2005 Prefontaine Classic Distance Recap: Terrible falls mar women's races

by Erik Heinonen

At 17 runners in size, the Prefontaine Classic women's 1,500 field could be described only as overly crowded. A mid-race pileup took care of that, however, and, unfortunately, most of the race's top contenders as well.

With a fleet of Americans chasing the World Championships "A" standard and a strong cast of foreigners, including Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak, Russia's Tatyana Tomashova, and Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe, Saturday's race figured to be a fast one.

It was, through 400, with rabbit Eunice Chepkirui Kirwa leading the field at 63.7. Approaching the the finish line and 700 meters, the pacesetter began to slow, which caused the pack to bunch and ignited a chaotic chain reaction. On the outside, American Shalane Flanagan tripped and clipped the heel of Tomashova, who fell into Ceplak, who was running just behind and to the inside. For the tightly packed runners just a step behind, there was no avoiding the fallen runners, and six more athletes hit the track in the ensuing tangle.

"A bunch of people went down, and I was one of them," said Jen Toomey, who had been running just behind Tomashova and Flanagan. "Two people in front of fell, and that made me fall. They took people down just like that."

Radcliffe, who had swung wide down the homestraight to move up in the field, also hit the track, as did Kate Vermuelen, Shalane Flanagan, and Shayne Culpepper.

"Both feet got stuck underneath me, and the first thing that hit the track was my head, then my shoulder, and I flipped over," Culpepper said. "I'm really fit, and I tapered a lot for this, so it's really disappointing."

Carrie Tollefson managed to stay on her feet but had a foot come part way out of a shoe, forcing her to step off the track.

"I was feeling great and then all of a sudden it was mad chaos," Tollefson said. "I thought I could finish, but the thing was if my shoe had come off, it would have been fine, but I was halfway in halfway out, trying to hold it on. The point was to try to get the 'A' standard and you can't do it with one shoe."

Former Arkansas All-American Christin Wurth was one of the few who escaped the pileup, and she produced the best kick of those remaining to take the win in 4:09.45 ahead of American Treniere Clement (4:10.46) and Ethiopian Mestawat Tadesse (4:10.83).

"This is my first Pre; it's pretty exciting and I can't believe I won," Wurth said. "I was just trying to stay close and stay competitive, and I knew if I did everything would fall into place."

Radcliffe got to her feet and chased the leaders hard, catching the back of the pack by the bell. However, the effort left her with little to offer over the final lap, and the marathon world-record holder had to settle for sixth in 4:13.13.

"She tried to pick herself back up and get back on, but it's difficult," said Radcliffe's husband Gary Lough. "She's okay. She has a few scratches. It was more just a shock to the system to be running hard then all of sudden be on the ground."

Tomashova, who bloodied a hand and had a hamstring gashed in the fall, also gave chase and appeared to be in the running for a win before dropping out with 150 to go.

A demoralized Ceplak jogged in at 4:44.68 and soon had an ice bag on her hip. Culpepper also got up and finished, taking eighth in 4:17.60. Flanagan was ninth in 4:22.07, and Toomey and Vermuelen did not finish.

Women's 800

Maria Mutola has been winning Prefontaine Classic 800s since some of her competitors were in grade school. Saturday the Mozambican picked up title No.13, and, with her time of 1:59.95, became the first woman to crack two minutes outdoors in 2005.

Moving to the front after a slow first 400 of 59.1, Mutola held the lead without challenge until the final straightaway when former world-leader Kenia Sinclair (2:00.15) of Jamaica made a late rush that pulled her within two-tenths of a second of Mutola at the line.

"There was a lot of pressure on me today," said Mutola, who won her first Pre Classic in 1992 at age 19. "It's my first outdoor race, and to run under two minutes was very good. If it were something like 2:03 or 2:05, I would be very disappointed. From here on it's going to be training and very tough races in the Golden League and then the World Championships."

Up front, Mutola avoided an ugly fall on the final backstraight involving Americans Hazel Clark and Frances Santin. As runner's jostled near 550 meters, Clark went down and as she tried to rise was stepped on by another runner. Santin also fell and after the race needed 20 stitches to close a cut on her leg.

Moving well when Clark and Santin went down beside her, American Alice Schmidt ran her way into fifth around the final turn and sprinted home fourth in 2:01.20.

"It's not my PR, but it's close," said Schmidt, who won a pair of NCAA 800 titles while at North Carolina. "Every week I'm getting faster, so I'm going in the right direction. At this point I haven't done too much speed, so I knew if I were going to finish where I wanted I would need to get in that spot... It feels good that I was that close to some of the world's best."

(Posted on June 5, 2005)