entire field seemed to pass him in any instant.

Right away, he didn’t look like his normal self. He ran a timid first 100 and had to squeeze in behind the rabbit. Once in his typical position, the race settled down and perhaps through sheer muscle memory Rudisha glided comfortably for the next 600 meters. He remained in the front and even responded to a challenge from Mohammad Aman to stay in the pole position with 100 meters remaining.

Then the rust of not competing for almost all of 2013 began to show. First Aman went by, then Amos and even Abubaker Kaki, who Rudisha regularly beat into submission in 2010 and 2011, sprinted past.

Rudisha’s finishing time was 1:44.87, over a second behind Amos. A thorough defeat, but not unexpectedshe competed.

In the 800 on Friday, she finished eighth in 2:02.31. A remarkable time for a high school senior, and at the same time, the closest thing Cain has had to a bad race in her young career.

Like Rudisha, this was her first race outdoors. She is also coming off an injury that kept her out of the World Indoor Championships. On top of that, she is finishing up her senior year of high school. There are plenty of reasons why she wasn’t going to be at her best this weekend.

She has yet to experience a setback and her response in the next few races will be interesting to track. Cain is scheduled to compete at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York on June 14th.

-Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce

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