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A sports calendar made unique by the coronavirus fittingly concludes with DODEA Europe’s most unusual championships this week.
Competition has already begun in the season-ending track championships and will conclude Saturday at sites around Europe. Different events are scattered throughout the week. Official results from the event, held remotely at tracks in six countries, are expected Monday.
The time element alone makes the championships different from others. The Monday-Saturday format means that it’ll go longer than any other championship in decades. Add in the fact that athletes often won’t even see their closest rivals – let alone directly compete with them – and it could be like no other finals in history.
It’s an open question whether any particular event will be listed in the history books, though.
The two athletes who have dominated their events the most during the abbreviated, monthlong season – Wiesbaden’s Ava Stout and Kaiserslautern’s Griffen Parsells – have been the closest to breaking DODEA Europe records.
Stout has blitzed her competition in both hurdles events in all three regular-season meets. In the 100-meter hurdles, she’s won by more than three seconds each time. But she faces a hefty time gap if she wants to set a new record. Stout’s second-week time of 15.24 seconds trails well behind the mark of 14.81 run by Ansbach’s Tiffany Heard in 2010.
Stout’s chances of a record in the 300 appear considerably better. A finish of 44.97 seconds last week is just short of the mark (44.71) set by Ansbach’s Mykala Bazen in 2014.
She also added the 100 to her arsenal with a victory in Week 3, though she and several other rivals aren’t close to a record there.
Parsells won the cross country championships earlier in the year and has turned in the best times in the 800 and 1,600 in all three meets and also has the best time in the 400.
His best shot for a record could be the 1,600. His top time of 4 minutes, 26.36 seconds is just off the record of 4:24.16 set by Austin Burt of Lakenheath in 2017.
Stout is far from alone in turning in strong performances for Wiesbaden’s girls this season, making the Warriors the Division I title favorites. MaKiah Parker (100, 200, 400) and Isabella Pizarro (long jump, triple jump) have turned in the best finishes this year in their events. The relay teams could contend as well, though DODEA Europe’s restrictions on individual athletes competing in a maximum four events could impact that.
Stuttgart’s Ella Bishop - unbeaten in the 1,600 and 3,200 - Hohenfels’ June Smith (high jump and shot put) and Kaiserslautern’s Sage Barnes (discus) have turned in the best efforts in their events.
The D-I boys chase appears more widen open, with Wiesbaden, Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart all featuring athletes with multiple victories during the season.
Ramstein’s Adrian Vega hasn’t lost in the shot put all season, but most other events have seen multiple winners as athletes moved around to see what suited them – or their teams – the best.
Wiesbaden’s Dominique Bivins (long jump, 400) was the only other two-time winner last week besides Parsells.
Athletes from smaller schools might have a big impact as well, with Brussels’ William Pierce (long jump, triple jump), Baumholder’s Quadre Willis and Ansbach’s Shane Nesbitt (100), Alconbury’s Johnathan Reyna (200) and Bahrain’s Keyon Wilson (110 hurdles, high jump) among the contenders in those events.
