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Welcome to
TRACKTOWN CELEBRATING THE GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH WITH ITS FAMOUS SON, ASHTON EATON
PREFONTAINE TRAYVON BROMELL HOW TO INSTAGRAM LIKE A PRO DINA ASHER-SMITH PIZZA
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D R O W E R O F Every time my brother, Steve Prefontaine, stepped foot on Hayward Field he made it alive – there was fire under those feet. He made athletics an exciting sport to watch. His style of running and his personality all fed into this and he made a huge impact on the people who attended those meets. What he achieved in his career was pretty remarkable. He graduated in 1969 and died in 1975, and his accomplishments during those years were mega. There is no doubt my brother helped achieve the current status that Hayward Field now holds. Mind, all the stars aligned to make it the place it has now become. There were many other people who helped create the magic of Hayward Field – like head coach Bill Bowerman and Bill Dellinger, the assistant distance-running coach, who ran in three Olympics. All those factors encompassed why Eugene is TrackTown, but my brother played a big part. Of course, every time I step on the track at Hayward Field I think about Steve and the fans screaming, “Go, Pre! Go, Pre!” It was an exciting time. We’ve witnessed some big changes at Hayward Field over the past seven years or so. The place has started to attract many great meets and that’s exciting for the community here. Eugene is a perfect place for track, whether that is a junior, senior or masters’ meet. Lots of people ask, what do you think Steve would be doing today? And I think he would be doing many different things. But I know, for sure, that he would be involved in track and field in some way. During his time he was fighting to make the sport a better sport, so I know he would be thrilled to welcome the world’s best juniors here to Eugene. Linda Prefontaine SPIKES.IAAF.ORG/JUNIORS
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Cover image: Walter Iooss JR/Sports Illustrated/Getty
Oregon Special Edition Summer 14 Foreword Linda Prefontaine remembers the hero ero of Hayward Field 03 3 Counter culture A novel way to avoid having ing to stand in line 06-07 06-0 A sense of hummus The Aussie athletete who'll chuck almost anything 08-09 TrackTown Pizza The fast food created ated specifically for fast people 10-111 Dina Asher-Smith The GB ace on films, ms, food and falling over on track 12-13 3 Perfect ten Catch up with Ashto Ashton Eaton, aton, the world's best decathlete 14-19 Hashtag heroine If you're u're not follow following g Emma Green, you should be... 20-21 20 Go Team USA! Seven ven homegrown heroes to watch out for in Eugene 2 22-23 A cut above the he restt You Yourr cut-out-and-keep SPIKES running shoe 24-25 The world at their feet Ten international nternational stars heading to Track TrackTown 26-27 Go, Pre! "Theree may be men who who can beat me but they'll bleed to do it" 28-31 Thee magic digits Oregon and the world w junior champ champs in numbers 32-33 No joke! What do Avatar, Michael Jordan Jordan and a plan plane have in common? 34-35 Prepare to launch... Get the lowdown oon the hhighfliers of field 36-37 Class oof 94 The men who have run the 100m in under 10 seconds 38-39 Watch out Usain Trayvon Bromell's com coming through (very quickly!) 40-41 Moves like Jager The US steeplech steeplechase record holder talks tactics 42-43 Can I kick it?? The These guys can dunk like LeBron and pass like Peyton... 45-46
Editor James Charlton Art director Tim Scott Designer Michael Wescombe Associate editor Steve Landells Writer Michelle Sammet Production Sarah Dyson Pictures Dominique Campbell, Kim Collins Contributing editors Nikki Wicks, David Burton Digital management Wendy Southern Production manager Trevor Simpson Editorial director Simon Kanter Group art director Martin Tullett Director Cormac Bourne Managing director Andrew Taplin Chief executive Kevin Costello For IAAF Nick Davies, Laura Arcoleo, Jon Mulkeen, Phil Minshull and Chris Turner Reprographics Haymarket Prepress Photography/Illustration Getty Images, Matthew Crehan, Press Association Images, Michael Harvey, Earl Hulst, Philipp Stollenmayer, Liz Parke, Alamy, Boeing Company, Sean Jones/Merritt College, Claus Anderson/ Courtesy of Track & Field News, Andrew McClanahan.PhotoRun, Thinkstock SPIKES email: editor@spikesmag.com Website www.spikes.iaaf.org Twitter @spikesmag Produced for IAAF by Haymarket Network, Teddington Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex TW11 9BE, UK. Telephone +44 (0) 20 8267 5000 Reprinting in whole or in part is forbidden except with prior permission of the publisher. Due care is taken to ensure that the content of SPIKES is fully accurate, but the publisher and printer cannot accept liability for errors and omissions.
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THE SMOKING GUN OF ATHLETICS
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Hy jumper Inika McPherson won a HJ competition with a difference at the Drake Relays in April. In a packed Hy-Vee store in Waukee, Iowa, some of the world’s finest jumpers navigated their way past the grocery aisle for a leap at glory.
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Deadly day En route to the 200m world youth final in Donetsk last summer, Nigerian sprinter Ejowvokoghene Divine Oduduru, 16, gave a full throttle post-race speech that has now been watched a quarter of a million times on YouTube. That’s double Usain Bolt’s equivalent interview in Moscow. Here’s how Divine conquered the internet...
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“Wow! The wind was very much. I was trying to push and the wind was taking me back.”
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“The final will be a DEADLY DAY. One of us is going to die on the line.”
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Anita Hinriksdottir
Ice Queen When Anita Hinriksdottir romped to 800m victory in a championship record 2:01.13 at last year’s World Youth Championships in Donetsk, she caused a storm back in Iceland. Hinriksdottir’s shiny gold medal made her the first track and field world champion ever to come from the Kentucky-sized volcanic island.
“I feel happy, I feel grateful, I feel fulfilled. I never expected it.”
in Europe, and you could seat everyone from Iceland into America’s three biggest football stadia. Born, raised and coached in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, Hinriksdottir, 18, has no intention of going anywhere else until at least 2016.
Iceland’s newspapers and TV stations celebrated the country’s first world champion with great gusto.
She likes running in the snow, because “it makes you stronger,” which is just as well. Iceland is 10% glacier, with an average winter temperature of 31°F (-0.5°C).
Marooned in the North Atlantic Ocean, somewhere between Greenland and the UK, it is the most sparsely-populated country
Now a European junior champion, too, Hinriksdottir is going to Oregon in July to win her, and her country’s, second world track title.
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THE SMOKING GUN OF ATHLETICS
P n w o T k c a r T
Not since Usain Bolt powered himself to Olympic gold on chicken nuggets has there been a more fitting union of fast food and fast people. Feast your eyes on this
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oasting the decathlon, with 10 toppings, and the carbo-loading 5000m: Canadian bacon, salami, pepperoni, mushrooms, red onions, linguica and sausage – TrackTown Pizza has a dish tailored for the needs of every runner, jumper and thrower in Eugene. Opened in 1977 by a wonderfully-named food impresario named Mr Happy, TrackTown Pizza has served up its track and field fare through nine Olympic Games. It is located on Franklin Boulevard, just a 700-meter sprint away from Hayward Field. Famous faces to have graced the 100-seat restaurant include world 800m silver medalist Nick Symmonds and decathlon king Ashton Eaton (see pages 14-19). Manager Tim Meyers has worked there for the past 14 years, and is always on the lookout for new athletics-themed pizza ideas. “For the 2008 US Olympic Trials (which were staged at Hayward Field) we came up with the Olympian, and our latest edition is the long jump pizza,” says Meyers. “We find a lot of track athletes eat here, and if that athlete happens to throw the hammer, for example, they’ll tend to order the Hammer.” Hungry hammer throwers can feast on anything from the small (10 inches) to the giant (16 inches), which is five-times smaller than the throwing circle. For the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships in July, Meyers is doubling his staff count to 14 to cope with the hungry demands of athletes and fans attending the six-day event. Although reluctant to divulge any new pizza ideas, the astute Meyers did at least open up about his newfound love for athletics. “I never used to be a huge track fan, but in the past few years I’ve truly gotten into it,” he says. And that’s good enough for us. Make ours a giant!
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TRACK AND FIELD COMBO Canadian bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, black olives and ground beef.
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THE HEPTATHLON Canadian bacon, salami, pepperoni, linguica, sausage, and ground beef.
BANG BA B ANG A NG! NG BAN ANG What are you most looking forward to about the Oregon 2014 WJC? Racing! And the whole experience of going to Oregon with my team-mates.
THE SMOKING GUN OF ATHLETICS
SPIKES catches up with the Great Britain sprinter who is currently the fastest junior over both the 100 and 200 meters
Tell us three things you know about Eugene Green. Plenty of grass. Doesn’t Oregon have a ridiculous amount of species of grass? Or is that the wrong state? (No idea, Dina. But Oregon does grow 95% of the USA’s hazelnuts). The whole town is crazy about track. I guess that’s self-explanatory with the term TrackTown. But yeah, they love track and the city comes alive whenever there’s a competition. Obviously Nike has a great heritage there. The brand has its origins there, doesn’t it?
It sure does. Finish the sentence; When in TrackTown... ...bring your best.
You’ll be 19 in December, so this is the last season of your junior career. What has been the best moment so far? I’m torn between getting (world 4x100m) bronze in Moscow, and winning (200m and 4x100m gold) at the 2013 European Junior Championships. It was something that I’d worked towards for so long, so obviously I’m proud of that. But Moscow’s result was such an amazing experience and surprise... I never even imagined I’d come home a medalist.
Worst track blooper? I fell over so embarrassingly in training when I was practicing starts in Turkey at the (Trabzon 2011) European Youth Olympics. It wasn’t a delicate ladylike fall, it was a massive ‘splat’ on my face and everything. My team-mates just burst out laughing, while I hid my face in shame. It was only when I looked up that I noticed all the volunteers were having a briefing in the stands. Probably about 100 people. They all saw it, and were holding their breath trying not to laugh. It was like the stadium was shaking. Needless to say, that’s never happened again.
Ha! Who is your role model? Christine O (world 400m champ Ohuruogu, pictured right). She’s simply amazing as a person and athlete. I give exactly the same answer every single time I’m asked. She’s a true performer, and knows when to do it.
What would be on your TrackTown pizza? This place sounds great! I’m tempted to say the Hammer (pepperoni, linguica and pepperoncini) but I’d probably end up making my own pepperoni one. Just plain and simple.
At the London 2012 Olympics, you were a box carrier on Super Saturday, when Great Britain won three gold medals. Describe that experience in five words
Amazing Loud Friendly Privilege Unforgettable
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What are your favorite things to do outside track? Spending time with my friends and going out to eat. I also love cooking.
Who would be your dream dinner party guests? David Beckham Oscar Wilde Oprah Sacha Baron Cohen Kevin Hart Muhammad Ali Christina Aguilera
How much money do you have in your pocket? About £4 ($7). I don’t carry much change and often have to use my card for the smallest purchases, embarrassingly.
What’s your favorite film? The Sixth Sense, even though I was only four when it came out. I just love the ending and plot twist, it’s so clever.
Would you rather win a world junior gold medal or set a world junior record? World junior gold.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Desserts. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I love desserts, especially chocolate ones. I crave them all the time! Anything warm, gooey and chocolatey with a nice hot sauce would make me so happy. Obviously, because I do watch what I eat, especially in the thick of the season, I avoid desserts. Which just makes me crave them even more.
If I wasn’t an athlete, I’d be... A food taster. I love to eat so much.
dinaashersmith @dinaashersmith
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ASHTON EATON
E M HO Born, raised and married in Oregon, decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton welcomes you to the town where track is front page news
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shton Eaton was a wideeyed teenager sitting in the first row of Hayward Field’s east grandstand when he first discovered the magic of international track and field. On the encouragement of his first coach, Tate Metcalf, he and his training group went along to watch the iconic Prefontaine Classic. Aged “13 or 14” at the time, Eaton found the experience of watching the USA’s pre-eminent athletics meet captivating. “That was the moment I realized Hayward Field was a special place,” says Eaton, speaking exclusively to SPIKES. “I enjoyed high-fiving the athletes on their victory lap, but my biggest memory was the physique of the athletes. I remember thinking: ‘I’ll never be able to look like that.’ The triple jumpers had such long legs, they looked like praying mantises. I also remember watching Maria Mutola win her 14th straight 800m race [Mozambique’s multi-world and Olympic medalist
won 16 on the spin at Hayward Field between 1993-2008] and I was just amazed by her power and dominance.” That experience ignited a passion in Eaton that would power his track journey all the way to world and Olympic decathlon gold medals, and four world records. “That day, I got to see the potential of what track and field could be,” he says. “I didn’t realize that you could even go to meets like Prefontaine. I saw the fans going nuts around those athletes. It was very inspirational.” Born in Portland but raised from fifth grade in the small city of Bend,
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BEST. DECATHLON. EVER: Eaton set a world record of 9039pts at TrackTown in 2012
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SPIKES.IAAF.ORG about a two-and-a-half hour drive to the east of Eugene, Eaton took up track at middle school. A talented all-round sportsman, it was just one of the many activities the energetic youngster devoted his time to, and he recalls several “cool” experiences of running at Hayward Field prior to his Prefontaine Classic enlightenment. He remembers his trips to Deb’s pancake diner with particular clarity, where he would feast on strawberry pancakes with whipped cream to alleviate any nerves. Taking track more seriously as he developed through high school, Eaton won state high school titles in the 400m and long jump. Several colleges were keen to recruit the all-round athletic talent, who at this time was also a taekwondo black belt and a promising footballer. For Eaton, there was no choice to be made. Encouraged to try multi-events, his heart was set on furthering his career at the University of Oregon. “Of all the places I visited, I knew Oregon was the best place for me. It wasn’t just because I was from Oregon, I knew the university understood track in the way I wanted to understand track,” he says. “So while my degree says Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, I really majored in track and field.” Initially under the coaching of Dan Steele, in only his sixth ever decathlon, aged 20, he cracked the 8000pts barrier: something achieved by only the top 30 or
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ASHTON EATON
so decathletes a year. In 2008, he won the NCAA (national collegiate) title, and found his true calling. Just two years later, he announced himself on the world stage by smashing the heptathlon world record at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships. That same weekend, 2008 Olympic champion Bryan Clay took the world indoor title with a score some 300pts inferior to Eaton. While in his first year at the University of Oregon, Eaton had a 15-minute chat with a talented young Canadian athlete who was touring the campus as a prospective student. That girl is now called Brianne Theisen-Eaton, and the pair got married in Eugene last summer: close to where they live and train (pictured below). Guided by Harry Marra, coach to 1996 Olympic decathlon champ and former world record holder Dan O’Brien, Eaton finished second to Trey Hardee at the Daegu 2011 World Championships, and has proved invincible ever since. He
has won every single multi-event competition he has subsequently completed. Eaton’s haul includes world indoor heptathlon golds at Istanbul 2012 and Sopot 2014, and Olympic decathlon gold in 2012, followed by the world title in Moscow last year. Multi-event wife Brianne won world silver in both Moscow and Sopot, too. Eaton’s finest moment was reserved for Hayward Field, when at the 2012 US Olympic trials, he became only the second man in history to break through the 9000pts barrier, adding 13pts on to Roman Sebrle’s 11-year-old world record. Eaton’s 9039pts WR makes him the best all-round athlete, ever. Surprisingly, Eaton’s most cherished memory of Hayward Field was not that world record, or his 2010 NCAA and 2011 national titles there. His favourite TrackTown moment came when finishing fifth at the 2008 Olympic trials. “I remember, I was vaulting in front of the east grandstand and everyone was going nuts. They were rhythmically clapping me, making an unbelievable noise every time I went over the bar,” recalls Eaton, who set a PR of 5.10m that day. “I later remember warming up
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for the 1500m under the west grandstand, and the men’s 800m final started. Everyone was yelling. I went out to have a look at what was going on, and Nick Symmonds was leading home an Oregon 1-2-3. The whole day was so awesome.” At 26, Eaton can’t compete in the latest chapter of TrackTown’s rich history, as Hayward Field welcomes the world’s best under-20 athletes for the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships from July 22-27. But he can attest to Eugene’s special appeal as a host city. “Athletics is front page news here, and Hayward Field is the best first impression to have of a track meet,” says an enthusiastic Eaton. “There are banners and posters all over the town to say that Eugene is a town with a running community. Runners are all over the town. In fact, if you were an alien and came to Eugene, you would think the only thing that people did was go for a run.”
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A Ashton Eaton’s guide to Eugene g E EAT LIKE AN EATON “Eugene is a great college town, “E with a strong food culture. I would w recommend Cafe Soriah. The chef re there catered at our wedding and th the Mediterranean food is amazing. th If you want authentic Italian, La Perla would be the place to go. The Humble Bagel has a lemon poppyseed muffin that will knock your socks off. If you are after a delicious but reasonably priced breakfast I’d say Glenwood.” CLIMB THE BUTTE “There are plenty of other places to explore in Eugene and one place I’d recommend would be a hill called Spencer’s Butte. It is quite a climb [a little over 2000ft] but to reach the top is very fulfilling, because you have a great view of the city. It makes me feel like I’m on top of the world.” GO FOR A RUN “I’d absolutely recommend Pre’s Trail. I still train there a lot during the fall. It is a bark chip trail which runs along some stunning sections. If you are lucky, there is always a good chance you might see a worldclass runner on the trail.”
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INSTAGRAM LIKE A PRO
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… O T W O H T S A T S N I W is taking beautiful photographs for her 12,312 followers on Instaagram. She picks her favorite snaps for SPIKES
“This was taken with my Canon at a training camp in Portugal. I just like the feeling of it. When I take photos of children I try to make the pictures interesting without showing their faces.”
“This is taken in the training arena in Oslo on the day before the Bislett Games Diamond League. I like to discover things or angles that are not expected.”
“This was also taken with my Canon. My friend and I had just found a pair of sunglasses on the beach!”
“My spring-colored nails. I had these way before my famous rainbow nails…”
“A pair of new ASICS shoes. I like taking photos with a more creative and personal look.”
“We arranged a high jump meet last winter in Gothenburg [with 2009 world champ Blanka Vlasic], and this was the poster.”
“I love to share thedsiscover and and momenmall things ts in my life ”
“I like the fact that there is a twist in this picture [of the men’s high jump at the Sopot 2014 world indoors]. I think it’s pretty boring to take a ‘normal’ photo of sports. I like pictures that are more interesting, so I try to do something unexpected.”
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Style guide 1. “If you find something that you want to share, take several pictures of it with different lighting and angles. Then you can choose which one is best.” 2. “I almost always change the colors. I use Snapseed [a free app], but there are a lot of different apps for that. I like my pictures to be a bit lighter and not too colorful, so I often change the brightness levels too.” 3. “I almost always crop the picture – that can sometimes make a big difference. You can easily choose what you want or don’t want to show in a picture by cropping it. Sometimes the whole picture is too wide or high for Instagram, then I use another app called #NoCrop. Sometimes you can make the feeling of the picture much better by cropping into it.” 4. “I try to be selective about my photos, and if I’m not satisfied with the picture, I don’t share it.” 5. “I try to take photos that give a sense of who I am, and show what I discover in my everyday life, however big or small.”
1. If you find something you want to share, take several pictures of the same thing, with different focus of the light and angles. Then you can choose the best one.
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MEET THE TEAM
Go
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Kendell Williams
Olivia Baker
Keturah Orji
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A S U m o Tea Such is the h strengthh of US track and field, thee host h nation will compete at the Oregon on 22014 IAAF W World Junior Championsh nships more in expectation than hope. Coach ac Lisa Morgan tells us about sevenn multi-talented m teens to watch out for... Kendall Baisden
Keturah Orji
Kendell Williams
Age: 19 200m and 400m
Age: 18 Long and triple jump
Age: 19 Heptathlon and 100m hurdles
“Medley relay silver medalist at the world youth championships in 2011 and 2012 world junior 4x400m gold medalist, she is a force to be reckoned with. From Detroit, but now based out of the University of Texas, she has run 50.46 for the 400m and is also an accomplished 200m runner. She’s tall and thin but runs like a stallion. A tough ‘get-it-done’ kind of girl.” Olivia Baker Age: 18 400m and 800m
“A rising star of the horizontal jumps, she landed long jump silver [6.39m] and triple jump bronze [13.69m] at last year’s world youth championships in Ukraine. Another athlete to come out of New Jersey, that Mecca for track and field, she is powerful, with an incredible set of triple jump phases. She’s the most promising jumper we’ve had in quite some time and is destined for greatness.”
Devin King Age: 18 Pole vault
“Based out of New Jersey, Olivia won a silver medal over 400m at the 2013 world youth championships, and recently showed her versatility with a 2:02 800m. In her final year at high school, she’s a bright, humble kid who wants to attend medical school and be a neurosurgeon. I also have a vested interest in Olivia, as I coach her!”
“The man I call ‘Devin The Dude’ is another star in the making. Based out of Louisiana and coached by Beijing Olympian Erica Bartolina, he finished joint sixth at the world youth championships in Ukraine. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, setting a national high school indoor record with 5.44m.”
Alexa Efraimson
Trayvon Bromell
Age: 17 1500m and 3000m
Age: 19 on July 10 100m (see p40)
“A high school phenom, Alexa ran brilliantly and showed no fear of mixing it with the Africans when winning 1500m bronze at the 2013 world youth championships. Since that run, the Washington State athlete has gone from strength to strength, running an indoor 1500m of 4:15 and a 9:00 3000m. Still only 17, I’m looking forward to seeing what the latest emerging US middle-distance runner can do on the international stage.”
“He’s already run 9.77 (with a 4.0m/s tailwind), so Usain Bolt had better watch out! He’s strong, powerful, and already among the very finest collegiate sprinters we’ve ever seen. Out of Baylor University in Texas, he’s definitely a future superstar. With that trademark headband he’s a bit of a showman, and earlier this year set a new world junior record with a 9.97 100m run.”
“A freshman at the University of Georgia, she announced herself as a future superstar by adding 100pts to Carolina Kluft’s world junior indoor record for the pentathlon at the NCAAs in March. A great hurdler, jumper and thrower – her only weak event is the 800m. Kendell has scored more than 6000pts in the heptathlon, and those are big numbers.” Kendell will only compete in the 100m hurdles in Eugene.
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#RUN #JUMP #FOLD
MAKE YOUR OWN SPIKES
There are 22 different athletics events on show at the Oregon 2014 World Junior Championships, and origami is not one of them. In a bid to remedy that, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your very own DIY spike. Send your creation to @spikesmag cut out
fold and stick
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Cut-out spike designed by Philipp Stollenmayer. Visit kamibox.de
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TEENS GOT TALENT
The best young athletes from nearly 200 countries are coming to TrackTown! Here are 10 awesome talents with the world at their spikes
The 18-year-old favorite for 800m gold became her country’s first ever world champion at the world youths last July, and was fourth at the world juniors two years ago.
Anita Hinriksdottir, Iceland
Remember my name Lazaro Martinez, Cuba
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Blitzed to a championship record 13.13 en route to world youth 110m hurdles gold last summer, and in March set a national junior record of 49.49 in the 400m hurdles. This result ranked him world number one (for a week).
Meet the world’s best junior athletes
A pole vaulting super talent, Peinado spent last summer beating 17-yearolds to win world youth gold – aged just 15! With a best of 4.40m, she’s one to watch both in Eugene in July and at the Youth Olympics in August.
Jaheel Hyde, Jamaica
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Robeilys Peinado, Venezuela
Still only 16, the teen TJ sensation won world youth gold last year and has already leapt a monster 17.24m this season. Only Christian Taylor and Will Claye could beat him at the Rome Diamond League.
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Last year, the Pakistanborn sprinter broke the Swedish indoor 200m world record, and then took world youth gold in a PR and championship record 22.92. She only turned 17 in March.
Yoshihide Kiryu, Japan
Irene Ekelund, Sweden Florentina Marincu, Romania
More than 100,000 people have watched the YouTube clip of Kiryu, in pink shorts, clocking 10.01 in the 100m last April. Now 18, he could become the first man of Asian descent to go sub-10. Also a 60m world indoor semi-finalist in March.
Just like her compatriot Cristine Spataru 10 years earlier, Marincu won world youth gold in the long AND triple jump in Donetsk last summer. Her season’s TJ best of 13.81m made her the top ranked under-20 athlete of 2013.
Sanghyeok Woo, Korea The teenage high jumper cleared a PR 2.20m on his way to the world youth title last year, and added another centimeter to his record during the indoor season. Turned 18 in April.
He won the 1500m emphatically at the world youths by more than five seconds. Now 18, the future star ran a PR 1:44.69 for 800m glory at the Shanghai Diamond League.
The multi-talented thrower won discus gold and hammer bronze at the Donetsk 2013 World Youth Championships, and he will be in action in both at Hayward Field.
Robert Kiptoo Biwott, Kenya Matt Denny, Australia
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GO, PRE!
a is e c a p t s e b e h T “ suicide pace and y a d d o o g a is y a tod to die”
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teve Prefontaine was an unusual character. Heroes very often are. This one was brash, funny, arrogant, a clean freak, and as tough as old boots. At grade school, Pre was bullied for being German. His mother Elfriede was from a village outside Berlin, and just as tough. In the home movie footage used in the 1997 film Prefontaine, you can see her doing push-ups along with Steve and his sister Linda, at their home in Coos Bay. Tom Jordan, biographer and Director of the annual Pre Classic, attributes Pre’s mental toughness to two things: Elfriede and his home town. Coos Bay is a city built on lumber and shipping, on Oregon’s south-west coast. It’s also a two-hour drive from Hayward Field in Eugene. Pre was brought up in close proximity to the beating heart of working-class industry and the track capital of the United States. A potent combination. “The town and the man find themselves similarly
he the oryy iinn th After victor 5000m, he wentt into the crowd and emerged wearing a shirt emblazonedd with STOP PRE, before tearing offf on a pumped-upp victory lapp described: blunt, energetic, tough and aggressive,” wrote Kenny Moore, US Olympic marathoner and Eugene native. These are characteristics that endeared him to anyone who watched him race. They still do. That buccaneering style endeared him to an adoring public. In the stands at Hayward Field, ‘Pre’s People’ wore GO PRE t-shirts. In an even greater testament to the cult of his character, others had STOP PRE tees. For all his blood and thunder on the track, Pre was good fun, too. After US two-mile record holder George Young had pulled out of a race against him in early 1972, Pre said: “He’s super intelligent. And very good-looking. And has a great family. And I hope he remembers all these nice things I’m saying when we do race.” They raced over 5000m at that summer’s US
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GO, PRE!
“There may be men out there who can beat me, but they’re goingg to have to bleed to do it”
Images supplied by @Matt_Crehan, @M Matt Crehan who is creating The Art of Running comic. Visit mattcrehancomic.com for more info or get involved here: kickstarter.com/projects/1020805753/the-art-of-running-the-steveprefontaine-story/posts/594024
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG
Olympic trials, at Hayward Field. It’s the last place you would want to take on Pre – he finished his career with a 35-3 record there. For 15 minutes before the race and 15 minutes after, the packed grandstand reverberated with the sound of his name. Pre won in style to book his place at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games. And after 12-and-a-half circuits of the track, he went into the crowd and emerged wearing a shirt emblazoned with STOP PRE, before tearing off for a pumped-up victory lap. This wasn’t just a guy who was trying to qualify for the Olympics. This was sports entertainment at its passionate best. In his own words: “I don’t just go out there and run. I like to give people watching something exciting.” Pre was not lithe like the long distance runners of 2014. He was two inches shorter and 20 pounds heavier than Oregon’s modern day hero and 2012 Olympic 10,000m silver medalist Galen Rupp. Watching Pre bounce on to the track was like watching a prize-fighter enter the ring. This raging bull could pump his fists without looking daft. In a bid to capture his essence to a British audience in the 1970s, venerated BBC announcer David Coleman described him as a “chunky American” and “a kind of athletic Beatle”. But for all the ability and spirit that commanded such attention, Pre’s truly remarkable quality was something very different. Integrity. A rebel with a cause, his outbursts and cocky claims were often rooted in a Corinthian spirit. Shortly before his death, he was heavily critical of an Amateur Athletics Union policy that forced US runners to race against athletes from Africa and Eastern Europe, or face suspension.
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“Where are the best runners?” he raged, before reeling off a list of his most talented contemporaries. “Emiel Puttemans is Belgian. Brendan Foster is English. Rod Dixon is a Kiwi. Knut and Arne Kvalheim are Norwegians. Lasse Viren is from Finland. “Does the AAU have any of them on their wonderful televised schedule? Hell, no. For me, running against the Poles and Czechs would be like running against high school kids.” He’d rather lose a great race than lead a coronation – a trait that played out in one of the Olympics’ most gripping races. Before the 5000m at Munich 1972, Pre boldly predicted that he would run the final mile in under four minutes. “There may be men out there who can beat me, but they’re going to have to bleed to do it,” he warned. As promised, Pre surged to the front with four laps to go, before dropping back to fourth on the penultimate lap. He somehow regained the lead, but trailed Lasse Viren at the bell. He then ran most of the last lap in lane two, wrestling for the lead with Viren and Morrocco’s tactically astute veteran Mohamed Gammoudi. When Viren kicked, Pre had nothing left. Utterly exhausted, he dipped for the line with 10 meters to go, and was beaten to bronze by Ian Stewart of Great Britain. For gold and an Olympic record, Viren ran the final mile in 4:01.2. In Pre’s eulogy, his high school coach Walt McClure offered this insight to his race mentality. “Man imposes his own limitations, but limitation was not in Steve’s frame of reference.” Pre was one of a kind, bridging the gap between fans and athletes in the way perhaps only Usain Bolt has done since. Off the track, he volunteered his time as a coach and mentor at Roosevelt Junior High School and Oregon State Penitentiary, where he set up a running club and wrote to inmates. Although he lived on food stamps for much of his career, Pre turned down $200,000 (equivalent to $1m today) to join a professional track circuit that would have made him ineligible for Olympic competition. He died on May 30, 1975, aged just 24, as an American record holder in every distance from 2000m to 10,000m. Pre is immortalised in two statues, one at Nike HQ in Beavertown, the other in Oregon’s largest city of Portland; a jogging route called Pre’s Trail; a memorial and permanent exhibition in Coos Bay; the world-class international athletics meeting that bears his name (The Pre Classic); and Pre’s Rock – a shrine bedecked with sneakers and running mementos, located at the spot where he fatally crashed his car. When he was alive, he made people happy. In death, he still does.
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OREGON 2014 IN NUMBERS
the number of times that the world juniors have been held in the USA prior to the event this summer
148 medals to be handed out to beaming junior athletes
17 world record holders who have competed at the world juniors since 1986
9.97
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG
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seconds taken by 18-year-old Trayvon Bromell to win the NCAA 100m title at Hayward Field in June and join the sub-10 club medal ceremonies to be performed during the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships
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187
medals won by Team USA at the world juniors 83 gold 58 silver 46 bronze
US juniors who won NCAA titles in TrackTown this year: Trayvon Bromell 100m Shamier Little 400m hurdles Kendall Baisden 4x400m relay Kendell Williams heptathlon
student ambassadors at the University of Oregon who will be assigned to national federations for the duration of the champs SPIKES.IAAF.ORG/JUNIORS
Find out more about Oregon 2014 online
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WORLD JUNIOR RECORDS
? t a h w y a S r rld junio o w s le hurd to econds en 110m s k a 2 t 1 . e 3 1 v st ha the Xiang ju ywood sign to It would iu L r e ll ld ho e Ho way record nd of th e e s in his n o le c m a t o r s f run 10 ob en with v e , r e h ot
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George Washington’s nose on Mount Rushmore is 21 feet long. Snot a problem for Heike Drechsler, who long jumped a couple of feet further for a world junior record 7.14m in 1983
Mykyta Nesterenko’s world juniorr record discus throw of 70.13m 7 m 47 is the same length as a Boeing 747
Last year, Jacko Gill launched his shot a record 23m, roughly the same distance as golfer Paula Creamer’s miracle putt to win an LPGA play-off in Singapore
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG
2hrs, 22min s
19ft
75ft
If you popped Avatar on at the start of Zhang Yingying’s record marathon in 2008, the end credits would roll as she crossed the line in 2:22.38
If anyone breaks eaks men’s the women’s ump junior high jump .01m record of 2.01m mer, this summer, they’ll be good ump enough to jump hael clear of Michael h an Jordan with pare inch to spare
6 ft 7 in
In 2008, Raphael Holzdeppe set a junior pole vault record of 5.80m, high i h enough eno gh tto clear (almost) ost) TWO T football crossbars sba
es t u n i m 5
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Mary Cain does not queue for yellow taxis in her native NYC. With her onemile record 4:24.11, Cain could run the 1.13 miles across Brooklyn Bridge in about five minutes
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KNOW YOUR O U IMPLEMENTS OUR M P MENTS
HAMMER FOR WOMEN AND D MEN Essentiallyy a shot ((see ac across) cross)) attached to a metal wire and handle. DID YOU KNOW? The ďŹ rst hammer was th thrown r rown more than 4000 years ago in Ir IIreland. reland.
GAME OF THROWS gets up close and personall with the hammer, discus, javelin and shot
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG
SHOT FOR WOMEN The shot weighs nearly 9lbs, the same as a 4-liter bottle of water. FOR MEN Their slightly heavier 13lbs metal ball is roughly the weight of a track bike. DID YOU KNOW? At the Paris 1900 Olympics, US shot putters Josiah McCracken and Robert Garrett qualified for the final but refused to take part because it was held on a Sunday. Sunday
D DISCUS FOR WOMEN F WOME WO MEN N L a 7-inch frisbee that weighs Like a much as two iPads (2.2lbs). as FOR MEN F FOR A inch and a half bigger, the 4lbs An m men's discus feels more like a llightweight ightweight laptop. DID YOU KNOW? D A discus world record has never been s at an Olympics or world champs set champs.
JAVELIN FOR WOMEN The spear weighs 1.3lbs (a (about bout the same as an iPad) and is 7f 7ftt 2ins long.
Pictures: Michael Harvey/LLocog
FOR MEN Weighs 1.8lbs, and at 8ft 7ins, 7 is about the same length as a golf bbuggy. DID YOU KNOW? The javelin has origins as a weapon used in hunting and warfa re. warfare.
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SUB-10 CLUB
94
South Africa / 2014
9.93
Jamaica / 2014
UJAH
9.96 GBR / 2014
TON PAT
Carl L
Leona Brian
Darre l
Trinidad and Tobago
yM
9.89
9.95 USA / 2008
NS
9.95
Nesta
Trell K
O IMM
TE R CAR
9.78
Jamaica / 2010 OMPSO
Richa r
d TH
9.92
France / 2011
9.98 USA / 2013
9.85/
Trinidad and Tobago
Kim C
L M ON s SI
2005
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R o dn e
Marc
Darvi s
9.99/
2005
USA / 2010
Zimbabwe /2013 du
Frank
Leroy Seun
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Kema r
9.98
Jaysu
Micha
Rakie e
Yohan Simon
BROWN ley
9.96/
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9.98
USA / 2002
USA / 2008
UMVUR
USA / 2013
9.99
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9.99
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Trinidad and Tobago
SAIDY ND
9.99
LEW
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Norway / 2011
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Jamaica / 2012 AK W MAG E
ma
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RN BU
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9.88
9.95
9.98
Ghana / 1999
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USA / 2010
Jamaica / 2011
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9.69
9.88
USA / 2009
RATER el F
aJ
Chris t
9.69
DIX
YLES-M
Nigeria / 1998
USA / 2008
Walte r
Tyson
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GAY
USA / 2011
BLA
9.89
U RE
9.97
Travis
Walla c
D e r ri c
9.96
Namibia / 1996
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Ghana / 2005
GET T PAD
9.86
USA / 2002
A RI
9.99
EARMO
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Jamaica / 2009 AL A A M mS
AK
USA / 2007
L A R KE
9.99
9.94
DERICKS FRE
UNKOYA
9.92
ILLIAMS
Portugal / 2004
Bahamas / 2007 eC
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Franc i
9.86
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USA / 2001
BIKWELU
USA / 2004
9.91
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Vince n Mark
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9.87
USA / 1991
USA / 1994
OMPSO
GBR / 2001
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9.85
Barbados / 1998 rd W
9.97
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Nigeria / 1994
H le T
9.86
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USA / 2000
9.95
9.94
USA / 1998
IS-FRAN LEW
9.96
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9.98 PE CA
9.95
1998
LL E R MI
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9.86/
Trinidad and Tobago
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Nigeria / 1994
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USA / 1984
e
9.95
Nigeria / 1993
AN LATT Y
USA / 1983
David s
ENIKEN
Olapa
Danie l
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9.93
Cuba / 1977
IONG EFF
9.98
Calvin
9.98
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9.95
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Including Jim Hines in 1968, just 94 men have
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2011
LINS OL
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2013
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Mario
9.88
SYTHE FOR
9.95
MS ADA
9.86/
Trayv o
GBR / 2013
nB
ROMELL
9.97 USA / 2014
Jimm y
9.91
Trinidad and Tobago
9.95 /
France / 2013
Perci v Dwain
Bruny
Sh a w n
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Samu e
Leona
9.99
Qatar / 2007
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Usain
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9.85
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USA / 2011
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9.79
9.91
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2012
9.96
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Linfor Tim M
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ANCIS
USA / 2009
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9.95
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Jamaica / 2011
2012
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USA / 2006
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USA / 2004
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2009
9.80
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USA / 2013
9.90
Jamaica / 2013
Now meet the newest recruit... DID YOU KNOW? NINE OF THE SUB-10 CLUB HAVE SET THEIR PR IN EUGENE. THAT’S MORE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE
Netherlands /2012 EYBAIL COL
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Jame s
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9.97
Canada / 1999
USA / 2006
Jamaica /2008
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Ngon i
9.72
USA / 2008
9.98 C HA
Chura
W E LL PO
9.84
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9.99
PENCER
Jamaica / 1997
Kema r
LKS
9.99
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Nigeria / 2006
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Mark
JE
Marc u
9.85
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IN SUR
Nigeria / 2003
FASUBA
Oluso j
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USA / 1993
USA / 1997
Ivory
2003
9.99
9.95
USA / 2003
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Rona l
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9.99
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Danie l
Australia
RIMES
9.92 al S
9.92
1997
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9.93 /
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GBR / 1999
Micke
Patric
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DE AR
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Maur i
9.98
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Tim H
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GREENE
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TREETE-T mS
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9.87
Mike R
MMOND RU
HRISTIE
USA / 1992
H OM
9.84
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gone sub-10 in the 100m dash. Check out every name, every face, and every PR
9.93
Jamaica / 2013
40 TRAYVON BROMELL
9.97 Tr hi
A
to Boldon knows his track. The four-time Olympic sprint medalist and respected broadcaster has urged caution when assessing the potential of Trayvon Bromell, pointing out that many teenage sprint prodigies simply “don’t pan out.” We’re sorry, Ato, but SPIKES is going to have to ignore you on this one. A ripple of excitement tore through the world of track and field last month when Bromell 18, blitzed a new world junior record of 9.97 en route to the NCAA 100m title at Eugene’s Hayward Field. The first junior (under-20) athlete to crack the sub-10 barrier, Bromell is quicker than Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Maurice Greene or Usain Bolt were as junior athletes. Not just impressive, also inevitable. He tied the previous world junior record 10.01 in March, and even clocked a staggering wind-aided 100m time of 9.77 in May. Raised by his mum and dad between the cities of St Petersburg, FL and Bridgeport, CT, it was during a street race with other kids that his uncle Terrell spotted Bromell’s gift for running fast – and urged him to join a track club. On his competitive debut, aged 10, he won the 100m dash at a Hershey Track and Field meet in Pennsylvania. He hasn’t stopped winning since. “I always liked to run fast, and I was
always interested in findin nding out body can move,” about how fast the bod says Bromell, whose mother Shri is a former high school sprinter and father, sch Cashmere, is a former Canadian Cashmere Football League player. F His teenage years read like a slapstick episode of the TV show ER. He broke his left knee attempting a backflip on the street, broke a forearm and his right knee playing basketball, and fractured a hip while sprinting. Those injuries effectively enforced a three-year break from the sport, from eighth grade through to tenth grade. Weaker men might have lost confidence after a triple injury blow. Not Bromell. “I used the injuries as fuel to the fire, and in my senior year [2013], I had a blast.” That blast included winning the US national junior title in a thenlifetime best of 10.27, and another eye-catching wind-aided run of 9.99 at high altitude in Albuquerque. This season has coincided with his first year studying communications at Baylor University, the alma mater of 12-time world and Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson. Bromell is based in Waco, TX, under the coaching of Michael Ford. A selfconfessed “track rat” he watches
videos daily in an effort to improve as an athlete. “I’ve always taken track seriously, and worked hard in practise. I never let people tell me what I can’t do, and I feel like nothing is impossible in this world. I want to push the boundaries of how fast the human body can run.” His talent isn’t confined to the short sprint, either. “I have run a windy 20.23 and a legal PR of 20.59, pulling up in the last 10 metres, so I can run the 200m,” says Bromell, who off the track loves making short films. He also owns more than 50 pairs of sneakers. The Baylor Bear describes his first legal sub-10 second performance as “a great feeling” but believes there is more to come, in terms of improving both his strength and technique. His immediate focus is to perform with panache over 100m at the Oregon 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, and lead the USA’s medal charge on home soil. “I’m very excited to have that crowd support, and there’ll be a lot of love shown from the Oregon community,” he says. “They love their track and field, and it is a real privilege to be there.” Much like Ato Boldon, Bromell, who turned 19 on July 10, is reassuringly reluctant to make any rash predictions about what he can achieve over the course of his career. “I just hope to be the best that I can be. I don’t look too far into the future, I just focus on the present. It is not about the money with me, it is about wanting to run fast.”
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7 SPIKES.IAAF.ORG/JUNIORS
Meet the new heroes of track and ямБeld
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EVAN JAGER
THRILL OF THE CHASE
It’s wet. It’s wild. And it’s easy to lose your head. US steeplechase champion Evan Jager tells SPIKES why his event requires a full complement of track skills and a whole lot of heart
W
ith 28 fixed wooden barriers and seven fearsome water jumps to negotiate over seven-anda-half laps, the 3000m steeplechase can be the harshest event in track and field. Austria’s Gunther Weidlinger found that out when he slammed face-first into a barrier and knocked himself unconscious at the Osaka 2007 World Championships. And at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics, Ioran Etchechury from Brazil (halfpictured below) dived head-first into the not-so-clear blue waters of the steeplechase pit. No other single event on the athletics program demands such a contradictory skillset. Oregon-based US record holder Evan Jager reckons that a top quality steeplechaser needs “the strength of a 5km runner, coupled with the elasticity of a hurdler. “Athletes who run close to 100 miles a week in a straight line often lose a lot of agility and responsiveness,” says Jager, who placed fifth at the 2012 Olympics and sixth at last year’s world champs. “If you were to line up 10 distance runners, I would say most of them couldn’t slam dunk, but I can easily
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG jump to the rim. So I’m maybe a little more explosive, and perhaps one of the more athletic guys out there.” In addition to the power and agility needed to get over the hurdles, steeplechasers need to be brilliant long distance runners. But even then, there’s no guarantee of success. “You can’t just put a great 5km runner in the steeple and assume he will be successful,” says Jager. “It is hard to tell whether an athlete has the ability to steeplechase or not. There’s definitely an X factor.” Another punishing aspect of the event is fatigue. The jarring sensation of jumping over 35 barriers can dramatically sap your muscles. Jager likens it to running through quicksand... “The fatigue can come on very quickly. Running over those 36-inch high barriers brings a totally different level of pain and exhaustion. Until you’ve run in a steeplechase, you can’t comprehend it.” There’s more. To perform at the absolute pinnacle of the sport, you need a skill that few possess: top-end raw speed. When Jager ran his PR of 8:06.81, he did so at a lightning pace of
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4:21 minutes per mile. And he’s not even the quickest. “I’ve realised the way Ezekiel Kemboi [Olympic and world champion] and Conseslus Kipruto [world silver medalist] run the last 300 meters is not a continuous buildup,” says Jager. “They put in hard surges between the barriers, almost three or four sprints on that final lap.” So, to recap: these athletes must have iron man endurance; slick hurdling; a scary ability to soak up pain; nerves of steel; and blistering speed on the final lap. It makes you wonder why anyone would bother. For Jager, it represents an irresistible challenge. “It is completely different from other distance events,” he says. “I get to concentrate on form and technique – and I also have to try and avoid taking a dive in the water pit. It is a lot of fun.”
GET THE MOVES LIKE JAGER HOW TO CLEAR THE DEADLY WATERS IN THREE EASY STEPS Tidying up his water jump technique saved Evan Jager eight or 10 seconds a race. Do try this at home.
The approach “I start to think about the jump as I come off the previous barrier. Then, as I approach the water jump, I try to gauge which of my feet is going to be my plant foot, and which foot I’ll be placing on top of the barrier.”
The clearance “I’ll then aim to place the middle of my foot on top of the barrier, so that my spike is either gripping the top, or just over the far edge for maximum traction. I’ll then drive my arms and try to get a good push from the barrier.”
The landing “I aim to land as smoothly as possible on the same foot I’ve planted from. It should be a very fluid motion. I’ll aim to land within about a foot of the end of the water pit.”
THIS IS ATHLETICS
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG SPIKESIAAF.ORG S 45 4 5
THE ROOT OF ALL SPORTS
r e h t o d n a k c Tra
These US athletes can dunk like LeBron, pass like Peyton and bend it like Beckham. SPIKES finds out how it helped their track careers
sports
Jenny Simpson › Equestrian The 2011 world 1500m champion spent many hours in the saddle before excelling as a middle-distance maestro. Competing in a range of Olympic disciplines like show jumping and dressage, Simpson learned to appreciate what was outside of her control. “I’ve found that’s a good lesson to remember if things have not gone so well in running,” she says. “There is always an element of the unexpected, so when the pressure is on, it’s important to stay calm.”
Mary Cainn
› Swimming
Could the secret to being a teenage middledistance phenom be in the pool? Mary Cain was a competitive breast-stroke swimmer, which allowed her to build up endurance without pounding her legs. “I watched the Athens and Beijing Olympics thinking that maybe one day I’d make it to the Olympics as a swimmer,” Cain told SPIKES last year. And upon first working with her, coach Alberto Salazar noted that “the muscles of her chest and shoulders were disproportionately developed.” Maybe that’s why, at Moscow 2013, Cain became the youngest ever member of a US world team, aged 17 and 1/4.
Brittney Reese › Basketball
››
44 <
We know the Olympic and world long jump champion as the world’s best forward jumper, but in her younger days she used her superpowers to soar upwards to the rim. Reese starred for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College as a talented shooting guard before her mom encouraged her to concentrate on athletics. That basketball apprenticeship served Reese well. “When you drive your knee forward for a lay-up, it’s the same me | as on take-off,” she told SPIKES.
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG/JUNIORS
Find out more about Oregon 2014 online
46 4 6
THE ROOT OF ALL SPORTS
Track and other
sports Alysia Montano › Soccer The multiple US outdoor 800m champ first honed her running ability on the soccer pitch. Playing in midfield and as a striker, the world and Olympic finalist says it made a positive impact on her running. “In a game I could cover six miles, which was great for endurance. But the short, sharp bursts of speed also helped my track.” Montano still plays in the fall and winter to help her conditioning.
SPIKES.IAAF.ORG
Ashton Eaton
Taekwondo
Long before he set the decathlon world record, Eaton was spin kicking his way to a black belt in taekwondo. Inspired by the Power Rangers, it proved a useful grounding for track and field. “I basically started practising my hand-eyeand-foot co-ordination, balance, strength, endurance, discipline, and mental toughness, three days a week from the age of seven until I was about 15.”
Jesse Williams › Wrestling Not an immediately obvious fit with high jump, the USA’s 2011 world champion was good enough to make the high school state semi-finals in wrestling, and he relished his time on the mat. “I like wrestling because it is a very manly sport,” he told SPIKES. “I love working hard, and it is a sport where you can work really hard. On the track, I get very fired up and I’m very competitive. I enjoyed wrestling for the same reason”.
Reese Hoffa › (not just) Baseball He wrestled, played football, soccer, basketball, and also featured as a baseball catcher. Speedy glove work helped fine-tune Hoffa’s hand to eye co-ordination, which helped him to win the world title in 2007 and Olympic bronze in 2012. SPIKES also likes the fact that he can juggle, and he can complete the Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.
Will Claye ›
Football
The horizontal jumps hero starred as a promising high school running back, quarterback and wide receiver. Some say that in his younger days he was like a (much nicer) Michael Vick of New York Jets fame. Claye was offered a college scholarship to play football, but opted for track because “I was too small at 135lbs. If I’d taken a hit, it would have been all over.” He says the experience of playing football made him tougher.
22 - 30 August
Global support for health, the environment, social inclusion and peace.
www.iaaf.org