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U.S. Olympic Track Trials:
Day 1 Preview

Posted June 27th, 2008 at 3:00 PM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

TV coverage:
USA, midnight-1 a.m. Friday night / Saturday morning (available in HD format)

USA Today preview

Only two finals are on Friday; the women’s heptathlon (first day) leads off the entire meet, and the women’s 10k caps the day’s events.

I cannot say that I’ve followed the heptathlon as closely as other events, so I will have to defer to Track & Field News. They pick Hyleas Fountain to win, followed by 4time NCAA champ Jacquelyn Johnson and then Diana Pickler. Fountain, the defending national champion, has not competed in a multi this year and has only the third-best qualifying mark. But she took the dreaded fourth spot at the ’04 trials and has been waiting for this moment ever since. Johnson has had a full collegiate season, capped by winning the NCAA in Des Moines just two weeks ago, and cannot possibly be as rested and ready as Fountain.

In the women’s 10k, everyone’s favorite is Shalane Flanagan. She didn’t even consider running this event at the Trials until breaking the American Record in May. Her qualifying time is nearly a minute faster than anyone else’s, and she’s a proven ace both in cross country and shorter track distances. In other words, saving illness or injury, she’s essentially unbeatable.

My pick for second is Kara Goucher, not because she has the second-best qualifying time but because she’s developed well at shorter distances this year (she won the Millrose Games mile) while using them only in the context of preparing for this race and the Olympics.

The woman who would have been my pick for third, Jen Rhines, has scratched from this event in order to concentrate on the 5k. This opens things up a bit; Molly Huddle has the third-best qualifying time, but that can be deceiving. There are some names from the Olympic Trials marathon (Magdalena Lewy Boulet, Desiree Davila, Katie McGregor, Blake Russell, Elva Dryer) and the star of the collegiate season, Lisa Koll. Based on past year’s performance, I’m going to go with McGregor. The fact that she’s an Ohio native (Willoughby South High School) means I’m going to be pulling for her to make it.