Room for improvement - 2011 WC in Daegu!

[Stonigut]

100/200m men - Bolt should be ready, that should be good but Nesta Carter looks like he can step up another notch into low 9.8s. Bailey if he is still around is another area for massive improvement hopefully this season was not a mirage with the drugs etc. Powell need to finish races all the time, you can't compete if you cant even let your brain drive you to the finish. Not sure about Frater seems like he may have peaked at high 9.9's.
Same for the 200 breds that came fifth, a lot of room for improvement off the turn.

400M men - Need some work here, Chambers and the other youth (cyan remember his name) need to be running 44. high consistently and moving towards mid 44's. This team can challenge USA 4*400 if they can do that get one other in high 44s and Bolt finish that is the fourth gold medal for Bolt not long jump, he don't even need to run the rounds just one final leg of 400.

400 men hurdles - Danny out but Isa in , Isa have nuff work to do but he can be there is Mr Clement is not ready, another possible gold, if he can push off to the high 47's and Clement falters.

100m womens - Jeter is looking like a world betaer, but we have room for improvement here with Kerron and SAF, they are right there, Franno will have them ready. We need this gold asa US gold here will seriously dent our gold championship chances.

200M women- VCB needs to be ready here, lets get Simpson up and ready she has a lot of potential to go sub 22. We really need this gold, or make sure US does not get gold here.

400m women- Novlene and Shericka have stepped it up this year, in mid and low 49's now is the time to start running low 49's consistently and get ready for mid 48 by 20111 of course my fave Yankee girl will be probably in high 47's by then, a gold here would be a serious dent in the side of US T&F champ hopes.

100m hurdles - Foster Hylton I have seriously underrated even with world champs win, she must have heard the naysayers as she has torn that event up since that win, unbelievable!!

400H Spencer with silver would be great. We need a high silver count as well so if our gold count leads to a draw the silver count is the next tie breaker. Walker is set here as far as I am concerned she is one helluva competitor.

LJ womens - Jarrett needs to step it up, she beat the US girl in Bejing but the uS girl won at WC and Jarrett just missed the final.


4*400 men and women, both are there for the taking as far as I am concerned, with Shericka and Novlene stepping up to high or mid 48's by 2011 and two other close to high 49's we should tear this baby up, we need that gold. I thing we have a chance for 4*400 gold men with a good plan to improve our two sub 45 boys, then let's see if in our crop if youngsters we can bring one or two into the low 45's or high 44's Bolt to anchor with increased strength that Mills promised for upcoming yeras.

110 meters hurdles - Cbar breds looking ready anyhing good, but US cannot win this race to add to gold count.

I hope allthe parties that are key stakeholders can work on a plan for 2011, JAAA, Quarrie, Francis MIlls etc, goal that all can work towards with the massive cassa, cassa that took place in berlin right in the world front yard.

[Yuttie]

MVP should go!

[Stonigut]

Seed of division, time to move forward Yuttie. But as you say this is how it probably will go,, so the once in a millenium opportunity to win the champs will bypass us, our window is exactly seven years from now. The main column of the opportunity is Bolt as if he maintains his dominance that will translate into 3 or 4 gold to start building from and the traget is 10 gold to win with our need for other countries like Russia, Cuba, GB, Australia etc stepping up to claim gold where US has good chances.

[Historian]

Good Post, But Let Me Add....

100/200m men - Bolt should be ready, that should be good but Nesta Carter looks like he can step up another notch into low 9.8s. Bailey if he is still around is another area for massive improvement hopefully this season was not a mirage with the drugs etc. Powell need to finish races all the time, you can't compete if you cant even let your brain drive you to the finish. Not sure about Frater seems like he may have peaked at high 9.9's.

Very good post, Stonigut. In fact, I rather like this post of yours .

By the way, the “200 breds that came fifth” is Steve Mullings, who is definitely no newcomer.

What I would have probably done if I were you would be to post, instead of 2011 predictions, a forward look at next year’s proposed USA vs. Jamaica showdown. I say this because the 13th IAAF World Championships is still some time away (although time flies so fast it will be upon us before we realize it).

Looking at your 100-meter comments, I agree that Nesta Carter looks like he can step up another notch, while Michael Frater looks like he has done the best he can possibly do (but at least he has managed to crack sub 10 seconds). I notice that you made no mention of Yohan Blake in your discussion of the 100-meter dash prospects.

By the way, Franno does not coach Kerron Stewart (she is based in the USA), so he will not “have them ready”! And there are other promising 100-meter prospects among the ladies, if their coaches get them to improve significantly in the way that Stephen Francis did with Sherone Simpson, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Anneisha McClaughlin. I’m talking here about youngsters like Schillonie Calvert, Jury Levy and others.

Aside from Bolt, the Jamaican that most impressed me in Berlin was Melaine Walker in the 400-meter hurdles, and I remain convinced that when the world record goes, she will be responsible for smashing it! She already has started her trend of shattering records, as can be seen with her smashing the Olympic Games record last year and the IAAF World Championships record this year in the second fastest time ever run in history by a woman! Walker is the real deal, and Kaliese Spencer, as you rightly say, is the next one to watch! A gold-silver finish is a distinct possibility in this event!

The area where I share less with your view is in the 400-meter men. I definitely would not like for us to have to depend on Usain Bolt. For the track and field power that we are, there’s no way that we should be depending on one man to bring the gold in four events!! No other country, no matter how small, depends on the same athlete for its 100, 200, 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays gold medals! In any case, before our weak 4x400-meter men’s team can even begin to think of challenging the USA, we have to first defeat the Bahamas, something we’ve largely seemed incapable of doing since 2001 (Edmonton, Canada IAAF World Championships).

I do not share anyone’s faith in Ricardo Chambers becoming a consistent 44-second runner! In fact, I never have. Also, in the case of the 400-meter hurdles, you have hinted that the battle will be between Issa Phillips and Kerron Clement. How conveniently you are forgetting the 17-year-old Trinidadian hurdler who was nipped at the line for the bronze! If he continues to develop, he will be a part of all future equations!

All of us “seriously underrated” Brigitte Foster-Hylton in recent times, but her consistent end-of-season performances this year shows that she is the real deal. Of course, many of us knew this (remember, she was barely nipped for the gold medal by Perdita Felicien in 2003), but at 34 years of age we had tended to give up on Brigitte. The fact remains, though, that in 2011 Brigitte will be 36 years old, and less likely to be a winner among an almost certain crop of young USA and other hurdlers. Two years is a long time in track and field (although age is just a number, as can be seen by the fact that Chandra Sturrup, on the verge of turning 38 years old, still made the 100-meter final in Berlin and was also able to run an excellent second leg to help her country to a 4x100-meter silver medal)!

Everyone keeps leaving out Chelsea Hammond in long jump predictions! Chelsea placed fourth in Beijing, for heaven’s sake!

Finally, comments on the men’s 4x100-meter relay cannot leave out Trinidad and Tobago! They are fast becoming a genuine force to reckon with.

[Yuttie]

No club is bigger than Jamaica. Coubtry first. MVP should GO!

[Stonigut]

As I have said time and again, we are pretty much on the same page, I merely tend to look at the possibilities and you tend to focus too much on things that we shouldn't worry about at this time.

Such as the Bah 4*400 team, there is no doubt in my mind we can pull togther a team that will compete with the US on the 4*400, right now I believe that with the right focus and training we have 2 of the four, possibly three of the four that can be within a .20 to .35 second of the US on the last leg handover, Bolt can give us one race, one leg on the last race of the Olympics, he will only get stronger as time moves forward, knock on some cedar, lignum vitae etc barring injury). It is not too much to ask in my book for one leg to win the whole thing, especially if the US and Ja are tied on 8 gold each at that point.

Excellent point on the womens long jump, my mistake and I know that Kerron is not one of Franno's that was a slip on my part.

The Trini 400 H youth is phenomenal however I need to see a lot more before I start worrying about him, but bottom line on this is, if he were to develop to the point to win that would be great as that is one less US gold, as the bottom line on ISA to me is that Clement is faster on the flat 4 than Isa so Clement would have to mess up for ISA to win.

BTW I really don't give two hoots about US Vs Jamaica, the only place it count is WC and Olmpics all else is fools gold as far as i am concerned. Ja is not going to do too well at a US vs JA competition anyway, we just don't get hyped for things that don't count, that is just the way it is.

BTW Historian, are you a corporate area man and did you go to high school in Ja, if so which one.

[Peter R]

In case you didn't realize Bailey is from Antigua/Barbuda... I think.

[Stonigut]

I meant Blake.

[Karl]

...and we'll have to improve to just mark time!