Monthly Archives: May 2016

Diamond League, Track and Field

Kendra Harrison Sets American 100m Hurdles Record on Second Day of Prefontaine Classic

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A strong second day of the Diamond League event in Eugene, Oregon featured seven more Americans winning events and giving the US nine overall winners in the two day event. Several of the winners, including Christian Taylor in the triple jump, won for the second time this season. Taylor’s jump of 17.76m was a world leading mark and also a meet record. Will Claye’s season best 17.56m and Omar Craddock made it an American sweep of the top three spots. Michael Tinsley in the 400m hurdles was another one winning for the second straight event. Followed closely by Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson all three registered season best marks in another American sweep of the top three spots. The final American to win his second event of the year was Justin Gatlin in the 100m. Gatlin was the only one to break 9.9 and beat Asafa Powell of Jamaica by 0.06 seconds with a time of 9.88. Tyson Gay finished third in his first Diamond League race of the year. Michael Rodgers was fourth, just 0.01 seconds behind Gay, to follow up his third place finish from Shanghai.

The highlight of the day though was probably Kendra Harrison dominating the 100m hurdles and setting a new American and Diamond League record of 12.24. Harrison led five Americans who topped the event (six of the eight in the field were Americans). Season best times led to second, third, and fourth place finishes for Brianna Rollins, Jasmin Stowers, and Nia Ali. Shakira Nelvis was the fifth American in the top five. It was the same six-of-eight-are-Americans story in the 200m and Tori Bowie won with a world leading time for her first win of the year. Jenna Prandini had a season best time in fourth while Joanna Atkins rounded out the top five.

Also grabbing his first win, in the 800m, was Borris Berian who posted a season best time as he held off three competitors less than a second behind him. The final winner was Chaunte Lowe who grabbed her first win of the year in the high jump as the only one to clear 1.95m. Vashti Cunningham was fifth as part of a group of five jumpers who cleared 1.92m but no higher.

Francena McCorory took second in the 400m with a season best time and Natasha Hastings posted a season best of her own to finish third. In the 3000m steeplechase Emma Coburn set a new American record of 9:10.76 but finished third as Ruth Jebet of Bahrain set a new Diamond League record at 8:59.57. Leah O’Connor put up a personal best time to finish sixth. Sam Kendricks was unable to follow up on his pole vault win from Shanghai with another first place finish but did manage to finish third in the event.

The other events failed to provide top three American finishers but still had some good results. Jenny Simpson had a season best time and a season best finish of fourth in the 1500m. It was fifth in the javelin throw for Cyrus Hostetler and sixth in the 5000m for Hassan Mead.

The next Diamond League event will be Thursday in Rome.

Previous Diamond League Coverage:
Eugene Preview
Eugene Day One Update

Canoeing, ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup

Timothy Hornsby Eliminated in Semifinals at ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Racice

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Timothy Hornsby advanced to the semifinals of the K1 200m on Saturday at the ICF Canoe Sprint World in Racice, Czech Republic but was unable to secure a spot in any of the three finals. Hornsby finished sixth of the seven participants in his heat, grabbing the last spot to move into the semifinals. Hornsby finished his heat in 36.528, just about a second ahead of the seventh place finisher. In the semifinals Hornsby finished eighth of the nine competitors in 39.139 and was eliminated. He would have needed to have one of the three best times of the competitors who finished outside the top six in the four semifinals but was about 0.7 seconds short of that mark.

The ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup season wraps up in Montemor, Portugal next weekend starting on Friday.

Previous ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup Coverage:
Racice Preview
Friday Update

Cycling, Road

Megan Guarnier and Greg Daniel Win Pro Time Trial National Championships

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Megan Guarnier didn’t compete in the time trial on Friday but she sure showed why she is the top American road racer right now with a national title on Saturday. Guarnier held off Cory Rivera, Mandy Heintz, and Brianna Walle to win the title in a time of 3:48:20. The other three all finished a second behind Guarnier in a race where the top 14 all finished within five seconds. Heintz was a bit of a surprise to find in the top four after posting an 82nd place finish in the Amgen Tour of California last week. Both Rivera and Walle finished in the top 15 in that event. Friday’s time trial winner, Carmen Small, finished seventh, two seconds back, runner-up Amber Neben was 21st, 14 seconds back, and Kristin Armstrong was 16th, seven seconds back.

On the men’s side Gregory Daniel took the top spot in a race that saw more riders drop out than finish.Daniel led the 25 riders who finished the race holding off Alex Howes, Travis McCabe, and Chad Beyer by five seconds.  Howes was 21st recently in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race which speaks well for the young 21-year-old Daniel. Yesterday’s time trial winner, Taylor Phinney, didn’t take part in the race while runner-up Thomas Zirbel did not finish. Bronze medalist Alexey Vermeulen finished 15th, 48 seconds back.

USA Cycling will host the Mountain Bike National Championships in Mammoth Mountain, California July 13th-17th. The next UCI World Tour event is in France, the Criterium du Dauphine from June 5th-12th. The women will stay stateside for the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic on June 5th.

Previous USA Cycling Pro Road & Time Trial National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Friday Update

Fencing, Fencing World Cup

Eli Dershwitz and Daryl Homer Both Eliminated in Round of 16 in Moscow

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Things went a lot better for the American men competing on Saturday as all three won at least once and while no one reached the quarterfinals they had a combined 5-3 record. Jeff Spear was the first knocked out as he 15-11 to Aliaksandr Buikevich of Belarus. Eli Dershwitz and Daryl Homer both lost in the round of 16 to semifinalists. Dershwitz lost 15-9 to China’s Yingming Xu, who went on to finish second. Homer lost to Russia’s Nikolay Kovalev 15-14.

In the women’s preliminaries only one of the six American women advanced to the table of 64. Monica Aksamit went a perfect 6-0 in pool play and earned one of the 16 spots straight to the table of 64 from pool play. On the other extreme only one was knocked out in pool play, Celina Merza after going 1-5. All four of the US women who got into the preliminary knockout round lost their match. Francesca Russo 15-9 to Ukraine’s Olena Kravatska, Sarah Merza 15-8 to Italy’s Chiara Mormile, Sage Palmedo 15-14 to China’s Xueqian Zhang, and Kamali Thompson 15-9 to France’s Caroline Queroli. Aksamit joins Mariel Zagunis, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Dagmara Wozniak in the table of 64 for Sunday’s competition.

Previous Fencing World Cup Coverage:
Moscow Preview
Day 1 Update

Judo

Gold for Travis Stevens at Judo World Masters

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Travis Stevens is peaking at the right time. The two-time Olympian won the World Masters on Saturday and is poised to challenge for a medal in Rio later this summer. Stevens path to gold in Guadalajara was not devoid of drama. He won his opening match when it was decided on shido penalties and he had one less, 3-2. He was down in shidos 3-0 in the quarterfinals before a late ippon overturned that to give him the win. Ultimately though Stevens came through when it counted and scored ippons in the quarterfinals, semifinals (over Greece’s Roman Moustopoulos), and final (over Belgium’s Joachim Bottieau) to grab gold.

The US certainly has another shot at gold on Sunday as 2012 gold medalist Kayla Harrison competes in the women’s -78kg division. The final US competitor is Colton Brown in the men’s -90kg division. Brown just finished seventh in the judo grand prix event in Almaty last weekend.

Previous Judo Masters Coverage:
Preview
Friday Update

BMX, Cycling

Alise Post and Nicholas Long Finish Fourth in Time Trial at UCI BMX World Championships

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Both Nicholas Long and Alise Post came within a second of medaling in the time trial at the UCI BMX World Championships in Medellin, Colombia on Saturday night but both ended up in fourth place. Long’s margin of defeat was an incredible .081 seconds behind bronze and just .323 seconds from a world title. Long was one of two US riders to reach the final as Corben Sharrah finished ninth, though within a second of the world title.

Post was 0.307 seconds behind the bronze, an eternity compared to Post’s margin, but was over a second faster than fifth place as the leaders really showed their talent. Felicia Stancil was the second US woman in the final and finished 11th.

Sunday will be the World Championship Races with men’s and women’s competitions working their way through motos, 1/8 finals, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.

Previous UCI BMX World Championship Coverage:
Preview

Archery, Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials

Final US Archery Olympic Trials Competition Starts Sunday in Newberry, Florida

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Eight men and eight women are still competing for spots on the US Olympic Archery team and their fate will be decided over the next two days in Newberry, Florida. The men are competing for three spots on the team while only one woman is guaranteed a spot. The second and third place finishers will join the top finisher in attempting to qualify at the next Archery World Cup event.

Brady Ellison looks to be in great shape as he leads going in with 86 points and Zachary Garrett sits second with 74.5. Third place currently belongs to Jake Kaminski with 62.5 points and then things get more crowded with four competitors sitting with between 56 and 51.5 points. There are a lot of points at stake in the next two days so while a good day may not be enough to jump too far in the standings a poor day from a leader could certainly be trouble.

On the women’s side Mackenzie Brown leads with 77 points and Hye Youn Park is second with 69.5. Lanola Pritchard sits third with 64.5 points. The rest of the archers are more spread out than their male counterparts with Ariel Gibilaro is fourth with 60.5 and Khatuna Lorig fifth with 54.75 points.

Sunday will feature a 72-arrow ranking round with 16 points available to the winner and up to six bonus points available for the actual scores. There will also be an elimination round competition with 16 points again available to the winner. Finally there will be a team simulation where again, you guessed it, 16 points are available to the winner.

Previous Olympic Archery Trials Coverage:
Second Round Recap

Cycling, UCI Men's World Tour

Outstanding Ride for Joe Dombrowski, Third in Stage 20 at Giro d’Italia

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Joe Dombrowski hadn’t finished better than 58th and had finished outside the top 140 twice in the three stages since his run of four straight top 40 finishes. He rebounded in a big way on Saturday finishing the final mountain stage in 3rd place, the best finish by any American on the World Tour this year. Nathan Brown had finished fourth in the 10th stage of this race and Tejay Van Garderen had done the same in the Volta a Catalyuna, but no one had cracked the top three. Dombrowski was 1:17 back of winner Rein Taaramae of Estonia.

Dombrowski wasn’t the only American to find success as Joey Rosskopf, coming off his first sub-90 finish in six stages, finished a season best 33rd, 17:19 back, and Brown made it three in the top 50 for the first time in the event as he finished 41st, 20:17 back. Ian Boswell was 66th and Chad Haga 73rd as the US had all five of their riders in the top 75 for the first time in the Giro d’Italia as well.

Overall Dombrowski moved up a big to 34th overall (1:32:56 back) while Brown stayed in 48th (2:15:18 back). Boswell (71st) and Haga (78th) rose slightly while Rosskopf had the big jump rising 21 spots to 85th.

Things close out on Sunday with a 101 mile flat stage. Don’t expect the standings to change much.

Previous UCI World Tour Coverage:
Giro d’Italia Preview
Stage 1 Update
Stage 2 Update
Stage 3 Update
Stage 4 Update
Stage 5 Update
Stage 6 Update
Stage 7 Update
Stage 8 Update
Stage 9 Update
Stage 10 Update
Stage 11 Update
Stage 12 Update
Stage 13 Update
Stage 14 Update
Stage 15 Update
Stage 16 Update
Stage 17 Update
Stage 18 Update
Stage 19 Update

Cycling, Mountain Bike, UCI Mountain Bike World Cup

Lea Davison Headlines 13 Americans at World Cup Cross-Country Event in La Bresse

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13 Americans will compete in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup cross-country event in La Bresse, France on Sunday in the third of six events on this year’s schedule. Through two events Lea Davison has been the most successful American with an eighth place finish last week in Albstadt, Germany. Davison was also in the top 20 in Cairns, Australia earlier this year. She’s joined by six other women in the start list including Chloe Woodruff, the top American in Cairns with a 13th place finish. On the men’s side Stephen Ettinger was the top American in Cairns when he finished 20th while Howard Grotts was 31st in Albstadt. There have been no other top 40 finishes by American men this year.

Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cross-Country Coverage:
Albstadt Recap

Boxing

Claressa Shields Wins Second Straight Gold at AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships

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Ever since Claressa Shields burst on to the scene with a stunning gold medal run in the 2012 Olympics no one has been able to stop her. Shields earned her second straight World Championship on Friday defeating the Netherland’s Nouchka Fontijn, a bronze medalist from 2014, in the finals 3-0. Shields for the first time in the tournament didn’t win by a sweep on all three judges cards with two of them scoring it 39-37. Still with the way she performed over the last week and her dominance over the last four years it would be a major surprise to see Shields not standing with a gold medal around her neck in Rio.

It’s a shame that all the women’s weight classes aren’t going to Rio because Shadasia Green in the +81kg division was really impressive this week and despite losing 3-0 (all judges 39-37) to Kazakhstan’s Lazzat Kungeibayeva in the final would be a real good story in Rio after winning a silver this week.

Some of these US women may be competing in the Women’s National Golden Gloves Tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida July 5th-9th.

Previous 2016 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships Coverage:
Preview
Thursday Update
Friday Update
Saturday Update
Sunday Update
Monday Update
Tuesday Update
Thursday Update