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2004 OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS—TRACK
AND FIELD by Sam Grotewold
Sacramento, California, July 12—It was a fairly exciting 10 minutes for Hazel Clark. In that span of time, the 26-year-old resident of Knoxville, Tennessee sped through her 800-meter final in 2:00.37, finishing third and making her second Olympic team (behind her sister-in-law, Jearl Miles-Clark, 37, who won in 1:59.06). After Clark gave a quick interview on USA Network's live TV broadcast, her fiancée, Winston Riley, got down on one knee and proposed to her—right there at the finish line. In a track career broken town into the neat two-minute pieces of the 800-meter run, Monday's final must have been the some of the most exciting moments of Clark's life—if only she could remember it. "To be honest, I blanked out. I was really taken by surprise. I was trying to get off the track but nobody would let me off, so I turned around and I saw Winston and I remember he said something like 'I've been waiting for this moment...' and then I don't remember anything else. The whole thing is a blur." Clark followed Francis Santin and Miles-Clark through a blistering first 200 meters, passed in 26.5 seconds. Miles-Clark and Santin held their lead through the first lap, with Clark a half-step behind. Nicole Teter, a frontrunner and arguably the favorite in this event, was unconcerned with her unfamiliar fifth-place position at the halfway mark. "I thought it was important to run a strong second lap," she explained, "and once I moved into the top three I knew I could hold everybody behind me off." Down the backstretch, Miles-Clark pulled away from Santin and extended her lead all the way to the finish to qualify for her fifth Olympic team. Teter, bumped into the outside of lane two, powered around the final bend and held off a fast-closing Clark for second in 2:00.25. For Miles-Clark, it was her fifth USA Championships 800-meter win, but her first at the Olympic Trials. As she stood trackside and patiently answered reporters questions, she was still contemplating whether or not she would run the first round of the 400 meters—just 10 minutes later. (Utimately, she scratched from the event.) "When I started, I really never thought about making five [Olympic] teams. I actually kind of got forced to go to my first Olympic Trials [in 1988], when I was in college. And I made the finals of the 400 at the Olympic Trials, and they took the entire final to Seoul, so I got the opportunity at a very young age to experience the Olympics." Though there were no trackside proposals in the men's 800-meter final, the end result was perhaps just as shocking. A fast-starting Jebreh Harris tore through the opening lap with Texas Tech's Jonathan Johnson—the reigning NCAA champ—and Khadevis Robinson in tow. At the bell, Johnson initiated the strategy he and his coach had mapped out before the race. "[My coach] wanted me to keep moving through the 400 and keep my momentum through the 500, and at 600, stay tight and keep it coming to the finish," Johnson said. "I could feel them coming on the backstretch, but I kept driving and wouldn't give up. I wanted to run from the front and didn't want to run from the back and have to rely on my kick." Johnson grabbed the lead shortly into the second lap and never looked back, winning his first U.S. title in 1:44.77. Robinson, an agonizing .25 seconds out of the Olympic team in 2000, was second in 1:44.91. Derrick Peterson, a former NCAA champ who collects wine in his spare time, closed fast to grab the third place spot in 1:45.08. Pre-race favorite David Krummenacker, the 2003 World Indoor champion in the event, was fourth, off of the Olympic team. "I raced a little more aggressively than usual," said Peterson, who traditionally starts slowly but has a tremendous kick. "That last 100 meters was probably the most nerve-wracking 100 meters of my life, but knowing I had David Krummenacker and a great field behind me, I had to push it. The whole theme of my week was redemption. Being a favorite four years ago and not making the final, I spent the next four years with that driving me. Now I can say 'Derrick Peterson is an Olympian.'" For his part, Krummenacker accepted his fourth-place finish as something that happens in track and field. "I felt good coming into the meet, but I felt some fatigue today. I didn't have it in the kick. Sometimes, you are just off, and I knew very early on that it wasn't going to be my day." Krummenacker, who has the Olympic "A" standard in the 1,500 meters and would be a virtual lock to make the team there, was unsure if he would enter that event's opening round on Thursday. The women's 5,000-meter final was one of the most exciting Olympic Trials finals ever, with six women having a legitimate shot at making the Olympic team. Shalane Flanagan—a 23-year-old University of North Carolina star who turned professional less than two weeks ago—took the lead almost immediately and held it for nearly 12 laps. Although leading a high-caliber field for three miles would take its toll on most seasoned veterans, it was all part of the strategy for the frontrunning Flanagan, who wore the colors of her new sponsor, Nike, for the first time in the final. "That's how I like to run, I'm a frontrunner, and with the slow pace in the first lap I thought 'I've trained too hard to let it go out like this,'" Flanagan said. Coming into the bell lap, Flanagan was passed by 2000 Olympian Marla Runyan of Oregon, who had remained just off Flanagan's shoulder the entire race. Flanagan held on to her second-place position midway through the backstretch, but Colorado's Shayne Culpepper was closing fast. At the end of the final turn, the three began a tear for the finish tape, with Culpepper passing Flanagan and nipping Runyan at the line for the win, 15:07.41 to 15:07.48. Flanagan held on for the final Olympic team slot in 15:10.52. Amazingly, it was Runyan's first-ever loss to another American over 5,000 meters. "I knew that Marla likes to go with about 300 meters remaining," explained Culpepper, who earlier this year won the 3,000-meter bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships, "so I just wanted to stay on to her and cover that move when it happened." For Culpepper, who was outkicked by Runyan for the third and final 1,500-meter spot in the 2000 Olympic Trials (but still ran in Sydney after Regina Jacobs pulled out with an injury), the win was the fulfillment of four years of hard work and support from her husband Alan, who has already qualified for the Olympic team in the marathon. "Alan wrote me a note and left it by my bag today," she explained, "and it really helped put things in perspective, about what's really important. Our son [two-year-old Cruz], our love for each other, and all those other things. And that really helped me to relax before the race." Culpepper, Runyan, and Flanagan are all entered in the 1,500 meters, and if they choose to compete, would all have a legitimate shot at making the team in that event. Semifinal rounds of the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5,000 meters were also held. In the steeplechase, Long Island native Anthony Famiglietti ran side-by-side with New Jersey native Steve Slattery before pulling away on a water jump for good to win the heat, 8:26.51 to Slattery's 8:28.85. In the second heat, Daniel Lincoln—a four-time NCAA champ while at the University of Arkansas—and Ohio State University coach Robert Gary hammered together to go take the top two spots in 8:26.57 and 8:27.00. Famiglietti, Slattery, Lincoln, and Gary—who will be shooting for his second Olympic team after making the squad in 1996—will run in the 16-man final on Thursday evening. In the men's 5,000-meter semis, 2000 Olympic Trials winner Adam Goucher of Colorado grabbed the lead 600 meters in and held it for the next several laps. In an event that needs to see fast times if the U.S. is to send more than one athlete to the Games, the first mile was reached in a pedestrian 4:32. Mark Menefee of Michigan's Hansons-Brooks Olympic Distance Project took control of the pace from there, quickly grabbing a 10-meter lead that he held for the next two kilometers. With just over two laps remaining, former William & Mary standout Matt Lane—fourth in the 2000 Trials—took the lead and held it going into the last lap, when Oregon's Chad Johnson passed him on the inside. Johnson pressed throughout the final circuit, but was not able to hold of fast-closing University of New Mexico junior Matt Gonzales, who edged out Johnson, 13:44.19 to 13:44.53. Goucher, who has struggled with a myriad of health problems and injuries since his outstanding 2000 season, faded badly and missed qualifying for the final. Despite the fact that only one athlete has the Olympic "A" standard—one of the criteria required to qualify for the Games—the athletes in the first heat were unconcerned about the slow pace of the race. "It didn't cross my mind at all," said Johnson, who will need to run a 15-second personal best to make the standard. "Maybe in the final. But my first goal is to place high, place well, and then try to get into some meets in Europe where I can go after the time." Any athlete selected as a candidate for the Olympic team after Friday's final will have until August 9 to reach the "A" standard, or only one athlete will go to the games. (For more information, visit our guide to the Olympic Team selection procedure.) In the second heat, California's Bolota Asmerom led the field through an opening mile of 4:25 before giving up the lead to Team USA Monterey Bay's James Carney, who had finished sixth in the 10,000-meter final (in 28:31.82) on Friday night. Ann Arbor, Michigan's Tim Broe—winner of the 2003 USA championships at the distance with broken bones in his foot and his back—grabbed the lead from Carney with a mile remaining and held on to win the heat in 13:42.19. Asmerom, a competitor in the 2000 Olympics for his native Eritrea, closed well for second in 13:42.49. California's Jonathon Riley—the sole entrant in the 5,000 meters with the "A" standard—qualified for the final with a fourth-place finish (13:42.93), an eyelash behind his training partner Brendan Rodgers (13:42.76). The meet now takes a two-day break, with competition scheduled to resume on Thursday and continue through Sunday.
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