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"Everyone in this field has run a 4:02," said Alan Webb after winning the men's mile in 4:01.07 on the second day of the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships. "In a 4:02 race, every single person is capable of winning it. Even 30 meters can make the difference. I didn't want to leave any doubt."
Even though there were three other former national champions in the field (Rob Myers, Gabe Jennings, and Chris Lukezic), Webb left little doubt who was in charge. From the moment he chopped his stride and forced Mark Thompson to take the early lead, through Gabe Jennings' aggressive move with three laps remaining, Webb had it under control. In the recovery area after the race, Webb approached Jennings, saying, "We were thinking the same thing, man. Three laps to go. If you hadn't gone, I was going to."
From 2:06 at halfway, Jennings knocked the pace down to 55-second 400 pace, and the race was on. "A 55-second 400 is hard off any pace," Webb observed, and the pack behind them scattered. Lukezic attempted to cover the move, with Myers on his heels, but it wasn't until the final lap that Jennings began to crack. When Webb moved by Jennings, Myers got by Lukezic into third and closed on second, finally catching Jennings at the line, 4:01.78 to 4:01.93.
"You made the race," Webb told Jennings, but it was still Webb's day.
Posted by Parker Morse at 9:07 a.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (0)
Nikeya Green won the women's 800m on Sunday afternoon at the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships as easily as if it had been scripted for her. Frances Santin jumped out to a big lead from the start, passing halfway in 59.39, but the third lap was too much for Santin, and by the time they reached the homestretch Green had closed the gap. Even before she took the lead it was clear that Green had speed she hadn't yet used, and Santin had used hers up. Green went by at the bell, and Santin went out the back, with the remaining three athletes in the race catching her so quickly they almost collided with her.
Christin Wurth-Thomas kicked hard to catch Green, but she was starting from too far back and couldn't close the gap. Green won in 2:02.68, a U.S. season leading time, to Wurth-Thomas's 2:03.70, with Mishael Berger and Lauren Austin third and fourth.
"The third lap was 'stay on it, keep on it,' and the fourth lap was 'go for it.' With my training, I knew I could close fast," said Green. "I've been working on taking risks and taking chances in my racing, and I think today showed the level of maturity I'm reaching in my racing. Our training is very big-picture type training, and 59-second and faster openers are something you have to get used to. Half-milers have to be comfortable with that kind of pace."
Posted by Parker Morse at 9:19 p.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (2)
Nick Symmonds has had a lot of attention this indoor season, particularly for an athlete in his first year out of college in an event which often punishes inexperience. Still, he has earned a lot of it. A 3:56 indoor mile clocking, a 1:48 800m win at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, and now a USA Indoor championship at 800m make Symmonds the most consistent winner in the men's middle distances this winter.
Nor is he a runner of only one race plan. In January, he waited until reaching the final homestretch to pass Sam Burley to win the Boston Indoor Games; today, he launched his attack at the bell, and held off a challenge from Burley on the backstretch before winning in 1:48.73 to Burley's 1:49.42.
"I was out of position a little bit, so I had to swing wide," reported Burley. "I'm 0 for 4 against Nick so far. He gets through 600m very smoothly, and really drives with 100m to go. But outdoors is a different sport, and we're going to have four or five guys under 1:45."
"I've been fortunate to race Sam a couple times since the Boston Indoor Games," said Symmonds, "and I knew it would take a big kick to beat him. This season has obviously been the most successful one of my life, and without Khadevis Robinson out here, I gave myself a good chance for the title. That's really what I've been going for all season; the other races have been training."
Posted by Parker Morse at 9:14 p.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (0)
Shayne Culpepper has a pair of U.S. indoor championships at 3,000m, and in 2004 she won the Olympic Trials 5,000m against a tough field. But now, in 2007, she's coming back down to the event where she made her first Olympic team, in 2000: the mile and 1,500m. She won the indoor mile title in 4:34.42 Saturday on the first day of the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
Culpepper admitted that the shift might be a little opportunistic. After all, the 1,500m she moved away from was dominated by the 12-year duel between Regina Jacobs and Suzy Favor Hamilton, and since then Jacobs' career has ended in disgrace and Hamilton has been pretty much invisible. But Culpepper also sees unrealized potential. "I feel like I'm so untapped in this event," she said after Saturday's victory. "With my 800m speed and my 5,000m PR, I feel like I can be competitive at the Olympics and the World Championships in this event. I'd like to run close to 4:00 in the 1,500m, if not under. As soon as I say that, it takes it away from me, but I do think my potential indicates that I should be able to run that."
"I'd like to have an 'A' standard in the 5,000m as well, but for Osaka my focus is on the 1,500m. One of the biggest scary things for me is the tactics, and being able to come out and practice that is really important."
Posted by Parker Morse at 7:31 p.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (0)
Matt Tegenkamp won his first national title as an open athlete (he won a cross country title as a junior in 2001) by simply outrunning everyone else in the 3,000m, just as he had been expected to do. Tegenkamp, who ran 7:40 earlier in the season, chose to run in the middle of the 14-athlete pack as Kyle King and Thomas Morgan of ZAP Fitness set a honest early pace (2:38 at the first 1,000m split, a 7:54 pace). Then, with Jon Riley (a three-time previous winner of this event) shadowing him, Tegenkamp worked through the pack, eventually breaking in to the lead just after the pack passed the mile mark and the pace threatened to lag.
After that, it was just about wearing out his remaining pursuers. Riley and second-seeded Sean Graham hung on to Tegenkamp as long as they could, but the always-gaunt Graham looked positively haunted as the other pair started to slip away from him. Riley, who has made a career by materializing championship coins from the ears of the people who underestimated him, wore the grim look of someone who knows his tricks aren't going to work. Tegenkamp entered the last lap with nobody on his shoulder; he won in 7:46.08, followed by Riley in 7:49.73 and Graham in 7:52.31 (a PR).
"I wanted to not run hard right from the gun," explained Tegenkamp. "I wanted to work my way up. [The fast seed time] gave me confidence coming in, knowing I could run my own race plan. It went out faster than I expected; I had expected a slower, more tactical race. I was confident that I could run with anybody in this race, and I didn't think anybody was going to get away from me."
"Winning a U.S. championship, no matter what it's in, is always a huge step, and it's a great thing."
Missing from the field was Bernard Lagat, who set the American record with a 7:32.43 just a week earlier in Birmingham, England.
Posted by Parker Morse at 7:28 p.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (0)
It almost feels unfair to mention Shalane Flanagan's winning margin in the 3,000m this evening, on the first day of the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships. After all, Lisa Galaviz, placing second in 9:10.75, was within a second of her PR, and did it by fighting a down-to-the-homestretch duel with relative unknown and former University of Texas runner Emily Field (third in 9:11.32). Galaviz, whose 9:11 seed time was a full 38 seconds slower than Flanagan's, admitted after the race, "We expected Shalane to run away with it from the beginning."
That she didn't might be a little to Galaviz's credit—she and Field led the first kilometer—but Flanagan is running spectacularly well, and nobody else in tonight's field is at the same level. After Galaviz and Field took the pack through a 3:05.14 first kilometer, Flanagan simply ran away from them, dropping the pace by two seconds per lap and hitting the second kilometer in 6:03.10 (a 2:58) before finishing in 8:56.74—23 seconds slower than her American Record from last month, but still a time nobody else in the field has approached. And she made it look easy. She admitted afterward, "I got kind of lazy. We were going to work on the last 800, then 400, then 200, but I really only worked the last 200."
"I'm trying out race tactics," Flanagan explained. "I usually don't sit; I'm pretty antsy. But I think my fitness level is allowing me to be a bit more confident about sitting." On the other hand, she also conceded, "I feel like at a championship meet, you need to put on a championship performance." She went on, "I knew my dad was sitting up there, and he hates any type of slow race when people are capable of running faster. I could hear him yelling, 'Faster!' So I really just felt pressure from my dad."
Flanagan sees her improvement at 3,000m this winter as encouragement for her 5,000m prospects outdoors. "For that [8:56] to feel so easy, I feel like I could have run another 2k. And that would have been a sub-15:00 5,000m. I'm looking forward to seeing where the training takes me."
Posted by Parker Morse at 10:45 p.m. | Tags: Race Reports, 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (0)
The 2007 USA Indoor Track & Field Championships will take place next weekend in Boston, Massachusetts. The current entry lists are available here.
Posted by Alison Wade at 10:59 a.m. | Tags: 2007 USA Indoor T&F Champs | Comments (0)