Trial Blogger

The crowd in the southeast grandstands on Friday, July 4.

My vantage point for the fireworks over Hayward Field, seen from the UO Psych building.

Fireworks over Hayward Field.

EPD makes sure those pole vaulters aren't up to any funny business.

Vaulter Stacy Dragila gets psyched out at the Trials.

American record holder Jenn Stuczynski (in blue) takes a nap to calm the nerves. Pole vaulters are most prone to "choking" during the big competitions and so I'm impressed with Jenn's strategy. It seemed to work.

Click on image for larger version.

And now for some criticism: What the hell is up with this? The above "workout structures" at Amazon Park are about to collapse, the wood is rotting and about the only thing useful there are the chin-up bars (at your own risk) and the parallel bars. When I was in Beijing back in 2005, the city had installed dozens of these similar workout structures throughout the city in order to get people in shape and thinking about the Olympics (three years in advance!). If Eugene wanted to make "improvements" to its parks and running paths to prepare for Olympic Trials visitors, tearing this Amazon Park atrocity out of the ground and replacing it with new equipment would've been a heck of a lot better than putting up new bulletin boards everywhere (that only end up tagged and with outdated info). Just a thought.

Click on any image to see the gallery.

DAY 6 - July 4th

Chaunte Howard (1st place Women's High Jump)

Sarah Bowman and Treniere Clement (Women's 1500m semi-finals)

16 yr-old, Jordan Hasay set a new high school record in the Women's 1500m semi-finals

Fireworks going off behind the grandstands during the Men's 10k final

Abdi Abdirahman flies into 1st place (Men's 10k final)

DAY 8 - July 6th

David Oliver (1st place Men's 110m Hurdles)

Lacy Johnson

The crowd was really pulling for Jordan Hasay in the 1500m final

Rafeeq Curry (3rd, Men's Triple Jump final)

Walter Dix took 1st in the closest (and most exciting) race of the Trials (Men's 200m)

Marshevet Hooker trips in to 3rd (Women's 200m final)

Dawn Harper (3rd) and Damu Cherry (2nd) hug it out after the Women's 100m Hurdles final

Here are my photos from July 3rd. Images from Day 6 & 8 should be up really soon. (Unfortunately I couldn't make it down for Day 7 - July 5th.)

Click here for a recap of the day's events. Click any image to see the entire gallery.

Jill Moore

Jordan Hasay

Mary Wineberg (2nd Place Women's 400m)

Sanya Richards glides across the finish into 1st (Women's 400)

LaShawn Merrit takes 1st in the Men's 400m

Jeremy Wariner's not so happy about being 2nd (Men's 400m)

3:30pm The day is cooler than last weekend; still a little muggy. The wind is brisk, throwing off the throwers and jumpers.

3:32pm Damu Cherry runs the 2nd fastest time in the women's 110m hurdles. Ten minutes later Lolo Jones upstages her by running the fastest time in the world this year in 12.45 seconds.

3:40pm Women's pole vault final. Looks like a headwind is
gonna throw them off. There's a flag-strip keeping a group of us off the 200m
turn. I heard that someone was acting stupid in this zone yesterday and blocking NBC's cameras. So now everyone must stay away from the track, even during victory laps. The two EPD guarding this area are intensely focused … on
watching the women pole vaulters. While I admit this whole Circus is a gawkfest of pecs, biceps, quads and ass – that's still no reason for these on-duty
police officers to ignore that toddler who just wandered past the line (with the parents helpless to retrieve her). Update: The toddler returns to her
parents of her own accord.

3:45pm Wind is good for javelin, bad for pole vault. While
most of the vaulters keep busy by stretching and sprinting, Jenn Stuscynski
takes a nap. Olympic gold medallist Stacy Dragila keeps all her sweats on to
keep her muscles warm. But looks a bit overpsyched.

3:46pm The wind topples the cheap plastic fence on the
infield. The wind is gusting something fierce.

4:25pm Erin Donohue has the build of a javelin thrower but
there she is kicking it in the 1500m to get 2nd and a spot on the team.

4:25pm Sitting next to kids in the stands. A small girl points at the scoreboard and says, "Hey, it's Arnold Schwarzenegger!" When in fact the scoreboard just says "Shwartz," a women vaulter.

4:28pm Men's 200m final. Walter Dix and Shawn Crawford tie at 19.86 seconds, but Dix has the slight nose, so he gets 1st and Crawford 2nd. Spearmon gets third by a nose.

Both Crawford and Spearmon use the word "blessed" to describe what it's like to be going to the Olympics. Question: Is God a track-and-field fan?

4:41pm Jenn Stuscynski is still sleeping in the pole vault. Instead of waking her, they just keep passing her on to the next height.

4:45pm Women's 200m final. Allyson Felix is wearing the lucky color pink, so she wins in 21.82 seconds. Muna Lee in 2nd and Marshevet Hooker dives into 3rd place. OK, OK, people. Dive if you have to at the Trials -- but if you pull that shit in Beijing the U.S. will be a laughingstock. Pull it together, people! We're not Shaquille O'Neal!

5pm The women's pole vault: Vaulters are dropping like flies on 14 feet, 11 inches. Dragila goes out. As does Janson, Johnson and Becky Holliday.

5:17pm Jenn is going for her 2nd attempt at her opening height. This could be a Dragila-style flop ... AND SHE MISSES again!

5:22pm Jenn Stuczynski clears her 3rd attempt and is going to Beijing! Whoa! She finally wakes up! Nearly misses it, but sticks it. All she needed was to clear one height. I wonder why she waited so long to enter... nursing an injury?

5:26pm Now Jenn vaults into the lead with a clearance of the next height. That nap really made a difference. Now if only I could take a nap ... soon, very soon. This is the last day of the Trials and soon I will begin to sleep.

5:32pm Men's 110m hurdles final. A real loud snoring sound comes from the announcer's microphone and somebody tells us to get coffee to him, quick!

One false start, charged to the entire field's Visa card.

David Oliver in first (12.95), Terrence Trammell in 2nd, and 3rd goes to David Payne. The guy in lane one does a ninja roll across the finish line, apparently trying for style points.

5:35pm Jenn Stuzzinski is going for the Olympic Trials record in the vault. 4.76 meters. She scores it! New OT record!

5:37pmNow Jenn Stuxxxinsky is trying for the new American record, vaulting for 16 feet, 1.75 inches (4.92 meters, for you English folk!) God bless her!

5:38pm A baby attacks me and wants to do my live-blogging for me. Her mother says she can type, but will leave my keyboard in disrepair. So there will be no baby-blogging today, sadly.

5:42pmWomen's 100m hurdles final. Will it be Lolo Jones or Damu Cherry? Either way the U.S. will qualify real chill names to Beijing.

And the winner is ... Lolo Jones in 12.29 seconds! If it's wind-allowable, then it's a new American record. But I'm pretty sure the wind was too much (AS IF the wind really helps you in the hurdles...) Then Damu Cherry and Dawn Harper in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

5:48pm And Jenn misses twice at a PR height for her. She has one more jump.

5:50pmMen's 1500m final. I predict a finish of Bernard Lagat, Alan Webb and Gabriel Jennings. The Olympic Trials record is 3:35:15. Let's see if they come close...

61.4 first lap. Jennings out front...
2:01:70 in 2nd lap...

And Jenn Stuccinzski just PR'd in a new American record!

1. Lagat in 3:40:37
2. Leonel Manzano in 3:40:90
3. Lopez Lomong in 3:41:00

Alan Webb disappoints in a 5th place.
There was just a huge pack of them in the final 100m. It was down to whoever had gas left, and could make their legs move. The top three finished comfortably while William Leer snuck into 4th with an impressive finish.

Here's what I could find out about Manzano, a surprise finisher in 2nd and going to Beijing:

Born September 12, 1984 in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico. He is an American cross-country and track and field athlete. At the age of four, Manzano's family moved from Mexico to Flatonia, Texas. Less than a year later, the family relocated to Granite Shoals, a small community just outside Marble Falls, Texas.

So this means that the U.S. 1500m team will be composed of three runners born outside the U.S., with Kenya, Mexico and Sudan, respectively. I duly note that the foul-smelling sports reporter (once again in front of me) also has figured this out and is pointing it out to whoever listens to his big mouth.

Lagat yells out "Thank you, America!" True dat. And this completes my broadcast for today. Good night, and good luck.

Juuuuuuust kidding!

Like he'd ever in a million years do something so bold as boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics in China ... still Bush had to defend why he is going to Beijing in August at this week's G8 Summit in Japan:

“I view the Olympics as an opportunity for me to cheer on our athletes,” Mr. Bush said at a press conference in nearby Toyako, after the two leaders met privately. He said not going to the opening ceremony “would be an affront to the Chinese people” that might make it “more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership.”

Human rights advocates have been urging a boycott of the Games, to protest China’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet and its support for the government in Sudan. Other world leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, are skipping the opening ceremonies..

But Mr. Fukuda said: “I don’t think you have to really link Olympics with politics.”

Um, Mr. Fukuda, perhaps you haven't been paying attention to the Olympics for the past 100 years. Because politics nearly always stoke one flame of the Olympics and snuff another.

But I have to wonder why Bush won't visit Eugene during the Trials, where he'd have a chance to cheer on all of the top American athletes while setting an example of location. (And yes, I'm now going to start using "location" to mean a "local vacation.") I mean, it's not like he'd be unsafe in Eugene. They already have his Homeland security guards all over the place.

Question: Because Bush skipped the U.S. Olympic Trials, isn't that an "affront" to Americans that might make it "more difficult to be able to speak frankly" with the American people?