Analysis and takeaways from inaugural U.S. Open

NEW YORK -- The first major domestic indoor track meet is in the books. Here are our takeaways from Saturday night's U.S. Open at Madison Square Garden.

Silas Kiplagat of Kenya races to pass Bernard Lagat of the United States to win the men's mile at the U.S. Open.

Lolo is back to being Lolo
The last we saw of Lolo Jones was after her premature exit from the USA Outdoor Championships last summer, when she was unable to pinpoint the source of the pain running from her leg to her armpit and doubting whether she would be able to continue hurdling. Not too long after that, doctors finally discovered that a tethered spinal cord was the root of her problems. She underwent corrective surgery that left her with a one-inch scar at the bottom of her back but feeling a whole lot better. That was evidenced in her victory in the 50m hurdles, where she had decent reaction out of the blocks and impressive acceleration between the barriers. By hurdle two, it was clear she was winning. By hurdle four, she was pulling away big time. 

Afterward, Jones said that returning to her winning ways will do wonders for her confidence as she now heads to Europe to continue the process of getting race sharp. "I'm so glad that I have this under my belt," she said. "I can go back to the months previous where I was crying my eyes out doing two and three workout sessions a day to get back to be normal Lolo, not even advancing myself. Right now, I feeling pure joy to be able to run again. It's been a really long time since I have won a race against pros. At one point, I thought my career was over. This is an indication that I am on the right track."

U.S. women's hurdling is deep
This is shaping up to be THE event of 2012. It's anyone's guess who will wind up representing the U.S. in London, with Jones healthy, with Olympic gold medalist and Worlds bronze medalist Dawn Harper returning to form, with Kellie Wells building upon her 2011 breakout, with Danielle Carruthers looking to do the same, with Ginnie Crawford and Kristi Castlin regular contenders, and with 2004 Olympic gold medalist Joanna Hayes back in training. And that doesn't even take into account youngsters like Nia Ali, Ti'erra Brown, Christina Manning and Jasmin Stowers. Get your Olympic Trials tickets now.

Lagat beaten but ready for fast 5-K
On the surface, the men's mile would seem to have been a disaster for Bernard Lagat on two fronts. Firstly, he lost for the second straight year on a track he has owned over his career. Kenya's Silas Kiplagat got the better of Lagat by beating him at his own game - tactics. Lagat made his move to the front on the curve heading into the bell lap, but the burst was early and it was not decisive. Kiplagat countered going into the next-to-last turn, a spot on the track almost impossible to recover from due to dwindling real estate. He went on to win in 4:00.65, with Lagat second in 4:00.92, times Lagat was equally disappointed with.

What Lagat was pleased with was the strength that he felt throughout, something he believes bodes well for his 5000m American record attempt at the Millrose Games on Feb. 11. "I feel like I was strong the entire way," Lagat said. "The thing I take from this is that I am really ready for a good 5000m. I think I can go out at a reasonable pace and run something 13-flat right now if it were outdoors. Indoors, you could probably about five seconds, so I think I am ready for a fast race now."

Williams off to a flying start
For the first time in his career, Jesse Williams enters a season as a gold-medal favorite following his victory in the high jump at the World Championships in Daegu. He doesn't appear to be resting on his laurels. In his opening competition of the year, he won with a respectable jump of 2.29m/7-6. "Last year I opened at 7-3 and this year I opened at 7-6 and it was good to get a win," Williams said. "This is the second highest height I have opened at. It was an excellent way to start the year."

Starts with the start
For the sprinters, the 50m races offered an early-season opportunity to work on starts and drive phases. To no one's surprise, Jamaican's Veronica Campbell-Brown and Asafa Powell, two of the better starters in the world, won the races. However, when asked to analyze their performances afterward, neither seemed willing to do so without first "watching the video." When Campbell-Brown does go back and review her start, she should take note of her rocking in the blocks that somehow didn't trigger a false-start and automatic DQ. Powell will see that his "kind of changed" start for the shorter distance worked, but he will need to keep honing his "secret" tactics.

Opportunities abound
The 50m hurdles offered David Oliver an opportunity to work on his start, a segment of his race that has been pretty shaky. It also afforded veteran Terrence Trammell an opportunity to return to the indoor track for the first time since 2010 while looking to rebound from failing to make his first national team since 2000 last summer. Trammell won the race in 6.45, showing that even after 12 years as a pro, he still has a tremendous start. Oliver was second in 6.50, making up for his still so-so start with incredible closing ability.

No Suhr thing
This was probably not the start that Jenn Suhr was looking for in the pole vault. The world's No. 1 ranked vaulter in 2011 passed on the first two heights before failing to clear the third (4.52m/14-10), exiting the competition without a mark. The competition was won by Jillian Schwartz, a 2004 U.S. Olympian, now competing for Israel.

The Big Three has a fourth
For the longest time, American men's shot putting has been carried by its Big Three - Christian Cantwell, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson. That group has a fourth thrower now in 25-year-old Ryan Whiting, who won the shot put competition for the second straight year with a throw of 21.16m/69-5¼. With Whiting gaining valuable experience and confidence at every turn, it appears that a bona fide podium contender will not make the U.S. Olympic team this summer.

Party crasher?
We've addressed the depth of U.S. women's hurdling, but the women's 1500m field figures to be equally deep with the likes of world champion Jenny Simpson, 2009 Worlds bronze medalist Shannon Rowbury, world No. 1 Morgan Uceny, and Olympians Christin Wurth-Thomas and Anna Pierce all jockeying for the three Olympic team berths. Someone who could emerge as a spoiler is Brenda Martinez, a 24-year-old out of California-Riverside, who dominated a women's mile field that included an obviously-rusty Pierce, winning in a personal-best 4:34.62. Seriously, who PRs on the banked, 11-lap-to-the-mile, boards at the Garden? Martinez, who has taken eight seconds off her PR in two weeks, is training under coach Joe Vigil (Deena Kastor's old mentor) and appears to be taking her lessons to heart.

Jackson seeking strength
In perhaps the most thrilling race of the night, Reny Quow of Trinidad & Tobago came from behind in the final strides to edge Bershawn Jackson, 1:11.20 to 1:11.31 in the 600-yard dash. Jackson was pleased with the effort in his first race of the year, and said that he is working on building his strength, something he said he was lacking last year after injuries forced him to begin his training later than usual. "I came into this indoor season not looking to be too competitive," he said. "I want to use indoors to prepare for outdoors."

Good call, bad call
Our hat's off to the PA announcer for one of the more memorable calls we've heard at any indoor track meet. With Jackson leading the 600-yard dash, he belted out, "Batman leads down the back stretch in Gotham." Nice.

A big thumbs down to the Madison Square Garden security crew that forced a group of youngsters, who had painted their chests with letters spelling out "We<3 Lolo," to put their shirts back on and leave a largely vacant section of lower-level seating (attendance was 5,844) before the 50m hurdles.

Future of MSG track
When USA Track & Field and the Millrose Foundation could not come to an agreement on how best to continue presenting the venerable Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, it left one of the world's longest standing meets without a marquee venue or TV coverage and the world's most famous arena with a fledgling meet in the U.S. Open.

After the first run of the new meet, from what we can tell, USATF faces the same challenges that the Millrose Games did in putting on a niche sporting event at a major arena, only without the name recognition synonymous with an event run 98 times. About two thirds of the Garden was empty, not significantly-more vacant seats than last year.

However, the meet and its presentation were excellent. There were new sponsors in Budweiser, Harris, and Chase. Many of the athletes spoke of their love for competing at the Garden, and expressed an inclination to do so again in the future. Plus, the track and field Twitter-verse was alive during last night's tape-delayed broadcast of the meet on ESPN2. All of that adds up to a solid foundation from which USATF can continue building the U.S. Open brand.