August 2002 Issue

USATF Championships

Stanford, California, June 21-23-Call them the nationals' nationals, if you will, the USATF Championships once each four years where winning the U.S. title is really and truly the focus, not a more generalized goal of finishing in the top 3 to earn an Olympic or Worlds berth.

The nation's best, with very few exceptions, gathered at Cobb Track/Angell Field to pursue that honor. Victors also earned spots, just one per event, on the team for the World Cup.

Prize money, awarded at the nationals for the first time last year, was increased, with payouts of $4000, $3000, $2000, $1000 and $500 for places 1-5, and since the finals-only World Cup will dole out $1000 even to last place finishers (ranging up to $30,000 for 1st) there was additional financial incentive.

As Marion Jones put it, "The nationals bring out the rejuvenated energy in everybody." Certainly that was so for the 22,490 fans who attended over three days and on Saturday and Sunday overflowed the...

(for more, including reports on every event, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Mo & Montgomery Get It On

by Sieg Lindstrom

"The 100m is actually a very easy race, if you make it easy. But in order to make it easy, you have to go through your phases, and you will arrive at the 100m mark very easily and not be as tired."

That's Maurice Greene's opinion, and he ought to know a thing or two about the event in which he holds the World Record and has both Olympic and World Championship golds.

But for weeks before this Nationals Tim Montgomery had been running his mouth, trying to make Greene's 100 a little less comfy (T&FN, June). To some extent he succeeded, though Greene welcomed their war.

While Greene sat stonefaced at a premeet press conference, Montgomery, never hitting below the belt, laid out his plan again: "I'm always striving to run faster than I ever have before," said the challenger. "And I'm hoping that he is going to run faster than he's ever run before. If everybody crosses the finish line together, God willing, it's going to be something fast. I'm sure he's not going to let me win; I'm sure I'm not going to let him win."

Greene's retort: "A lot of things have been said this year. Now it's time to put it all on the line, see what you've got."...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

The Subtle Superhero

Frequently overlooked as a U.S. distance-running great, Culpepper made people take notice

by Toby Cook

When discussion topics move-as they inevitably do-in the direction of the Justice League Of Superheroes, most comic-book conversationalists tend to forget the inclusion of one of the Superfriends-typically it's Aquaman.

In the Distance League Of The U.S., Alan Culpepper tends to get the Aquaman treatment. Despite having demonstrated remarkable consistency by finishing in the top 3 in either the 5 or 10K since '97 and making three Worlds teams and one Olympics, Culpepper is frequently overlooked.

After a terrific USATF double, including a victory in the 5K, fans everywhere should now have no trouble placing the lanky Colorado grad among the current standouts.

Prior to the 10K, Meb Keflezighi and Abdi Abdirahman had conversations about doing the necessary work, if need be, to ensure that the race was "fast."

Having a plan of his own, Culpepper toed the starting line "having in my mind I was going to run pretty fast, 27:45 pace, and was just hoping those guys would come along and...

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

4 In A Row For Leeper

by Jim Dunaway

Breakfasting at McDonald's with his pal Charles Austin, 25-year-old Nathan Leeper told a reporter, "You can write the headline right now: Leeper Wins Fourth National Championship."

That was bravado, he said later: "My lifting practices were going real well, but my jumping practices weren't." Still, he managed to win his second straight USATF outdoor title to go with his '01 and '02 indoor championships and make his headline come true. But it wasn't easy...

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

Women: Faces Familiar & New

Last year's Nationals was like old-home week for the women, with 11 of 20 Olympic Trials winners repeating as champion. This time, however, the number of first-time winners outnumbered the repeaters, 7-6.

The list of successful repeaters- Marion Jones 200, Regina Jacobs 1500, Marla Runyan 5000, Gail Devers 100H, Sandra Glover 400H, Stacy Dragila PV-read like a who's who ...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Runyan's Next Step Up

by Dan Lilot

When a "surprise" press conference to announce the debut marathon at New York by an American this fall was scheduled the day before the USATF Championships, T&FN staffers bandied about possibilities as to who the mystery runner could be.

Meb? Abdi? Gabe? Some other brave, young American? That no one guessed Marla Runyan should be forgiven, as the defending national 5K champ had previously only ventured onto the roads for one serious race, a 53:37 effort for 5th at this spring's Cherry Blossom 10-miler in Washington, D.C.

So why move up to the marathon when she has been performing better than ever on the oval?

"I'm 33 now and it's just the right time and right place," Runyan explains. "It'll be my first marathon, but not my last. The marathon is the ultimate challenge.

"I used to have problems with patience, but I've hopefully grown up quite a bit in the last five years ...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Perez Finds A Home

by Dan Lilot

It's almost too good a story to be true. From refugee to national champion in less than two years. And for those who saw the talented Yuliana Perez take the USATF triple jump title, the ending to this fairy tale is nowhere near.

When her mother was killed by a stray bullet in San Diego, Perez was sent to live with relatives in Havana at age 5.

She developed into the Cuban junior champion, but in '99 was dropped from the national squad after she refused to give up her American citizenship.

With help from the Swiss embassy, Perez obtained a U.S. passport and traveled back to her birthplace, Tucson, with nothing but a backpack full of clothes and a reservation at a foster home.

After serendipitously taking the wrong bus one day, the driver directed her toward his friend Mario Peña, the assistant coach at Tucson's Pima Community College. Peña introduced her to Pima coach John Radspinner.

"When I first met her she said she'd jumped 13.81 [45-33/4], which was 3 or 4 feet better than our school record," says Radspinner, who also teaches math at a local high school. "I went on the Internet when I got home and found a 13.79 [45-3] mark for her. Then on her first day of practice, even after a year off from jumping, I could tell she was something special.

"When we had Abdi [Abdirahman] here, I thought we'd never get another athlete like that," he laughs. ...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Nelson Takes Charge

by Sieg Lindstrom

Explosive in the shot circle in a banner year for American putting, Adam Nelson-the t-shirt-tossing caged tiger pacing about the ring-is remarkably calm and incisive in his post-meet assessment...

..."In the Olympic year [when he won the Trials followed by silver in Sydney] I was just happy to be there. Last year I had these expectations of, 'If I throw well, I should win,' and this year I go into every competition expecting to win and with the confidence to do that. It's taken a couple of years to change my own way of thinking about the competitions and to get the experience necessary."

Nelson insists that his ritual of throwing off his t-shirt and storming into the ring is nothing new. "For whatever reason, this year people are starting to notice it," he says ...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Richards' Magic Number

by Toby Cook

Sanya Richards is a recent graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, finishing her studies there with a 4.0 GPA and a particular fondness for all kinds of math. Says Richards, "I just love numbers."

Apparently, she has a new favorite set to mull over in her head. Those numbers would be, for obvious reasons, 50.69.

Those digits represent how long it took Richards to navigate the circumference of the track en route to the Junior 400 title.

Included in that subset are new High School and American Junior Records, surpassing the 2-year-old mark of 50.74 set by Monique Henderson, whom she also handily beat at the USATF Junior Championships.

Not only does that mark stand alone atop the youngster ranks, it...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Slo Mo in Oslo

by Brian Russell

Oslo, Norway, June 28-Oslo's history as a distance runner's paradise has been well documented, but with the recent addition of some exceptional sprint times, the Bislett Games have remained near the forefront of international meetings.

Nonetheless, in the kickoff affair of the '02 Golden League season, there was extra motivation for meet director Svein Arne Hansen to produce another top-flight edition. With the IAAF soon to decide which two meetings it will eliminate from the Golden League starting next year, the pressure is on.

The pressure was also on the marquee athletes from the get-go, as this year's GL jackpot of 50 kilos of gold will only go to those who have won in every meet, not just 5 of 7 like recent years.

The evening's main event, the men's 100, was worthy of any

championship final and quickly knocked a huge name out of jackpot contention...

Greene Doesn't Lose Many

Since he emerged as the world's No. 1-ranked century man in '98, Maurice Greene hasn't endured many losses in an event where the margin for error is so thin.

He won 8/12 finals in '98, 12 /13 in '99, 8/12 in '00, 7/7 in '01 and was 2/2 this year prior to Oslo. Overall, that's 37 of 46, an 80% winning mark. The Oslo loss stopped his winning streak ...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Teter Kicks To Big Win

by Ed Gordon

St.-Denis, France, July 5-The Gaz de France meeting in this suburb of Paris was a wet one, but after 6 world-leading marks came out of a program with 18 events, no one was complaining about lack of effort. That's a good average for any competition.

It may be Nicole Teter's initial GP Circuit tour, but the U.S. 800 champion has not only learned the international running style quickly but has also carried it into the longer distances. Tonight, she looked like an old pro as she outkicked Oslo winner Maria Cioncan over the last 70m of the 1500 to knock the Romanian out of the gold derby, 4:05.52-4:05.64.

"I stayed back at the beginning, but then I started to accelerate," said Teter, whose bold too-early move in Norway had seen her passed by five in the homestretch.

Her acceleration was remarkable, but it took a while to get fully underway...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

Big Post-Season High School Invitationals

Golden West: HSRs-Close But No Cigar

by Roy Conrad

Sacramento, California, June 8-High School Records in the men's 300H and women's pole vault and shot were severely threatened at the 43rd Golden West Invitational, as the venerable meet returned to a venue of years past, Sac State (site of the '00 Olympic Trials), moving from American River CC.

Even after an unfortunate callback and rerun in the 300H, Bershawn Jackson (Central, Miami) turned in a meet record 35.66 clocking, just 0.34 off the HSR and the eighth-fastest in prep history.

Since running 35.39 in mid-April, Jackson has been a threat to dip under George Porter's 35.32 standard, set in '85...

National Scholastic: Record-Setting Distances

by Roy Conrad

Raleigh, North Carolina, June 14-15-While a never-ending stream of men's sprinters from Texas and Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix on the women's side have made this seem like "the year of the sprinter," the stars of the adidas National Scholastic Invitational were a pair of distance aces...

(for more, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

From The Editor

by Garry Hill

LAST MONTH'S LIST OF MY 10 SECRETS to improving one's viewing of the sport included "Think of the sport as field & track." Anybody who was at Stanford for the Nationals and paid attention to coverboy Adam Nelson and his compatriots during the intense action in the shot surely knows what I meant. Watching people throw and jump can provide every bit as much excitement as a footrace, even if not as consistently.

The USATF men's shot was eye candy of the first order, from Nelson's crowd-pleasing pre-throw routine, to the rash of PRs to Nelson's getting the only men's meet records of the whole weekend.

As Nelson later noted in his IAAF Diary, "The crowd stayed put, stayed rowdy, stayed frenzied and stayed with us. The crowd clapped and encouraged all of the finalists to bigger and better things."

He's right-the atmosphere was rock-concert electric.

Why, then, did the competition leave me with such a sense of loss?...

(for the full opinion, read the August issue of Track & Field News)

And in the September issue: Teenagers' Turn To Shine

IT'S AN EVEN-NUMBERED YEAR, meaning that while the big boys continue to flog away at each other in the Golden League, the leading world's sub-20 athletes will be meeting at the World Junior Championships.

Unlike the meet's last edition, which was held so late in the year that Americans were a non-factor (and pictured Briton Mark Lewis-Francis was the sprint star), the U.S. team will be raring to go in Jamaica in July.

An even-numbered year also brings us two other huge international championship events, albeit ones sans Americans: the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships. Both are featured next time.

No matter what level of hot summer action you want to read about, the next issue of T&FN is the one and only place to read it.