Day 4 of Racing

Today had some similar features of yesterday.  The mental weakness loomed large in some and others had great showings.  The first event of the day was the 400m hurdles where one of my guys made the finals.  He had psyched himself up a little to much before the race for my liking.  To make matters worse there was a false start and the lane next to him was disqualified.  On the restart he ran really well at the beginning but when he had two rough hurdles I could see from across the track he just gave up.  He confirmed this by walking the 20m after the last hurdle to the finish line.  He was not happy with himself and I thought it best not to talk to him right away.  Most of the team let him deal with his own thoughts.  At this point I was fuming inside because you are competing and to give up like that was disgraceful and he knew it.  Eventually he calmed down although it took a majority of the meet.  The 400m for women had three entrants which made me wish we would have just thrown someone out there.  The 800m finals followed shortly thereafter and we had both a man and woman in the finals.  The plan was along the party line make sure you run relaxed at the beginning.  The guy ran the race perfectly and got 4th after being 8th after the first lap.  The leader after the first lap got 7th.  He was really close to having a medal but just didnt have enough in the tank plus he ran 4 seconds faster than prelims.  The girl didn't run quite as well but still had a really good racing moving from seeded 8th to finishing 5th.  Two good results and smart races.  The crazy part about the womens 800m was that the winner had just gotten second in the 400m hurdles.  That is an athlete I want to coach someone who busts their butt in back to back races (not to mention she is pretty darn talented).  The 200m meter finals arrived and I had one guy in the finals.  He was also ranked 8th and ran strong but barely finished on was seemed like a hamstring pull.  It was a really tight race and I know if he was healthy he could have been top 3.  We made sure he was ok and it looked like it isnt a tear which is good it just needed some stretching and should be runnable tomorrow.  I was happy that he pushed through and finished.  We had no women in the 200m finals and the last event of the day the 4x400m was canceled and moved straight to finals tomorrow.  My team really needed this because they are all beat up and we need one more day of rest.  The next 45 minutes or so was an awards ceremony where we picked up the medals we got yesterday.  Half of the 4x100m team wasnt their so we had a couple 800m runners get their medals. Tomorrow is the final day and potentially the last day I ever see some of the athletes and coaching.  In the states I could get everyone's email and we could stay connected.  Over here some of the people cant even get regular mail.

 Our 3k girl waiting inline to walk up to the podium.

 She is receiving her medal and certificate.

 The 4x100m team about to step up to the podium.

 The 4x100m group photo.

Tom and I with the 4x100m.

Tomorrow is the last day so hopefully things end well only 6 races 110m hurdles for men, 100m hurdles for women, 10k for men, 5k for women and the 4x400m.