February 2004 Issue

Five Big Questions:

Can An American Man Make The Olympic 1500 Final In Athens?

by Sieg Lindstrom

Jason Pyrah showed it could be done in Sydney. Paul McMullen suggested as much in Edmonton. Yet Atlanta eight years ago and Paris just last summer tell us global championship finals in the glamorous men's 1500 can just as easily go off without a Yank on the line these days.

That hurts. Miling—be it the metric or the yard version—is something most American fans would like to believe we can do. We medaled in the first six modern Olympics and struck gold in 1904 and ’08.

While it is true that no U.S. 1500 man has medaled since Jim Ryun in ’68, as recently as ’88 (Jim Spivey in Barcelona) and ’92 (Steve Scott in Seoul) we had milers who could finish top 5. Can we at least get back to that?

"I think…

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

How Will Marion Jones Bounce Back From Maternity Leave?

by Jon Hendershott

“She is definitely needed in the sport,” says Marion Jones’s agent, Charles Wells.

The superstar sprinter herself confirms, “After a year out of competition having a baby, I feel it is important to get back onto the track at the earliest opportunity…

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

Can Geb Make It Three Olympic Golds In A Row?

by Sieg Lindstrom

“Gebrselassie never lost,” a retired athlete told T&FN not long ago, as if remembering the promise of the Nash-Kelvinator/Hudson Motorcar merger that created American Motors in ’54—his tone, though admiring, said defunct, defunct, defunct. “No matter how fast the pace went, no matter what the Kenyans did, he would just hang and blow their doors off,” our friend reminisced. “Now he’s over the hill.”

“But… but… but,” this T&FN staffer spluttered back, that 12:58 second 5K in Paris last summer still seared brilliantly on the retinas.

“I’m not saying he’s not super-stellar and won’t continue to win tons of races and still have many more years in his career,” our source reassured.

“I am telling you that his 26-year-old self would kick his 31-year-old self all day long. He’s over the hill. Now it’s just a replay of things that have been done. There’s going to be no more record-breaking, no more expanded stuff, no more interesting things.”

Perhaps this is so, although Geb himself begs to differ. His motivation appears…

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

Olympic Trials Preview: Rating The U.S. Milers

by Sieg Lindstrom

Who are you picking to make the U.S. team in the men’s 1500? Not an easy question, is it? All U.S. fans hope our guys can step it up a notch from the status quo of recent years. But few can deny the Olympic Trials race projects as a puzzler.

“I think it’s going to depend on who’s hot going into the Trials,” says Vin Lananna, who coached Stanford alums to places 1, 3 and 4 in the OT last time round and will serve as men’s middle-distance coach in Athens.

Lananna also predicts, “We’re going to see a resurgence of our 1500m runners this year. I think we’ll have a lot of guys with the standard. My hope is we’ll get all three to the finals in Athens, but I’m confident we’re going to have two.”

Let’s hope. But which two or three? The last eight Nationals 1500s have had seven different winners, with only Seneca Lassiter (’97 and ’02) winning two.

And with the four most recent editions having seen 10 different runners place in the top 3—and only Lassiter (also 2nd in ’01) and Bryan Berryhill (2nds in ’02 and ’03) repeating—it is easy to understand current champ Jason Lunn’s sentiment:

“The person I’m most scared about is the guy who’s like I was in 2000; the guy who’s not even supposed to make it into the final; the guy who’s not even expected to be in the top 15 and is just coming alive and unglued in the Trials.”…

To classify the contenders, we find the paradigm laid out by ’88 Trials champion Jeff Atkinson as helpful as any.

“My rule of thumb,” says Atkinson, “is there’s a vet, a journeyman and a surprise. Every time.”

OK, maybe not last time…

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

Coming Off The Shelf

Lojo’s Litany

by Jon Hendershott

After eight straight years of his being a 19-footer, it was shocking to find Lawrence Johnson buried deep in the ’03 U.S. vault list at 17-9. The ’00 Olympic silver medalist, the ’01 World Indoor champion and No. 2 American all-time (19-71/2 in ’96), Lojo hadn’t had a season best that low since his senior year in high school, ’92.

Yet Johnson indeed shared slot No. 30 on the ’03 compilation after a year he terms simply “marred by injury and financial difficulties.” The disruptions contributed to his on-again/off-again season, which included a no-height at the USATF Championships. …

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

by Sieg Lindstrom

Tim Broe knows this drill. The ’03 USATF 5K champ is running again after December foot surgery, but as of late January was limited by pain to 30 minutes every other day—a start toward the season not unlike last year’s, in which injuries delayed the commencement of hard training.

In fact, the surgery was an end result of…

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

Where They Are Going: Prize Recruit Andra Manson

by Rich Sands

Andra Manson likes to let his high jumping do the talking. And as the reigning world Junior champion he certainly has that prerogative. But the metaphorical shouting of Manson’s ’02 season quickly diminished to a whisper last year.

Almost two years ago now, the Brenham, Texas, native won the IAAF’s Junior title with a stunning 7-7 clearance. An American Junior Record in addition to being an all-time prep best, it followed three previous PRs that night and helped cinch Manson’s claim to High School Athlete Of The Year honors.

But after failing to meet the NCAA’s academic requirements Manson opted out of his commitment to attend Arkansas. Instead, he stuck closer to home—Austin is about an hour away from Brenham—and started taking classes at Texas a year ago. Manson refuses to discuss his long and winding road to ’04.

“That’s in the past,” he says in a barely audible voice…

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

Rating The Recruiting Classes

No. 2. Texas (you didn’t think we’d give away our No. 1 pick here, did you?)

Bubba Thornton scored big on the top end when he nabbed AOY runner-up do-it-all Donovan Kilmartin (13.86, 7-2, 17-4 1/2, 24-10 1/2, 7131) and added the ’02 AOY, 7-7 national high jump record holder Andra Manson (see p. 35). Kilmartin will get vault backup from Brandon McFarling (16-10), while Alan Bean (37.01) and Demarcus Harris (52.9) provide depth in the long hurdles.…

(for more on our top 5s for both men and women, read the February Issue of Track & Field News)

Drug Wars: USOC Threatens USATF

THE USOC is threatening to withhold funding from USATF until the federation agrees to provide further information about the ’99 exoneration of 400 runner Jerome Young after a positive steroid test.

The threat was leveled, according to the Los Angeles Times, in a December letter from USOC President Bill Martin to USATF President Bill Roe and CEO Craig Masback.…