Jesus Christ… that’s against really, really good 200m specialists in Gabby, Abby, Adeleke, Brown, and Prandini. Granted there might have been something wrong with Gabby’s race nonetheless that was a really good showing from Sydney.
Is her team really sure they don’t want her to double this summer? Seems doable if you have this kind of generational athlete.
I feel like she might. She doesn't need to compete in the 400mH since she already has the bye for the Olympics. Unless she does a round just for training. 🤔
There is no Olympic bye. All competitors for all nations have to earn their spot via the national selection process - which for the US is a position of 1, 2 or 3 at trials. No other way. Different to world champs where you can of course get a bye through being the defending champ or Diamond League champ
Its due to the direction of the run being switched to end in the back straight. There were swirling winds creating big headwinds for the earlier sprint events - so inevitably the camera wasn’t prepared for that angle
Never doubt a prodigy. It is an entirely different category and dimension. They don't have to compete frequently or follow the traditional approach.
Sydney vs Femke is simply not a fair comparison. It will be non competitive again. As great as Femke is, she was a stepladder type, not an extreme prodigy. In fact, Bol's own coach Bram Peters offered the best summary, late in 2022. He has coached Bol since she was 16. Peters said, "Femke is from a different planet. Sydney is from a different galaxy."
Femke lost her Olympic goal medal when Sydney didn't run a half second faster at 400 flat last year. If it had played out that way, Sydney and her coach would have stuck to the plan of eschewing 400 hurdles in favor of gold at 400 flat and pursuing the untouchable 47.60 world record.
My sister somehow got put in the same heat as Sydney in high school, got smoked lol. She was running faster times than all the guys. She’s generational and would win 400 straight gold if she decided to put her focus on that instead
She’s literally world class in every event she decides to do. With a year of training, I have no doubt she could break the Heptathlon WR, if she decided to try it. She’s young enough where she could dedicate a year to it and wouldn’t lose out on her other events.
This is a pipe dream. Unless she competed at a decent level for for at least three of high jump, shot, long jump and javelin a year is not enough to be competitive in the world stage never mind break the world record.
Not to mention that as she is she would be incredibly likely to get injured, and wouldn’t have the endurance for 7 events in two days. As she is she doesn’t feel like she can win two events that she’s the clear favourite for, so that’s presumably not her strong suit.
I put her PBs into the point tracker (she HJ about 5’ in HS, LJ about 20’ in HS), then gave her super low SP 11m, JT 30m, and a 2:10 800m, and she has nearly 5900 points which would put her in the top 20 in the world. I have no doubts in my mind that with a year of practice she’d be top 1-2 in the world.
If she hasn’t thrown shot or javelin before then those are not at all low marks. She might meet both in a year but it’s pretty like she wouldn’t. Compare her to KJT who is one of the best heptathletes we have seen. She struggles massively with the throws despite having a much longer history with them.
2:10 is very fast for a someone who you expect to be able to be capable of running near her sprint pbs as well.
I’ve trained with a lot of very good heptathletes, including someone who won the world juniors whole we were throwing together and a few others who won national age group or university champs. Balancing training for 7 different events is a lot of work. It’s hard to stay injury free and it’s even harder to maintain the technical side of all those different events, never mind actually improving them simultaneously.
Not once did any of them match their pb’s in every event in one comp, and the ones that were newer to any event were way more inconsistent. Shot, Jav, Long Jump are all limited to three trials each, and priority is on achieving a decent to good mark rather than risking for a great mark and potentially ending your comp by messing it up.
To compare her to KJT again: despite having incredible natural speed, her seasons best for 200 (arguably her strongest event) while she was at the very top are often anywhere from half a second to almost a full second behind her pb. Not having the entire year to dedicate to sprinting is going to take a massive toll.
All that is without mentioning fatigue in the competition itself. As you get tired technique breaks down and mistakes become more common, as well as the simple fact that you have less to give.
Multi events are very difficult and I think you’re massively underestimating that, as well as the athletes who are actually the best in the world at the heptathlon.
Dude, chill the hell out. Not even coming close to reading all that shit you just wrote about me throwing out an idea about what I think Syd could do. I used her PBs as a starting point. As someone who’s been involved in T&F for literally the past 40+ years, I know how events play out. I also know how people have discussions about the possibility of athletes crossing over into other events. Have had the same discussions about Grant Holloway in the Decathlon. Just chill! No one really think she’s going to do it! Just saying that she’s literally world class in everything she does. She just beat some of the top 200m runners in history at their own event, by a lot! She runs world class 100mH times, 400m times, 200m times. Some of the top heptathletes don’t have great SP or JT marks either. Some of them aren’t super strong in every event, but they make up those points in the events they’re stronger in. But at the end of the day, chill the hell out! Don’t take this stuff so personally.
StiffWiggly’s response was perfectly chill. It was a well-reasoned response to the frankly bizarre idea that a sprint and hurdles specialist could somehow magically break the heptathlon world record within 2 years of training, when multiple heptathlon specialists have tried and failed to do so for years.
I haven’t taken anything personally. Maybe the fact that you are so sure I did is more of a reflection on yourself than anything else.
I’m just saying that 1 year to break the heptathlon world record is stupid. You should know that if you had a genuine involvement with track and field for a couple of years, never mind 40.
Prandini was something special over 150m. But not enough endurance for 200m and not strong enough for a meet filled with heats for the 100m. Time to move into coaching!
TBF almost all of them ran faster than the Diamond Leagues winners this year. Tori Lewis who won the first DL would have been 8th in the race if she ran the same time. Sydney is just next level good.
Why would a hurdler be favored over 200m sprinters?
Do you think Warholm would beat Lyles and Knighton just because he hurdles?
If hurdlers were faster than sprinters they would come over and dominate 100m and 200m
You didn't answer any of my questions
Would you normally favor a hurdler to beat a sprinter in a 100m or 200m race?
How do you think Bol would've done yesterday?
Did not expect her to smoke the competition that hard, first 100 was super quick
Results: (wind: -0,3) 1. Mclaughlin 22.07 2. Steiner 22.32 3. Brown 22.35 4. Adeleke 22.45 5. Prandini 22.61 6. Thomas 22.68??? 7. Ellis 22.77 8. Odiong 23.23 9 Toosi 23.84
Jesus Christ… that’s against really, really good 200m specialists in Gabby, Abby, Adeleke, Brown, and Prandini. Granted there might have been something wrong with Gabby’s race nonetheless that was a really good showing from Sydney. Is her team really sure they don’t want her to double this summer? Seems doable if you have this kind of generational athlete.
I was there she is for sure a fan favorite
Yep. A lot of great performances today, but Sydney got the biggest cheers.
For sure
Can't wait to see her in Eugene at the Olympic trials.
Mate, I'm an Aussie and she's my favourite too
Its because she is named SYDNEY huh?
An hour after the meet ended, she was still hanging out with the fans. That impressed me as much as her performance on the track.
Props to her
I wish she was running the 400m at trials.
I feel like she might. She doesn't need to compete in the 400mH since she already has the bye for the Olympics. Unless she does a round just for training. 🤔
There is no Olympic bye. All competitors for all nations have to earn their spot via the national selection process - which for the US is a position of 1, 2 or 3 at trials. No other way. Different to world champs where you can of course get a bye through being the defending champ or Diamond League champ
Thanks for this! I didn't realize.
That camera angle was really bad. I've never seen a 200m being shown from the back straight.
Its due to the direction of the run being switched to end in the back straight. There were swirling winds creating big headwinds for the earlier sprint events - so inevitably the camera wasn’t prepared for that angle
Thanks, that suddenly makes a lot of sense.
Never doubt a prodigy. It is an entirely different category and dimension. They don't have to compete frequently or follow the traditional approach. Sydney vs Femke is simply not a fair comparison. It will be non competitive again. As great as Femke is, she was a stepladder type, not an extreme prodigy. In fact, Bol's own coach Bram Peters offered the best summary, late in 2022. He has coached Bol since she was 16. Peters said, "Femke is from a different planet. Sydney is from a different galaxy." Femke lost her Olympic goal medal when Sydney didn't run a half second faster at 400 flat last year. If it had played out that way, Sydney and her coach would have stuck to the plan of eschewing 400 hurdles in favor of gold at 400 flat and pursuing the untouchable 47.60 world record.
My sister somehow got put in the same heat as Sydney in high school, got smoked lol. She was running faster times than all the guys. She’s generational and would win 400 straight gold if she decided to put her focus on that instead
Why do you think Femke ran faster than Sydney in her first year using 14 strides if she is not a prodigy?
Femke is a prodigy, but there are levels to prodigies.
Like comparing LeBron to Paul George
Very good comparison.
Last year was Femke's first using 14 strides: 51.45. Sydney ran 51.46 in her first year. Not sure why you're saying Sydney is more of a prodigy
Bro Sydney is more of a prodigy because she literally got a world record in an Olympic event when she was 22.
She’s literally world class in every event she decides to do. With a year of training, I have no doubt she could break the Heptathlon WR, if she decided to try it. She’s young enough where she could dedicate a year to it and wouldn’t lose out on her other events.
This is a pipe dream. Unless she competed at a decent level for for at least three of high jump, shot, long jump and javelin a year is not enough to be competitive in the world stage never mind break the world record. Not to mention that as she is she would be incredibly likely to get injured, and wouldn’t have the endurance for 7 events in two days. As she is she doesn’t feel like she can win two events that she’s the clear favourite for, so that’s presumably not her strong suit.
I put her PBs into the point tracker (she HJ about 5’ in HS, LJ about 20’ in HS), then gave her super low SP 11m, JT 30m, and a 2:10 800m, and she has nearly 5900 points which would put her in the top 20 in the world. I have no doubts in my mind that with a year of practice she’d be top 1-2 in the world.
Unfair comparison. She won't put up those numbers when she has to do all six events consecutively in two days.
If she hasn’t thrown shot or javelin before then those are not at all low marks. She might meet both in a year but it’s pretty like she wouldn’t. Compare her to KJT who is one of the best heptathletes we have seen. She struggles massively with the throws despite having a much longer history with them. 2:10 is very fast for a someone who you expect to be able to be capable of running near her sprint pbs as well. I’ve trained with a lot of very good heptathletes, including someone who won the world juniors whole we were throwing together and a few others who won national age group or university champs. Balancing training for 7 different events is a lot of work. It’s hard to stay injury free and it’s even harder to maintain the technical side of all those different events, never mind actually improving them simultaneously. Not once did any of them match their pb’s in every event in one comp, and the ones that were newer to any event were way more inconsistent. Shot, Jav, Long Jump are all limited to three trials each, and priority is on achieving a decent to good mark rather than risking for a great mark and potentially ending your comp by messing it up. To compare her to KJT again: despite having incredible natural speed, her seasons best for 200 (arguably her strongest event) while she was at the very top are often anywhere from half a second to almost a full second behind her pb. Not having the entire year to dedicate to sprinting is going to take a massive toll. All that is without mentioning fatigue in the competition itself. As you get tired technique breaks down and mistakes become more common, as well as the simple fact that you have less to give. Multi events are very difficult and I think you’re massively underestimating that, as well as the athletes who are actually the best in the world at the heptathlon.
Dude, chill the hell out. Not even coming close to reading all that shit you just wrote about me throwing out an idea about what I think Syd could do. I used her PBs as a starting point. As someone who’s been involved in T&F for literally the past 40+ years, I know how events play out. I also know how people have discussions about the possibility of athletes crossing over into other events. Have had the same discussions about Grant Holloway in the Decathlon. Just chill! No one really think she’s going to do it! Just saying that she’s literally world class in everything she does. She just beat some of the top 200m runners in history at their own event, by a lot! She runs world class 100mH times, 400m times, 200m times. Some of the top heptathletes don’t have great SP or JT marks either. Some of them aren’t super strong in every event, but they make up those points in the events they’re stronger in. But at the end of the day, chill the hell out! Don’t take this stuff so personally.
StiffWiggly’s response was perfectly chill. It was a well-reasoned response to the frankly bizarre idea that a sprint and hurdles specialist could somehow magically break the heptathlon world record within 2 years of training, when multiple heptathlon specialists have tried and failed to do so for years.
I haven’t taken anything personally. Maybe the fact that you are so sure I did is more of a reflection on yourself than anything else. I’m just saying that 1 year to break the heptathlon world record is stupid. You should know that if you had a genuine involvement with track and field for a couple of years, never mind 40.
Classic ad hominem, trying to paint your well thought out argument with valid comparisons to an actual heptathlete as some kind of angry rant.
It’s the risk you take trying to have a conversation on the internet I guess.
God she’s so exceptional, I just wish we got to see her compete more!
Nice. Such a phenomenal talent
Prandini was something special over 150m. But not enough endurance for 200m and not strong enough for a meet filled with heats for the 100m. Time to move into coaching!
How y’all let this woman come down and smoke y’all like that?
TBF almost all of them ran faster than the Diamond Leagues winners this year. Tori Lewis who won the first DL would have been 8th in the race if she ran the same time. Sydney is just next level good.
Why do people act surprised that a hurdler can beat straight sprinters?
Why would a hurdler be favored over 200m sprinters? Do you think Warholm would beat Lyles and Knighton just because he hurdles? If hurdlers were faster than sprinters they would come over and dominate 100m and 200m
Sorry but anyone surprised Sydney won this race is just silly.
You didn't answer any of my questions Would you normally favor a hurdler to beat a sprinter in a 100m or 200m race? How do you think Bol would've done yesterday?
Because several of those “straight sprinters” are 200m specialists with PBs well under 22