Day 2 Malaga World Masters Athletic Championships

Day two of racing was a bust for me.  Under-performed again, still only a 25.70 from lane eight in the semis, finishing fourth.  Did much like I did in the first round, except stumbled slightly at the start.  I was even with the top 2 coming off the curve but rigged in the last 15m and was passed by the Japanese who took 3rd.  I led him through the whole race until the last 20m.  I lost so much time at the end he beat me by 0.24 sec, or about 2m.  Don't know what is the matter with me.  Have felt generally weak since I got here and have lost confidence a bit.  This is the first event at a World Championship that I've been eliminated from the finals.

If I had run what I ran in June twice - (25.30 and 25.32), I would've made the finals and finished 6th.  If I had run what I ran in Lyon twice (25.04, 25.08) or in Perth (25.04) or in Korea 3 times (25.04, 24.84, 24.82), I would have medaled.  Hell... my 200m split in my 400m final in Daegu was even faster (25.5).   No excuse.  Conditions were good.  Can't really explain it.  Seems like I must have peaked back in June before that series of injuries.  To race at my A game, I have to be on a roll.  I'm not so good I can win with my B game at M58.  Plus, I really haven't done much 200m race modeling, although my times in training shoes were faster than 25.7, and my 200m split in a 300m event run was about 25.7, this lack of speed is pretty bad.  I think I over estimated my fitness and under estimated how fast I was running in the first 100m.  Can't run a 200m like a 100m.

This photo was of my semi, about 40m before the end.  I got passed by the guy to my left from Japan.

Was planning on doing a big drive today and take some friends into the mountains, but no one wants to go and many are sick with colds.

Well guess what... Corey Moody - the defending World Champion from Perth IS here, and he's in shape.  He just ran a 2:14 in the 800m semis.  Shoot, if he can run the 2:14 in the 800m semis, he's going to kick ass in the 400m.  Going to be tough to make the 400m final.  Corey hardly ever races and no one knows whether he's going to show up or not.  He qualified 10th of 12, be curious to see if he'll run the final or if this was just a warmup.