Dante
June 28th, 2008, 11:03 AM
Hooker Wins 100-Meter Qualifier
By HOWARD FENDRICH,
AP
Posted: 2008-06-28 04:43:30
EUGENE, Ore. (June 28) - With one brilliant burst, Marshevet Hooker put her name alongside those of Florence Griffith-Joyner, Marion Jones and Evelyn Ashford.
Hooker ran a wind-aided 10.76 seconds to win her 100-meter quarterfinal Friday at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, tying her with former world record-holder Ashford as the fifth-fastest woman in all conditions.
"I heard the time first," said Hooker, an NCAA champion at Texas. "I was like, 'Wow!"'
Then, though, she heard the wind speed: 3.4 meters per second, above the 2.0 that's allowed for a time to count as a personal best or official record.
Still, only world-record holder Griffith-Joyner, Jones, Christine Arron and Merlene Ottey ever have run faster, regardless of wind. That impressed the other women in what's considered a talented field, with more than a half-dozen legitimate contenders for the three 100 berths on the Beijing Games roster.
"She was fast. Real fast," said Torri Edwards, the 2003 world champion in the 100. "I hope she's tired."
Edwards won her 100 heat in a wind-aided 10.85, while Carmelita Jeter advanced by winning her heat in 10.97. Allyson Felix, hoping to compete in four events in China, was second to Jeter in 10.98, and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Lauryn Williams finished behind Hooker in 10.86.
Hooker also had the fastest time of the opening round Friday, a wind-aided 10.94.
One woman who did not make it out of the 100 quarterfinals was Chryste Gaines, who clocked 11.15 in the first round but finished seventh in her next race.
Gaines, a two-time Olympic relay medalist, was banned for two years in December 2005, a punishment based not on a positive drug test but on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and the testimony of fellow sprinter Kelli White.
Gaines was among dozens of athletes who testified in 2003 before a federal grand jury probing BALCO.
She also was part of the series of athletes whose scandals and suspensions placed a cloud over the sport, a cloud that Felix and others are hoping to lift.
"We paved the way for them. That's why they get the money they get. We don't get those props," said Gaines, who noted she's still friends with former BALCO head Victor Conte.
The competition got off to a quick start under a cloudless sky with the temperature approaching 90 degrees: In the very first event of the 10-day meet, Hyleas Fountain broke Jackie Joyner-Kersee's decade-old U.S. record in the heptathlon 100 hurdles.
Fountain, a two-time national champion in the heptathlon, finished in 12.65, eclipsing Joyner-Kersee's mark of 12.69. Fountain also bested Joyner-Kersee's Olympic trials record of 12.71 from 1988, and Joyner-Kersee's U.S. national championship record of 12.77 from 1991.
In preliminaries for other events, past national champion and 2004 Olympian Walter Davis fouled on all three attempts and did not advance in the long jump; 2000 Olympic gold medalist Angelo Taylor and reigning world champion Kerron Clement advanced in the 400-meter hurdles; and pole vaulter Brad Walker - competing at the same track where he set the U.S. record less than three weeks ago - led with 18 feet, 4 1/2 inches (5.6 meters).
Bernard Lagat, who won medals for Kenya at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, took the first step toward making his first U.S. Olympic team by reaching Saturday's semifinals.
"The way I've been received here, it's like I was born here," Lagat said. "I'm happy to be running for the red, white and blue."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-06-28 04:43:30
By HOWARD FENDRICH,
AP
Posted: 2008-06-28 04:43:30
EUGENE, Ore. (June 28) - With one brilliant burst, Marshevet Hooker put her name alongside those of Florence Griffith-Joyner, Marion Jones and Evelyn Ashford.
Hooker ran a wind-aided 10.76 seconds to win her 100-meter quarterfinal Friday at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, tying her with former world record-holder Ashford as the fifth-fastest woman in all conditions.
"I heard the time first," said Hooker, an NCAA champion at Texas. "I was like, 'Wow!"'
Then, though, she heard the wind speed: 3.4 meters per second, above the 2.0 that's allowed for a time to count as a personal best or official record.
Still, only world-record holder Griffith-Joyner, Jones, Christine Arron and Merlene Ottey ever have run faster, regardless of wind. That impressed the other women in what's considered a talented field, with more than a half-dozen legitimate contenders for the three 100 berths on the Beijing Games roster.
"She was fast. Real fast," said Torri Edwards, the 2003 world champion in the 100. "I hope she's tired."
Edwards won her 100 heat in a wind-aided 10.85, while Carmelita Jeter advanced by winning her heat in 10.97. Allyson Felix, hoping to compete in four events in China, was second to Jeter in 10.98, and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Lauryn Williams finished behind Hooker in 10.86.
Hooker also had the fastest time of the opening round Friday, a wind-aided 10.94.
One woman who did not make it out of the 100 quarterfinals was Chryste Gaines, who clocked 11.15 in the first round but finished seventh in her next race.
Gaines, a two-time Olympic relay medalist, was banned for two years in December 2005, a punishment based not on a positive drug test but on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and the testimony of fellow sprinter Kelli White.
Gaines was among dozens of athletes who testified in 2003 before a federal grand jury probing BALCO.
She also was part of the series of athletes whose scandals and suspensions placed a cloud over the sport, a cloud that Felix and others are hoping to lift.
"We paved the way for them. That's why they get the money they get. We don't get those props," said Gaines, who noted she's still friends with former BALCO head Victor Conte.
The competition got off to a quick start under a cloudless sky with the temperature approaching 90 degrees: In the very first event of the 10-day meet, Hyleas Fountain broke Jackie Joyner-Kersee's decade-old U.S. record in the heptathlon 100 hurdles.
Fountain, a two-time national champion in the heptathlon, finished in 12.65, eclipsing Joyner-Kersee's mark of 12.69. Fountain also bested Joyner-Kersee's Olympic trials record of 12.71 from 1988, and Joyner-Kersee's U.S. national championship record of 12.77 from 1991.
In preliminaries for other events, past national champion and 2004 Olympian Walter Davis fouled on all three attempts and did not advance in the long jump; 2000 Olympic gold medalist Angelo Taylor and reigning world champion Kerron Clement advanced in the 400-meter hurdles; and pole vaulter Brad Walker - competing at the same track where he set the U.S. record less than three weeks ago - led with 18 feet, 4 1/2 inches (5.6 meters).
Bernard Lagat, who won medals for Kenya at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, took the first step toward making his first U.S. Olympic team by reaching Saturday's semifinals.
"The way I've been received here, it's like I was born here," Lagat said. "I'm happy to be running for the red, white and blue."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-06-28 04:43:30