Kristi Castlin is this week's track beauty!
Castlin was poised to make an impact at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. She ran the world's fastest time, a personal best of 7.84sA, en route to winning the tough U.S. Indoor Championships in Albuquerque. The faulty acoustics of the Istanbul stadium, unfortunately, cost her a probable World indoor medal.
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| Photo from Hokies Sports |
Like many other athletes in qualifying, Castlin mistakenly thought that there was a false start, thanks to the echoing retort of the starting gun. The American was disqualified as the rest of the athletes in her heat went on with the race. But then again, the outdoor season holds the bigger prize. Kristi has recovered from her Istanbul experience completely.
At the Bislett Games in Oslo, a Diamond League meeting, Castlin ran a lifetime best of 12.56s, as she finished in a strong second place behind 2011 World Champion Sally Pearson (12.49s). The stylish American took the scalps of her more illustrious compatriots, Lolo Jones (12.75s) and Danielle Carruthers (12.76).
Castlin's hurdling technique is wonderful to watch. Female sprint hurdlers tend to get away with glaring technical flaws because the hurdles in the 100m race are signficantly lower compared to the 110m. I like Kristi's lean as she skims over the barriers. She brings her lead knee closer to her chest than most of her competitors, resulting into a more stable center of gravity throughout the race. Her arm action is picture perfect - snappy, graceful, and compact.
Kristi looks good on and off the track. She has great fashion sense and stands out among the other athletes (she describes herself as "an ostentatious 100m hurdler" in her Twitter account). More importantly, Castlin has the tools - blistering speed and graceful hurdling - to become a legitimate contender in elite women's sprint hurdling.
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