Cameron Poetzscher's Sports Blog​

​The first and most crucial tip is to go slow and listen to your body. For now, you're only competing against yourself; you don’t need to break world records. Ramping up the pace too quickly could cause injuries. And one of the surest ways to lose your motivation is to injure yourself.

The athletics world has been stunned by the record-setting success of a 12-year-old Jamaican sprinter that has swept all before her in a recent national athletic meet in the nation's 2017 Boys and Girls Championship. Early comparisons are naturally being made with Usain Bolt, and some commentators are calling her the heir to his sprinting throne. Brianna Lyston won the 100m and 200m double, and is the first girl in her competitive age group to break the 24-second barrier at the championships. 

This was not her first time breaking the record. In the semi-final, she made 23.46 seconds, but her time was deemed illegal due to the wind-assistance. The finals gave her the opportunity to prove her true abilities once more, and she didn't fail to do so. She backed up her semi-final's score with a legal 23.72 time in the final. ​

During the beginning of the 20th Century, and in fact dating back much further, experts believed that we were physically incapable of running a mile in less than four minutes. It was considered beyond the realm of what is humanly possible. 

In 1861 a time just under 04:30 minutes was clocked by an Irish runner named Heaviside. 60 years later the famed Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi ran 04:10.6 before New Zealand’s Lovelock took it down to 04:07.6 in 1933. Slowly but surely, subsequent athletes lowered the mark until Sweden's Gunder Haegg set a 04:01.3 record. And then, in 1954 what no one believed to be possible happened. The dramatic moment took place on the Oxford, England running track. Roger Bannister broke the four minute barrier with a staggering time of 03:59.4. 
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Remarkable achievements of this sort often have an almost magical effect on fellow athletes. They seem to open their minds to new possibilities and remove the invisible barriers that had held them back in the past. Bannister's record is one of the most renowned feats in the history of running, he was even knighted in later life. Ironically, it took less than a month to break. His time was bettered three weeks later by an Australian runner, and after him breaking the four minute mile became routine. 

Roughly 30% of runners experience injuries due to wrong technique. Barefoot running advocates encourage them to take of their shoes in order to improve their style and protect their body from further damage. Barefoot running, or as it is alternately called, natural running, is a relatively new trend among modern athletes and recreation runners. However, there are many doubters and skeptics that dismiss the practice as unnecessary and even more harmful than beneficial.

​Australia is home to one of the world’s most unique sprint races, the Stawell Gift. Its unusual nature and special competition format attract the country’s top professional and amateur sprinters to compete alongside one another in the nation’s richest foot race. 

The Stawell Gift is a 120-meter race and it's run on grass, on a slight up-slant at Central Park, Stawell. The festive race is conducted once a year over the Easter weekend and broadcast live across Australia. Part of its appeal is the prize money - the winner can pocket as much as $40,000 out of a total prize pool of $60,000 - but if you're wondering what makes this race so unique, the answer lies in the handicapping system that is applied to competitors. 

Many American runners have to deal with contrasting temperatures throughout the year, from sweltering heat in Arizona to bone chilling temperatures in New York winters. For those who live in moderate climates, the seasons are a welcome change, providing different conditions and refreshing variety, but for others weather is literally a show stopper. Minnesota is one of the coldest places in the US and outdoor running in winter is virtually impossible. Unless they were interested in pounding the treadmill, runners have had limited realistic winter options until now. ​

While men’s marathons are becoming increasingly popular across the world, Dennis Kimetto's record remains unbroken. He set his record time of 2:02:57 at the Berlin Marathon in 2014 and became one of the few people to have broken the 2:04 barrier. The first was the great Haile Gebrselassie in 2008 with a time of 2:03:59. The question of whether the Marathon can be run in 2 hours or less has been occupying many athletes and commentators, and the opinions are divided. Much of the debate is centered around whether it is humanly possible to run almost three minutes faster over a 26.2 mile distance. 

'I Am Bolt', the new feature length documentary starring Usain Bolt, shines a light on the nine times Olympic gold medalist's build up to the Rio 2016 games. The film covers all aspects of the athlete's life on and off the track, as he handles everything thrown at him, from injuries to trash talk from competitors. 

Filmmaker brothers Gabe and Benjamin Turner lived and trained with Bolt for 18 months, gaining unparalleled access to the athlete’s life. They go behind the confident façade of a man who has less than 10 seconds to prove himself when he competes, revealing anxieties and a range of emotions exposed before and after competitions. 

In some moments of the film, the Turner brothers don’t have to do much. At one point Bolt takes the camera and films himself, expressing his frustration, sense of loneliness and boredom - producing a scene directors could never script. ​

The ultra-marathon is the benchmark of endurance sport and typically an event that attracts only the hardiest and durable of competitors. It’s not an event that big name marathon runners will make a transition to and ultra-marathons are not exactly a spectator friendly sport, but they are the domain of the toughest athletes on earth. 

With distances in excess of 150 miles lasting for six to seven days, there are a number of famous events that take place around the world, however some have earned a name as being more brutal than others. This is a preview of the toughest six ultra-marathons on earth. ​

An unlikely sprinting champion has emerged from the Rio Paralympics in the form of New Zealander Liam Malone who won the 200m and 400m double, while also claiming silver in the 100m. In the process, Malone also broke the T43 400m world record previously held by convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius. The time of 46.20 broke the previous mark of 46.68 which was set by Pistorius in 2012.

​Malone is a double amputee below the knee, but through the assistance of prosthetic blades, he was able to run a time that was just 0.11 seconds outside of his country’s able-bodied record. In the same T43 400m final, silver medalist David Behre of Germany also broke the previous record with his time of 46.23. This proves that 'blade runners’ are getting faster.