Next Meet: Reebok Grand Prix

I will be leaving on Thursday, heading up the New York City for the Reebok Grand Prix event. This is one of the more up and coming events in track and field, just recently gaining its Grand Prix status according to the IAAF. The preliminary field in the 110 hurdles is very outstanding. #1 ranked and World Record holder (12.88) Liu Xiang will see his first action this season on American soil, along with American Record holder Dominique Arnold (12.90) and current co-World Leaders Anwar Moore and David Payne (13.12). Rounding out the field will be Terrence Trammell (13.01), Aries Merritt (13.12), myself (13.14), Maurice Wignall (13.17) and Ryan Wilson (13.17). This event is looking like one of the top events of the entire competition. Stay tuned, the meet will be televised June 2 from 11pm-12:30am Eastern on ESPN2 and re-air June 3 from 1-2pm Eastern on CBS. Visit the meet website at www.reebokgrandprix.com for more info.

:)

Nothing new going on, just thought I'd post a pic. Gotta work on that trail arm. Ran two 400's at practice today, came in at 50.4 and 20 minutes later 52.2. Nothing going on this weekend except going to Gainesville to watch the East Regional finals and rest up.

adidas Track Classic 110 Hurdles

First of all, I don't know what race this announcer was watching. Just thought I'd post the video anyway.
Trammell- 13.17
Payne- 13.28
Oliver- 13.29
Wilson- 13.38
Bramlett- 13.52
Hicks- 13.64
Herring- 13.98
Merritt- DNF
Degrammont- DNF

adidas Track Classic Recap: Two Thumbs Down!

Not much positive came out of the race in Carson. I ran 13.29 and finished in third place behind the winner Trammell (13.17) and Payne (13.28). I got a terrible start, way worse than normal. I had the slowest reaction time by far out of the field (.196). I made up nice ground towards the end of the race to make it as close as I could. The starter of the race was trash, he was calling us to the set position while the guy on the loud speaker was still announcing the field. I wasn't ready to go because my back foot's block pedal moved and I was trying to re-adjust when he called us to set, plus he should have called the race back when Aries' blocks broke. If you look at all the reaction times from the field, you can obviously tell no one was ready to go. I hope he isn't working USA Championships. But I guess it's on to practice for a good two weeks of workout until I race again on June 2 in New York. Overall the meet was very good, especially with the performances in the 100m men's and women's.

LOOK-ALIKES !!

One of my best friends from Howard, Andrew Murphy and Olympic Champ Shawn Crawford. People have been telling him this for years!! When he came home with me for Christmas a couple years ago, people were saying he looked like Kobe Bryant. I don't see it, but Crawford, yes. You be the judge.

Happy 23rd Birthday!!

HAPPY 23RD BIRTHDAY BABY BROTHER

STAY OUT OF TROUBLE OUT THERE IN VEGAS!!

Next Meet: adidas Track Classic Carson, CA

I'm heading out to L.A. tomorrow morning for the competition out at The Home Depot Center in Carson. The lineup they have in the 110 hurdles is looking very outstanding. You have the legendary Allen Johnson (12.92) and the American Record holder in the event Dominique Arnold (12.90) opening up their respective seasons at this event as well as perinial major championship medalist Terrance Trammell (13.02), and us young hurdlers in Aries Merritt (13.12), Ryan Wilson (13.17), my good friends Ron Bramlett (13.26) and Aubrey Herring (13.31) as well as myself rounding out the field. The field consists of 5 of the top 8 110 hurdlers in the world according to the IAAF World Rankings (as of May 7, 2007). After coming off of a successful race over in Doha, I'm looking for another outstanding performance, I believe it will happen if I just stay consistant with what I've been coached to do and try to clean up a thing or two that I'm doing wrong. Catch the race on ESPN on Sunday from 4-6pm eastern time.

Nike China Liu Xiang :60 spot

I was just surfing around on YouTube and came across the commercial we shot last October in Shanghai. The Nike people said they were going to send us a copy, I'm going to have to call somebody! It's not like you see much of us anyway, I get a good shot in around the 39, 40 second mark. It was a great time nonetheless.

IAAF Doha Super Grand Prix 110m Hurdles 2007

Thanks Ron for the post on YouTube! I learn how to do it one day.

Lane 2: Al-Zawadi 14.02
Lane 3: Oliver 13.14
Lane 4: Trammell 13.15
Lane 5: Brown 13.80
Lane 6: Payne 13.12
Lane 7: Turner 13.47
Lane 8: Bramlett 13.39

Doha Rundown: Dinner Gala, New PR 13.14, Horrific Travel

The Meet Hotel. This was by far the best hotel I've stayed in. It came complete with two plasma tv's, living area in the room, balcony with a view and a complete marble bathroom.














Thursday: Was doing a lot of sleeping, I didn't getting up until around 1:30pm. Ron, Joel, Andy and myself then headed out to do a few block starts together. We had a Dinner Gala in which everyone dressed in traditional Arab garb (except for Dan Taylor, who couldn't fit in an outfit). It was a pretty good time and the food was great as well.





Friday: Race day! Again got up around 1:30, ate and headed to the track at 4:30pm for our race at 6:30. Woke up feeling pretty good and warm-up went pretty good too. I ended up running a personal best of 13.14, improving on my previous best of 13.20 from last season. I finished second as David Payne went on for the win in a great time of 13.12, improving drastically on his previous pr of 13.31. Terrance Trammell finished third in 13.15, an impressive season opener for him. I won a nice trophy in the process





Saturday: My flight wasn't leaving Doha until well over 24 hours after the meet was over, so I spent the day hanging out on the beach and at the hotel. My flight left at 11:30pm Doha time (3:30 eastern) heading to London Heathrow. We left the hotel at 9pm. It was a cool flight because a few other athletes were on the flight with me as well. I bought a new "exclusive" CK cologne on the British Airways flight, so I have a new scent for the time being.

Sunday: Had a three hour layover between my London and Miami leg, which was suppose to be a 8 1/2 hour flight, but it turned in to a 10 hour flight because the satellite went down and we couldn't fly over the atlantic. Needless to say, that caused me to miss my connection to Orlando in Miami. I finally arrived in my house at 9:00pm (5:00am Monday Doha time), which equals total travel time from doorstep to doorstep= 32 hours. But it was worth it though!

MORE RANDOM PICTURES

Doha Stadium Backstretch, Darrell Brown and Micheal Frater in the 100, Brown wins in 10.13, Blanca Vlasic reaction after setting a new Croatian HJ record at 2.04

Track and Field News Magazine: May '07 edition

It was nice seeing the article the guys from Track and Field News did on me in their May edition of the magazine. This was my first feature in the magazine since I've been running and hopefully it won't be may last. If you get a chance, check it out on page 18!

Next Meet: Doha Super Grand Prix

After taking off the last couple of weeks from racing, I am running this Friday in Doha, Qatar. The travel here was the longest of my career, but I am very excited to have the opportunity to run at this prestigious event. I left Orlando at 11am Monday and got to my hotel at 10pm Tuesday local time, (2pm Tuesday eastern time)! The race is looking like it will be a fast one with the field consisting of Terrance Trammell (USA), Ron Bramlett (USA), Joel Brown (USA), David Payne (USA), Andy Turner (GBR), a local guy and myself. I am hoping to run a fast time here and continue racing well during the early part of the season. I'll be back later this week if anything happens or with results.

Happy 140th Birthday Howard University!

Wishing Howard a Happy 140th birthday and I'm proud to have been educated at such a great institution! Congrats to those graduating in a couple of weeks and although I don't always agree with Oprah or her stances, it still must be exciting to hear her speak at commencement.