Their stride length shorten and every one else suddenly looks faster. If they are still running 10m after the finish line they could have completed in a faster time. With the perfect 400m race you should feel beautiful for 200m and are usually unaware of the first half of the race. Then you start feeling nausea at around 250-300m but you relax while maintain form and speed until 1 step after the finish line.

Most 400m hurdlers would rather jump over a hurdle 10 times than running 400m without the hurdles. Most 800m runners would rather do 2 laps than 1.

Read more here http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/van-niekerk-paris

Rudisha streak ended by a junior

At the Weltklasse in Zurich the winning streak by David Rudisha was ended by Mohammed Aman running his PB and setting a National record of 1:42.53

The Jamaican sprinters continue their domination with Yohan Blake and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce winning 100m events in 9.76 and 10.83 respectively and Usain Bolt taking the 200m in 19.66 with Jamaicans filling in the next 3 places as well.

Yelena Sokolova once again demonstrates form and consistency in the Long Jump and Tero Pitkamaki continues his post Olympic form.

The complete results here

Mr Consistency - Aries Merrit

Aries Merrit once displayed incredible consistency with another sub 13 in Birmingham.
He won into a slight headwind with 12.95 and Jason Richardson equalled his PB with 12.98 in 2nd place.

Carmelita Jeter once again won again Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce this time wiith a larger margin in a time of 10.81 vs 10.90

Angelo Taylor decided it was time to run a sub 45 in the 400m flat and won in 44.93 against good competition from Luguelin Santos in 44.96 with Jonathan Borlee 3rd in 45.15

The discus for men produced great throw from Harting, Kanter and Alekna.

The full result here.

How to finish a sprint: lesson by David Oliver and Carmelita Jetter

At the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne the olympians continued there form.
Yohan Blake improve his PB in the 100m to 9.69 by beating a world class field that did not include his training partner Usain Bolt.
Usain was competing in the 200m and won easily in 19.58 with Churandy Martina improving his PB to 19.85.
The 100m for women resulted in a very close finish with Carmelita Jeter pipping Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce with the last stride, both athletes recorded 10.86.
The 110mH ended in disappointment for Aries Merrit, he was disqualified for a false start. Jason Richardson won in 13.08 with David Oliver in 13.14 in 2nd place nearly scraping his forehead with an excellent dip to beat Parchment to the tape.

Check the results. 

Tero Pitkamaki hits his stride while most Olympians continue good form.

The Stockholm meeting provided great middle distance competitions. The Olympic medal winners and finalists continued showing good form.

It seems that officials suspended the false starting rule for the sprint races. A few false starts occurred and athletes were called back but no one was sanctioned. 

Tero Pitkamaki came close to grabbing the Finnish Elite Series but lost out to Antti Ruuskanen.

The next meeting in the Samsung Diamong League is on Thursday, August 23rd in Lausanne.