It's hard to look at a Grand Prix hurdle race and not get the feeling that
Jenny Adams is out of place. She is all of 5-5, and a whopping 114 pounds.
Those are hardly ideal dimensions for a world-class hurdler. After dispensing
with the walkers and the marathoners, Adams is the member of the U.S. team
most likely to be slapped with the adjective "mousy."
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Worlds Class
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Some last-minute details on the World Championships, which run from Aug. 3-12 in Edmonton:
Final (non) qualifiers
The last day for qualifying times to the World Championships has passed, and
a few key Americans missed out. Matt Lane had been reported as running
13:24.63 for 5,000 in Belgium last week, but officials confirmed that his
real time was actually a non-qualifying 13:27.98. In a last chance meet at
Stanford on July 23, he only could manage 13:51.06. Sylvia Mosqueda and Kim
Fitchen both hoped to break 32 minutes to qualify for the Worlds 10,000, but
Fitchen ran 32:32.00 and Mosqueda 32:34.38. Mosqueda must not have been
hoping too hard, as she ran a seven-mile road race two days earlier.
IAAF to enhance drug testing
The organizers will be testing more athletes than
ever, with some 350 controls to be conducted in coming weeks. That number is 50
greater than past championships, and will cover about 17.5 percent of the
athletes in attendance. One of the tests will be a combined blood/urine test for EPO
(erythropoietin), a drug which stimulates the growth of red blood cells and
is considered by some to the culprit behind huge improvements in long
distance performances.
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Yet Adams, a recent alum of the University of Houston, is perhaps the most
successful American on the European circuit. After an impressive undefeated
streak, the 23-year-old is now being tabbed as one of the favorites to win at
the World Championships in Edmonton, set to begin next week.
She is ready.
"My expectations were just to go
and do things right. Get my mechanics right, get experience," she said. "I never imagined
myself going over there and having an undefeated season, but I am not really
surprised about it either. It put me in a good position, and I am extremely
confident going into Canada. I have beaten everyone that is going to be in
the final, and there is no reason that I can't do it again in the finals at
Worlds."
Ever since her transition to post-collegiate track, Adams has had an
idea of what she is up against. Last year, she told Houston Chronicle
reporter Jerry Wizig, "From now on, I will be younger, smaller and slower
than a lot of the athletes."
Younger and smaller, maybe. The "slower" part of the equation is obviously up
for debate.
Searching and findings
Still, the young Texan still has a long way to go in increasing her name recognition. A quest for her on one major Internet search engine yielded 1,400 matches, but most of them were women of the same name who had probably never hurdled.
That still puts her far behind the year's biggest find in a public relations
sense, high school miler Alan Webb (6,280). Yet Adams backers should not feel
this caused by a lack of merit, but rather a lack of mailing list postings
and fan websites put up by high schoolers with too much time on their hands.
Who leads this unscientific and highly inaccurate survey of popularity in
track and field? The top distance runner appears to be Hicham El Guerrouj at
9,660. However, Haile Gebrselassie, at 9,260, may have lost points because of
the plethora of different spellings of his surname. Overall, Maurice Greene
has a whopping 23,400 web citations, but that's not even close to the 40,200
of sprinter Marion Jones.
Monaco romp leads to more Kenyan bickering
It's not hard to figure out why the Kenyans sometimes have trouble selecting
a national team. A wealth of riches makes for a wealth of infighting when it
comes time to name a squad for the Worlds or Olympics. And the Kenyan
federation, anxious to retain control of its athletes -- and grab a
piece of their lucrative European winnings -- will do what it can to keep the
athletes on a short tether.
Last week, the Kenyans announced they would be bouncing Olympic champion Noah
Ngeny and 10,000-meter runner Tegla Loroupe from the squad. The two had not
returned to Kenya despite an order from the federation to do so.
Then, at the Herculis Golden League meet in Monaco last week, Wilson Boit
Kipketer won the steeplechase in a world-leading 8:01.73. The only problem?
He finished just seventh in the national championships, and wasn't selected
for the team. He won gold in the 1997 World Championships and silver in 1999, as
well as the Sydney Olympics.
Similar story for Paul Bitok, who won the 3,000-meter in Monaco in 7:32.11. That's
the world's fastest time, and the veteran has two Olympic 5,000-meter silver
medals in his top drawer. But at the nationals, he didn't even make the top
eight.
The Kenyans often have had big disparities in how their athletes fare at home
versus in Europe. In part that is because their national selection meets are
usually held in the thin air of Nairobi, which is higher in altitude than
Denver. High-altitude and sea-level running are not the same thing,
and running excellence at altitude doesn't always correlate to excellence at
sea-level.
For his part, Kenyan coach Mike Kosgey has said that he wants Boit-Kipketer
and Bitok added to the team. He won't miss Ngeny and Loroupe, he says. He
told Reuters, "We were going to replace Ngeny even if he had returned because
his form has alarmingly gone down. I don't think Loroupe can win a
medal now if she didn't win one at her prime time on the track."
Other Monaco highlights:
Wilson Kipketer has been absent from the circuit this year, and 800-meter times
are not as fast as we have seen in recent years, but for some reason, the
event is attracting a great deal of excitement. It could be that good racing
is good racing, no matter what the time.
That's up with Switzerland's Andre Bucher. In Monaco he hooked up again with
Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy. The two styles contrast. Bucher charges from the
front like a runaway train. Borzakovskiy runs from behind -- way behind. This
time, Bucher streaked to a 1:42.90, a personal record and the fastest time in
the world this season. He called it "easy."
Borzakovskiy hid in the back as long as possible (probably dodging dirty
looks from fans upset with his decision not to run at the Worlds), then
kicked in to a personal record 1:43.17 in second place.
A classy women's 1,500 featured Violeta Szekely producing the year's fastest
race, a 3:59.35. She finished ahead of Natalya Gorelova (3:59.70) and Suzy
Favor Hamilton (4:00.38 -- the third-fastest of her career).
Maria Mutola won the women's 800 in 1:57.11. She held off a terrific-looking
Fabiane dos Santos of Brazil (1:57.16). The women's hurdle races went to
Kazakhstan's Olga Shishigina (12.70) and Cuban Daimi Pernia (54.21).
Australian Dimitriy Markov won the vault in 19-6.25 after former Russian
teammate Maksim Tarasov broke his ankle on a bad landing. Kajsa Berqgvist of
Sweden high jumped 6-6.25.
Allen Johnson barely edged Anier Garcia's 13.19 to take the hurdles in 13.18,
while Bernard Williams clocked 10.08 in the 100.
Rui Silva of Portugal surprised in the 1,500 with a 3:30.36. For Americans,
the eye-opener was Paul McMullen. The third-place finisher at the USA Championships in the
1,500, he improved his lifetime best here to 3:33.89 in eighth place. In the
3,000, Adam Goucher ran a nice 7:34.96 behind Bitok.
London's meet the final big tune-up
|  | | Hicham El Guerrouj defeated rival Noah Ngeny in London. |
Just two days after Monaco, the big stars descended on London for their final
major competition before the Worlds. The headliner, Hicham El Guerrouj, won
the mile in 3:49.41 over rival Noah Ngeny (3:51.19). It was their first
meeting since Ngeny's Olympic win. Paul McMullen finished seventh in a PR
3:54.94.
Maurice Greene, still nursing a sore knee, cruised the 100 in 9.98. He has
indicated that he may not run the 200 in Edmonton because of the stress that
running on the curve causes his knee. Marion Jones, meanwhile, won the
women's dash in 11.00.
Fabiane dos Santos continued to show tremendous improvement in the days
leading up to the Worlds. She finally beat Stephanie Graf here, 1:57.65 to
1:58.22. Paula Radcliffe won the 5,000 in 14:44.21, with American Marla
Runyan in fourth in 15:05.48.
Angelo Taylor may have been seen by many as a strong favorite to win the gold
in the 400 hurdles, but the rise of Felix Sanchez has clouded that picture.
The USC hurdler represents the Dominican Republic, and cut a half second off
his best to win over Taylor in 47.95, the fastest time in the world this
year. Tatyana Tereshchuk won the women's race in 54.84.
Britons won the long sprints: Dwain Chambers hitting 20.31 for 200 and Mark
Richardson 45.22 for 400. Kenya's David Kiptoo took the 800 in 1:46.16, while
his teammate Luke Kipkosgei won a close 3,000 over Paul Bitok, 7:38.26 to
7:38.62.
Anier Garcia won the highs in Allen Johnson's absence in 13.37. A sprint
relay foursome from HIS (37.93) defeated a team of all-Americans (38.19).
Katherine Merry won the 400 in 50.67.
Field event wins went to Jonathan Edwards (triple jump 56-8.75), Steve
Backley (javelin 297-11), Hestrie Cloete (high jump 6-6.25), Stacy Dragila
(pole vault 15-5.75) and Tatyana Lebedeva (triple jump 48-3.5).
Johnson and Trammell hit the waves
Yes, in response to popular demand I will continue to report exciting
developments in the IAAF's Elite Athlete Project, which is devoted to taking
well-heeled athletes away from the track to pursue leisure-time activities
just like real people sometimes do.
For hurdlers Allen Johnson and Terrance Trammell, the IAAF arranged a tour of
the Monaco waterfront on jet-skis. Said Johnson, "I have already gone on a
jet scooter here in Monte Carlo five years ago just prior to my first World
Championships title and I hope this time will bring me just as much luck.
Today was really cool."
Trammell, a novice, said, "I didn't know what to do exactly at first because
I had never been on a jet scooter before, but as soon as I got it I went just
as fast as I could all the way through."
Roberto L. Quercetani, author of the definitive history of the sport of track and field, could not be reached to comment on the long-range implications of
the IAAF's project on the improvement of the sport worldwide.
The Mailbag
Steve Blum: "I just read your article entitled 'Happy girls run faster.' Congrats! You [realized] what most coaches never figure out: that happy girls
run faster. They also have much more fun and derive much more benefit from
the sport. Far too many coaches worry more about times and victories than
having fun."
Edie Abramczyk: "I loved your article. As a girls basketball coach I have
always said I have never seen a girl play up when she is feeling down. That
was my response when folks would say that I don't 'get on them' enough. It
was a great story and I don't need to tell you, the girl is always right and
I am glad you followed up."
Jeff Hollobaugh, former managing editor of Track and Field News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached by e-mail at michtrack@aol.com.
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