Lane 8 on Sunday

Lane 8 on Sunday.  Today is not a day of rest. 

Why?

Because there are 38 days remaining until I step up to the starting line.

The World Championships!

Can you believe it?

I can’t.

I watched the USA National Track & Field Championships last night, on ESPN.

LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 Olympic 400 meter champion, easily won the 400 in 44.50.

His rival, Jeremy Wariner, ran his semi-final 200 meter race.  Jeremy is not running the 400 this meet.  He automatically qualifies for the World Championships in the 400, because he is the reigning world champ.

Jeremy has completely dominated the 400 for the past decade, until last year at the Olympic 400 meter finals, when he lost to LaShawn.

LaShawn has emerged as America’s next great 400 star.  He turned 23 yesterday.

By the way, America dominates the world stage at 400 meters.  We took Olympic gold, silver and bronze in 2008.  It was not the first Olympics where we swept the top three places.

Jeremy is working on his 200 speed, in order to work on his 400 speed.

I can’t wait to see the showdown later this year at the world championships in Berlin.

In Track & Field circles, we haven’t seen a showdown like this in quite some time.

Carpe diem, jeff noel  🙂