#55 - Michtrack at the Olympics - Kessler Crushes Semi

Inside This Issue

• Kessler Crushes It

• Crittenden Makes History, Kinda

• Cockrell Advances

• Results Gripes

• Other Things

Kessler Makes Olympic Final

For many athletes, simply making an Olympic final is the pinnacle of a career. It’s a resume line in itself. Tonight 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler made his first Olympic final looking every bit like a veteran of championship running. In race where Yared Nuguse took it upon himself to lead at a fast pace, Kessler might have wanted to run on the Notre Dame alum’s shoulder, which served him well at the Trials. However, fast competition is deeper in Paris, and he found himself stuck on the rail farther back than he might have liked.

But this year’s edition of Kessler did not panic. He bided his time. At key points he surged to maintain his position. Nearing the bell, he made his first big move, skillfully moving out of the box and into 3^rd . He held that down the backstretch, and someone moved to his shoulder and threatened to box him again, he fought him off and held his position into the final turn. Coming off that turn, he again faced a possible box, as a number of very fast finishers moved up on his outside, among them the ’21 silver medalist, Timothy Cheruiyot. Rather than fight his way to the outside again, Kessler surged to get as close as possible to Nuguse, riding the rail to a 2^nd place finish. As impressive as that was tactically, it was stunning once the times popped up. He ran his No. 2 time ever, 3:31.97.

This was a semifinal. And if you look at every semifinal ever run in every meet on this planet in the entire history of humankind, Kessler’s 3:31.97 is the No. 3 time ever run. Nuguse’s 3:31.72 is No. 2, after the 3:31.65 that Kenya’s Abel Kipsang ran in the semis at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

So if anyone out there is disappointed that Hobbs did not win or run his PR today, you now have the ammunition you need to school them in short order. Only two other humans in world history have done what he has done tonight.

Crittenden Makes History

All week we have had discussions about the use of the “repechage.” In short, it’s a second chance for folks in the running events who don’t qualify out of the first round. It replaces the old “extra qualifiers based on time” policy. The sports marketers think it might be a better sell for the sport to make all qualifying based on finish place, while also giving all entrants the chance at a minumum of two races. So far, I think they may be right. The crowds seem to love it, and some of the repechage races have been high quality with fairly big names.

Yet I wondered allowed if anyone would game the system. Would some 800 runner, say, jog a 2:10 in round 1, then run their hard race in the repechage against easier opposition? Would that prove a smarter road to the semis for some? Most everyone dismissed my suggestion as silly, and indeed, we haven’t seen it happen yet in the middle distances.

Then came Freddie Crittenden, our Utica High School alum who placed 2^nd in the Trials high hurdles at 12.93. He is a strong contender for the podium as the second-fastest man on earth. Fans were stunned to see him pop up and basically jog his first round race in 18.27, the slowest time of the day by more than 4 seconds.

What gives? He explained to NBC that he was working through an injury niggle and planned to save his first hard race for the repechage. He later gave a statement on social media explaining why he became the first person to plan ahead to use the new qualifying procedure:

'“Not that I really need to explain to anybody why I made the decision I made, But I decided to be very cautious in my preliminary round today. I had a sudden aggravation in my adductor yesterday during premeet and I was very close to withdrawing so that the next eligible athlete can have a chance to contest. But, after consulting USA Medical Team, we made a plan to focus on the reprechage round. There is pain, discomfort and dysfunction, but the integrity of the muscle in my adductor has not been compromised. Racing at full speed today would have been huge risk.

“So, moving forward I pray that all of the track fans can find it in themselves to give me a little grace. I would never want to be malicious and take advantage of this opportunity. I am just doing what I think is best for my quest to the podium.”

Cockrell Advances In 400H

Anna Cockrell, who was a MITS finalist in the indoor hurdles while a middle schooler at Detroit Country Day, is thought to have a real shot at the podium in the 400 hurdles. Three years ago, she was disqualified from the Olympic race for a lane violation.

Today she showed she is definitely ready, winning heat 4 in 53.91.That was the fourth-fastest time in the qualifying round, after only Femke Bol and teammates Jasmine Jones and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

Let’s Talk About Results

You might assume that I am sitting in plush media seats with a perfect view of the action, with a computer screen delivering ultra-high tech live results while a harried Olympic volunteer delivers me a mojito. While I’m not certainly not going to complain about the privilege I enjoy getting credentialed to work at the Games, rest assured the reality is nothing like that. For one thing, the last time organizers supplied alcohol to journalists was at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, when Danish brewer Carlsberg was a major sponsor.

One thing I will complain about is the live results situation. Here at the Olympics, we rely on timing giant Omega. For World Athletics events it’s Japan’s Seiko. Both are amazingly frustrating and refuse to provide the information that we need when we need it. The service I am used to in Michigan from timers such as Michiana Timing, Fairchild Sports Timing and DLProTiming among others is far superior.

Speed is an issue in Paris. Results need to come fast. Plus we need to see field event charts updated quickly—the delays there have been notable. We’d like to see accurate relay splits; honestly, the process here is questionable, and we are often not sure if we are seeing automatic times, hand times, or chip times—and for professionals like us, there’s a big difference. When we’ve tried to ask the international timing companies about their methodology, we get nowhere. They are, frankly, too big to care.

Another issue is the video boards. They’ve decided that fans need to constantly see a list of the top competitors and how many seconds they are behind the leader. This is not a track thing, it’s a bike racing thing. In a distance race, I’d much rather see the splits pop up—what was that last lap? What were they at the 800 mark? Never in my life of attending track meets have I ever wanted to know when a runner is 0.4 seconds behind the leader—I can see they’re behind! And in events like the 400, I want to occasionally glance at the board to see the lane assignments mid-race; I want to remind myself who that guy in yellow is. But with the board only showing the runners in a rapidly-changing order, I often can’t identify who’s the athlete in lane 7.

So yeah, I’m complaining about this. Because you might think it’s better at the Olympics, but we have it better at most big Michigan high school meets.

Other Things

Class: It’s a little thing, but I’m always impressed by athletes who, after winning a competition, go to the other competitors and offer a hug, a high-five, a pat on the back, a “good job”, whatever. We often hear people defend the trash talkers and the self-celebrators by saying, “Well, that’s just sprinters.” It’s not. There are so many world-class sprinters like World and Olympic champion Kirani James who are kind and considerate in victory. Coaches, point this out to your star athletes. There are better role models out there than some of the ones that NBC is forcing on us.

Happy about these reports from the Olympics? Buy me a beverage. You can now donate small sums through Venmo. Click here.