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Richards faces tough field in AT&T women’s 400

Posted June 15th, 2007 at 6:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Sanya Richards Imagine sprinting as hard as you can for 200 meters. Now, imagine sprinting another 200 meters, without stopping. Are your arms and legs burning? Do they feel like they weigh about 100 pounds each?

Welcome to the AT&T women’s 400 meters at the 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships!

Nobody ever chose to run the 400 meters because it’s a barrel of laughs. But it is an event filled with pride and history. Nobody is making more history lately than Sanya Richards, the two-time defending U.S. champion in this event. She hasn’t done it alone, though. Thanks to an amazing crop of sub-50-second performers, Richards has excellent company in Dee Dee Trotter and Monique Henderson. Look out for the red-hot University of South Carolina’s Natasha Hastings, too.

Richards has been the dominant force in the 400 since 2005, when she won her first U.S. title and the overall Visa Championship as the top performer of the Visa Championship Series. In 2006, at the age of 21, Richards had one of the greatest seasons ever by an American 400-meter runner, being named IAAF World Athlete of the Year and USATF’s Jesse Owens Award winner as the nation’s top track athlete.

She ran under 50 seconds nine times during the season, broke the American record (48.70) and ran the five fastest times in the world in 2006. She was undefeated outdoors in the 400 on the year, winning a $249,999 portion of the jackpot for sweeping the Golden League series and also taking the USA Indoor, USA Outdoor, World Athletics Final and World Cup titles. She also won the World Cup 200 title, and she will run the 200 at this meet as well.

However, Richards spent the first several weeks of the 2007 season fighting illness, so an upset in Indy is possible. Trotter is the 2004 NCAA champion, and she went on to place fifth at the Olympic Games. In 2005 she joined the sub-50 club, and she is a two-time USA indoor champion.

Like Richards, Henderson has been a top American athlete since she was a teen-ager. She was the 1999 USA junior champion at the age of 16, and just one year later she was a finalist at the 2000 Olympic Trials, earning an Olympic Team spot as part of the 4×400m relay pool. She teamed with Trotter, Richards and Monique Hennagan to win the 4×400m relay gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Hastings also has been a top American teen and may be the “X Factor” in this race - and the biggest threat to Richards. She was the 2004 World Junior Championships gold medalist and also won the 400 at the 2003 World Youth Championships. Now a college junior, Hastings broke Richards’ collegiate record at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Championships with her time of 50.80, and in May she ran a world-leading time of 50.23 to win the NCAA East Regional. She was just getting started, though - at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships last weekend in Sacramento, she ran a 2007 world-leading time of 50.15.

FAST FACTS

World record: 47.60, Marita Koch (East Germany), 1985

American record: 48.70, Sanya Richards, 2006

Meet record: 49.27, Sanya Richards, 2006

Time schedule: 1st round 6:10 p.m. Thursday; semifinals 6:45 p.m. Friday; final 2:36 p.m. Saturday

DID YOU KNOW? …

* Richards was USATF’s 2003 Youth Athlete of the Year and the 2005 Visa Humanitarian Athlete of the Year.

* Trotter won the 2004 NCAA title over a field that included Richards and Henderson.

* Henderson is the 2002 World Junior Champion, with Richards as the silver medalist.

* Jearl Miles-Clark was the last American woman to win a world title in this event, in 1993.

* Under 50 seconds is considered to be a very fast time in this event; at the 2005 AT&T USA Outdoor Championships, three women - Richards, Trotter and Henderson - finished under 50 for the first and only time in history.

Written by: Jill Greer, USATF
Via: USA Track & Field

Scotty N said:

Watch the live stream on http://www.sportnet.com/stream_iaaf2007.html
June 15th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Yolande said:

My money is on the “X-factor” Natasha Hastings… she is young Healthy and has run the top 4 fastest times in the world within the last two months. She looked up to Sanya in the past but in this race Sanya will be looking up to her. either way it is going to be a race for the record books
June 20th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Glenna said:

My money stays with the “X Factor- Natasha” she will run a 49.88. She is fit and Xtremely focus.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Crodah Peeple said:

This race is going to be interesting and exciting. Hastings have been doing all that she was told to do to be where she is at the moment. Not only do I see that she has it in her to run faster but even Carol Lewis says it. Richards has been training and was only able to have 2 competitive races under her belt. She has a lot on her shoulders - she has her winning streak to protect - she is not where she was last year with her training (due to illness) and she is very eager. I dont know where she is except for the times she puts out in the last two weeks but maybe she knows better than I - If she plans to win this race she has to be good because the X-Factor will be in front - Richards will have to be there with her, or run and catch her - who will have the guts and kick to prevail? My bet is on the X-Factor - At the end of the day the smart one will win and that is run your own race and execute appropriately - if not then the race will be left up to Dee Dee, Henderson and the rest of the field to growl over! Let’s see what is going to happen but I do like Hastings a great deal. I hope she wins - this will do a lot for her career. Good luck Ladies!!!
June 21st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Stella said:

Good luck all
June 21st, 2007 at 1:26 pm