• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

The last straightaway on the track at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, won’t be exactly what UCLA’s sprinters are used to.

Since the curves at Mike A. Myers Stadium are longer than the classic track, this design allows sprinters to shave tenths or even full seconds off of their times.

“The gentler turn keeps the sprinter more aggressive through the turn,” sprints coach Tony Veney said. “It benefits anyone who runs a lap.”

The normal 100-meter final straightaway is replaced with an 82-meter straightaway. The rest of the 400 meters is made up in the two longer curve portions of the track.

With a wealth of UCLA track athletes at the championships competing in the longer sprint distances, the track could help the athletes post even faster times than expected.

The theory behind this type of track is that an athlete running a sprint distance such as the 200-meter or 400-meter will not have to decrease speed transitioning from the straightaway to the curve.

“The turn is not as tight,” Veney said. “You don’t have to stay on the hip as aggressively.”

Two athletes who will likely benefit the most from the change are the 400 runners junior Monique Henderson and sophomore Craig Everhart.

Henderson, the Pac-10 champion in the 400, broke her personal record at Regionals this past weekend with a time of 50.65 seconds. Her time seeds her third in the national meet rankings.

Everhart also had a huge performance at Regionals. Besides beating out favored Arizona State runners Lewis Banda and Jason Barton, he automatically qualified for the Olympic trials by running under 45 seconds for the event.

Both also anchor the 4x400-meter relay teams and are the fastest leg on each of those teams.

A normal track breaks each of the two-curve and two-straightaway portions into even 100-meter segments. The curve portions on the Texas track are 118 meters, with a larger turning radius.

The track advantage multiplies in relays, as each of the four runners will benefit.