I’ll be putting all of my subsequent Track Beauty of the Week posts to my other blog, Superb Senora. I’ve been wanting to do spin-off the popular feature months ago since I do not want my internet alter ego, hurdler49, to be associated fully with biographies of gorgeous athletics women. But I decided otherwise – until now.
Before I retired from competitive hurdling, I’ve been able to drown off the weekly features by posting a plethora of articles on my training and other track & field topics. With my retirement, the aforesaid posts have fallen to a trickle. Soon enough, there will come a time when readers of this blog would see two consecutive Track Beauty posts on top of each other! If that happens, hurdler49 will be nothing more than a Track Beauty blog.
Besides, the 102 Track Beauty posts I’ve made the past two years are more than enough to direct decent traffic to my blog. I won’t be uprooting my old articles. That would be a much too tedious task. From now on, I’ll only post excerpts of the weekly posts linking to Superb Senora, while continuing to write about my other sporting pursuits, athletics issues and various sports that pique my interest.
The Russians, since the days of the former Soviet Union, have always produced top caliber jumpers. Yuliya is amongst the new generation of the Russian jumping tradition. The graceful athlete has personal bests of 6.84m outdoors and 6.75m indoors.
Pidluzhnaya at European Indoors (Photo from Yuliya)
She has reached the podium of several major international events, most notably at the fiercely fought 2011 European Indoor Championships long jump final, where she leaped to 6.75m and won the bronze medal behind compatriot Darya Klishina and Portugal’s Naide Gomes. At the 2011 World University Games in Shenzen, Yuliya’s best mark of 6.56m brought home the silver medal.
From 2009 to 2010, Yuliya improved her jumping by an impressive 0.33m. Pidluzhnaya has been ranked as a top tier long jumper ever since.
1.) How did you get started with athletics?
[I] started to be engaged with school [-based athletics at] age 14 years.
2.) What’s the most memorable moment of your athletics career?
I remember [very well] the first time [I competed at a major international championship] of the world. [The experience] [have] not [been] forgotten.
Until the start of our MART/ACI basketball league, I haven’t played the hoops game since our ABL defeat last February. Unsurprisingly, I was rusty. To make matters worse, I am not in tip-top shape, since taking a one-month break from almost everything physical. My coordination and shooting was off. What limited basketball I.Q. I have was stunted by a lack of practice!
Thankfully, I have such able teammates. I can ride the bench anytime I make a series of fumbles. During D2003′s ill-fated ABL 2012 campaign, I could not even take a one-quarter break amidst the absence of our big guys.
With the Philippine National Games in Dumaguete going to full swing, I need an outlet for all my excess energy, lest I don my track kit again. These basketball games are perfect avenues to do just that. I can take a step back with youthful abandon. Despite my obvious lack of basketball moves, it feels superb to be able to unleash all these pent-up athletic energy. More importantly, there’s an excuse to focus on my fitness again. During my month-long hiatus, my body experienced withdrawal symptoms as it ingested more and excreted less endorphins.
I had an interesting talk with a couple of my athletics friends. One of them advised me stay in shape, just in case. Just in case, I have a change of heart.
The quarter miler from the Dominican Republic is just 18-years old. Despite his youth, Luguelin Santos has made waves in the 400m dash in 2012 – against much older competitors. At the Doha Diamond League last May 11, Santos finished behind LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 Olympic Champion. The 18-year old ran an impressive 44.88s against Merritt’s 44.19s, a world-leading time. Santos came close to his 2011 lifetime best of 44.71s, which he set at altitude in Guadalajara, Mexico.
But the best was yet to come for the Dominican. Two years after finishing in sixth place at the Moncton World Junior Championships, Santos streaked to 44.45s at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo.
Santos had overtaken Kirani James (44.72s), the World Junior Champion from Moncton and the reigning World Champion, in the 2012 top list. Santos’ dominant Hengelo showing is the eighth fastest time ever run by a junior. The Dominican junior is in illustrious company in the juniors all-time list, as he trails only Kirani James and the 1988 Olympic Champion, Steve Lewis!
The Dominican Republic definitely has a new track star, the heir apparent to Felix Sanchez.
In a span of two years, the 18-year old dramatically bettered his lifetime bests - from 46.19s in 2010 to 44.45s in 2012.In the run-up prior to the London Olympics, the 400m dash will feature talented youngsters, like Santos and James, pitted against experienced quarter-milers like Merritt. The 400m dash will be one for the books.
While scouring my old Livejournal for a school paper I wrote years ago, I came across the following post. I wrote it hours after winning my first UAAP medals in the seniors division! More than six year had passed since that moment. I can still feel the sheer adrenaline rush of that day. It’s a pity that we didn’t have fancy DSLR cameras or high-res videos back then.
At least I was able to express the emotions that I felt through prose.
Finally. Got a silver this afternoon in the hurdles. I topped the overall list of qualifiers (15.88) but sadly, finished 2nd in the final heat. Damn. I was 0.03s away from the gold. To add insult to injury, I celebrated too early by raising my arms half a meter before the finish line. That cost me the race since I wasn’t able to outlean the gold medallist, whom I edged out in the same qualifying heat.
Nevertheless, this feels great. How badly I had missed finishing at the top echelons of the field. The cheers of my teammates were incomparable treasures. Seeing them happy because of what I had achieved made this victory a hundred times more sweet.
The Latvian is a rising star in the multi-events. She struck athletics success early, winning the silver medal at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Brixen. Ikauniece scored a then personal best of 5,647 points (girls’ implements) – less than a 100 points from the Youth champion, Katarina Thompson of Britain. Laura failed to barge into the top three at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Moncton, finishing in sixth place.
The statuesque Latvian bounced back in 2011, as she snared a European Juniors bronze medal. En route to her return to the podium, Laura scored a then personal best of 6,063 points. Ikauniece’s best events are the high jump and the javelin throw. The fact that she had jumped 1.82m twice as a 17-year old, speaks volumes of her talent. Her lanky figure is remiscent of the Tia Hellebaut – a heptathlete-turned-Olympic champion high jumper. Laura had recently set a new personal best of 53.73m in the javelin throw.
The 2012 athletics season, Ikauniece’s first full year as senior athlete, has exciting prospects. with the European Championships and the Olympic Games in the calendar. Laura is still barely out of her teens. She has fine athletics pedigree, being the daughter of Vineta Ikauniece, a retired sprinter who still holds several Latvian records. More importantly, Laura exudes both seriousness and enjoyment when she competes – a potent combination for champion athletes.
At the International Combined Events Meeting held in Talinn, Estonia last April, Ikauniece’s vast untapped potential took centerstage. Laura set personal bests in four out of five events, as she improved her pentathlon personal best to 4,346 points to grab top honours. At the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis last 27 May 2012, Ikauniece achieved lifetime bests in four disciplines (200mD – 24.43s, 800mR – 2:13.68, 100mH – 13.90s and Shot Put – 12.67m), and tied her three-year old high jump mark. The rapidly improving Latvian was rewarded with an impressive 6,282 point-total – a new personal best and an outright ticket to the London Olympics.
Laura immediately made an impact in her first major international as a senior athlete. The up and coming Latvian athlete again set a flurry of new personal bests in the hurdles (13.53s), high jump (1.83m), 200m (24.36s), long jump (6.31m), and the 800m (2:12.82). She amassed a total points tally of 6,335 and, you got that right, a new lifetime best!
In the coming months and years, watch out for this talented Latvian heptathlete.
I must admit that I was quick to pillory Teddy Tamgho when I learned about his 12-month suspension. Tamgho figured in a brawl with a 19-year old female athlete at a training camp in Southern France. The details over the internet were scant. From the reports, the world indoor triple jump record holder was slapped with a fine, 50 hours of community service, and was suspended from athletics competition (although he’ll be eligible to compete in London).
Tamgho en route to his World Indoor gold (Photo from Wikipedia)
While looking into the aforesaid controversy, I stumbled upon Tamgho’s music video in reaction to all his critics. It was in French, of course, so I didn’t catch a single word.
Violence against women (or against any human being, for that matter) is deplorable. Since the punishment meted on Tamgho was considerably harsher than that given at the aftermath of the Baala-Mekhissi-Benabbad punching incident, one can only assume the gravity of circumstances, in light of the lack of details.
Despite all these, two things are certain: 1.) Tamgho is a talented athlete and 2.) He belches out a decent rap.
The 110m high hurdles in the 38th Prefontaine Classic has the makings of an epic race. Eugene, the United States’ Tracktown, is the fourth stop of the Samsung Diamond League.
Britain’s Andy Turner, the bronze medalist from Daegu, will also be in the thick of battle, as well as Liu’s understudy, Dongpeng Shi 史冬鹏 .
An interesting addition is Ashton Eaton, the heptathlon world record holder. Eaton, who attended the University of Oregon, will go head-to-head against the aforesaid sprint hurdling specialists onhis home track.
In terms of personal bests, Robles leads the pack with his current 12.87s world record. Liu (12.88s) and Oliver (12.94s) are the only one who had run below the 13-second barrier. Merritt (13.03s) and Richardson (13.04s) have almost identical lifetime bests. Shi had run an impressive 13.19s at the Osaka World Championships final, but have failed to replicate that form the past five years. Turner (13.22s) and Eaton (13.35s) round up the bottom two.
Liu, the 2012 world leader with 12.97s, is my pick to win the race (of course!), in light of his dominating performance at the recently concluded Shanghai Diamond League. I expect Robles (who is still recovering from an injury) to figure in a tight battle for second place with the in-form American sprint hurdling troika.
The talented Eaton could spring a surprise. If Shi and Turner perform below par, they could get beaten by a multi-eventer.
I know I’m getting ahead of myself when I say this, but the Eugene protagonists could possibly figure in the greatest sprint hurdling spectacle of all-time. We could see a new world record, should the conditions be conducive. The foursome of Liu, Oliver, Merrit and Richardson could all dip under 13-seconds. We might even see a rare dead heat! Regardless of the outcome, this race shall be one for the books.
I was dumbfounded to read about the organizing gaffe at the 2012 Manchester GreatCity Games. Jessica Ennis, the poster girl of Britain’s Olympic campaign, had just run a personal best in the 100m hurdles – albeit over nine flights of hurdles, instead of ten. Naturally, Ennis was “annoyed.” The diminutive heptathlete had beaten the 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper and 2011 World Championships silver medalist Danielle Carruthers.
Things could have been much worse for Ennis and the rest of the hurdling ladies in Manchester. The race organizers could have set some of the hurdles closer than the standard marks, like what happened at a regional track meet in Anchorage, Alaska.
The sprint hurdles is all about rhythm, speed and constant repetition. Hurdlers take three steps in between barriers as fast as possible. Once the barriers are moved closer (or farther) – unbeknownst to the athletes – a hurdles crash is a certainty. The boys in Anchorage were fortunate to finish the race without any bones. In hindsight, Ennis et. al were much more fortunate than the lads in that Anchorage race.
With the London Olympics barely three months away, the Manchester mix-up is a black eye for the novel street-racing event.
Sweden, despite its relatively small population of nine million, has produced notable athletics stars – especially in the past decade. Hjelmer is an emerging sprinting talent, at the vanguard of a new generation of Swedish stars. She set the the Swedish outdoor 400m dash record last year, running 51.58s a month before the Daegu World Championships.
Hjelmer in action at the Istanbul World Indoor Championships (Photo from SVD Sport)
The 22-year old made her major championship debut the same year, qualifying for the Daegu 400m dash semis. She placed fifth and exited the competition in 52.25s. Hjelmer almost reached the World Indoor Championships final in Istanbul. She had the sixth fastest semifinal time, but she crashed out of a finals slot because she finished fourth in her heat. Nevertheless, she set a new Swedish indoor record of 52.29s.
The versatile Hjelmer actually competes in both the 200m and 400m. She made it as far as the 200m semis at the 2007 World Youth Championships. The Swede’s 200m European U23 bronze medal was elevated to silver, as the original winner of the race was stripped of her title after failing a drugs test. Hjelmer was a mere one-hundredth of a second from Anna Kiełbasińska’s winning time of 23.23s.
Hjelmer struck gold at the European Championships in Helsinki. Moa pipped the favored Russian Kseniya Zadorina (51.26s) in the final, thanks to the Swede’s gutsy start and strong finish. Hjelmer clocked a new Swedish record of 51.13s – her second national record in span of 24 hours.
Not even a rain-soaked track and a 0.4 m/s headwind could slow Liu Xiang 刘翔 .
Competing in his home city of Shanghai, Liu stamped his class on a loaded sprint hurdles field. The 2004 Athens Olympic champion came out of the blocks well, trailing Jason Richardson (13.13s) by the smallest of margins. As the race unfolded, Liu got his rhythm going.
He was dominant in the latter stages, completely obliterating the formidable American hurdling troika of Richardson, David Oliver (13.16s), and Aries Merritt, the erstwhile 2011 world leader and the 2012 World Indoor champion (at Liu’s expense). Liu stopped the clock in 12.97s, his fastest time since since 2007! This is also his first foray under the 13-second barrier in five years.
Liu ran with unbridled intensity. It was as if he competed in a major championship final, instead of a Diamond League race. Considering the quality of the competition, Liu couldn’t just disappoint the Chinese spectators – at this hometown at that. Liu dove to finish line, despite his massive lead. He took off his vest as soon as he hit the tape, immediately beginning his lap of honor. Liu’s display of gratitude was touching.
With the Olympics just around the corner, the former world record holder has sent a clear message to his rivals that he means business.
When I read the LA Weekly blog post about Manny Pacquiao saying that “gays should be put to death,” I felt utterly shocked at the seeming intolerance, narrow-mindedness and fundamentalist implications. According to the author, Dennis Romero, Manny quoted Leviticus 20:13 in a National Conservative Examiner interview.
Since then, the seven-division world champion has been hit by an internet firestorm. In the wake of President Obama’s groundbreaking personal shift on same-sex marriage, the many voices of the internet lambasted Pacquiao.
It turns out that Pacquiao did not actually utter the words of the aforesaid bible passage. Granville Ampong, the Examiner journalist who originally interviewed Manny published an article to set things straight: “Pacquiao never said nor recited, nor invoked and nor did he ever refer to such context [gays should be put to death].”
I’ve always been a fierce competitor, in most aspects of life. Quitting isn’t my thing. I don’t usually try new things, but when I do, I give it my wholehearted attention. The decision to stop hurdling wasn’t an easy one. It took two long years for me to realize that at 26-years of age, chasing after a far-flung dream – soldiering on despite the odds – would soon outlive its quixotic luster.
I came across an interesting article on knowing when to quit. According to the Harvard Business Review: “Setting goals and sticking to them is important. But you should also occasionally reevaluate your goals. Quitting isn’t fun, but sometimes it’s necessary.” Dorie Clark gives three reasons on when to quit: (1) When your goals have adverse consequences, (2) When your goals impede other objectives, (3) When your goals are no longer appropriate.
I still the love the hurdles and athletics. But then again, my approach to pursuing athletics excellence is overall, 24/7 immersion. When I train for a competition, I dream about the race at night and at day, going over the motions and flaws of my hurdling. With my full-time job, a part-time hurdling effort just isn’t enough. Losing (at the expense of my career, social and family life at that) is never fun.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my job as a bond trader, it’s to learn how to cut your losses
Who can ever forget the golden haul of the Swedish Big Three at the Athens Olympics? Stefan Holm, Carolina Klüft and Christian Olsson were role models, and were well-loved by the fans. I found it astounding how a country of nine million could win three athletics gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Since then, Holm had retired and Kluft had shifted to another event.
Olsson, however, has been bedevilled by injury ever since the Athens Olympics. From a 17.79m outdoor personal best in 2004, en route to his Olympic gold, Olsson’s performance suffered. Although he won European Championship gold in front of his home crowd in Goteborg, he could not seem to regain his top form.
The Swede, being the true champion that he is, fought his way to a hard earned 4th place finish at the 2010 World Indoor Championships (17.23m). A year later, Olsson placed 5th at the European Indoor Championships in Paris (17.20m). The Athens Olympic Champion returned to the World Championships in Daegu, eight years after winning his first world title in Paris. Olsson posted a best mark of 17.23m, good enough for sixth place over-all.
Despite the rise of the new generation of triple jumpers, I’ve always rooted for Olsson. I never stopped hoping for a miracle performance for the Great Swede. I cheered for the guy as he went against the new titans of the triple jump. He has suffered enough. Olsson deserves a heartwarming comeback story.
But fairy tale endings, more often than not, are hard to come by. After suffering yet another injury in a training camp in the U.S. , Olsson decided to hang up his spikes.
Even if I never competed as triple jumper – even if I live thousands of miles away from Sweden – Olsson will always be an inspiration. His intensity and tenacity were infectious. To Christian Olsson, thank you!
The Philippine sporting scene is mostly patterned after the United States model. Athletes develop from the grassroots level to the collegiate ranks. Academic institutions play a major part in honing our sporting champions, unlike the club and sport school systems in Europe. Education takes precedence over sports, since a professional sporting career is a rarity outside the Four B’s: Basketball, Bowling, Billiards and Boxing.
The Leyte Sports Academy is a unique institution. It adheres to a special sports curriculum of the Department of Education. Established in 2010, it provides secondary school education to athletically-gifted students. A feature by Jessica Soho’s “Kapuso Mo” show provides a glimpse of the LSA’s novel approach to education and sports. Student-athletes wake up before dawn to train for their respective discplines: athletics, swimming and boxing.
My high school coach, Edward Sediego, handles the athletics program of LSA.
The LSA shoulders the costs of the students’ food and sporting equipment needs, as well board & lodging. In fact, the living quarters of the student-athletes are perched right on top of the classrooms. The training facilities are sufficient by Philippine standards. An Olympic-sized swimming pool, a boxing gym and an athletics stadium are easily accesible. However, as shown by Soho’s feature, some of the most vital training equipment like boxing gloves are quite worn out.
The choice of sports is a noteworthy move. The Philippines has won nine Olympic medals since its first appearance at the 1924 Paris Games. All of these medals came from boxing (2 silvers, 3 bronzes), athletics (2 bronzes) and swimming (2 bronzes). Our country came tantalizingly close to winning its first Olympic Gold medal in 1964 and 1996, where Anthony Villanueva and Onyok Velasco lost closely-fought bouts, respectively. Athletics and swimming are medal-rich events, where Filipinos have achieved some measure of success, albeit in the distant past.
The Filipino sporting potential in those three sports are huge – the prospects for much-bigger international success is astounding, considering our young population of one hundred million.
This early, LSA students have reaped success in national level competitions like the Batang Pinoy Games and the Palarong Pambansa. John Smith struck silver at the Batang Pinoy boxing competition last year. Vivencio Cabias emulated Smith’s feat, as he cleared 3.11m in the pole vault, en route to silver medal at the recently concluded Palarong Pambansa.
The LSA, with its unique, scientific, and holistic approach to grassroots sports development has taken the concept of the Filipino student-athlete several leaps forward. This no-nonsense focus on honing one’s skills, while maintaing certain academic standards, is unparalleled. It gives the LSA students a definite competitive advantage as they progress from the grassroots level to the collegiate, and ultimately the elite ranks.
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