Tyler Christopher in, Johan Wissman Questionable

News from BleacherReport.com reports Johan Wissman of Sweden may not be 100% at the IAAF Indoor Championships March 7-9, 2008.

And recently, Tyler Christopher of Canada ran a 400 meters indoor personal best and National Record of 45.80 seconds in Birmingham, UK on February 16. Despite winning the bronze medal at the 2005 World championships in Helsinki (44.44), he did manage a 6th place finish in 44.71 seconds in Osaka 2007. You can guarantee his March racing plans fit perfectly in his periodization plans for peaking at Beijing 2008, so don’t count him out!

To put his 45.80 in perspective, in 2005, LaShawn Merritt (USA) ran 44.93 for the indoor 400m at the Tyson Invitational, but Kerron Clement’s (USA) ran a 44.57 World record a month later.

I was looking forward to a “clash” between Wissman and Christopher. Why?

Because every time you have a 200 meter runner moving up to run the 400m, especially the indoor 400 meters, you are always guaranteed a blazing fast opening 150 meters before the break. IAAF rules state the indoor 400m is run on a two turn stagger.

Hence the bumping and shoving and re-acceleration from 150 to 210 meters. It’s roller derby without the wheels.

You may recall Quincy Watts moving up from the 100m to the 400m because he was prone to injury from the 100m training. Here is the video from the Barcelona 1992 Olympics. Just take a look at Quincy’s opening 200 meters.