There is a brand new racewalking book written by Dr. and Coach Tom Eastler and dedicated to Elaine Ward.  The book is illustrated and all proceeds will go towards the North American Racewalking Institute and their goal to help the next generation of racewalkers.

Click on the above link to listen to Tim's radio interview by Racewalk Planet.  As of today it is the second article from the top.  It might take a few minutes to load, so please be patient.

The interview is about 30 minutes long but it has some great stories, especially for the kids out there. 

Thanks to Chris Real for all that he does for racewalking. 

The IAAF announced today that Jefferson Perez has officially retired. 

I have known Jefferson for 13 years and he has not only been a great friend, but he has been my hero.  If you ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I have held Jefferson in the highest regard since the first day that I met him in Bergen, Norway in May 1996.  Jefferson was the first one to congratulate me on qualifying for my first Olympic Team - BEFORE the race even started!  I will never forget him coming up to me while I am warming up and shaking my hand and telling me "congratulations."  I looked at him and said, "for what?"  He said, "for making your first Olympic Team."  Talk about pressure!

Jefferson competed in 5 Olympic Games, winning two Olympic Medals, but those are just statistics.  What made Jefferson special is that as the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist in 1996, he was still just Jefferson, the person that I knew before he was the Olympic Champion.  Jefferson ipitomized what it was to be a drug free champion.  Winning 3 World Championship titles, he accomplished this against the Russian Drug Machine that kept throwing different athletes at him each and every year.

In 2000 the whole Team went to Cuenca and Jefferson welcomed all of us to his home town with open arms.  We trained on his courses with school children screaming his name as we walked past. We trained in the stadium named after him, and I will never forget when he helped me track down two postage stamps with his picture on them from 1996.  They cost just $2 each but that was huge money for the local stamp dealer.

Jefferson - Thank you very much for being a champion, a friend and my hero.

Tim Seaman has joined Joanne Dow and Ray Sharp as the only US Racwalkers who have so far taken the USADA (US Antidoping) pledge entitled "My Victory".  My Victory is a USADA initiative to help preserve a clean sport.

Many people have contacted me about doing some more racewalking clinics, so I wanted to take a few moments to tell you all that I have joined forces with the founder of Racewalk.com, Jeff Salvage, to provide top notch opportunites for racewalkers around the world.

During the clinic, Jeff and I will provide video tape analysis, nutritional discussions, technical interpretations and training philosophy clarifications.  We will also take the time to talk about sports drinks, goal setting, shoes and of course heart rate monitors and their benefits.

We think that it is very important for younger athletes to take part, so if you are in a position to do so, please help sponsor a younger athlete to attend.

Please contact me at Tim.Seaman "at" Olympian.org for more information.  

Kjersti Plaetzer today accomplished something that ONLY those inside of Team Plaetzer thought she was capable of doing - winning another Olympic Medal.

Congratulations Kjersti.  I am so proud of you and glad that I can call you my friend, teammate and "big" sister :)

In what was probably his last Olympic Trials appearance of his career, Tim Seaman placed fifth in a time of 1:31:35.

 Kevin Eastler did a superb job of winning the race in a time of 1:27:07, to walk his way onto his second Olympic Team.  Tim started the race right where he thought he would be, but had some technical issues and was forced to slow just after 10km.  Tim did not want to end his Olympic Trials career with a disqualification and he realizes it was a success just to be able to participate after his hip surgery last October when his family was told that Tim would never be able to racewalk again.  Tim didn't find out about this information until March and it was the flame that lit his internal torch in his quest for a third Olympic Team these past few months.  It was the first time since 1995 that Tim has finished out of the top-3 places at the National 20km Championship.  Here are the results:

Finals
  1 Kevin Eastler                U.S. Air Force         1:27:08
  2 Matthew Boyles               Miami Valley TC        1:28:20
  3 Patrick Stroupe              unattached             1:29:17
  4 John Nunn                    U.S. Army              1:30:35
  5 Tim Seaman                   New York A C           1:31:35
  6 Allen James                  Bond Lake A.C.         1:32:13
  7 Benjamin Shorey              Wisconsin-Parkside     1:33:16
  8 Philip Dunn                  New Balance            1:33:52
  9 Charles Collier              Athletics East         1:35:00
10 Steven Quirke                Parkside A C           1:35:45
11 Michael Tarantino            World Class Walk       1:38:02
12 Jared Swehosky               unattached             1:39:14
13 Theron Kissinger             C R W/N Balance        1:40:35
-- Christopher Tegtmeier        Concordia/Neb.              DQ

Click the above title to see the article entitiled "Farmington's Eastler eyes Olympics." 

This article not only shows what a class act Kevin is, it also does a superb job of explaining exactly what it is going to take to make the Olympic Team (for Kevin or Tim).

A few weeks ago while we were all in Europe, Kevin Eastler mentioned to me that he couldn’t believe that this would be my 16^th consecutive year competing at the 20km National Championships.

I was surprised myself.  Here is the progression:

1993 – 10^th place – Eugene, Oregon

1994 – 7^th place – Knoxville, Tennessee

1995 – 6^th place – Sacramento, California

1996 – 2^nd place – Atlanta, Georgia – US OLYMPIC TRIALS

1997 – 3^rd place – Indianapolis, Indiana

1998 – 1^st place – New Orleans, Louisiana

1999 – 2^nd place – Eugene, Oregon

2000 – 1^st place – Sacramento, California – US OLYMPIC TRIALS

2001 – 2^nd place – Eugene, Oregon

2002 – 1^st place – Palo Alto, California

2003 – 2^nd place – Palo Alto, California

2004 – 1^st place – Sacramento, California – US OLYMPIC TRIALS

2005 – 1^st place – Carson, California

2006 – 3^rd place – Indianapolis, Indiana

2007 – 2^nd place – Indianapolis, Indiana

2008 - ????????? – Eugene, Oregon – US OLYMPIC TRIALS

Once again the race will be held in Eugene, Oregon.  Unfortunately though, there will be no finish for the athletes into the infamous Hayward Field.  Instead, the racewalkers will be competing next to Autzen Stadium.  A big disappointment for all of us race walkers who are also track fans.

Click the above link to read an article on Jolene from the Traverse City Record.

In the article Tim talks about coaching Jolene and about her chances for the Olympics.  It was the FIRST time that Tim has been interviewed this season by any newspaper in any country.  

Erik won the 10,000m Norwegian championships in a new Nordic record on Friday June 13th in a time of 38:32.  His first 10km was 19:21 and his 2nd was 19:11.

 Kjersti also won her 5,000m nationals in a time of 21:48.   

Training in Norway with Kjersti was a big step forward, but the race in Spain was a small step back.  I was able to do a lot of quality training, but during the race, I had some pain in my hip and I didn't want to take a change with pushing through it.  I know that I have to do well at the Olympic Trials.  La Coruna had very mixed results.  Either you did very well or you did very poorly.  It was very much unlike last year, where it took a sub 1:23:00 time to get into the top 12.  This year, that same place was over 1:30:00.  There were 8 men disqualified and 8 who did not finish.  Those are incredibly high numbers.

The Rocket was suberb in winning his second Challenge race of the year.  Kjersti was very smart as she won her fourth Challenge this season.

 Here are the results:

Results from La Coruna
Men's 20km
Pto. Dorsal Nombre Apellidos Pais
1 3 ERYK TYSSE NORUEGA 20.02 2 39.47 2 59.36 1 1.19.21
2 2 HATHEM GHOULA TUNEZ 20.02 1 39.47 1 59.59 2 1.21.52
3 7 JOAO VIEIRA PORTUGAL 20.37 7 41.22 8 1.01.49 4 1.21.56
4 8 SERGIO VIEIRA PORTUGAL 20.37 8 41.22 7 1.01.48 3 1.21.58
5 15 HASSANINE SBAI TUNEZ 20.37 10 41.20 3 1.01.55 5 1.22.38
6 28 ALAN SEGURA COSTA RICA 20.35 3 41.20 4 1.02.51 6 1.25.30
7 26 JOHN NUNN EE.UU 42.31 10 1.04.08 8 1.26.22
8 14 YUSUKE YACHI JAPON 1.28.04
9 21 LUIS FERNANDO GARCIA BECHINIE GUATEMALA 1.28.31
10 29 BERNARDO CALVO COSTA RICA 1.04.54 9 1.28.53
11 12 DAVID DOMINGUEZ GUIMERA ESPAÑA 20.37 12 1.05.47 10 1.29.50
12 23 KEVIN ESTLER EE.UU 1.30.09
13 17 BERTAND MOULINET FRANCIA 1.30.46
14 13 AKIHIRO SUGIMOTO JAPON 20.36 5 41.22 9 1.02.56 7 1.30.49
15 32 FERRAN COLLAZOS LOPEZ ESPAÑA 1.32.10
16 22 TIM SEAMAN EE.UU 1.34.08
Descl. 1 JESUS ANGEL GARCIA BRAGADO ESPAÑA
Descl. 4 ROBERT HEFFERMAN IRLANDA 20.36 4 41.21 5
Descl. 5 ILYA MARKOV RUSIA 20.36 6 41.21 6
Descl. 6 FRANCISCO PINARDO ESPAÑA
Descl. 11 JOSE M. CORCHETE ESPAÑA
Descl. 25 VICTOR HUGO MENDOZA EL SALVADOR 20.37 11
Descl. 27 CRISTIAN BERDEJA VILLAVICENCIO MEXICO 20.37 9
Descl. 31 ALVARO GARCIA CORDOBA MEXICO
DNF - 9 DAVID BOULANGER FRANCIA
DNF - 10 BENJAMIN SANCHEZ ESPAÑA
DNF - 16 MEHER BEN HALIMA TUNEZ
DNF - 18 CAIO OLIVEIRA DE DEN A BOFIN BRASIL
DNF - 19 JOSE M. A BAGIO BRASIL
DNF - 20 RAFAEL DUARTE BRASIL 20.37 13
DNF - 24 WALTER ALBERTO SANDOVAL EL SALVADOR
DNF - 30 JOSE M. FERNANDEZ NIEVES ESPAÑA

Women's 20km
Pto. Dorsal Nombre Apellidos Pais
1 102 KJERSTI PLATZER NORUEGA 23.25 4 45.42 1 1.07.47 1 1.29.38
2 106 SABINE ZIMMER ALEMANIA 23.25 5 45.43 2 1.07.48 2 1.29.40
3 101 ATHNASIA TSOUMELEKA GRECIA 23.14 1 45.44 3 1.08.09 3 1.30.44
4 109 INES HENRIQUES PORTUGAL 23.15 3 45.44 4 1.08.13 4 1.31.06
5 108 Mª JOSE POVES ESPAÑA 23.25 8 45.53 7 1.08.52 7 1.31.16
6 105 OLIVE LOUGHNANE IRLANDA 23.14 2 46.05 8 1.08.38 5 1.31.22
7 104 CLAUDIA STEF RUMANIA 45.49 5 1.08.47 6 1.32.06
8 113 MARIBEL GONÇALVEZ PORTUGAL 1.09.05 8 1.32.22
9 107 SACHITO KONISHI JAPON 23.25 9 1.34.43
10 115 KUMI OTOSHI JAPON 1.35.51
11 117 ALEXANDRA PICAGEVICZ BRASIL 1.36.32
12 130 MARIA GALIKOVA ESLOVAQUIA 1.38.49
13 123 GIOVEANA IRUSTA BOLIVIA 1.40.49
14 121 RAHMA MAHMOUDI TUNEZ 1.42.45
15 131 ROCIO BAJO SELMA ESPAÑA 1.43.58
16 127 VERONICA ELIZABETCHOLINDRES EL SALVADOR 1.45.02
17 120 OLFA LAFI TUNEZ 1.46.03
18 128 ALBA SANCHEZ PABLO ESPAÑA 1.48.09
19 116 FUMIGA KIRYU JAPON 1.51.44
Descl. 103 HELENA GINZO BIELORRUSIA
Descl. 124 EVALINE ROSEMARIENUÑEZ GUATEMALA
Descl. 125 JOLELE MOORE EE.UU.

DNF - 110 ATHINA PAPAYANNI GRECIA
DNF - 111 ANA CABECINHA PORTUGAL 25.23 6 45.53 6
DNF - 112 SONATA MILUSAUSKAITE LITUANIA
DNF - 114 FUMIGA BUDILEANU RUMANIA 23.25 7
DNF - 118 GIANETTI OLIVEIRAde DENA BONFIM BRASIL
DNF - 119 CISIANE DUTRA LOPEZ BRASIL
DNF - 122 CHAIMA TRABELSI TUNEZ
DNF - 126 RACHEL LAVALLE CANADA
DNF - 129 MIRIAM RAMOS ECUADOR

The past three and a half weeks have flown by.  Tomorrow will be goodbye Norway and hello Spain.

Training has gone very well the past few weeks.  Things have really improved and I have gotten so much stronger walking on the hilly courses that we train on here in Softland.  I have gotten to the point where it is no longer a struggle to walk with Kjersti which I can tell you has not been an easy thing to accomplish.  She is in good shape and it has been fun to train with her again.  Also, the past week Kevin has been getting stronger and we have been able to train together for most of the workouts, so that has made things much more normal since we have both trained so much together the past few years.

We haven't been able to train at all with the Rocket...but that's ok because he is in such great shape.

The weather has been super here for us, with almost no days with rain.  It felt like San Diego weather actually, so that was great.  The bad news is that it was their lowest May on record since 1951 so now they are in drought conditions and are not allowed to use any water for their lawns or to wash their cars.  

 Tomorrow though, we will be in La Coruna, Spain once again.  Last year Kevin and I almost had a super magical day with both of us getting the "A" standard.  Instead, we had to settle for one "A" and one "B".  This year, we are a far cry away from where we were last year, but we hope that it will be a good stepping stone for the whole Team Plaetzer group.

The only problem with leaving Norway is that I have been here so much over the years and I am not sure if I will ever have a chance to get back here again.  What I can tell you is that Norway is a beautiful country and if it wasn't so expensive it would be a great place to live :) 

 More updates soon..... 

I had the pleasure to volunteer some time the past three weeks teaching english class to Kiara's class here in Softeland, Norway.

It was a lot of fun and the kids and I learned a lot.  The teacher (Marianne) was very supportive of me coming to the school to assist her and to talk about life in America to the kids.  

Click on the above link to see a video of the Rocket and Trond.  The report talks about how both live very close to eachother but neither train together.  When asked about this, Trond responded that the Rocket was too fast in his interval training for Trond to walk with him...but in fact, Trond walks faster than Erik does in training. 

They then talk about about Beijing and Trond says that he will for sure go for a medal and the Rocket states that he just wants to have a good day.  A good day could be 6th place or a good day will be a medal.   

Things have improved greatly here this past week with training.  I have done a few 20k's already.  Within one week I did two 20km workouts and my heart rate dropped 5 beats with the exact same time on the exact same course.  It went from a 139 average to 134 average in just 7 days.  We have decided to redo my schedule and just get basework in right now.  Coach says that one of the reasons that things went wrong in Russia was that I didn't have enough basework due to my recovery from the surgery so now we are going to go back to the basics and get some mileage in.  Normally things like this don't happen in May before the Olympics, but with the surgery taking place in October and with the very first steps of racewalking not taking place until the end of January, normal plans have to change.

Kjersti and The Rocket's training have been coming along great.  Kevin arrives tomorrow for The Rocket's wedding this coming weekend.  Next weekend Rachel goes to Germany to meet up with Jolene and Sabine for the race in Naumburg. 

Life in Norway:  While I know gas prices have been going crazy in the US, here in Norway things are a little worse off.  Currently the gas prices are about $10 per gallon. The other day, for just a few hours, the gas station all of a sudden raised the prices to almost $11.50/gallon, and then by the end of the day they went back to "normal". 

We tried to go and buy some Soy Milk the other day, but the price was an astonishing $24/gallon.  I think regular milk will have to do while we are here.

More to come soon.....

When things go wrong for Tim, they go very wrong. At the IAAF Race Walk Cup in Cheboksary, Russia, Tim had his worse ever international results, finishing in 94th place in a time of 1:38:11. It was an absolute disaster to say the least. Looking back, Tim is unsure what went wrong, but from the first step his hips just tightened up and they did not want to move. It was like they were completely blocked and he was taking steps of 1 foot long, instead of 1 meter long. The course was good, the fans were superb. The fans were yelling "Go USA!" and "Stars and Stipes", but it was to no avail for Tim.

Tim has one more chance to walk 20km before the Olympic Trials. Hopefully it will be better, otherwise there is no chance that he will be in Beijing. He will be relegated to watching it on TV for the first time since 1996.

Click the above link to see the official IAAF web site for the race.

Things are going well here in Cheboksary, Russia.  The race is tomorrow and there are over 100 athletes competing and the race will start at 1pm local time.  (5am in New York).  In Europe, the IAAF will have live web coverage of the event, but it does not appear to be available in America.

 More tomorrow after the race.....

Today is the last day of our training camp in Weittensheid, Germany. I was able to stay here in Germany with Sabine Zimmer (6th and 8th at the last two world championships) and also her boyfriend Bastian, the 16th best marathoner in Germany last season. Training went very well and for sure I look forward to coming back sometime soon. We trained on a dirt road for the easy days and around the lake on the harder days. The lake is about 20 minutes away and it is a 10km loop. I did my last fartlek (interval) workout today and it went pretty well. I am finally getting adjusted to the time zone change after almost a week here. 9 hours time change is tough, but 11 hours (to Moscow) in a shorter time would be extremely difficult for me. I am really glad that Sabine let Rachel and I come here and train.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we fly to Moscow where I will meet up with the US Team. We leave Germany at about 10:00am and we land in Moscow at about 5:30pm. Then, we were told, it will take about 3 HOURS to get through customs in Moscow. We will have to over night in Moscow before we head to Cheboksary and since we are near the airport we were told that it is doubtful that there will be places to train. Hopefully we can find something. On Thursday we are in Moscow until 10:00pm, then we take the charter flight to Cheboksary, Russia.

I will give you all an update when we get to Russia.

Story to come tomorrow...  Here are the results:

 ) Patrick Stroupe unatt (Fla) 1:30:29.4 ($400)

2) Johnn Nunn US Army (Cal) 1:30:50.6 ($300)

3) Tim Seaman NYAC (Cal) 1:32:48.4 ($200)

4) Michael Tarantino unatt (Cal) 1:33:11.0 ($100)

5) Chris Tegtmeier Concordia Univ (Neb) 1:34:46.2

6) Theron Kissinger Connecticut RWers (Ct) 1:36:06.3

7) Dave McGovern unatt/New Balance (NY) 1:42:40.3

8) Jared Swehosky unatt (Ore) 1:44:57.2

9) Michael Kazmierczak Walk USA (RI) 2:00:06.9

10) Jeremy Bahr-worley Concordia College (Ore) 2:02:22.3

-- Charles Collier Athletics East (NM) DQ

-- Shawn McGee Concordia College (Ore) DNF









1) Teresa Vaill, Walk USA (Fla) 1:36:18.6 ($400)

2) Joanne Dow, unatt./Adidas (NH) 1:38:36.4 ($300)

3) Susan Armenta, unatt. (Cal) 1:39:01.9 ($200)

4) Sam Cohen, Parkside Athletics Club (Wis) 1:40:52.3 ($100)

5) Stephanie Casey, unatt. (Ore) 1:41:47.7 ($100)

6) Jolene Moore, New York Athletic Club (Ill) 1:42:04.1

7) Maria Michta, Walk USA (NY) 1:45:08.8

8) Solomiya Login, Southeastern Pennsylvania AC (PA) 1:45:41.6

9) Lauren Forgues, Maine Racewalkers (ME) 1:45:45.3

10) Loretta Schuellein, Walk USA (NY) 1:46:53.4

11) Margaret Ditchburn, unatt. (CA) 1:49.52.1

12) Kelly Wong, Golden Gate Race Walkers (CA) 1:50:33.0

13) Kristen Mullaney, Pegasus Athletic Club (MI) 1:52:06.0

14) Christina Peters, Goshen College (OH) 1:52:21.7

15) Susan Randall, Miami Valley TC (OH) 1:52:25.3

16) Sara Standley-Gonzalez, unatt. (OR) 1:54:01.2

17) Jamie Burmeister, unatt. (NEB) 2:05:35.4

18) Carmen Jackinsky, Racewalkers Northwest (OR) 2:08:02.2

For the first time in 7 months, Tim Seaman will be toeing the line in a racewalk competition. It is not for lack of trying for the 2-time Olympian, as he has battled back from the biggest hurdle of his career. In October, Tim has major hip surgery to correct a tear in his labrum and as part of the surgery they had to shave down part of the femur (the leg bone). After the surgery Tim was told that the surgery was more complicated than expected, but the surgeon told Tim's dad a different story. Tim's dad was told that it would be highly unlikely that Tim would ever racewalk again.

Tim is determined to prove the doctor wrong as he lines up tomorrow morning on the 1km course outside of Autzen Stadium. The course is a 500m out and 500m back flat asphalt loop with almost no incline.

The weather is expected to be cold and snowy, but Tim has faced far worse in his career. While Tim has not walked 20km in training yet this season, his goal is simple: To finish the 20km race. If he is able to do that, he will finish with a huge smile on his face.

This will be a great step forward towards his goals for this season.

Tim Berrett qualifies for his 5th Olympic Team for Canada.

Click on the above title to see the article in which Berrett talks about how frustrated he is with his federation. Tim seems as frustrated with the lack of support from Athletics Canada as Tim Seaman is with the US Racewalking Committee's Chairman Vince Peters, USA Track and Field and the US Olympic Committee's complete lack of assistance in helping Tim qualify for his third Olympic Team.

Copied with permission from WALK! Magazine. 

Tim Seaman’s road to the Olympics has never been easy.  Tim is one of those guys who as Rob Cole once said, “If it wasn’t for bad luck Tim, you would have no luck.”  It was true before Tim qualified for his first Olympic Team in 2000 and it is true now as Tim tries to qualify for his third and last Olympic Team. 

            Sometime after Tim returned from the Pan-Am Cup in Brazil, Tim noticed that he was having some pain in his right adductor when he was warming up and when he turned around.  He didn’t think much of it and in fact went on to walk his second fastest time ever at the IAAF Grand Prix in LaCoruna, Spain in May.  After that though, things got progressively worse.  Tim was unable to do speedwork before the Outdoor National Championships in Indianapolis and then decided to skip the Pan-Am Games in July so that he could try and “rest” it, while still training for the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan.  While in Japan, Tim finally had the opportunity for an athletic trainer to look at him and the prognosis was not good news…..They had no clue what was wrong with him.  Upon his return from Japan, Tim put his full focus on finding out what was wrong.  The first doctor took an MRI and it said that he had osteoarthritis and the doctor told him to just “not train as much as he did before.”  That answer wasn’t acceptable to Tim, so he found another doctor who thought that it could be something else more complicated.  So, Tim took another MRI.  This one said that Tim had a torn Labrum inside his hip joint.  The doctor said that it was not something that he would recommend that Tim did before the Olympics because it was a very big surgery but the problem was that Tim was unable at that point to run or walk for 2 minutes without massive pain.

            Tim returned to Long Island to visit his family and had an appt with a specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.  The doctor advised Tim that he had a femoral acetabular impingement and that was causing the Labrum to tear as well as the adductor longus muscle.  He said that he would not recommend that Tim had the surgery before the Olympics provided that Tim was able to continue to train.  Since Tim wasn’t able to train at all, the decision was made to have surgery.  Three days later on Thursday October 25^th, at 6am in the morning Tim had surgery to correct the problem.  Dr. Coleman went in and shaved down a portion of the femur bone that was impinging the movement of the leg and he trimmed away that portion of the labrum that was torn.  He also had to remove some cartilage that was torn.

            Ten days after the surgery Tim met the doctor again for his post-op checkup.  He only had to use crutches for the first week, so he hobbled into the office on the upper east side of Manhattan. He took a seat on the tall chairs in the lobby that are specially made for hip-replacement patients and waited for his name to be called.  The nurse came out and took Tim into the room to remove the sutures.  A few minutes later, Dr. Coleman came in and showed Tim the pictures from the surgery.  He said that things were worse inside than he had thought and that he couldn’t guarantee that Tim would be 100% because of the missing cartilage.    He said that Tim couldn’t run or racewalk for 6 weeks and during that time he could start to do some easy rehab.

            Currently Tim is awaiting the six weeks to finish so that he can see if the surgery was a success or not.  He had originally planned on being in Germany at a training camp with his Team Plaetzer teammates at the end of November though the middle of December but that had to be cancelled.  Many things were planned in his preparation to qualify for his third Olympic Team, but now the only focus is being able to pain free. 

Armory HS Sports Foundation - Site License 2008 National Scholastic Indoor Championships New Balance Track & Field Center, The Armory New York City - 3/14/2008 to 3/16/2008 Event 18 Boys 1 Mile Race Walk =============================================================== Name Year School Finals =============================================================== Finals

1. Vergara, Ricardo SR Edinburg, TX 6:36.96

2 Barron, Trevor SO Bethel Park, PA 6:40.31

3 Vergara, Roberto SR Edinburg, TX 6:44.97

4 forgues, matthew SO boothbay, ME 7:08.10

5 Chavez, Alejandro FR McAllen, TX 7:10.87

6 Campbell, Tyler JR Lisbon, ME 7:17.03

7 Gunderkline, Jacob JR Yellow Springs, OH 7:30.07

8 Brown, Jonathan SR Hysttaville, MD 8:27.54

-- Sorensen, Tyler 8 Lafayette, CA DQ

-- Randall, John SO Yellow Springs, OH DQ

Finals

1 Dutkoski, Mary SR West Nyack, NY 7:41.06

2 Vaskyte, Emilija SO Franklin Square, NY 7:44.55

3 Davis, Catie JR Peekskill, NY 7:49.98

4 Sorensen, Nicolette 7 Lafayette, CA 7:54.69

5 Bernier, Christie SO Auburn, ME 7:55.23

6 Cheung, Amy SO Bohemia, NY 7:55.84

7 Savoia, Catherine JR Thiells, NY 8:12.16

8 Chin, Allison SO Yellow Springs, OH 8:15.36

9 Battaglia, Diana JR Holbrook, NY 8:15.57

10 Rende, Brittany SR Sayville, NY 8:16.48

11 Katz, Rebecca SR Hastings-on-Hudson, 8:18.54

12 Davis, Emily SR Batavia, NY 8:23.87

13 Higgins, Alison SR Kings Park, NY 8:25.67

14 He, Dan Ping JR New York, NY 8:26.51

15 Lalane, Destiny SO Bay Shore, NY 8:30.29

16 Dolma, Yangchen SO New York, NY 8:32.01

17 Coulter, Devon SO West Nyack, NY 8:33.96

18 Burglund, Kelsey SR Wheatley Heights, N 8:36.78

19 Lu, Yun Zhi SR New York, NY 8:38.85

20 Tintle, Jillian SR Middletown, NY 8:41.57

21 Ortiz, Claudia FR McAllen, TX 8:43.31

22 Flores, Diana FR McAllen, TX 8:43.41

23 Penny, Melody SO East Islip, NY 8:46.12

24 Reybal, Jessica FR McAllen, TX 8:49.50

25 Savage, Tyeasha JR New Rochelle, NY 8:50.39

26 Brevogel, Lisa SR New City, NY 8:51.22

27 Guzman, Ariana FR McAllen, TX 8:55.32

28 Mbodj, Arame SR New Rochelle, NY 8:57.33

29 Cross, Kaitlynn JR Suffern, NY 8:58.77

30 Crosley, Helen JR Franklin Square, NY 9:03.35

31 Melillo, Alyssa JR Holtsville, NY 9:04.19

32 Kleinbach, Devon SO Batavia, NY 9:24.12

33 Reed, Emily FR Farmington, ME 9:35.52

34 Dilullo, Jenna SR Hopewell Junction, 9:41.61

35 Cox, Ashley SO Buxton, ME 9:44.42 --

Brod, Carly SR Merrick, NY DQ

-- Yang, Nina SR Fresh Meadows, NY DQ

-- Berry, Allison FR Yellow Springs, OH DQ

-- Cheng, Connie JR Bayside, NY DQ -

- McGowan, Kristina JR Pearl River, NY DQ

Click the above link to see the start list of the IAAF Racewalking Challenge race in Chihuahua, Mexico on March 8th & 9th.

Ricardo and Roberto Vergara will be joined by The Rocket - Eric Tysse, his sister Kjersti Plaetzer as well as Americans John Nunn, Philip Dunn and Susan Armenta.

Normally things like this do not appear on TimSeaman.com because it hurts the entire sport of track and field, but this is just unbelievable. Marion was a superstar, a role model, a hero for kids across the country because of the incredible performances that she put forth at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. She was one of the prized athletes of the United States Olympic Committee because of her feats on the track and she was a centerpiece of all highlight videos from the 2000 Olympic Games because of her great attitude and superb performaces.

Now, she is a disgraced athlete and her name name should be wiped clean from the minds of every American.

Perez gets a hat-trick Today at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan there were three things that were hot: Jefferson Perez, the weather and the jury of appeals. First, Jefferson Perez, the reigning World Champion won his third consecutive World Championship Title. A feat matched by no other racewalker in the history of the event. Jefferson walked one of the toughest races of his career. The sweltering heat, Jefferson’s “biggest concern” before and during the race, made the going very tough for all of the competitors. The race started off at 8am sharp with temperatures already at 91 degrees. Tim Seaman and Kevin Eastler’s race plan was to start off at around 4:30 pace per kilometer and pick it up after 10km. Unfortunately, only Kevin was able to keep to the plan as he walked 44:50 for his first 10km and he was able to come back in around 43:40 for his 2^nd 10km. Tim meanwhile struggled today. Eastler and Seaman walked together through 8km but soon after that the conditions got to Tim and he slowed a bit. By 12km Kevin had two sub 1:19:00 guys from China in his sights and he passed both of them. Tim was behind them by about 50 seconds and did his best to catch them, but today wasn’t his day. Third was the decision by the Jury of Appeals. In racewalking the Chief Judge has the ability to disqualify an athlete the last 100m if he/she feels that an athlete has broken the rules in a blatant way. With less than 40 meters to go, Francisco Fernandez from Spain passed Hatem Guala from Tunisa and the Chief Judge disqualified him for, what he saw, as a blatant violation of the rules. On appeal, the Jury of Appeals reinstated the disqualified Fernandez and thus moved everyone back one position.

In the end, Tim ended up placing 31st in a time of 1:33:58 and Kevin was 28th in a time of 1:28:29 but their Team Plaetzer Teammate, Erik "the Rocket" Tysse, placed 8th, scoring him the highest place ever for Team Plaetzer at the World Championships.

Official Results:

1 108 Jefferson Pérez ECU 1:22:20 .
2 103 Francisco Javier Fernández ESP 1:22:40 .
3 111 Hatem Ghoula TUN 1:22:40 .
4 113 Eder Sánchez MEX 1:23:36 .
5 124 Giorgio Rubino ITA 1:23:39 .
6 116 Robert Heffernan IRL 1:23:42 .
7 118 Luke Adams AUS 1:23:52 .
8 112 Erik Tysse NOR 1:24:10 .
9 102 Ilya Markov RUS 1:24:35 .
10 128 Alex Schwazer ITA 1:24:39 (SB)
11 127 Koichiro Morioka JPN 1:24:46 .
12 142 Rolando Saquipay ECU 1:25:03 .
13 101 Gaobo Li CHN 1:25:30 .
14 129 Matej Tóth SVK 1:25:57 .
15 117 Chil-Sung Park KOR 1:26:08 .
16 120 Juan Manuel Molina ESP 1:26:26 .
17 131 Benjamin Kucinski POL 1:26:43 .
18 135 Andriy Kovenko UKR 1:26:44 .
19 141 Akihiro Sugimoto JPN 1:26:45 .
20 122 Hyunsub Kim KOR 1:26:51 .
21 123 Takayuki Tanii JPN 1:26:53 .
22 144 Luis Fernando López COL 1:27:22 .
23 125 Benjamin Sánchez ESP 1:27:29 .
138 Hassanine Sbai TUN 1:27:35 .
25 114 João Vieira POR 1:27:44 .
26 132 Rafal Augustyn POL 1:27:54 .
27 115 Ivan Trotskiy BLR 1:27:56 .
28 140 Kevin Eastler USA 1:28:29 .
29 104 Yucheng Han CHN 1:31:58 .
30 105 Jimin Dong CHN 1:32:03 .
31 143 Timothy Seaman USA 1:33:58 .
32 137 Predrag Filipovic SRB 1:35:51 . .
126 Jared Tallent AUS DQ . .
139 Gabriel Ortiz MEX DQ . .
136 Andrés Chocho ECU DQ . .
110 Ivano Brugnetti ITA DQ . .
121 Daniel García MEX DQ . .
109 Igor Erokhin RUS DQ . .
134 Gustavo Restrepo COL DQ . .
106 Valeriy Borchin RUS DNF . .
133 Sérgio Vieira POR DNF . .
119 André Höhne GER DNFPere

Last night we had our first and only full team meeting. All 100+ athletes from the US delegation were there and it was a pretty amazing and inspirational meeting. Adam Nelson got up and read a poem (that he wrote??) entitled "Don't give up." It was for sure one of the best that I have heard in a long time. Then, Craig Masback, the CEO of USATF got up and reminded us that we are the Worlds # 1 Track and Field Team! WOW! We also elected a Flag-Bearer (Dwight Philips) and a Captain (Reese Hoffa). Reese is a teammate of mine with the NYAC so it was with great pleasure that I voted for him.

I have to say that it is truly an honor and a pleasure to be here representing my country. I have worked hard all season, but I know that there is still a lot of very hard work to be done before I can make my third Olympic Team in Beijing. Kevin and I have a good race plan for tomorrow, one that we hope will give us the best chance to do well.

The marathon was today and it seemed as if the athletes were about 8 - 15 minutes off of their best times or their season bests. That gave us a good indication on what we can expect.

Our race goes off at 8am tomorrow morning, which is about 7pm in New York and 4pm in San Diego.

More updates after the race....

First update:

We have been in Japan for about 5 days now. We were at the USATF's pre-camp about an hour outside of Osaka in a great hotel. Kevin and I are roommates and the hotel was amazing. It was by far one of the best hotels that either of us have ever stayed at. The bad part though was the fact that the weather here in Osaka has been by far the worst that we have ever been in. By 7am in the morning it is almost 95 degrees and with the humidity it feels like it is 105 degrees.

We are now at the hotel in Osaka. In the hotel it is just us and the Canadian Team. There are security guards all over the place and when we get off the elevator at our hotel, we have to show them our credential to be able to walk to our room.

This morning we had our last hard workout. We did 8 x 1km and we were lucky that we found a course right by the river. It was pretty cool becuase Deana's husband Andrew came to help us with our drinks and Alan Webb ran with us while we were warming up to the course.

OK, more updates later.....