Felix, Payne and local sushi steal the show at worlds

Allyson Felix became the star one more time when she led her 4x400 team to gold with a 48-flat split. Adrian Dennis/Getty Images

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OSAKA, Japan -- Twenty-six musings on the just-completed world track and field championships, one year out from the Beijing Olympic Games.

1. The 48-flat relay split that Allyson Felix threw down Sunday night in the women's 4x400-relay? It was the singular moment of the championships. Felix went out fast and smooth and finished fast and smooth; she made a 400 look like a 200.

Monday morning at Kansai International Airport, during the traditional exodus, I ran into U.S. men's coach Mike Holloway, the respected head coach at the University of Florida and for numerous elite professional runners. "I didn't even have a watch on her and I said to some people, 'That's 48-low,'" said Holloway. Yup, it looked that fast. If the IAAF creates a favorable schedule for Felix, she really could win four gold medals in Beijing. And with her telegenic charm, she would be the U.S.'s track darling of the Games.

2. I feel bad for Sanya Richards. Somebody -- Sanya herself, her agent/mother Sharon, maybe even We The Media -- got the hype wagon rolling too soon on the possibility of her running the 200-400 in Beijing. Maybe it was because Richards had such a terrific 2006 season. This year she got sick and got beat, and now Felix has exploded. Richards needs to retrench, find her confidence, get healthy and worry about getting back to where she was a year ago, when she broke the American record in the 400 (48.70) and was named IAAF Women's Athlete of the Year. Felix is going to be very tough, but there should be a rivalry in the 400, no question. Richards is still a terrific runner.

3. Sushi. Twelve days in Japan. New England sashimi will never be quite the same, I'm afraid.

4. Never did fully unravel the mystery of Osaka, a sprawling, buzzing city unlike anything I have experienced anywhere else in the world. That's my problem, not my hosts'. The Japanese people working the Worlds (and not working the Worlds) were as unfailingly friendly and accommodating as any people I have encountered anywhere. And I defy you to find a piece of trash in the streets of Osaka. Even a straw wrapper. Go ahead. Try.

5. But it was hot. Man, it was hot. Florida-in-August hot. (Aside: Nobody should be asked to run a marathon in such weather).

6. U.S. hurdler David Payne was flown to Osaka last Monday to fill a last-minute opening. Four days later he won a bronze medal behind world record holder Liu Xiang of China and the reliable and productive Terrence Trammell of the U.S. By way of comparison, four days after I got off the plane in Osaka, I was still in a fog.

In touting the resiliency of the American team, USA Track and Field czar Craig Masback said Sunday, "Our system is rough and tumble, but it makes our team ready to compete." You look at what Payne did, and it's hard to argue that point.

7. Leroy Dixon on the anchor leg of the 4x100: Big ones. I don't care that he had a lead. ("We were trying to protect the kid by giving him a cushion," said U.S. relay coach Jon Drummond.). Still, he had Asafa Powell in his rearview mirror and a gold medal on the line and he kept it together. Very big ones.

8. I'll say this every time I'm asked: Bernard Lagat is an engaging and likeable guy and one of the best runners in history, whether Kenyan or American. The 1,500/5,000 double is for real men only, which is why only the legendary Paavo Nurmi (1924) and Hicham El Guerrouj (2004 and he's legendary, too) have done it. Props. That said, two issues with Lagat leave me uncomfortable:

a) He became a U.S. citizen in March 2004, before the Olympic Games, and yet he didn't announce it until after he had competed for Kenya in Athens, having never told the Kenyan federation. Lagat says he got surprised when his application for citizenship moved more quickly than he expected. That's plausible. And once he became a U.S. citizen, he was ineligible to run the '04 Games for either country. And he knew it. "I knew the only way for me to run was to just run for Kenya," Lagat told a small group of journalists in Osaka. It was a tough situation, and Lagat dealt with it by deceiving everyone involved.

b) He remains unclear on his heartfelt reason for taking U.S. citizenship. On the one hand, he preached the American dream. "I met my wife here, I was educated here [at Washington State]," says Lagat. "I want to raise my family here." Yet, he also sounds like a man who was tired of fighting for Olympic and world championship spots in the brutally tough Kenyan system. "When I was in Kenya, I was with a lot of athletes who were really talented: Noah Ngeny, William Chirchir ... It was very hard for me mentally."

Lagat made two Olympic teams and medaled twice in the 1,500 meters. Yet it would have been tough for him to make another Olympic team. "I kept on being competitive," says Lagat. "But in order to make the next, I have to beat [his peers] and now we have all the young runners." I'm sure Lagat loves the U.S.A.

But while U.S. distance running is improving tremendously, it remains easier pickings than in Kenya. Almost anywhere would be easier. I think Lagat was at least partly taking a handy means to prolong his International championship career. And, hey, he's been good for U.S. distance running, not only in the medal table, but also just by his presence giving the likes of Alan Webb and Matt Tegenkamp a world class target. I just wish Lagat would come totally clean.

9. Even without Lagat, Kenya won 13 medals, third behind the U.S.A.'s 26 and Russia's 16, and more than the country has ever won in a world or Olympic competition. I went to Kenya in 2001; it's impossible not to be struck by the distance running culture (not to mention the awesome beauty of the Rift Valley), but 13 medals while competing only in running events and only in races longer than 400 meters is mighty impressive.

Most impressive of all the Kenyans (other than Lagat): Janeth Jepkosgei, who won the women's 800 meters in a gutsy, front-running 1:56.04. And you had to like the steeplechase sweep, with Brimin Kiprop Kipruto (gold), Ezekiel Kemboi and Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong all waving fingers to the crowd in the homestretch.

10. China: Three medals. Expected more. Definitely expect more in Beijing.

11. That said, any questions about Liu's toughness were dispelled in his gold medal, 110-meter hurdles race. The world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion stood up across the line in his semifinal, thus leaving himself with lane nine for the final, where he could scarcely see the rest of the race unfolding. He got out poorly and looked to be out of the race after four hurdles.

But from there he was a blur. He's known as a brilliant technical hurdler, but this was about digging down and catching people. Which he did. Liu is going to carrying the Olympic hopes of a billion people next summer. Osaka was a snapshot of why he might be strong enough to handle it.

12. Osaka Nagai Stadium was configured to a capacity of 36,000 for the worlds, after the many press and VIP seats were taken out of the equation. It was filled once in nine nights, for a respectable -- but hardly overwhelming -- Saturday night program. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it was barely half full. What a shame.

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