Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Diving for the line

Here is a dive toward the finish line at West Virginia AAA 880 a week ago. Burcham (in red) wins, 1:54.01, to Brandon Doughty's attempt at being Superman in 1:54.03.

 You can see the drive and dive towards the finish line in the race video here (at about 1:50).



 Here is another diving finish at the Footlocker XC national Championship: Zachary Torres dives to tie for 15th with Dylan Sorensen earning both athletes an All-American (top 15) award.

I think the all-time greatest dive was the one Christian Smith made to take third place in the 800m in the 2008 Olympic Trials. 


This is one of the most exciting racers ever, and it is hard to get tired of watching the finish and the celebrations after the finish.

Here are some other finish line dives:

Arizona State's Lewis Banda, nips a diving Jeremy Wariner from Baylor by 1/100th of a second in the Drake Relays final event of the day, the 4 X 400 University Men's relay in 2003 in Des Moines, Iowa. Wariner, a Baylor freshman, went on to win an Olympic Gold Medal the following year in the 400 meters at the summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Superman Adriel Tay lands 1500m A Division win in third Raffles Institution podium sweep.

I am not even sure what is going on here, but it looks like fun!


Triathletes crawl or dive all the time.


Similar things happen when women race in stilettos.

 Another dive.

Not just a dive, but a somersault for the relay win (quick view- start at 3:00)!


 This dive earned David Neville a bronze in the 400m at the 2008 Olympics. 

           

Here is a new addition to this post on finish line dives. If you are going to take a header at the end of the race then you should at least add some style to it to entertain the fans!



Inspiration for this post came from Letsrun.


Finally, this race video from Japan has to be one of the greatest race finish line dives ever recorded!






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