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USA Track & Field, the national governing
body of track & field, race walking
and long distance running, on Sunday submitted
its nominations for the 2004 U.S. Olympic
Team in the sport of track & field
to the United States Olympic Committee.
It is a preliminary roster that will be
finalized on August 9, the deadline for
athletes to achieve the Olympic "A"
standards in their events.
It is an extremely potent combination
of experienced Olympic medalists, exciting
young athletes and emerging stars. Among
the athletes scheduled to represent Team
USA at the Olympic Games in Athens are
past Olympic gold medalists Allen Johnson,
Gail Devers, Maurice Greene, Marion Jones,
Stacy Dragila, Angelo Taylor, Jearl Miles-Clark,
Monique Hennagan and LaTasha Colander.
Other Olympic medalists on the roster
include Adam Nelson, John Godina, Melissa
Morrisson and Terrence Trammell.
A promising group of young people add
their potential medal winning talent to
the team as well including: 21-year-old
Alan
Webb, 18-year-old Allyson
Felix, 19-year-old Sanya
Richards, 22-year-old Justin
Gatlin, 20-year-old Lauryn
Williams, 21-year-old Sheena
Johnson, 20-year-old Jeremy
Wariner and a host of other 20-to-22
year-olds.
Related News:
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Alan Webb strikes
a victorious pose after romping past
the 1,500-meter field. Webb finished
more than two seconds ahead in 3 minutes,
36.13 seconds.
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We'll gladly pin our hopes on
'crazy man'
Monday, July 19, 2004
The Kenyans will think he's crazy.
The Moroccans will think he's nuts.
If he pulls a stunt like this in Athens,
all of the competitive distance-running
world will think Alan Webb has been running
in circles for so long that he's finally
lost it.
And you know what?
Webb might just be on to something.
The most significant moment of the Olympic
trials arrived Sunday when Webb, the most
talented U.S. distance runner, made an
unexpected and equally explosive move
in the men's 1,500-meter final.
Webb, the heavy favorite, burst into
a flat-out sprint with 800 meters to go.
He left the pack behind. And if spectators
weren't so fascinated by the spectacle
of seeing a man being chased by a wide-eyed
mob, I'm guessing someone would have fitted
Webb for a straightjacket right then and
there.
It was 102 degrees on the track.
Webb had never qualified for an Olympic
Games.
He owned the best kick in the field.
Still, the 21-year old decided the halfway
mark -- the halfway mark, for crying out
loud -- was the perfect place to make
his breakaway move.
"I was shooting for a 'wow' effect,"
Webb said.
Well, wow.
What we ended up with was the most interesting
3 minutes, 36 seconds in the eight days
of trials competition. It came just in
time, too. Spectators were starting to
wonder if we'd ever stop talking about
drugs and cheats. They were thirsting
for something authentic and inspiring
to cheer for.
Webb gave it to them.
"It was the hardest, strongest move
I've ever seen in a race," said Charlie
Gruber, who finished second.
It was a psychological ploy, of course.
If Webb was just out for a good shock,
he could have stripped naked and climbed
a lamppost. But that wouldn't have won
him the race.
The early move was something Webb and
his coach, Scott Raczko, agreed upon in
a meeting of the 1,500-meter minds Saturday.
They felt so good about the strategy,
so confident that no other American could
stay with him, they didn't even discuss
it Sunday.
Said Raczko: "We figured the other
runners might try to go with him, but
if they did, that would have been fine
with us. We wanted to move decisively."
One runner tried to go with Webb, of
course.
This race was pitted as Webb versus Michael
Stember, remember?
Stember, a Sacramento native and crowd
favorite, edged Webb in their semifinal
Friday and declared, "This is my
track."
Well, this isn't Stember's track anymore.
He finished 11th.
"I should have let him do his thing,"
Stember said. "It was a mistake because
it was going to take a special performance
to take Webb down."
What we're talking about is a rare blend
of physical ability, race strategy and
pain tolerance.
Said Webb: "If someone was going
to catch me, they were going to have to
hurt as badly as I was."
Webb, you should know, suffered a ruptured
appendix a couple of years ago. He waited
three agonizing days before he called
a doctor. And he did that only because
he was supposed to fly to Europe for a
race the following morning.
"I didn't want my intestines to
burst on the plane."
So, are the Kenyans listening? How about
Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj, the world
record holder and self-proclaimed "King
of the Metric Mile"?
There's a crazy man on the loose.
He's carrying the Olympic hopes of America
with him.
"I'm going to Athens," Webb
said. "I've been waiting for this
moment my entire life."
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Fleet
Feet Menu
Week
two of the You might be a runner
promotion is underway at Fleet
Feet Sports.
The
Sporthill Women's Performance Clinic scheduled
for this Wednesday, July 21st has been postponed
to Wednesday, July 28th due to a scheduling
conflict. 
