Special Features

NCAA XC Preseason Rankings

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

The USTFCCCA has released its NCAA Division II National Rankings for 2008. Abilene Christian tops the men’s list while Adams State heads up the women’s side.

Cortland State led the NCAA D-III men rankings with a sweep of all possible (280) 1st-place points. Amherst tops the women’s D-III Rankings.

Links to the complete rankings are available on our Rankings page.

Also, a link to the NCAA D-III men’s and women’s cross-country regional rankings is now available on our Rankings page.

1, 2, 3…

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Our new rankings page is up, just in time for cross country season. The USTFCCA Div. II Regional Rankings are out. The National Rankings will be out tomorrow.

Link Love: Track & Field Blogs, 1st Edition

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

[With this post, I begin a new special feature titled Link Love that will present for your reading pleasure my favorite blogs, news sites and specialty sites that cover the wonderful world of track & field. I begin with my absolute favorite category: Track & Field Blogs.]

Jimson Lee over at Speedendurance.com has written an interesting analysis of Usain Bolt’s 10 meter splits in his world-record 100m race. Be sure to stop by his site sometime soon and read it. I guarantee that you’ll be as impressed as I always am.

Ben and Jeremy have a blog called Less Than Our Best and, boy, are you in for a treat! They are what you might call our surrealists or our post-modern track & field bloggers (or, more truthfully, our resident twenty-something slackers). They always tell it like it is and they try to do it in a hilarious, "who cares?" way. They have a couple of new posts that you ought to check out. Ben does a little promotional stuff for their upcoming LIVE BLOG BEER BASH and Jeremy sums up the media’s ignorant melodrama as it relates to the perception that Team USA has blown it in Beijing. I agree with Jeremy. Sure, they could have done better, but surely six more medals than any other team (as of 8/22/08) is good enough, no?

My favorite Steeplechic Ann Gaffigan always has the most comprehensive women’s steeplechase coverage available anywhere, live or virtual. Not only that, but the former American record holder brings a unique perspective to her blog that only a world-class athlete can do.

Ken Stones always writes interesting stuff about Masters Track. If your brain is suffering from Olympic Overload right now, maybe a change of pace will work for you. Of course (since the pace of those masters athletes isn’t necessarily any slower than the younger elite athletes) many of them are in the Olympics, so you’re right back where you started.

If you still haven’t had enough of these Textual Olympics (admit it, if you’re as big of a track geek as I am, you’re peeking at the results some 12 hours before that evil empire called NBC is broadcasting the events, right?) then you can read some terrific summaries over at The Track & Field Superblog (thanks to Jesse for his analytical and thorough math mind), Pre-Race Jitters (kudos to Jay Hicks for his enthusiasm and love for the sport) and TheFinalSprint.com (Adam Jacobs and crew always do a top-notch job. Rumor has it that some new podcasts will be published soon!).

Bryan (or is it Buraian?) over at Optimal Training is offering some unique insights of his own from Japan about the Beijing Games. While you’re there (uh… not necessarily in Japan, or China, but at his website), you might even pick up some tips about improving your own PRs and your mental game.

Last but not least, TrackMOM has the youth track & field angle covered. Her blog may be the most important one, since the future of our favorite sport depends on educating our children about it and cultivating their enthusiasm for it. In that respect, Lorraine "TrackMOM" Williams has to be considered the ambassador for our sport.

If I missed your track & field blog, it probably wasn’t on purpose! Most likely, don’t know about it yet. Please leave a comment with a link to your site and I’ll be sure to check out your blog. If your site makes my toes curl, I’ll put you on my blogroll and then begin preparing Edition 2 of Link Love: Track & Field Blogs!

[Image courtesy of CandyWarehouse.com. Yum!]

Sunday’s Sojourn: Eleven Olympic 1500m Finals

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Welcome to Sunday’s Sojourn, a series that seeks out the best track & field videos for your weekend viewing pleasure. Eleven Olympic 1500m Finals are featured today from 1960 through 2004.

1960:

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Sunday’s Sojourn: Haile Gebrselassie: The Greatest Of All Time

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Welcome to Sunday’s Sojourn, a series that seeks out the best track & field videos for your weekend viewing pleasure. Today’s video is a three-part feature about Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, the greatest distance runner of all time. Total running time for the three parts: 23:18.

Part 1:

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In Their Own Words: Australian Olympians Assess Their Chances

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

Craig Mottram (5000m):

"I am actually very relaxed and chilled out, which is a very good thing and the extreme opposite to how I was feeling this time last year leading into the world championships."

Steve Hooker (pole vault):

"I’m not a superstitious person – no photos, no mementos, no rituals, no lucky underpants. I just train hard, then go out on the track and have fun on competition day."

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