Instant Analysis – IAAF Meet From Ostrava

As we had predicted more than a month ago, Eboni Floyd has made a smooth transition to the 400. Today Floyd (51.44) ran well in her second place finish to reigning World Champion Christine Ohuruogu (51.06) of Great Britain in the 400. Although Floyd has primarily run the 100 and 200 throughout her career, look for the University of Houston grad to surprise a lot of people when she makes the Team USA as a part of the 4x400-meter relay.

Derrick Atkins (10.07) showed he is a contender maybe not to win the whole thing in Beijing, but certainly to medal in the 100. Don’t let your eyes stray from the Bahamian, because he is proving by his body of work this season to be very consist—he can run 10 flat all day long. The format of the Olympic Games favors a sprinter like Atkins, because it is about running rounds rather than running one fast race.

Abubaker Kaki of Sudan (1:43.8) is no joke! Kaki beat Kenya's David Rudisha (1:44.47) by nearly a second. The 800-meters looks to be Kaki's, unless someone else can manage to pass him.

The rarely run 300-meters was won by no other than Jeremy Wariner in 31.72. The reigning Olympic and World Champion at 400-meters looked very comfortable throughout the race, even coasting the final 25 meters. The strategy for Wariner coming into the meet had to be to run a sharp race without incident or injury.

Coming into the meet some pundits predicted that Usain "Lightening" Bolt would break Michael Johnson’s world record of 19.32 in the 200-meters. Bolt (19.83) ran with ease in his first 200 of the season. This is by far the fastest time in the world by anyone this season—so far, no other runner is in the same galaxy as Bolt. If Bolt puts together all the pieces, then MJ’s record could eventually fall to him. The question is, of course, is when.

By Jay Hicks.