USATF Championships Day 3 Recap

EDITOR'S NOTE: AnnGaff and LesleyHiggins are blogging about the USA Track & Field Championships, taking place this weekend in Eugene, OR, based on their firsthand Track & Field experience.  Gaffigan and Higgins competed against each other in college, with Gaffigan representing the Nebraska Huskers and Higgins representing the Colorado Buffs. Both women competed last year in the 3000m Steeplechase at the Olympic Trials.  This year, the two are spectators-from-afar of the USATF Championships/World Team Trials; Higgins is out with a broken foot and Gaffigan gave birth to a baby girl in May.

First, developments on the steeplechase drama:

It has been announced that Nicole Bush has an avulsion fracture of the cuboid bone in her right foot. It's hard to wholly blame an extra 3-6 inches on the height of the barrier (there has been no official determination of the error in height). It was probably due to a perfect storm of a few factors. Besides the extra heigh of the barrier, she may have had a brewing fracture waiting to happen. An avulsion fracture occurs when the tendon or ligament pulls off a piece of the bone. An extra three inches of falling and an awkward landing may or maybe not have been enough to cause this if her foot wasn't already under stress. The third factor that I think was actually more to blame than the extra 3-6 inches is that the USATF officials also failed completely fill up the water pit.

I can tell you from personal experience that while running the steeplechase, it is not possible to see the ground beneath the water. The first time I landed in a water pit I immediately fell to my knees. However, with repetition, the brain learns to judge the distance of the fall under the water. Filling the water pit at least 2-inches below the surface likely caused Bush's miscalculation in her landing. Falling from the extra height exazerbated the problem.

USATF CEO Doug Logan promised Bush help in rehab and recovery, and also assured her she would be atop the list for post-collegiate athlete development programs (read: please don't sue us). While her dreams of making the World team this year are clearly off the list, hopefully this incident won't compromise her opportunities for sponsorship as a graduating senior.

Moving on...

FINALS:

1500m:

1 Shannon Rowbury 4:05.07
2 Christin Wurth 4:06.00
3 Anna Willard 4:07.70
4 Erin Donohue 4:08.96
5 Treniere Clement 4:09.10
6 Lauren Centrowitz 4:11.21
7 Heidi Dahl 4:11.58
8 Molly Lehman 4:12.13
9 Amy Mortimer 4:12.94
10 Margaret Infeld 4:13.25
11 Sarah Bowman 4:16.29
12 Lauren Hagans 4:17.05

This race started out slow and stayed pretty bunched up for 700m, coming through in right around 2:00, before Christin Wurth-Thomas opened up a huge gap on the field with a 62.25 second 3rd lap. Shannon Rowbury responded with a 60.3 second lap to close, passing Wurth-Thomas with about 50m to go. This is the Rowbury that we had become accustomed to seeing last year and shows great promise going into the IAAF championships in Berlin.

Anna Willard ran just fast enough to finish ahead of Erin Donohue and secure her spot on the World team, keeping her eye on the big screen down the home-stretch. She has her final race of the weekend today, the 3000m steeplechase at 1:14pm.

On a seperate note, during the live coverage of this race, Larry Rawson told a story before the race about how Wurth-Thomas's coach told her to lose 5lbs or he would be forced to retire her, and after successfully losing those 5lbs, her best performances followed. I would like to take a moment to quote my favor sports physiologist, Dr. David Martin. "Get fit, and you won't be fat." It is a shame that Rawson attributes Wurth-Thomas's recent success to a minor drop in body weight, rather than hard work and consistency.

Javelin:

1 Kara Patterson 63.95m / 209-10
2 Rachel Yurkovich 59.31m / 194-07
3 Kim Kreiner 58.00m / 190-03

The top-3 entrants composed the top-3, finishing in neither the order of their seeds nor the order that I attempted to predict. Currently Patterson and Yurkovich will be on the World team heading to Berlin. Kreiner will have to achieve the A-standard in order to join them.

400m hurdles:

1 Lashinda Demus 53.78 (Hayward Field record)
2 Sheena Tosta 54.45
3 Tiffany Williams 55.18
4 Ebony Collins 55.64
5 Nicole Leach 55.72
6 Deserea Brown 57.33
7 Latosha Wallace 57.47
8 Jennifer Grossarth 57.61

Lashinda Demus and Sheena Tosta have the top-3 times in the World right now and should represnt the USA well. Tiffany Williams may not have reached the form that she was in last year, but she secured her spot on the World team heading to Berlin.

400m:

1 Sanya Richards 50.05
2 Debbie Dunn 50.79
3 Jessica Beard 50.81
4 Natasha Hastings 50.89
5 Shareese Woods 51.05
6 Monica Hargrove 51.60
7 Dominique Darden 52.19
8 Keshia Baker 52.47

Sanya Richards threw down a dominating performance and has clearly erased the mishap of 2007 (maybe it's time to stop talking about it now?). She is on the top of the World list and hopes to return to sub-49 shape soon.

ROUNDS:

200m (first round of 3):

1 Allyson Felix 22.58
2 LaShauntea Moore 22.60
3 Charonda Williams 22.65
4 Porscha Lucas 22.77
5 Marshevet Hooker 22.81
6 Ebonie Floyd-Broadnax 22.87

AnnGaff's top-3 picks all made it through to the next round with automatic qualifying spots and none of the top-seeds failed to move on. The semi-final is today (Sunday), June 28 at 12:24pm and the final is at 2:43.

USATF Championships Schedule, Results & Quotes

USATF Championships Day 1 Recap

USATF Championships Day 2 Recap

USATF Championships Day 3 Recap

USATF Championships Day 4 Recap

More USATF Championships Previews:

• Discus
• Hammer
• High Jump
• Javelin
• Long Jump
• Pole Vault
• Triple Jump
• Shot Put
• Heptathlon
• 100m
• 100m Hurdles
• 200m
• 400m
• 400m Hurdles
• 800m
• 1500m
• 3000m Steeplechase
• 5000m
• 10,000m

Watch the USATF Championships:

On TV:

ESPN, June 26, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. ET
ESPN, June 27, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. ET
NBC, June 28, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. ET

Online:

LIVE All Weekend at Flotrack.org

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AnnGaff

This is not the first time I've heard Rawson comment on a female athlete's weight. It's as if he can't help himself. Someone needs to tell him it's highly inappropriate.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 2:42pm PDT