day 2

After 3 failed attempts to get online yesterday, today (Monday) I finally made it. So here is:
(06-28-08) Day Two of Track and Field.
Hayward Field has a really great history. And, that that history was made even richer today when Tyson Gay broke the American Record in the 100 meter dash. After misjudging his lead on the rest of the field, Gay turned off the jets and thought he could easy up the last 20 meters or so and still win his prelimanary heat. In a race where hundreds of a second can make the difference between winning and not advancing to the next round, Gay’s strategy proved to be risky business (did you ever see that movie?). Behind Gay were some of the fastest creatures on two legs and sensing a great opportunity, three of these sprinters took advantage of Gay’s mistake and went past him at the tape relegating Tyson to 4th place and the last automatic qualifying spot for the next round. This close call is what probably motivated him to run like the wind and clock his 9.77 AR in the quarterfinals. With 7 guys at 9.9 or faster day, I can’t wait to see what happens in tomorrow’s semifinal and final. I know for sure that I don’t want to blink or I’ll miss the race. I think I really need to remember to bring my ear plugs on Monday, the day of the men’s 800 final, or I could suffer some serious hearing lose. This thinking is based on what happened in the 800 semis today. Eugene fans make plenty of racket when even outsiders perform well but when three locals cruised into the 800 final, the noise coming out of the spectator stands caused the noise decimal meter reader to sore right off the scale. If either Oregon Track Club member Nick Symmonds, who came out of the second heat as the fastest overall qualifier in 1:45.61, or University of Oregon sophomore, Andrew Wheating, who finished second in his heat, or Oregon Track Club member, Christian Smith, who finished 3rd in the heat won by Symmons, race will enough to punch a ticket to Beijing, (finish in the top 3) Hayward Field is going to erupt—thus my need for ear plugs. I didn’t occupy my seat at the meet until about 2:30 PM today so that gave me time to ride my rent a bike about 3 miles over to Anncon Coffee Co where I could connect my iBook to their WiFi signal and post day 2 of my blog. That accomplished, I biked over to the U of O bookstore and purchased 2 souvenir t-shirts. One has a big red stop sight on it with the words “Stop Pre”. I don’t know the significance of that slogan but I’m told that is the same kind of t-shirt Prefontaine use to wear so I guess if it was good enough for him, it’s more than good enough for me. Matt Holman sent me an e-mail saying that it would be cool if I could interview Jeshua Anderson and put that on the blog but getting access to the athletes is nearly impossible unless you have press credentials. So, imagine my surprise as I’m walking back to my room after the meet to run into Anderson and some other Washington State athletes outside the security fence of the stadium grounds. I didn’t get an interview but I did talk to him for a few minutes. He wasn’t happy about his performance in the semi-finals of the 400H especially after leading all qualifiers that came out for the quarterfinals. He said that he’s just really tired after all the racing and traveling that he’s been doing and looks forward to coming back home for a while to rest up and see some of his friends. Then it will be back to Washington State where he says he will have to make a decision about playing football or putting all his energy and training into track where he might have a chance to earn a good living. So, some more food for thought. What do you think he should do? Continue with football and track or focus on his track career?