Eight Days in Eugene

print email

Thursday, July 3

The fifth day of competition came after a two-day break, and began with an exhibition 3000-meter master’s race, which I had a personal interest in because Danny Gonzalez, a member of my own club, was part of it.

The winner, Tony Young, noted that part of the fun is that distance runners are particularly interested in master’s events. “There were 30 or 40 people nationwide trying to get in,” he said.

I was also interested in the woman’s 3000-meter steeplechase, in which Carrie Strickland (profiled in a couple of issues of Competitor last month) was competing. In the first round, she’d clipped 6.2 seconds off her personal best to advance to today’s finals. Not that she had any real chance of going to Beijing. “I wasn’t holding anything back,” she said. “All those other girls were probably saving energy.”

Maybe that was an overstatement, but in the final a nearly identical time put Strickland in ninth place. In front, Jennifer Barringer, a junior at the University of Colorado, eventually fell off pace while Anna Willard held on to score an American record 9:28.75. Lindsey Anderson came in second, while Barringer still made the team in third place, with 9:33.11.

Part of the excitement is that this will be the first time the women’s event has been in the Olympics. “To be in the Olympics is one thing, but to be the first of something is really amazing,” said Willard.

“Two years ago,” added Barringer, “9:33 was a mark American women weren’t even reaching for. It’s fun to be with young women in a relatively new sport.”

Friday, July 4

“There’s probably nothing more American that you can do on July 4 than try out for an Olympic Team.” So said Shalane Flanagan a few days earlier, while fielding questions about the day six repeat of the Kara and Shalane show – this time at 5,000 meters.

Today it was Goucher showing her heels to Flanagan, with Jennifer Rhines also in the mix, scoring second place only a moment behind Goucher. (Nobody else was within 16 seconds.)
Afterward, though, there wasn’t much jubilation at the press conference, where a subdued Goucher dabbed at her eyes, having just watched the end of the men’s 10,000. Her husband Adam, who’d entered the race amidst controversy, finished seventh. (As a five-time national champion at various distances, he’d been allowed to run, despite not having met the Olympic Trials qualifying standard.) But seventh was a heartbreaking 13 seconds behind third, which would have gotten him the all-important Olympic A standard and a trip to Beijing.

Kara’s feelings were, to say the least, mixed. “I was really happy until about 10 minutes ago,” she said.

Still, she managed to field questions about her own race. “I was actually more nervous for this race than the 10K because I knew it was going to hurt a lot more,” she said. “In the 10K I didn’t go out with enough authority, and Shalane buried me. My coach told me it was like the velodrome in cycling: one person’s going to break, and you’re going to have to cover it right away.”

The brightest star of the day, though, was a 16-year-old California girl named Jordan Hasay, who ran the 1500.

One of at least three high school girls competing (and advancing) in the Trials, Hasay nearly blew it in the previous day’s preliminary heat, when she grabbed the lead and held it most of the way, only to fade all the way to seventh. “I got a little overexcited,” she said.

This time, in the semifinal, she tamed it. For three laps, she stayed near the back. Then, her waist-length blonde hair streaming behind her, she started to move, picking off runners one at a time as the crowd screamed encouragement. She wound up fifth in her heat, advancing to Sunday’s final and setting a new American high-school record in the process (4:14.50).

Amazingly, she’d come to the meet not knowing whether she’d be racing, because her qualifying time was one spot too low to make the initial start list. Then two runners scratched, and she was in. “Two days ago, I thought I might just be a spectator,” she said. “I was just going to come and watch… and just be ready.”

Saturday July 5

Looking for something different, I took a trip to the hammer field. As luck would have it, I found myself standing next to a discus thrower, who told me why an event that involves a ball on a chain is called a “hammer” throw. It comes from Scotland, he said, where initially they threw a sledgehammer. I noted that it looks scary. “Yes,” he said dryly, “it’s the easiest way there is in track and field to kill someone.”

Then it was time for the men’s 3000-meter steeplechase, in which bearded, tattooed, Anthony Famiglietti went out in his characteristic style: blazing to a big lead, which he managed to hold well enough for a 1.2-second victory.

A club he’s founded, called Team Reckless, epitomizes his philosophy. “The idea is to push yourself to that breaking point and thrive on that feeling that you’re just about to collapse – then will yourself beyond it. Athletics is not about doing something somebody else can’t do. It’s about willing yourself beyond your limitations so that other people want to will themselves beyond their limitations.”

Sunday, July 6

Day eight was comprised almost entirely of finals. It was also a day that showcased how various people react to success, failure, and pressure. In part, of course, that depends on expectations. When Jordan Hasay made another come-from-behind attempt in the women’s 1500 final, nobody expected her to win. “I learned a lot of things,” she said after her 10th-place finish. “I learned that I could come out and compete and not be too intimidated. But at the same time I learned I’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

The women’s pole vault provided the day’s greatest drama, with Jenn Stuczynski waiting so long to enter the competition that the bar was at a height only two others had managed even to attempt. Then she missed her first two vaults. The pressure mounted when, just before her third and final attempt, she heard the announcer comment that if she made it, she was on the team. If she didn’t, she’d “no height” and be last. But she cleared it, then went on to better her own American record with a vault of 16 feet 1¾ inches.

At the same time, the men were contesting the meet’s final track event, the 1500 meters, in which Bernard Lagat sprinted to the win ahead of Leonel Manzano and Lopez Lomong. All three were born in foreign countries (Kenya, Mexico, and the Sudan, respectively,) meaning that, for what might be the first time, all three Americans in an Olympic event were born elsewhere.
“Where else can this be possible?” Lagat said. “The three of us are living the American dream.”

Comments & Feedback

Leave a Comment

Name: Email:  do not notifynotify Title: Comment: Code: Please input the code from the image above (case sensitive). Click image to generate new code.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."