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| 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials
Track & Field
University of Oregon, Hayward Field - Eugene OR
June 27 - July 6, 2008
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Friday 7/4 - Hasay makes final, breaks HSR with 4:14.50!
Highlights - USATF's Results Page - John Nepolitan Photo Gallery
Opportunity Seized - By SteveU, photos by John Nepolitan
Jordan crosses the line knowing she has qualified and broken the record. Photo John Nepolitan
| It was 10 p.m. Thursday night and the Hasays were preparing to leave for Portland. They would fly to Chicago the next morning, where Jordan would join the other members of Team USA bound for the World Juniors in Poland. She had just run a solid, if imperfect 4:18.39 1500 in the quarters here at the US Olympic Team Trials, placing 7th, which would qualify her for Friday’s semis. Except she couldn’t run the semis, with the Poland trip beginning Friday, something Team Hasay discovered with much dismay at the US Juniors. They had appealed unsuccessfully.
But now Jordan had shown her mettle and made an impression. Would she like one more effort made on her behalf? She would. Coach Armando Siqueiros reached the USATF’s Stephanie Hightower and stated her case again. The tables were turned and Jordan was allowed to compete Friday night … and even Sunday, if she made it to the Finals, as a Monday flight was scheduled.
Opportunity created. The only question now was, what would Jordan make of that opportunity?
Fast forward to about 22 hours later. Hasay had done one of the hardest things for her to do, not grasp control of a race from the outset. Now in the final 200, she was kicking like she never had before, moving to 7th place, 6th place. She pushed into the straight and drove toward 5th. Fans, who were already besides themselves with excitement that she was going to make the team, now saw the clock ticking crazily ahead … 4:06, 4:07, 4:08 … Jordan was not only going to qualify for the Final, but she was going to take down the brand new high school record with authority, the record held by fellow Californian and semifinalist Christine Babcock, who was trying to finish strong behind her.
The Mission Prep CA junior crossed the line with an expression of triumph and bliss on her face. She knew where she was and she knew the clock had not reached 4:16 yet. Two of the things she had dreamed for all year – for most of her career – had finally come to pass. She had her first high school record, the 4:14.50 beating Babcock's mark by 1.92 seconds. She had made the Olympic Trials Final, taking 5th in the 12-woman field.
And she had done these things in a race that for two weeks she didn’t think she’d get to run.
“This is such an honor,” she gushed to the hoards of reporters gathered around her in the mixed zone. “These have been my goals all season. It’s incredible! I’m so excited to be here!”
The night before, Jordan said, the family had their bags packed and were ready to leave Eugene. “But (Coach) Mando asked me if I still wanted to try again to get in. He got on the phone with Stephanie Hightower and … I guess the USATF just changed their minds. They saw it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Jordan gets a scoreboard/record photo op. Photos John Nepolitan
| Jordan was able to adjust her mindset and prepare to race again the next day. At the line, she said, “I was really nervous. But I know that nervousness was going to go away when I start running.”
Unlike the quarterfinal, Jordan allowed herself to slip behind the pack, once she saw the pace was going to be reasonable. Much like the race she ran at Stanford against the collegians and elites during the spring, she made sure she wasn’t going to do unnecessary work and stay out of trouble.
“There’s no doubt, it really helped me not going out and fighting for the lead,” she said.
Meanwhile, her fellow prep semifinalist, Christine Babcock, was going out similarly to how she did the previous day – right there at the front of the pack with Erin Donahue. The pace was hardly unreasonable – 69.1 – but the effort would begin to wear on the Woodbridge sr, more quickly than the day before. Hasay, meanwhile, was 69.9.
By the 800-to-go mark, Babcock was 8th and fading and Hasay was catching her. They were almost even when passing 800 in 2:19.4 in 8th and 9th, with Christin Wurth leading in 2:17.5. Then Jordan did pass Christine, trying to hang on the back of the main pack, while Christine slipped to 11th.
 | | Christine Babcock looks back on a tough race. Photo, John Nepolitan |
With a lap to go, Hasay had moved into 8th and Babcock was fighting for 10th. This time, though, Hasay had conserved and was ready to kick with the big girls. By the middle of the backstretch, it was clear Jordan had launched a drive and was going to push it to the finish. The crowd realized it and one of the biggest roars of the night was heard, and it was a long, sustained one as she gradually picked off 7th, 6th, and 5th. Her final lap of 65.3 was the fastest in the field.
Babcock was hardly giving in behind her. Her lowest point had been the second lap, but she kept up 70 pace and closed well enough to move back up into 9th, hitting the line at 4:20.00. It wasn’t one of her very best efforts, but one that would beat almost every other prep in the country besides Hasay.
One of the first to go through the mixed zone, Babcock looked less flushed with excitement, as she did Thursday, and more flushed with the strain of two very tough races on consecutive days.
“It is what it is,” she said. “I tried my best and that’s all I could ask for. It’s been a long season.”
She said she didn’t really buy into any notion of the race being a battle between her and Jordan (though she said her coach wanted her to beat her rival), but rather focusing on the overall Trials experience. She also not express disappointment in losing the record, but said, “I don’t care about it. They’re made to be broken. If someone had to break it, I’m glad it was someone I liked.”
The Trials were a great experience, she said. “I got a chance to run with girls I’ll have to run and race with in college. But now I’m ready for a break.”
Hasay, though, has more 1500s to run before it will be break time for her. She thought her one last chance at a record would be the World Junior Final. She thought she was ready for focusing on Poland after Thursday night. She thought she would be recovering from a long two days of travel by Sunday afternoon.
But instead she’ll be in Eugene, running for fans that already were chanting, “Come to Oregon,” after her 1500. Opportunity knocked. And Jordan walked through.
Prep Highlights
- Fully utilizing her unexpected opportunity in the women's 1500 semifinals with as well-paced a race as she's ever run, Jordan Hasay moved up gradually, then kicked her last lap in 64+ to pass three girls into 5th-place, a qualifying spot in Sunday's Final, and a long-sought high-school record of 4:14.50. Jordan's unofficial splits were 69-2:19 and she ran her last lap in 64-high. Hasay will fly to Poland Monday to join Team USA for the World Juniors, where she doesn't compete until Friday.
- Christine Babcock, who had the best 1500 prelim time of the CA duo yesterday at 4:18.32, was at or near the lead for just over 400, crossing in 68-high. She gradually slipped back, eventually running near Jordan for awhile, but unable to launch a hard kick. Nonetheless, she ran a very solid 4:20.00 for a strong 2-day showing.
- High jumper Shanay Briscoe, on the Finals start list for that event today, actually had returned home to Texas after the prelims and traveled with the World Junior Team to Poland
Friday Preps to Watch For (all times PT)
- Women's 1500 semifinals (8:25 p.m.) - Californians Christine Babcock and Jordan Hasay will race the 1500 again tonight and against each other. Both advanced to the semifinals after qualifying on time last night. The prelim was expected to be Hasay's only race here, as she was scheduled to travel with the Team USA Juniors today to Poland. Originally, with a previously issued World Junior travel schedule, she would have been able to run the semis if she had qualified, but then the mandatory travel info was announced at the USA Junior meet two weeks ago. The Hasays appealed and, finally, after the races Thursday night, Jordan was given an extension in her travel to be allowed to compete in the semis after all.
US Olympic Trials Index |
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