Allyson Felix could win 3 medals at World Championships, then look at 400 meters on horizon

Allyson Felix
0 Comments

Allyson Felix finally conquered the Olympic 200 meters last year, but she goes into the World Track and Field Championships (and the next Olympic cycle) with more business to take care of.

Felix, 27, is the most decorated athlete in Moscow with 16 combined world and Olympic medals. She’s entered in the 200 (final on Aug. 16) and hopes to be part of both the 4×100 (final on Aug. 18) and 4×400 (final on Aug. 17) relays.

If she wins one gold medal, Felix will hold the record for most world golds (nine) by herself. She currently shares the mark with Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson.

If she wins one medal of any color, Felix will take the solo record for most world medals (11) by an American. She and Lewis both have 10.

With three medals, Felix will move within one of the all-time medal leader at the World Championships, Jamaican (turned Slovenian) Merlene Ottey.

World Track and Field Championships broadcast schedule

None of that is at the front of Felix’s mind right now. She took 2 1/2 months away from the track following her triple-gold performance at the London Olympics, starting her training for the new season later than ever before, she said.

She and coach Bobby Kersee took the approach going into June’s Nationals not to win, but to be good enough to finish in the top three and make the World Championships team.

“I knew that it would be a struggle to be at my best at Nationals,” Felix said in a phone interview from Moscow. “I feel like I’m never at my best there.”

Felix was beaten in the 200 final at Nationals for the first time since 2003, taking second to three-time NCAA outdoor 200 champ Kimberlyn Duncan. That defeat motivated her.

“It kept me very driven in my preparation, realizing I have a lot of work to do,” she said.

Felix aims to take back her world title in the 200. She won bronze in Daegu in 2011, when she experimented by running the 200 and the 400.

“Coming off last year where I had so much on my plate, it’s nice to be focusing on my favorite event,” said Felix, the world champ in the 200 in 2005, 2007 and 2009.

Her competition has changed since Daegu and even London. Reigning world silver medalist and Olympic bronze medalist Carmelita Jeter is only entered in the 100. Long-time rival Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica is not in Moscow after failing a drug test. Campbell-Brown’s absence has been noticed.

“It’s definitely different,” Felix said. “I’ve competed against her for so long that it’s kind of been a thing that’s normal for us (to face each other) at a championship.”

Felix comes in as the the seventh fastest woman in the 200 this year. Her biggest competition next week will be two-time Olympic 100-meter champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and a couple of rising stars from Africa — the Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure, 25, and Nigerian Blessing Okagbare, 24, who could medal in the 100, 200 and the long jump.

The question with Felix is always which event she’ll pair with the 200. In 2011, she added the 400 and won worlds silver. In 2012, she switched to the 100 and placed fifth in the Olympic final.

She took it easy this year, focusing on the 200, but she’s also looking toward a potential fourth Olympics in 2016. She’d like to give the 400 another shot.

“It’s still so far away, but we have kind of thought about it,” Felix said. “Definitely, I think I would be leaning more toward the 400. I still have potential in it, unexplored potential. My chances in 2016 would be better in the 400 than the 100.

“I just feel like I haven’t come anywhere close in the 400. I haven’t given it a true try. I would love to run the 100, though, I think that’s where my true love has always been. Realistically, the 400 is an event where I would have more success.”

Video: Carl Lewis airmails first pitch at Astros game

Ryan Crouser breaks world record in shot put at Los Angeles Grand Prix

0 Comments

Two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser registered one of the greatest performances in track and field history, breaking his world record and throwing three of the six farthest shot puts of all time at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on Saturday.

Crouser unleashed throws of 23.56 meters, 23.31 and 23.23 at UCLA’s Drake Stadium. His previous world record from the Tokyo Olympic Trials was 23.37. He now owns the top four throws in history, and the 23.23 is tied for the fifth-best throw in history.

“The best thing is I’m still on high volume [training], heavy throws in the ring and heavy weights in the weight room, so we’re just starting to work in some speed,” the 6-foot-7 Crouser, who is perfecting a new technique coined the “Crouser slide,” told Lewis Johnson on NBC.

Sha’Carri Richardson won her 100m heat in 10.90 seconds into a slight headwind, then did not start the final about 90 minutes later due to cramping, Johnson said. Richardson is ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100m in 2023 (10.76) and No. 2 in the 200m (22.07).

Jamaican Ackeem Blake won the men’s 100m in a personal best 9.89 seconds. He now ranks third in the world this year behind Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala and American Fred Kerley, who meet in the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco on Sunday (2-4 p.m. ET, CNBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock).

The next major meet is the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in early July, when the top three in most individual events qualify for August’s world championships.

Richardson will bid to make her first global championships team, two years after having her Olympic Trials win stripped for testing positive for marijuana and one year after being eliminated in the first round of the 100m at USATF Outdoors.

LA GRAND PRIX: Full Results

Also Saturday, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in 12.31, the fastest time ever this early in a year. Nigerian Tobi Amusan, who at last July’s worlds lowered the world record to 12.12, was eighth in the eight-woman field in 12.69.

Maggie Ewen upset world champion Chase Ealey in the shot put by throwing 20.45 meters, upping her personal best by more than three feet. Ewen went from 12th-best in American history to third behind 2016 Olympic champion Michelle Carter and Ealey.

Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ran the fastest women’s 400m since the Tokyo Olympics, clocking 48.98 seconds. Paulino is the Olympic and world silver medalist. Olympic and world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas is on a maternity break.

Rio Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy won the 800m in 1:44.75, beating a field that included most of the top Americans in the event. Notably absent was 2019 World champion Donovan Brazier, who hasn’t raced since July 20 of last year amid foot problems.

CJ Allen won the 400m hurdles in a personal best 47.91, consolidating his argument as the second-best American in the event behind Olympic and world silver medalist Rai Benjamin, who withdrew from the meet earlier this week.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Primoz Roglic set to win Giro d’Italia over Geraint Thomas

106th Giro d'Italia 2023 - Stage 20
Getty Images
0 Comments

Primož Roglič all but secured the Giro d’Italia title on Saturday by overtaking leader Geraint Thomas on the penultimate stage despite having a mechanical problem on the mountain time trial.

Roglič started the stage 26 seconds behind Thomas — who was trying to become the oldest Giro champion in history — but finished the route 40 seconds quicker than the British cyclist after the demanding climb of the Monte Lussari.

That saw Roglič move into the leader’s pink jersey, 14 seconds ahead of Thomas going into the race’s mainly ceremonial final stage.

Roglič was cheered on all the way by thousands of fans from just across the border to his native Slovenia. They packed the slopes of the brutal ascent up Monte Lussari, which had an elevation of more than 3,000 feet and gradients of up to 22%.

The 33-year-old Roglič celebrated at the end with his wife and son, who was wearing a replica of the pink jersey.

“Just something amazing, eh? It’s not at the end about the win itself, but about the people, and the energy here, so incredible, really moments to live and to remember,” said Roglič, who had tears in his eyes during the post-stage television interview, which he did with his son in his arms.

It will be a fourth Grand Tour victory for Roglič, who won the Spanish Vuelta three years in a row from 2019-2021

Roglič also almost won the Tour de France in 2020, when he was leading going into another mountain time trial on the penultimate stage. But that time it was Roglič who lost time and the race to compatriot Tadej Pogačar in one of the most memorable upsets in a Grand Tour in recent years.

It appeared as if the Jumbo-Visma cyclist’s hopes were evaporating again when he rode over a pothole about halfway through the brutal climb up Monte Lussari and his chain came off, meaning he had to quickly change bicycles.

His teammates and staff had their hands over their heads in disbelief.

Despite that setback, Roglič — who had been 16 seconds ahead of Thomas at the previous intermediate time check — went on to increase his advantage.

“I dropped the chain, I mean it’s part of it,” he said. “But I got started again and I just went … I had the legs, the people gave me extra (energy).”

The 33-year-old Roglič won the stage ahead of Thomas. Joao Almeida was third, 42 seconds slower.

For Thomas, his bad luck at the Giro continued. In 2017, he was involved in a crash caused by a police motorbike, and three years later he fractured his hip after a drinks bottle became lodged under his wheel – being forced to abandon both times.

Thomas turned 37 on Thursday. The Ineos Grenadiers cyclist had seemed poised to become the oldest Giro winner in history — beating the record of Fiorenzo Magni, who was 34 when he won in 1955.

“I could feel my legs going about a kilometer and a half from the top. I just didn’t feel I had that real grunt,” Thomas said. “I guess it’s nice to lose by that much rather than a second or two, because that would be worse I think.

“At least he smashed me and to be honest Primoz deserves that. He had a mechanical as well, still put 40 seconds into me so chapeau to him. If you’d told me this back in (February), March, I would have bit your hand off but now I’m devastated.”

Thomas and Roglič exchanged fist bumps as they waited their turn to ride down the ramp at the start of the 11.6-mile time trial.

The Giro will finish in Rome on Sunday, with 10 laps of a seven-mile circuit through the streets of the capital, taking in many of its historic sites.

“One more day to go, one more focus, because I think the lap is quite hard, technical. So it’s not over til it’s finished,” Roglič said. “But looks good, voila.”

The route will pass by places such as the Altare della Patria, the Capitoline Hill, the Circus Maximus and finish at the Imperial Forums, in the shadow of the Colosseum.

The Tour de France starts July 1, airing on NBC Sports and Peacock.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!