Okay, here's the compendium: New records are predicted in six events.
First up, at 8:15pm (11:15am Pacific time), six people all agree that Boulami is going to take down his current Stadium record of 7:58.50 in the Steeple, set two years ago. David Donley says 7:58.30, Ted Polous sais 7:57.3, Pat Crandall says 7:57.24, Adam Knudson says 7:56.88, Scott Jensen says 7:56.45, and Lee Nichols steps up with a world record prediction of 7:54.75! Next up (record prediction, that is), is the Women's 100 at 8:30pm (11:30am Pacific time). Lee Nichols says that Marion is gonna finally take down Evelyn Ashford's ancient 10.76 stadium record, with a 10.72. Nobody else had the gumption to agree with Lee. At 9:00pm (noon Pacific time), we come to the Men's Triple. Several new stadium record predictions [old record Edwards 17.79 (58'4½")], but not everybody even agreed on who would do it! Ted Poulos and Bill Allen both agreed it would be Edwards; Ted predicting a 17.83 (58'6"), and Bill going 17.95 (58'10¾"). Lee Nichols picks that young whippersnapper Christian Olsson to lay down the hammer with a 17.80 (58'4¾"). Five minutes after the TJ start, we get to the men's 100 final at 9:05pm (12:05pm Pacific). (yes, there are semi-finals earlier). People seem to agree that Montgomery's 9.90 stadium record is well done- stick a fork in it. Everybody who stuck a prediction on the line agreed that it'll be world record holder Greene who'll do it. Paul Nisius sees a 9.89, David Donley prognosticates a 9.88, Pat Crandall crystal-balls a 9.86, and Ted Poulous sticks his fork deeply in a 9.82. By the way, I'll credit anything achieved in those semi-finals as well, since any such achievement would certainly count as a Stadium record. At 9:15pm (12:15pm Pacific), we come to another stadium record candidate- the women's 800. Both entries agrees that it will be Ceplak to chop some time off Mutola's 1:55.19 from 8 years ago. Paul Nisius says 1:55.10, while Ted Poulos sees a 1:55.03. Finally, we come to the final new record prediction event- the men's 1500 at 9:30pm (12:30 Pacific). Lee Nichols is the sole brave soul to go out on a limb and posit that El-Guerouj will top his four-year-old 3:26.45 stadium record with a 3:25.95 new World Record!!! Oh yes, Kurt Bray and Mike Trujillo played it safe and predicted NO new stadium records tonight, although Mike noted that Devers might have a shot at her own 12.39 stadium record in the 100H from a couple of years ago. Mike wasn't brave enough (or maybe too smart!) to "officially" enter a prediction on Devers though. The women's 100H goes off at 9:40pm (12:40 Pacific). Ballsy prognosticator award goes to Lee Nichols who is either gonna rack up a zillion points with his prediction of five stadium records, or go down in flames big time! The reason I noted the times is for those lucky enough to live in a live TV coverage area; or for most of the rest of us- we can try to listen in to the BBC Radio over the internet at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/ radio coverage of the meet is supposed to begin about an hour from now (11am Pacific). Good luck everybody- hopefully this generated some interest beyond the meager e-mail traffic so far on this year's GP circuit... RT
