The track world is hoping that a pair one-on-one duels between Olympic champions/world record holders will put their sport back in the spotlight.
On May 31, Noureddine Morceli of Algeria and Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia will square off in a two-mile race. A day later, Michael Johnson of the U.S. and Donovan Bailey of Canada will meet in the 150-meter dash, supposedly to decide who is the World's Fastest Human.Morceli and Gebreselassie will be running against the clock as well as against each other. If either of them breaks eight minutes, he will receive an extra $1 million. That would mark the first time a man has officially run back-to-back sub four-minute miles in a race (Gebreselassie's world record for two miles is 8:07.46).
However, the feat already would have been accomplished if the two-mile distance was a standard race. Daniel Komen has run 3,000 meters in 7:20.67, which is believed to be the equivalent of running a pair of 3:57.9 miles. The 3,000-meter race is 250 yards short of two miles.
How good was that Ryan Andrus's performance in last weekend's BYU Invitational?
Andrus, Mountain View's distance-running star, covered 3,200 meters - remember, this is 50 meters shy of two miles - in 9:05.33, which broke the previous all-class state record by seven seconds.
What's more amazing is that he produced such a time at altitude, where the relatively thin air hinders distance-running performances. Also, Andrus ran the race virtually alone (he finished 32 seconds ahead of his nearest rival), which made the performance even more difficult.
The NCAA grants a 10-second altitude adjustment for 3,000-meter times in Provo. Thus, Andrus' time is worth about an 8:55 at sea level, which would rank him No. 1 in the nation.
"If he were to get in the right race at sea level, he'd be around 8:50," says Chick Hislop, an Olympic distance running coach and Weber State's long-time head track coach. "He's as good a distance prospect as we've had come out of the state since (Olympian) Ed Eyestone (17 years ago). He has decent speed - probably more than Ed had in high school - and tremendous endurance. He has a really good cardiovascular system."
Andrus, by the way, has signed a letter of intent with Wisconsin, which boasts one of the finest track and cross country programs in the country.
MISCELANEOUS: This is an exceptional year for Utah high school track and field, which has been improving steadily in recent years. A number of Utahns rank among the top 10 preps in the country in their specialties, based on the latest list released by Track & Field News - namely, Angie Poulsen (400 meters), Tara Rohatinsky (3,200), Dan Arrhenius (discus, shot put), Andrus (1,600, 3,200), Trent Hooper (800) and Stefani Clark (1,600 meters).
This is also an exceptional year for the BYU men's track team. The Cougars might still be the best in the Western Athletic Conference, as always, but they are notably weak at the national level. The Cougars, once a perennial Top 20 team, were already mediocre at best, but Coach Willard Hirschi reports, "Four of our best kids are hurt and have been all year."
Sprinter Felix Andam (hamstring), Leonard Myles-Mills (knee), Marek Samseli (knee) and Fikre Wondafresh (Achilles) have all been hampered or sidelined by injuries.
Utah's Steve Lester won the 50-54 age group at the prestigious (and big) 21st annual Bloomsday Run in Spokane on Sunday. Lester, who is 54, covered the 12,000-meter distance in 41:38, breaking the old record by 31/2 minutes.