April 2002 Issue

Hartwig On A Hot Streak

by Jon Hendershott

Jeff Hartwig had to choose: miss the USATF Indoor for only the second time in nine years, or opt for a late-season trip to Europe for some top-level vault meets.

As much as he wants to support U.S. track by competing in the indoor nationals, the 34-year-old veteran took the advice of coach Earl Bell and headed across the Atlantic. He won all four of his meets-three at American Record settings...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Geb vs. Tergat: A Race For The Ages

Steven Downes profiles Haile Gebrselassie and Sean Hartnett looks at Paul Tergat as the two distance legends prep for their April 14 showdown in the London Marathon.

Getting ready for round 23: If Geb/Tergat were a boxing match, the Ethiopian would have been declared the winner ages ago. The superstar pair met at least once every year 1993-00, missed last year, then met again in March of this year, with Gebrselassie forging a commanding 20-2 overall lead.

The record at various distances: 3000-Geb 1-0; 5000-Geb 5-0; 10,000-Geb 6-0; road 10K-Geb 5-0; half-marathon: Geb 1-0; World Cross 12K-tied 2-2.

Gebrselassie currently enjoys an 11-meet win streak, Tergat's last triumph coming at the '96 World Cross, where Geb was 5th...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Vol Men Ride Superstar Power To Win NCAA Title

by Dan Lilot

Fayetteville, Arkansas, March 8-9-After Tennessee received the award for winning the NCAA Men's Indoor Championships, each Vol, camera in hand, bounced with excitement waiting to have his picture taken with the tall trophy.

Two weeks prior, the Randal Tyson Track Center had played host to a stirring SEC Championships which saw host Arkansas hoist the trophy while the runner-up Volunteers looked on.

The difference? Stars. At the NCAA, unlike a conference meet, it's not depth that counts. It's the superstars who can score the big points. Sure, an 8th here and there can add up, but not as much as a double winner like Justin Gatlin.

Said Tennessee head coach Bill Webb, "At the SEC meet we heard 'Pig Sooiee' several times. That meet is like a war and it helped us to compete like warriors here. What it came down to was we had more bullets to shoot."

Tennessee's winning total of 62.5 proved to be too much firepower for SEC rivals Alabama (47), LSU (44) and Arkansas (39), who went 2-3-4.

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Justin Gatlin Doubles Again

by Jon Hendershott

What's good for Justin Gatlin at an NCAA Championships outdoors obviously suits him just as well indoors.

At the '01 outdoor affair, the then-19-year-old Tennessee frosh exploded to stardom with his 100/200 double victory, becoming the first yearling to dash for the double in 25 years. Gatlin's 10.08 century tied the American Junior Record. He added a leg on the 2nd-place 4x1 as the Volunteers rolled to their first team title in a decade.

So undercover this year, the now-barely-20 Gatlin became the first American to claim both the short dash and 200 at the NCAA Indoor.

Gatlin wrapped up his starring role with a 47.3 leadoff on the runner-up 4x4 in pacing Tennessee to its first indoor team crown ever.

There was one difference between Eugene and Fayetteville, though: at the Indoor, Gatlin snuck up on exactly nobody. As Vol head coach Bill Webb notes, "After outdoors last year, Justin isn't going to surprise anyone."...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

LSU Women Finally Get NCAA Team Title No. 9

by Dan Lilot

Fayetteville, Arkansas, March 8-9-Of the first 15 team titles awarded at the women's NCAA Indoor Championships, which began in '83, LSU won a whopping 8. But then after a pair of runner-up finishes the Tigers slipped to 4th and then-almost unbelievably-to =14th last year, as UCLA dominated the last two affairs.

But this year Pat Henry's squad seemed to know they were due for another victory. With their sprint and jumps corps leading the way, the Tigers amassed 57 points to easily relegate the Bruins to 2nd (43) with Florida (35) and South Carolina (31) next.

"We needed a solid effort in every area this weekend and we got it," said Henry, who has led LSU's women to 19 national titles in or out during his tenure in Baton Rouge. "We were consistent and got a few surprises and that's what it takes to win this event."

Of no surprise to anyone was the fine double turned in by soph sprint ace Muna Lee...

Said Henry, "Muna Lee is the real deal. That's an absolutely amazing time for someone of any age to run, forget that she is only a sophomore."...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

USATF Champs Escape To New York

by Rich Sands

New York City, March 1-2-Size doesn't matter; good things come in small packages. Pick a cliché. Any cliché. Chances are it could apply to the 2002 USATF Indoor Championships, which returned "home" to New York City after an eight-year sojourn in Atlanta.

Held at the cozy Armory Track & Field Center in upper Manhattan, the meet regained much of the intimacy that was lacking in the colossal Georgia Dome. The compact architecture at the Armory created an intense interaction between athletes and spectators-who were literally packed to the building's rafters.

This being a year with no World Indoor, a few events were somewhat lackluster. But there were some spectacular-if unexpected-performances to grab headlines: Nicole Teter's brilliant American Record run in the 800 and a mammoth Collegiate Record long jump of 28-21/4 from Miguel Pate...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Nicole Teter A Team Player

by Rich Sands

A decade ago it seemed as if Nicole Teter might be the future of American women's middle-distance running. But the '91 U.S. Junior 800 champ took a long and winding road to the top and it wasn't until she took up Farm life last fall that her career finally got on the fast track. The "Farm," of course, is the Stanford-based Nike Farm Team, a group that provided the 28-year-old Teter with some much-needed structure in her training.

The results have been almost immediate, culminating with a national indoor title in American Record time...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Feofanova Gets World Record No. 5

by Ed Gordon

Vienna, Austria, March 1-3-Three hours of indoor track doesn't get much better than that offered by the final session of the European Indoor Championships, as duels seemed to ooze from virtually every start list, and such heated battles helped produce two World Records.

Russian vaulter Svetlana Feofanova, after setting four WRs in February, found herself in danger of losing her first meet of the year as Yvonne Buschbaum cleared a German Record 15-3 on her first try.

Making that setting on her second jump, Feofanova kept things alive as the bar went to 15-5. The plot thickened as Feofanova, jumping ahead of the upstart German, needed her three tries to clear and again avoid defeat.

Buschbaum missed twice, then passed her last jump to take one crack at a WR 15-7 (4.75) to pull out the win. She failed, but Feofanova didn't, adding a half-inch to her own record with a successful first attempt....

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Jolanda Ceplak's Rapid Rise

by Bob Ramsak

While Jolanda Ceplak gained some measure of recognition after she ranked No. 10 in the world in the 800 last year, her rise to World Record holder has been nothing short of meteoric.

She came into the '02 season with bests of 1:58.71 outdoors and 1:59.81 indoors. Both were immediately lowered with a 1:57.79 in Boston. She then improved to 1:57.18 in Gent before her shocker in Vienna....

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

15K American Record For Deena Drossin

Jacksonville, Florida, March 9-Deena Drossin showed last fall's foray into the marathon hasn't slowed her any, setting an American Record over 15K at the Gate River Run as she and Meb Keflezighi defended their USATF titles.

Temperatures rising to 80 and high humidity were no deterrent as Drossin, 29, busted a 4:55 mile from the gun and proceeded to drop Jen Rhines after 5km and Elva Dryer in the fifth mile en route to a 48:12 win.

Drossin's time over the 9.32M route cut 16 seconds from the AR set by Lisa Weidenbach at the '89 Cascade Run Off. That's 32:08 pace for 10,000...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

U.S. Men In 800 Drought

by Sieg Lindstrom

No race is less forgiving than the 800, although some think the 400H can give it a run. The 2-lapper stands tall as track's sternest disciplinarian. It's longer than a sprint but too short and quick for pacing mistakes-run too fast too early and it'll whack you like a schoolmarm swinging a ruler. Plan your tactics around a "kick" in a top-level 8 and you'll be watching the finish from a back-row seat on the homestretch.

The 800 asserts itself demandingly, but not neatly. The race is occasionally about elbows well aimed. It is tangents to the pole and boxes to swerve out of. A bipedal horse race, the 800 is not an orderly contest in lanes.

Nationalistically speaking, the 800 used to be a U.S. showcase. We didn't necessarily own it in the same sense we did the long jump or pole vault, but its territory was often ours. Americans from James Lightbody to Dave Wottle won 8 of 13 Olympic titles 1904-72. Six of those U.S. victories were in Olympic Record time.

Since Lon Myers became the first U.S. World Record holder in the event, clocking 1:561/8 for 880y in 1880, Americans broke or tied the world standard 24 times (counting intrinsically superior improvements on the longer 880y record) through Rick Wohlhuter's 1:44.1y in '74.

In the first 34 years of the T&FN World Rankings, Americans pulled in 11 No. 1 ratings. But the last No. 1 was Don Paige in '80, more than two decades ago.

And since T&FN's inception following the '47 season, Americans have led the yearly list 14 times. But the most recent was Johnny Gray a decade ago.

As for medals, Wottle won his Olympic gold three decades ago. Gray's bronze in '92 was as close as any American has come to gold since Rick Wohlhuter's bronze in '76. In Sydney, for the first time ever, no American made it as far as the semifinals...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

Double Nationals Finish Off High School Indoor

Let's pose the same question we did in this space last year: are two nationals better than one? Once again the indoor season closed with dueling "national championship" meets. Those who want to see true national champions hate the fact that they go head-to-head. On the other side of the coin are those who think that at this level it's better to expose twice as many kids to such elite competition.

The National Scholastic meet again clearly had the edge in marks, although much of that can be attributed to the fact that unlike the Nike Classic it was conducted on a banked track.

One thing neither meet could claim was hot performances from Stacey Ann Livingston, previously the hottest performer on the circuit. She was felled by the flu and went down at the finish of the National Scholastic sprint medley...

(for more, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

From The Editor

Question: are the timetables at the Nationals hampering the U.S.'s international effort?...

(for the full opinion, read the April Issue of Track & Field News)

And in the May issue...

Don't miss our informative NCAA Preview, with a 10-deep formchart for each event, giving you the best guide possible to what's going to happen in Baton Rouge at season's end. Off the track, the Boston-London-Rotterdam axis will provide us with a wealth of marathon news.