IAAF World Championships

The IAAF World Championships are in progress right now for track and field. They're being held in Moscow, Russia. The same country as the 2014 winter Olympics are going to be held next year. I happened to turn on the TV and saw briefly some of the men's decathlon. The decathlon for those who have never heard of it before (I hadn't until the London games last year) is an contest containing ten events : 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meters, 110 meter hurtles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1500 meters. It's held over two days, five the first day and five the second, depending on how the competitors place scores are given to them. So after all events the guy with the most points wins. Ashton Eaton, who won gold at the 2012 games in London, won gold Sunday in Moscow with a score of 8809. There were three other Americans entered in the decathlon, Trey Hardee, Jeremy Taiwo, and Gunnar Nixon. Hardee and Taiwo did not finish;  while Nixon who lead for part of day one fell too 13th with 8312 points. Pretty good for Nixon who was at junior worlds last year.

Usain Bolt is still the fastest man in the 100 meters. In the finals there were four Jamaicans, two Americans, a British guy, and a Frenchmen. That sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.. Bolt had hard competition with American Justin Gatlin. Leaving the blocks Gatlin seemed to have the lead but Bolt surged a head. Only a .8 second difference between them finishing, compared to the .10 second gap between second and third place.The Jamaicans finish 1, 3, 4, and 5. The other American came up in the back in 6 narrowly beating the Frenchmen by .02 of a second. The 200 meters finals took place last night and Bolt took home another gold.

Sadly American sprinter, Allyson Felix is out; possibly for the season. During the 200 meter dash, rounding the turn Felix began to hop before falling to the track in agony. She had torn her right hamstring. Ending her hope of meddling at Worlds. Felix had planned to race in three events, the 200, 4x100, and 4x400. The injury is sever, but is it season ending? Possibly but she'll just have to wait and see. I feel bad for her, at worlds feeling good about the race about to hit her stride when this happens. I hate to see any athlete out because of an injury but when it happens at such a major event, on a world stage, it sucks even more.

For a link to the IAAF site for more information click on the link under the 'League Pages' in the side bar.