Multi-events
USATF Names Bryan Clay “Athlete Of the Week”
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008No surprise here, right?
Clay claims “world’s greatest athlete” moniker, wins Olympic decathlon
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
BEIJING - Bryan Clay upgraded his 2004 silver medal to 2008 gold in the decathlon, dominating competition during Friday evening action at the "Bird’s Nest" National Stadium.
Clay (Glendora, Calif.) got his evening off to a very strong start, throwing a season-best 70.97m/232-10 to place third in the javelin. The performance earned him 904 points, bringing his total up to 8,269 with one event remaining in the 10-event competition. Ahead of the field by 479 points, his only competition was himself in the final event, the 1,500m.
Never a favorite event for Clay, he endured through the accumulated fatigue of two days of competition to finish in 5:06.59 for 522 points, bringing his winning total to 8,791 and becoming the first U.S. gold medalist in the event since Dan O’Brien in 1996. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus took the silver with 8,551, and Leonel Suarez of Cuba finished third with 8,527.
Beijing Decathlon Results
Friday, August 22nd, 2008Top 3
| Place | Athlete | Points | P/M/W | 100m | LJ | SP | HJ | 400m | 110mH | DT | PV | JT | 1500m |
| Country | |||||||||||||
| 1. | Bryan Clay | 8791 | P | 989 | 1005 | 868 | 794 | 865 | 984 | 950 | 910 | 904 | 522 |
| USA | M | 10.44 | 7.78 | 16.27 | 1.99 | 48.92 | 13.93 | 53.79 | 5.00 | 70.97 | 5:06.59 | ||
| W | 0.3 | 0 | -0.5 | ||||||||||
| 2. | Andrei Krauchanka | 8551 | P | 870 | 962 | 752 | 906 | 943 | 948 | 758 | 910 | 741 | 761 |
| BLR | M | 10.96 | 7.61 | 14.39 | 2.11 | 47.30 | 14.21 | 44.58 | 5.00 | 60.23 | 4:27.47 | ||
| W | -0.2 | -0.2 | -0.5 | ||||||||||
| 3. | Leonel Suárez | 8527 | P | 883 | 893 | 758 | 850 | 913 | 955 | 756 | 819 | 950 | 750 |
| CUB | NR | M | 10.90 | 7.33 | 14.49 | 2.05 | 47.91 | 14.15 | 44.45 | 4.70 | 73.98 | 4:29.17 | |
| W | -0.6 | 0.8 | -0.5 |
Comparing Beijing To The Best Of All Time
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
For which event at these Beijing Olympics have we seen the best performance in comparison to the world record in that event? We’ve seen 3 world records so far (or should I say we haven’t seen three records so far, not if we’re relying on NBC TV for our Olympic viewing!), so one of these performances, by definition, has to be the best:
| M | 100m | Usain Bolt | JAM | 9.69 |
| W | 3000mSC | Gulnara Samitova-Galkina | RUS | 8:58.81 |
| W | PV | Yelena Isinbayeva | RUS | 5.05 |
But which one is the best? I did an analysis of every event competed thus far at the Beijing Olympics and compared those performances to the world records for those events. Who came out on top? Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, whose 3000m steeplechase world record of 8:58.81 was 0.51% better than her previous world record of 9:01.59. Bolt was next. His 9.69 was 0.31% better than his previous world record of 9.72. Isinbayeva’s 5.05m mark was 0.20% better than her previous mark of 5.04m. Angelo Taylor’s impressive win in the men’s 400m hurdles was even more impressive than I had thought. His gold medal-winning time of 47.25 seconds was only 1% slower than Kevin Young’s world record of 46.78 seconds. That’s even better, percentage-wise, than Tirunesh Dibaba’s and Pamela Jelimo’s performances in the women’s 10000m and the women’s 800m, respectively. That’s saying something. Even more impressive than Young’s performance was Cameroon’s Françoise Mbango Etone, who won the gold medal in the women’s triple jump with a performance of 15.39m, just 0.71% slower than Inessa Kravets’ world record of 15.50m.
Beijing Track & Field Medal Count (After Day 4)
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Gold = 3 points
Silver = 2 points
Bronze = 1 point
| NAT | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total Medals | Total Points |
| USA | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 20 |
| RUS | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 17 |
| KEN | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 16 |
| JAM | 2 | 3 | 5 | 12 | |
| ETH | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | |
| BLR | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | |
| UKR | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| GBR | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| POL | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| NZL | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| AUS | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| BRN | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| CMR | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| CUB | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| EST | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| PAN | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| ROU | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| SLO | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| ECU | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| FRA | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| RSA | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| TRI | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| TUR | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| MAY | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| CAN | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| CHN | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| GRE | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| LTU | 1 | 1 | 1 |
30 World Records
Friday, August 15th, 2008
You can watch videos of 30 track & field world records here.
Beijing Heptathlon Points Totals (After 4 Events)
Friday, August 15th, 2008TOP 5
[Click on headers for individual marks in each event.]
| Pos | Athlete | NAT | 100mH | HJ | SP | 200m | Total |
| 1 | Hyleas Fountain | USA | 1158 | 1093 | 751 | 1058 | 4060 |
| 2 | Nataliya Dobrynska | UKR | 1059 | 978 | 1015 | 944 | 3996 |
| 3 | Kelly Sotherton | GBR | 1097 | 1016 | 785 | 1040 | 3938 |
| 4 | Anna Bogdanova | RUS | 1111 | 1054 | 799 | 958 | 3922 |
| 5 | Lyudmila Blonska | UKR | 1078 | 1054 | 813 | 967 | 3912 |