Bondarenko better than Bolt in 2013, note by Kevin Mangan The big news out of Monaco was the Jamaican sprint duo of Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce winning World Athlete of the Year. Yelena Isinbayeva and Dwight Phillips both won Distinguished Career Awards. The coach athlete duo of Alberto Salazar and Mary Cain both won awards, Salazar the Coaching Achievement Award and Cain the Rising Star Award. Every one of these award winners had excellent 2013 seasons. However, I thought that one was undeserving: Usain Bolt. Bolt had an excellent year and won three World Championship gold medals in Moscow. However, in my opinion, Bohdan Bondarenko had a better year in 2013. Bondarenko never lost. Bolt did (once to Justin Gatlin at the Rome DL meet). Bondarenko set a sizeable PB (10 cm improvement to 2.41). Bolts ran quite a bit slower than his own PBs. Bondarenko got very close on multiple occasions to breaking a World Record that hasnt been threatened by anyone but the man who set it, Javier Sotomayor, in almost twenty years. Bondarenko had a breakout year, the best of anyone in his event since the 90s. Bolt had a bit of an off year, hes just good enough to get away with it (but what if Yohan Blake was healthy?). Bolt had a great year, but I think Bondarenko had a better one.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 22:47:53 +0000
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