Post-2012 Olympics and Pre-2013 World Championships

The 2012 track & field season is just about over. The London Olympics came to an end over a month ago and the final Diamond League meet of the season took place in Brussels last week. Two news items that serve to close out the 2012 season and get us thinking about 2013 recently caught my attention.

Shortly after winning the Olympic shot put competition, Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus was stripped of her gold medal because she failed a drug test. Ostapchuk was tested for drugs sixteen times between April and the start of the Olympics and passed every test. Her last test that showed no drugs was on July 30. She was tested when she arrived in the Olympic village in London and again after the shot put competition on August 6. Both these tests showed she had an anabolic steroid in her system. Ostapchuk denied using steroids but was disqualified nonetheless.

After some investigating, it is now being reported that Ostapchuk’s coach, Alexander Yefimov, has admitted that without her knowledge he “spiked” her food with the banned drug metenolone after the July 30 test because he was worried that she was not performing well.

Athletes are responsible for anything they ingest or that is found in their bodies so Ostapchuk is still disqualified from the Olympics, but her drug ban has been reduced from two years to one year. The coach, Yefimov, has been suspended for four years.

Who knows how much of the story of the “spiked” food without her knowledge is true. If the reported facts are true it seems that the penalty for Ostapchuk is fair, but if so, I think Yefimov should be banned for life for such an unsportsmanlike act. It’s certainly interesting final news from the Olympics.

Now we turn our attention towards the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. Countries will have the usual allotment of sending up to three athletes, with the required standard per event, to compete. An exception is that 2011 World Champions and 2012 Diamond League winners are granted a wild card entry into the 2013 World Championships. That means countries could have a fourth athlete in an event. For example in the women’s 1500 meters, Jenny Simpson of the USA, gets a wild card entry into the World Championships so the USA can send Simpson and three other runners in the women’s 1500 meters. Another example is in the men’s shot put where USA thrower Reese Hoffa won the 2012 Diamond League competition. The USA can send Hoffa and three others to the 2013 World Championships in the shot put.

However, countries cannot send five entries in an event. In the rare instance that the 2011 World Champion and 2012 Diamond League winner is from the same country but are a different person, each country’s national federation will have to decide who gets the automatic wild card entry. There are five instances where this happened, all in men’s events.

	Country	2011 World Champ	2012 Diamond League Winner
100 meters	Jamaica	Yohan Blake	Usain Bolt
200 meters	Jamaica	Usain Bolt	Nickel Ashmeade
110 hurdles	USA	Jason Richardson	Aries Merritt
1500 meters	Kenya	Asbel Kiprop	Silas Kiplagat
3000 steeplechase	Kenya	Ezekiel Kemboi	Paul Koech

Bolt (standing behind the others) is the 2012 Diamond League Champion in the 100 and Blake (furthest to the left) is the 2011 World Champion in the 100.

It will be interesting to see how the three national track & field federations, Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), United States of America Track & Field (USATF), and Athletics Kenyan (AK), handle this unique situation. Usain Bolt has already stated that in the 100 meters he will give up his wild card spot to Yohan Blake but in the 200 meters he will await a decision from the JAAA. The coach for both Bolt and Blake, Glen Mills, has recently criticized the IAAF for limiting the wild cards. Mills complains that athletes who have fulfilled the requirements to earn a wild card entry by either winning the 2011 World Championship or the 2012 Diamond League competition are being punished because someone from their own country was successful.

In four of these events, the national federations could use the 2012 Olympics as the tie-breaker. If that were the case, Bolt (100 and 200), Merritt (110H), and Kemboi (steeplechase) would get the wild card as the Olympic champion in that event. AK would still have to use a different tie-breaker in the men’s 1500 meters.

Will Kemboi (in 5th place in this photo) get the wild card spot for Kenya in the steeplechase?

Four athletes won both the 2011 World Championship and 2012 Diamond League. Those double winners are Amantle Montsho (BOT) in the women’s 400, Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) in the women’s 5000, Valerie Adams (NZL) in the women’s shot put (Adams was awarded the gold after Ostapchuk failed a post-competition drug test  – see above), and Christian Taylor (USA) in the men’s triple jump. If you add the 2012 Olympic results to the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Diamond League results, only Adams and Taylor made a clean sweep of all three competitions.

There are twelve Olympic champions who are not receiving a wild card entry into the 2013 World Championships because they neither won the 2011 World Championship nor the 2012 Diamond League competition. They are:

1. 1.       Taoufik Makhloufi (ALG), men’s 1500
2. 2.       Felix Sanchez (DOM), men’s 400H
3. 3.       Greg Rutherford (GBR), men’s long jump
4. 4.       Ivan Ukhov (RUS), men’s high jump
5. 5.       Tomasz Majewski (POL), men’s shot put
6. 6.       Keshorn Walcott (TRI), men’s javelin
7. 7.       Allyson Felix, (USA), women’s 200
8. 8.       Sanya Richards-Ross (USA), women’s 400
9. 9.       Asli Cakir (TUR), women’s 1500
10. 10.   Meseret Defar (ETH), women’s 5000
11. 11.   Natalya Antyukh (RUS), women’s 400H
12. 12.   Jenn Suhr (USA), women’s pole vault

These are some quality athletes, who will have to fight for their spot in Moscow via their national governing body’s qualifying procedures. Not included in this list are the hammer throwers, decathletes/heptathletes, and 10,000 meter and marathon runners, whose event are not part of the Diamond League series.

Click below on “Wild Card Entries_13″ for a full list of winners by event from the 2011 World Championships, 2012 Diamond League series, and 2012 Olympics.

Wild Card Entries_13

The 2013 track & field season is still a long way away but there are some interesting stories developing already.

The Greatest Race

Results of the 2012 Olympic Men’s 800 Meters

The Olympic Men’s 800 meters was one of the greatest races I have ever seen. Not only did the winner, David Rudisha set a World Record, but there was a world junior record and an Ethiopian national record set as well.

Moments before the race on August 9, 2012, I leaned over and told Malinda, “If there was ever a distance event where we could see a World Record in the Olympic Final, this is it.” A few minutes later, Rudisha made me look like a psychic.

They’re off in the Olympic Men’s 800…..the race that will go down as the greatest 800 meter race EVER!

As soon as the gun sounded to start the race, Rudisha sprinted out hard. He managed to hold off Abubaker Kaki to claim the inside position and the lead after they cut in. Rudisha came through the first 200 meters in 24 seconds and hit the halfway mark at 49 seconds. He was definitely on World Record pace. What was interesting, however, was that the field was not getting left in his jetstream. Rudisha was running really really fast but the other seven runners were getting pulled along to some fast times, too. When Rudisha hit 600 meters at 1:14, my head almost exploded as I tried to calculate what kind of time he was on pace to run.

My eyes then shifted to the rest of the pack. American Duane Solomon was positioned in sixth place but appeared ready to make a move for a medal. The other American, Nick Symmonds, had been in last place for most of the race and was still there with 100 meters to go but then seemed to come alive and he, too, was making a sprint to get a medal. I screamed for Solomon. I screamed for Symmonds. Then I heard the crowd, that had already been deafening loud, get even louder. I looked to the left to see that Rudisha had finished and then I checked the time on the scoreboard. It initially read “unofficial 1:41.0.” Rudisha owned the previous World Record of 1:41.01 so if the time held, he would have World Record by .01 seconds. A few seconds later the official time flashed on the scoreboard and it was even faster. 1:40.91! Rudisha had become the first runner to ever break 1:41 in the 800 meters. To put that in perspective, prior to this race, besides Rudisha, only three other runners had ever broken 1:42 (Wilson Kipketer, Sebastian Coe, and Joaquim Cruz).

Initially the time was an unofficial 1:41.0

The others in this field were also amazingly fast. Seven of the eight runners ran a personal record (PR), with the eighth running a season best.

Eighteen year-old Nijel Amos of Botswana won the silver medal with a 1:41.73. That time made Amos the fifth runner to ever break 1:42, earned him a new world junior record (for athletes who do not turn twenty at any time during the calendar year in which the mark is made) and tied Amos for the eighth fastest 800 time in history. All this from an athlete who entered the Olympics with a PR of 1:43.11

Kenyan Timoth Kitum, who had only the seventh best PR out of the field before the race started, ran a 1.41 second PR to win the bronze, holding off four other runners who all finished within 0.79 seconds of each other.

The Americans, Solomon and Symmonds, came up just short in their bid for a medal. But they could hardly be disappointed with their times. Solomon’s 1:42.82 and Symmonds” 1:42.95 make them the second and third fastest American 800 runners of all-time, behind only Solomon’s coach, Johnny Gray (1:42.60 set in 1985). Obviously these were PR’s for both Solomon and Symmonds and they are just the second and third Americans (along with Gray) to dip under the 1:43 mark.

Sixth placer Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia, who is only nineteen years-old set a national record with his 1:43.20. Aman improved on his own national record, which was 1:43.37. Aman has steadily been lowering the Ethiopian record over the last two years. The last person before Aman to hold the Ethiopian national record in the 800 meters was Berhanu Alemu, who ran 1:45.28 in 2004.

Abubaker Kaki of Sudan was the only runner in the field not to run a PR (his PR is 1:42.23). However, it was a season best for Kaki, who ran 1:43.32. It was Kaki’s junior world record of 1:42.69 that Amos broke.

The last place finisher, Andrew Osagie of Great Britain, ran 1:43.77, which was a PR. That time would have won gold at the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics. The only Olympic 800 meters in history where 1:43.77 would not have medaled was 1996. For Osagie, 1:43.77 got him a personal record but also last place!

Often in a World Record setting race, at least in a distance race, the record setter has pace setters or rabbits and the record setting runner tends to finish far ahead of the rest of the field. The lack of both rabbits and a gap is what made this race so special. The depth of this 800 race was like no other 800 in history. From first place to eighth place, the runners put up incredible times. Records and PR’s were the norm in this race, the greatest 800 race of all-time.

RESULTS

1              David Lekuta Rudisha   KEN        1:40.91  (WR)

2              Nijel Amos                         BOT        1:41.73  (WJ)

3              Timothy Kitum                KEN        1:42.53  (PB)

4              Duane Solomon               USA       1:42.82  (PB)

5              Nick Symmonds              USA       1:42.95  (PB)

6              Mohammed Aman         ETH        1:43.20  (NR)

7              Abubaker Kaki                SUD       1:43.32  (SB)

8              Andrew Osagie                GBR       1:43.77  (PB)

David Rudisha sets a new World Record in the 800 – 1:40.91

Two Favorite Olympic Moments

Mo Farah wins the gold and Galen Rupp wins the silver!

If you don’t count watching someone near and dear to me running in the women’s 1500 meter final, then I have two favorite memories from the 2012 Olympic track & field competition. My favorites will reflect the fact that I am American distance runner and coach.

The first happened on a night now being referred to in Great Britain as “Super Saturday.” The Brits are calling it Super Saturday because that was the night the UK won three gold medals in track & field within an hour. While all eyes were on Mo Farah on the final lap of the men’s 10,000 meters and while the majority of the cheering was for Mo, our eyes and cheers were for Galen Rupp. My wife Malinda yelled so loud for Rupp that she made herself hoarse and her voice was never the same the rest of the Games. Rupp stayed in contention the whole race and made a move to get a medal with 200 meters to go. He looked great, striding past runners from Ethiopia to claim the silver medal. It was the first medal in the 10,000 meters for the US men since Billy Mills in 1960.

 

Galen Rupp congratulated by his high school coach, David Frank.

I was very happy for Rupp. He’s been in the spotlight since his running prowess was first noticed on the soccer field at Central Catholic High School in Portland in 2000. I have a small connection to Rupp because although Rupp’s pretty much been coached by Alberto Salazar since 2000, the head coach at Central Catholic is a friend of mine, David Frank. David was the head coach at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, a rival West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) school, when I first became the head coach at Sacred Heart Cathedral. At the 2000 US Olympic Trails in Sacramento, David told me he was moving to Portland. One year later, one of his star athletes was Rupp and also one year later, my star athlete, Shannon Rowbury, won her first state championship. It’s funny how small the track & field world can be.

David Frank (Central Catholic High School) and me (Sacred Heart Cathedral).

The second memorable moment took place on Tuesday, August 7. It was the final of the men’s 1500 meters. Shannon’s teammate, Leo Manzano was in the race. If you think that all the athletes’ coaches get first class treatment and a front row seat to watch their people compete at the Olympics, think again. Most coaches have to buy their own ticket to get into the Olympic Stadium. Leo’s coach in London, Ryan Ponsonby (Manzano’s main coach is John Cook but Cook often doesn’t travel overseas so in Cook’s absence Ryan is the coach on-site) was sitting two seats over from me in the second level of the stadium in row 69. All the seats have a great view but this was a long way away for the coach of an Olympic finalist to be sitting.

An excited coach Ryan Ponsonby gives us the thumbs up for Leo’s silver medal.

Ryan described the race in an interview with FloTrack. He said that he told Leo to conserve energy early to be ready for a hard and fast last 400 meters. Leo did just that. With 400 meters to go he was towards the back in tenth place but still in striking distance. With 300 to go there was still a sizeable gap between Leo and the first eight runners. As it turned out many of the runners ahead of him had gone too hard too early and would run out of gas the final 100. In an interview after the race Leo said his legs felt like bricks, which explained why he was still a ways back with 200 meters to go. But that’s when things started to change. “Keep going, keep going, keep pushing ,” Leo said he was telling himself. He started moving up. Ryan, after silently focusing on the race for the first 1400 meters, pumped his fists and started screaming as Leo hit the top of the final straightaway. We all could tell what was about to happen. Malinda was screaming herself hoarse again. Leo was going to medal! He passed all but one and ended up in second place to grab the silver medal. It was bedlam in row 69. Ryan gave a thumbs up and we (we being me, Malinda, Shannon’s parents, a few of Shannon’s friends who live in the UK, and Coach Cook’s team doctor Alan King) all started jumping up and down and hugging. It was the first medal in the 1500 meters for the US men since Jim Ryun in 1968.

What a moment! I was particularly proud that I could share in Ryan’s celebration before he rushed down to trackside to greet Leo on his victory lap. I thought back in September of 2011 in Daegu, South Korea. Leo and Shannon had failed to qualify for the 1500 final, both of them being eliminated in the semi-final. It meant they had some unexpected days off with no competition. They would have rather been preparing for their final race but instead we arranged to meet for a Korean lunch. I spend lots of time hanging out with Shannon but this was a new experience to spend the day with Leo. He is a down to earth, genuine, nice person and it was a thrill to just joke around and talk to him. Track & field is a crazy sport. Eleven months ago he was frustrated at his performance at the World Championships. But in London, he might have come in second but as Leo said, it “feels like I got first.”

Malinda, me, Leo, and Shannon having a Korean lunch in Daegu in 2011.

Two noteworthy Olympic medal performances by American men, ending 52 and 48 year dry spells in their event. Coincidentally, I have a one or two degrees of separation connection with each. No wonder those are my two favorite Olympic memories from London 2012.    

Keep Calm and Kick

Keeping Calm and Waving Our Banner!

Keep calm and carry on. You hear that a lot here in London. I believe the track & field distance race equivalent is “Keep Calm and Kick”.

The women’s 1500 meter final will take place Friday at 8:55pm London time (12:55pm on the west coast). Shannon Rowbury will be running in her second Olympic final and she’ll be looking to improve on her seventh place finish from Beijing (which as of now is the highest finish by an American woman in the Olympic 1500 meters in history).

Shannon gave us some anxious moments during the qualifying races. On Monday in the first round she finished seventh and we had to sit through the next two heats to see if her time would qualify to the next round. As the Brits like to say, Shannon’s 4:06.03 was the “fastest loser” and she moved on to the semi-final. On Wednesday, Shannon was well positioned throughout the race and inspired by her teammate Leo Manzano’s patient race tactics (more on that in a later post) hung out patiently around seventh place for most of the race. Only the top five would automatically qualify for the final and with 100 meters to go Shannon still had some work to do to move into the top five. She surged down the final homestretch passing two runners to secure the fifth and final automatic qualifying spot by one tenth of a second (4:05.47 to 4:05.57). The times in the second semi-final heat were much faster and it turns out that that one tenth of a second was huge because it was the difference between making the final and being eliminated (as all the time qualifiers came from the second heat).

In many ways, the stress is off. The goal in these first two races was simply to qualify on and Shannon has done that. She’s in the final along with eleven other women – the best female 1500 meter runners in the world. Previous championship meet credentials, PR’s, and season bests are immaterial. Everyone will line up even at the starting line and attempt to run three and three quarter laps around the track and get to the finish line first.

The final is simple and straightforward. You go for it. You leave it all out there. In most of the other distance finals that I’ve seen at these Olympic Games, the top finishers have been very patient early in the race, letting others set the pace and deal with the pushing and shoving that occurs in the middle of the pack of races of this nature. Then at some point later in the race, there comes a moment when it’s time to make your play for the medal. A moment when it is time to put four years of training and dreaming to work.

It is an honor and a privilege to be in London sitting in my hotel room and preparing to watch someone I know and care about run in an Olympic final in less than twenty-four hours time. What a wild journey cheering on Shannon Rowbury has been.

For Shannon, it’s time to Keep Calm and KICK!

For me, it’s time to Keep Calm and wave my banner!

The London Olympic Stadium

Welcome to the London Olympic Stadium!

I have now been in the London Olympic Stadium four times. Even though we are sitting high in the second deck, the sight lines are great. We can see all the action. My only minor complaints are that the scoreboard is hard to read (it’s not my fault I have bad eyesight, the London Olympic Committee should be taking care of my needs!) and that when the UK fans cheer loudly (which they do a lot), I can’t hear what the announcer is saying. Pretty minor things to be fussing about, huh?

We’re lucky, we can see the Olympic flame from our seat inside the Stadium.

There have been some complaints regarding the Olympic flame. The only people who can see the flame burning inside the cauldron are people who have tickets to attend an event (i.e. track & field or athletics as they call it here) in the Olympic Stadium. Since I am one of the lucky ones who has tickets to the Olympic Stadium, this has not been a complaint of mine.

On the flight over to London, Virgin Atlantic offered a documentary about the construction of the stadium. It was very insightful and easier to understand than the technical article my dad showed me from Civil Engineering magazine.

The London Olympic stadium seats 80,000 people and was built in east London at a cost of 486 million pounds. One of the cornerstones of the London Olympic bid was the eco-friendly and flexible nature of the Olympic Stadium. The stadium was built in such a way that it can be partially dismantled after the Games leaving the lower bowl, comprised of the track and 25,000 seats.

There were many challenges the architects and engineers faced when designing and constructing the stadium. Over two hundred building were demolished in east London to create space for the stadium. Some of these buildings produced toxic waste so the soil needed to be decontaminated. In the end some of the soil was re-used for landscaping and another 800,000 tons of soil were removed from the area. There was believed to be over two hundred un-exploded bombs from World War II buried in the ground that had to be considered during the construction  to prevent an unplanned explosion. The land allotted for the stadium is surrounded by rivers on three sides and the area was not large enough for the traditional footprint of an 80,000 stadium. Designers got around this by “pulling” out food preparation areas and moving them to outside the stadium.

Some of the steel girders that support the upper bowl.

The upper bowl of the stadium is comprised of steel components that are bolted together and can be un-bolted and removed after the Olympics. The roof, too, is a stand-alone feature of the stadium, weighing 450 tons. The roof is not connected to the lower bowl of the stadium. The roof has four components: an outer ring, an inner ring, 12,000 meters of cable, and 25,000 square meters of fabric. The roof is designed to shelter the fans as well as block wind for the athletes so that any marks run are not wind-aided or wind-hindered.

There are fourteen light towers, weighing 500 tons, attached to the roof. Each tower provides 14,000 watts. The lights are all angled properly to illuminate the track but to not create any shadows or glare for the spectators.

You can see the light towers attached to the roof from this shot inside the Stadium.

The grass on the field was grown off-site and then cut into rolls and brought to the stadium. Three hundred and sixty rolls of the turf were brought in. The transfer of the grass from its off-site location into the stadium needed to be done in less than twenty-four hours for the grass to stay alive.

Throughout the construction, workers had to deal with typical London weather issues. In the winter of 2010, work stopped for two weeks during a freeze. High winds were often a concern when working with the cranes and lifting heavy steel components into the air.

In the end, over 5,000 workers helped to build the stadium. The circumference around the outside of the stadium is one kilometer (anyone for 5 X 1000 meter intervals?). There are 338 kilometers of cable, twelve kilometers of ventilation ducts, and eleven kilometers of drainage.

Number of days to build the London Olympic Stadium: 1,000

Number of toilets in the London Olympic Stadium: 1,387

Number of memories for the athletes and spectators inside the London Olympic Stadium: infinite

There is something about being inside an Olympic Stadium and seeing the Olympic flame burning that is indescribably special. Knowing a little more about the construction of said stadium adds to the experience. Thanks, London! I’ll consider my poor vision and hearing to be my own problem and give you an A for your stadium!

The London Olympic Stadium gets an A from me.

The greatest day in UK Olympic history?

The end of the 2012 Olympic women’s heptathlon 800 meters. Spurred on by the crowd, Jessica Ennis kicks by to win the race and claim the gold medal.

The announcers around here are calling Saturday August 4, 2012 the greatest day in United Kingdom (UK) Olympic history. At least from a track & field (or athletics, as it’s called over here) perspective.

Walking around the Olympic Park this afternoon I saw two British fans wearing specially made t-shirts in support of two of their favorite athletes. One’s shirt said “Yes Jess” on it. The other said “Go Mo.” The newspaper slipped under my hotel room door this morning, The Independent, had two articles each on this Jess (heptathlete Jessica Ennis) and this Mo (10,000 meter runner Mohammed Farah) and their prospects for bringing home the gold medal on their home turf. At the very beginning of the meet, the public address announcer informed the crowd that the last time a UK track & field athlete won a gold medal at an Olympics held in London was 1908. Well, that is a long time. But track & field at the 2012 Olympics just got underway so all the statistic really means is that the home team got shutout on the gold medal front when they hosted the Olympics in 1948.

Still, the pro-Great Britain/cheer wildly for every Great Britain athlete attitude was on display at the track on this night. This night that would turn into quite a special one for fans of athletics in the UK.

It all started around 9:02pm local time. Ennis had a strong lead in the women’s heptathlon and was more or less assured of the gold medal. In the final event of the heptathlon, the 800 meters, she went out hard for the first 400 meters and then slowed and was caught by a couple runners. With 200 meters to go, however, the crowd roared to life and this inspired Ennis to find re-take the lead down the final straightaway, much to the delight of the crowd. Her time of 2:08.65 earned her 984 points and brought her final score for the two-day, seven event competition to 6,955 points. She finished 306 points ahead of second place and broke her own UK record for the heptathlon. How dominant was Ennis in this event? Second place finisher Lilli Schwarzkopf of Germany finished with a score closer to eleventh place Brianne Theisen of Canada (who also happens to be Ashton Eaton’s fiancé) than to Ennis’ score.

Right as the heptathlon was winding down all eyes in the stadium shifted to the long jump runway. Great Britain had two athletes, neither of whom got much press in the newspaper today, unlike Ennis and Farah. Greg Rutherford and Christopher Tomlinson were trying to win Great Britain its second gold medal earned on home turf since 1908 as well as the second one of the hour. After one round of jumps, Tomlinson led with a jump of 8.06 meters. Rutherford took over the lead in the second round with a jump of 8.21 meters. For a short time, Great Britain was sitting in the gold and bronze medal positions in the long jump.  Rutherford improved to 8.31 meters in the fourth round, a jump missed by many in the stands as when it happened the crowd was focused on another British athlete in the heptathlon, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, a nineteen year old athlete, who just may be the “next Jessica Ennis.” At 9:22pm, as Ennis finished her victory lap, Will Claye from the United States was on the runway. He was the penultimate jumper and the last jumper with a chance to knock Rutherford out of the gold medal spot. When Claye’s mark fell short, the crowd went wild as Rutherford celebrated winning a gold medal in the long jump.

Minutes later, the men’s 10,000 meter race was underway. Farah bided his time in the front pack, not concerning himself as runners from Eritrea and Kenya jockeyed for position, continually surging and slowing down. The lead group got smaller and smaller but there were still eight or so runners still in contention with a mile to go. Even over the last lap five or six runners were still in it with a chance to win. The stadium was going crazy cheering for Farah, who for his part, looked in control the whole way.

Over the last 300 meters, Farah looked strong with the lead but not all eyes in the stadium were strictly on him. Earlier in the race I had commented that maybe this wasn’t Galen Rupp’s day as he seemed to fall back from the lead pack for no apparent reason. But when it came time to really race, Rupp was there and Rupp was ready. He surged past a couple of runners at the 300 to go mark. With 200 to go, he was well positioned on the outside and appeared to be running faster than the runners just ahead of him. Just like at the 2011 World Championships when I started screaming, “She’s going to medal. She’s going to medal,” about Jenny Simpson in the women’s 1500 with about 150 meters to go (Simpson would not only medal but win the race), I started yelling that Rupp was going to medal. Down the final homestretch Farah held on to the lead and Rupp secured second place. It was a third gold medal for the UK in less than an hour. A medal for the USA in the men’s 10,000 meters, their first since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when a kid named Billy Mills won the gold.

Mo Farah and Galen Rupp in the 2012 Men’s Olympic 10,000 meters. They would go on to win the gold and the silver.

The guys at FloTrack have a great photo sequence of the final 100 meters.

I am not versed enough in Great Britain’s Olympic and track & field history to know if today should rank as the greatest day in their Olympic history. It was certainly a terrific day, though, but not just for the Brits. I am pretty sure that for Galen Rupp, he can say that today was his greatest day in his track & field career.

Two Olympians. One High School. No Home Track.

The names Tina Kefalas and Shannon Rowbury both appear on this all-league plaque in the Sacred Heart Cathedral trophy case.

Sacred Heart Cathedral (SHC), a Catholic school in San Francisco founded over 150 years ago and with a current enrollment of 1,257 students, can make a claim that very few other schools around the country can make. SHC has two alumni going to the 2012 London Olympics in track & field – Tina Kefalas, class of 1995 in the marathon for Greece, and Shannon Rowbury, class of 2002 in the 1500 meters for the USA. Even more amazing is the fact that the school does not have a home track.

As the current head cross country and track & field coach I can say that I’ve never seen not having a home track as a detriment to our program. The kids in our program are blessed because there is a lot of variety in their training schedule. It isn’t meet out at the track after school every day at 3:30. In fact, I think the time the kids spend taking the bus together to practice is part of their experience that makes being on the SHC track & field team special and unique. It also helps weed out who is really dedicated to the sport. It takes a great deal of commitment to get yourself to practice off-campus via public transportation day after day.

Tina Kefalas racing for the Irish in Golden Gate Park.

Kefalas was the school record holder in the 1600 and 3200 meters when she graduated from SHC in 1995. She was the first runner in school history to qualify for the cross country state meet. She remembers going on a road trip to Colorado Springs with her coach, Mr. Denis Mohun (also a graduate of the school in 1979) and some other runners from the team. “It was the turning point for me.  My first two years I was playing volleyball and track and after that trip, I finally decided to run cross country,” recalls Keflas. She also is proud to have won the school’s Vincent Contrero Award for excellence in both academics and athletics.

In the fall of 1998, SHC hired a new coach to head both the cross country and track & field

Shannon Rowbury racing for the Irish as a freshman in 1998.

program. That person was me. I had the good timing to arrive at SHC the same season as a freshman who would change my life, a freshman named Shannon Rowbury.

Rowbury would go on to win two state championships and seven section champions during her SHC career. She was nationally ranked in the 800, 1600, 3200 meters and cross country and supplanted Kefalas as the school record holder in the 1600 and 3200 meters.

One of my fondest times during Rowbury’s high school career was her whole senior year of track & field. We both knew that this was the eighth and final season together at SHC. We took time to really soak it all up and enjoy the ride. She set numerous meet records, would sign autographs at meets, and together we would be interviewed for both television and newspaper articles. It was just a lot of fun and we made a point to have fun and enjoy every moment of it.

John Scudder (class of 1972), has been around SHC for thirty-two years and he recalls both students fondly. “I remember Tina and Shannon well. During Tina’s time at SHC, I was the Dean of Students; she was a model student who never found it necessary to take a trip to the Dean’s office. While Shannon attended SHC, I was the Principal. She too was active at school well beyond athletics. It is amazing to think she was so successful on the track, while all the time focusing on her work in the classroom,” said Scudder. Now serving the school as President, Scudder said, “I am so proud of their accomplishments. I know I speak for the entire SHC community in wishing Tina and Shannon the best of luck during the upcoming competition. Go Irish!”  

After high school, Keflas went on to run at the University of Southern California. She then moved to Greece, where she continued to run at a high level. In 2008, in her first 3000 steeplechase of the season she ran 9:55.96, less than one second off the Olympic “B” standard, which would have been enough to qualify to represent Greece at the Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately she was injured in her second race and that ended her season and thus her 2008 Olympic dreams. Kefalas then decided to run the 2010 Athens Marathon, which also happened to be the 2500th anniversary of the historic run by the messenger Pheidippides from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. that gave the marathon race distance its name. She completed the marathon in two hours, 40 minutes, and 36 seconds, well under the Olympic “B” standard but unfortunately before the qualifying period for the 2012 Olympic marathon began. Kefalas would need to run another marathon closer to the Olympics in sub-2:43 to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. On April 22, 2012 at the Enschede Marathon in the Netherlands she ran 2:41:00 to stamp her ticket to London.

Rowbury competed for Duke University after high school and since college has been a professional runner, sponsored by Nike. Her breakthrough season was 2008, when she lowered her 1500 meter personal record from 4:12.31 to 4:00.33. She qualified for the 2008 Olympic team in Beijing and has also represented the USA at the 2009 and 2011 World Championships. She’s finished in the top three at the US Championships in the 1500 each of the last five years, has been ranked as high third as in the world (2009), and is the eighth fastest women’s 1500 meter runner in US history.

Kefalas will race in the women’s marathon in London, which is Sunday, August 5. She said that her goal is to break 2:40.

Rowbury will race in the women’s 1500 meters in London. The first round race is Monday, August 6, the semi-final race is Wednesday, August 8, and the final is Friday, August 10. In an interview after the Olympic Trials, Rowbury stated that her goal is to “get on the podium,” which means placing in the top three to earn one of the coveted Olympic medals.

As you watch the 2012 London Olympics, almost every athlete you see will have some sort of backstory. They competed in high school, they had a high school coach, at some point making the Olympics became, first a dream, and then reality. But when you’re watching the track & field portion of the Olympics, remember that two of the athletes attended the same Catholic school in downtown San Francisco. The one without a home track.

Shannon’s 1500 Final – SPOILER ALERT

If you are hoping to watch the 1500 Final on TV and not know the result, then read no further.

I’m not kidding…you’ve been warned….

Well, it wasn’t the race we were all dreaming would happen.  But life and especially athletics are not a fairy tale stories that you get to script.  Shannon gave it a good run and ended up 7th.  Crazy how that is a bit of a letdown?!  I got an e-mail from Ruth Wysocki (1984 Olympian in the 1500) that said Shannon’s 7th is the highest finish by an American in Olympic 1500 history (she thinks).  7th in the Olympics!  Wow!

Shannon was well positioned in 4th/5th for the first 2 laps but unfortunately it was a slow pace (65 and 68 for 2:13 at the 800). That meant it was a large pack together at this 4:03 pace. In my opinion, it would have been better if the race were strung out a bit at a faster (4:00) pace.

Quick track strategy lesson for those who are asking “if Shannon wanted a 4:00 pace, why didn’t she go out and lead the race at that pace since she knows she can run that fast?” The answer is that it takes a lot of energy to lead a race (physical and mental) and to lead the pack at that pace usually (99% of the time) leads to others passing you and running 4:00 and you fading to a 4:06.

Back to tonight’s race.  With 500 to go Jamul surged hard.  I thought that was the key moment and Shannon had to respond.  Unfortunately a gap opened between Shannon in 4th and the top 3.  But it wasn’t over.  Shannon kept fighting.  Others were with her.  And sometime in the last 200, a Kenyan runner took the lead and Jamul (the big big favorite) fell back to 5th.  Shannon was 7th in 4:03.58.

I haven’t talked to Shannon yet.  She smiled and waved at the camera when she was introduced so it appears she was relaxed and enjoying the moment.  I watched through binoculars as she did an interview after the race and she seemed to be smiling and at the end got the interviewer to laugh, too.  The only thing better than her running ability is her class act!

Her plans after the Olympics were to stay overseas (Europe) and run a couple more races.  I think this will be good international experience for her.

It was an emotional day.  I read a great e-mail blast from SHCP letting the whole community know about the 1500 Final.  Then I was in the middle of reading the e-mail I mentioned in the other post, thanking me for coaching her and saying all kinds of nice things about how Shannon represents everyone who’s ever run for me, etc. when Shannon called me.  It was a real honor to get to talk to her and give her some advice the morning of her race.

Well, 2 more days left in China.  We were originally going to watch the men’s marathon on TV but I just scouted the course on the map and I think we can easily get to a couple spots on the course between 25-35K so we are going to get up early and see what we can see.  We still have Summer Palace, Peking Duck for dinner, watching the Closing Ceremonies on TV, shopping at Silk Street, seeing the Olympic Village with Shannon, and seeing if there are any Olympic souvenir sales the day after on our to do list.  It’s been a great trip but Malinda and I are both looking forward to going home.  This travel stuff in a foreign country and not speaking the language is tiring!  But I wouldn’t have missed this for the world!

Not sure if we’ll be sending out any more messages.  If I don’t send any more messages, thanks for reading.  It has been a memorable few weeks and it’s been very special to share the memories with our closest family and friends – our immediate families, the SHCP community, and the Pamakids Runners.  I look forward to sharing Olympic stories with another of my extended families when I get home – my current Irish cross country and track & field teams!

The SHC Family

One of many group pictures between 1999-2002 when Shannon and Jessica were both on the SHC teams together

It’s the morning of Shannon’s Olympic Final.  I just received this email from Jessica Lau (SHC class of 2003), who also ran cross country and track and field for the Irish.

 “Tomorrow, as Shannon runs, she is not only representing the U.S., but she is representing all of us who have run under your leadership, all of our hopes and dreams. She represents every single person who has a vision, a dream, and has had the power and commitment to make that a reality, despite all challenges. She is a symbol that every person can make the impossible possible, that everyone, under great leadership and care, can fly. As she runs, we are all running with her, we are all cheering with you, because you have taught us how to be a true team. And I cheer on her greatness, her accomplishments, which are also yours and mine, and I thank you for all that you have done for so many people—for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself and for teaching me how to be a leader, how to dream, how to create my own reality, how to stand in my power, and how to hold every single person I meet to their greatness.”

 I was all teary-eyed from Jessica’s touching email, and then my cell phone rang—it was Shannon calling. Talk about an amazing moment I’ll never forget.

Good luck, Shannon, and thanks, Jessica!

Shannon’s 1500 Semi-Final

We had computer troubles last night after Shannon’s 1500 and were unable to send out anything. 

Seeing Shannon competing for the first time in the “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing, in the 1500 semifinal evoked a lot of emotions for me.  It’s hard to believe this is all happening. I almost can’t believe I am here, halfway around the world.  There are 91,000 spectators here in the Bird’s Nest, and the energy level is extremely high. I don’t think I ever dreamed I would be at a meet like this, cheering for someone I know so well. I love that I had a nervous feeling in my stomach all day long. Although I’ve been anticipating this moment for a long time, I almost don’t want it to end. Shannon’s Olympics were about to begin.

Before Shannon’s race, she jumped up and down three times. Nothing unusual, just part of her routine. Other athletes went through their typical prerace routines, too, I’m sure. But Shannon’s three jumps just warmed my heart. I’ve seen her jump up and down three times before a race hundreds of times. She’s done it at SI, at Los Gatos, at Crystal Springs. Tonight she did it at the Bird’s Nest.

By now I assume it is pretty old news that she qualified for the 1500 Final.  She was in the 3rd heat and her heat was by far the fastest.  She came in 4th and qualified on time. 

What’s most interesting is that of the 10 so-called medal contenders that I publicized on my chart, only 3 are still standing (guess I am not so expert).  The 3 Russians were DQ’ed for doping a month ago, 2 did not enter the 1500, and 2 did not qualify out of the semi-final.  The big three are Shannon, Jamul (Bahrain), Lishchynka (Ukraine).  Of course there are 9 other women in the race chasing those precious medals, too.  I am hoping for a fast pace….if the leaders are on 3:59-4:01 pace, I think Shannon can beat some people by being faster than them.  If it’s a slow pace, anything can happen and things like international experience and your final kick speed become more important.  We’ll see.  It’s pretty exciting to be here thinking about the possibilities.

Malinda and I made a banner to wave around at the Bird’s Nest.  We bought the material on Wed and then Thur morning had to go running in the rain to the Chinese equivalent of Target to get permanent markers to finish our art project. 

We have an award for the first person to correctly indentify what the Chinese characters in the bottom mean.  Any Chinese readers out there?  E-mail your answers.  Feel free to guess but just one guess per person.

Some other track & field/Olympic comments:
- We can’t believe both the men and women’s 4X1 dropped the baton.  It was ugly and pretty embarrassing as all the foreigners in the stands around us were giving us a hard time.  I came up with the idea that the US should send the NCAA champion 4X1 team to the Olympics/World Championships.  Let the Tyson Gay’s concentrate on their individual events and let a college team that works together on the relay all year and would be willing to focus all their energy on just the relay, run it.
- The 1-2-3 US sweep in the 400 was bizarre because Jeremy Wariner was clearly disappointed and did not fake being happy very well.  
- The men’s 200 from a couple days ago had a ton of controversy.  Usain Bolt’s WR 19.30 was easily 1st and again amazing.  But the original 3rd place (US’s Spearman) was DQ’ed for stepping on the line.  The US protested.  While reviewing the protest officials decided that the original 2nd place (Charunday something) should also be DQ’ed.  So Americans Crawford and Dix (originally 4th and 5th across the line) were awarded the silver and bronze.  Both looked awkward and uncomfortable on the medal stand.
- Today (Fri), we saw some boxing and volleyball.  The men’s volleyball semi-final (Brazil over Italy) was quite exciting as the fans for both sides kept singing/cheering throughout the match.

Well, I am off to bed now.  Sat is going to be a big day.  Shannon races at 7:50pm Beijing time, so 4:50am in SF.  I am not sure when it will be broadcast.  Shannon’s mom told me that NBC did an interview with Shannon the other day so if that interview hasn’t been shown yet, maybe it will be part of the lead-in to the 1500 Final race coverage.  It’s hard to believe this is all happening.  I met Shannon about 10 years ago this week.  I was in my first weeks as the SHC cross country coach and she was a freshman who decided to come out for the sport, despite having no running experience.  And 10 years later she’s running the Olympic Final and I am in China to see it!