Weekend Roundup: Views From The 600

Weekend Roundup: Views From The 600

Molly Seidel returns, Grant Holloway keeps lighting the NCAA on fire, the 600 is fast, and Gwen Jorgensen is pregnant.

Jan 23, 2017 by Dennis Young
Weekend Roundup: Views From The 600
Below are the six biggest things that happened this weekend. And here are complete results from around the track world.

1. Off events continue to be the story


The last two weekends, non-standard records went down at various levels in the 300 and 1000 meters and were attempted in the 500. This weekend, 600-meter races were among the best performances at three different levels. UTEP freshman Emmanuel Korir set an indoor world best, running 1:14.97--the first time anyone has ever maintained sub-50 second 400 pace for 600 meters indoors. Rush Henrietta Sperry (NY) senior Sammy Watson ran 1:28.67 to break the high school girls record. And Ajee' Wilson ran 1:25.23 in New York, making her the second fastest American and sixth-fastest woman ever.

Gordon and I argued this week about whether these events are, in fact, good.



2. D.J. Principe runs 4:00.97


It's not an accident that great performances cluster after a breakthrough or that marathon times tend to cluster around round hour barriers. These times are arbitrary, and the reason that people break them in bunches is that running is incredibly mental. Alan Webb was the only high schooler to run a sub-4:00 mile between 1968 to 2010; someone in high school is probably going to break four every year now. (Two boys have done it each of the last two years, and Principe has six months to shave off less than a second.) 

Obviously training and opportunities have improved for teenagers, but a huge factor in the flood of sub-4:00s is the realization that it's not impossible. It's just a time.

3. Grant Holloway continues his rampage through the NCAA


Two weeks after running a Division I-leading time in the 60 hurdles, the Florida freshman jumped 8.05 meters (26-5) to take the No. 1 spot in the long jump. According to the University of Florida, that makes Holloway and Ashton Eaton the only two men in the world since 1999 to break 7.75 in the hurdles and jump 8.05 or better indoors. (Also of note from Florida's crack research department: six true freshmen have gone farther than 8.00 indoors in the last 15 years; four of them did it for Florida.)

Holloway is the perfect collegiate athlete from a coach's perspective--not quite great enough in any one event to go pro early (at least not yet) but versatile enough to put up huge points at conference and NCAA meets.


4. Molly Seidel returns


Her 4:44 mile was unspectacular, but it was her first track race since sweeping the 5K and 3K at NCAA indoors last March. It's a far cry from the fitness she showed 10 months ago--an 8:57 3K is 4:46 1600m pace. Then again, Seidel, a pure distance runner, has never broken 4:40 in the mile. We'll see where she's at in longer races soon.

5. There's a new all-time great doping alibi

Courtesy of Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, who was defending women's hockey players who ended up with male DNA in their drug tests: "If you have sex five days before taking a doping test, they can find male DNA in you. If a female athlete undergoes a drug test within five days after the act, then the test will show that she has male hormones--and yet it evokes suspicions of her using different drugs. One [athlete] can kiss a girl who has taken a drug. A foreign [athlete] is reinstated based on this while a Russian is punished."

Mutko is referring to Canadian pole vaulter Shawn Barber, who was let off for a cocaine positive test after blaming it on a Craiglist encounter gone awry.

On one hand, if you squint really hard, sure. On the other, no, those are alt-facts, that's not how DNA works.

6. Gwen Jorgensen probably won't return to marathoning in 2017


Because she's pregnant. Congrats!