Lagat surges to victory at 5,000 meters

Jul 1, 2008 - 5:48 AM By Simon Lewis PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

EUGENE, Oregon (Ticker) -- Bernard Lagat set up the chance of a World and Olympic 5,000-meter double as he surged to victory at the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials on Monday night.

Lagat, who landed 1,500- and 5,000-meter world championship gold in Japan last August, made the American team for Beijing in August with a perfectly judged win in front of another excited 20,000-plus crowd at Hayward Field.

The race had been wide open with two laps to go when Chris Solinsky hit the front and turned in a 58.8-second lap to decimate the field and leave just five men left with a chance as they heard the bell.

With Solinsky still pushing the pace, and Bolota Asmeron on his shoulder, Lagat was tucked in alongside Matt Tegenkamp and Ian Dobson as they headed into the backstretch.

Then Lagat upped his tempo and glided into second place on the third bend and, as he turned into the home straight, he was the clear leader, going away to win in 13:27.47 after a 58.0 final lap.

With the first three home at the trials making the USA team, Lagat was followed by Tegenkamp (13:29.68) and Dobson (13:29.76). Asmeron placed fourth in 13:31.24 and Solinsky faded to fifth (13:32.17).

Lagat was pleased his tactic to run just wide of the pack had paid off.

"That was good, being inside when it's slow, sometime you can get tripped," Lagat said. "That's happened before in other races and I didn't want that to happen to me. So I stayed outside and tried to make sure I could respond whenever somebody wanted to take the lead.

"I was so happy feeling so strong and I kicked really good."

With three rounds of the 1,500 meters - which start Thursday - standing between him and a double-double attempt in Beijing, Lagat was brimming with confidence.

"I'm feeling great right now," he said. "One down, which is actually the big one - I've run 10,000 already, five and five - and now it's going to be the 1,500.

"I'm going to rest up, feel good, just easy runs now. I'm glad we have two rest days and then Thursday, Friday and finally, hopefully on Sunday in the finals."

There was plenty of excitement earlier in the evening at Hayward Field with a clean sweep for the host state in the men's 800-meter final. Oregon Track Club's Nick Symmonds stormed down the home straight to take victory from the University of Oregon's Andrew Wheating and Symmonds' OTC teammate Christian Smith.

Eugene resident Symmonds made his move from the back of the eight-man field on the turn for home and never looked back as he clocked 1:44.10. Following him was Wheating, who seemed to move effortlessly through the field before going wide to take second place in 1:45.03.

There was even more drama behind them as Smith chased down four-time national champion Khadevis Robinson, the front-runner for the first 600 meters.

Smith moved on Robinson's inside and crossed the line just in front as both dived for the line, crashing to the track side by side. Smith claimed an Olympic berth by six-hundreths of a second in 1:45.47.

"I just took the lean and dove," Smith said. "I don't think a lean would be enough."

"The first thing I saw was that Nick was first, I was second and Christian was third," Wheating added. "It's going to be a great representation in Beijing.

"The crowd really pushed me through that last 100; all I heard was the crowd. I believe Oregon was 1-2-3 because of this crowd."

Hazel Clark reached her third Olympic Games with a win in the women's 800-meter final, leading wire-to-wire after she and Alice Schmidt went head-to-head from the gun in a final field extended to 12 runners after four were advanced following a fall in Saturday's semis.

Clark won in 1:59.82, followed by Schmidt (2:00.46) and while Kemeisha Bennett (2:01.20), one of the athletes reinstated, held off another, Nicole Teter (2:01.30), to grab third place.

In failing to beat the Olympic A standard of 2:00.00, however, Bennett's effort was in vain and Teter claimed the final spot on the Olympic roster.

U.S. leader Kara Patterson set a trials javelin record of 191 feet 9 inches to make the American team for Beijing. The Purdue collegian sealed the victory with her third-round throw, edging 2007 USA Outdoor champion Dana Pounds of the U.S. Air Force into second (189-9).

American record holder Kim Kreiner, the 2004 Olympic trials champion and four-time USA Outdoor champion, fouled out five times, with her only distance of 183-5 still placing her third into the final round, only for another Oregon Duck to delight the Eugene fans. Junior Rachel Yurkovich, the NCAA champion, unleashed a throw of 185-1 with her final effort to seal the third.

Neither Pounds nor Yurkovich attained the Olympic A qualifying standard of 198-6, however, leaving Kreiner - who has attained the standard - and Patterson to form a two-woman USA javelin team.

The American men outlined their credentials for decathlon medals in Beijing. Bryan Clay recorded a lifetime best and world-leading 8,832 points - the best score in the world in four years - to win the trials

Clay's total was also an Olympic trials record, surpassing Dan O'Brien's 1996 total of 8,726, and the best performance by an American in 16 years. O'Brien, who has the top two scores on the U.S. all-time list, is the only American to post a higher total than Clay.

There was also a personal best for runner-up Trey Hardee, whose 8,534 points was the third best in the world this year. Tom Pappas made his Olympic team in the event - the only American man to do so - by placing third in 8,511.

Sanya Richards eased into Thursday's women's 400-meter final with the luxury of slowing down to jogging pace from 40 meters out. The American record holder clocked 50.75 seconds to win her semifinal from 2007 U.S. champion Dee Dee Trotter (50.90).

Trotter and Richards' 2007 world outdoor 4x400 gold medal-winning teammates Natasha Hastings and Mary Wineberg also qualified, with Wineberg winning the first semifinal in 50.51 from Hastings (51.04).

Olympic and world 400-meter champion Jeremy Wariner looked as comfortable as Richards in progressing to Thursday's men's final. In winning his semifinal with a casual look across the lanes, Wariner eased down to victory in 44.66 ahead of world championship winning relay teammate and Osaka silver medalist LaShawn Merritt (44.76).

Darold Williamson, a third member of that 4x400 quartet from Osaka, also progressed, clocking 45.16 as runner-up in the first semi to Reggie Witherspoon (44.99).

Shalane Flanagan maintained her superb form this year in the women's 5,000-meter semifinals, three days after winning the 10,000-meter run.

The American record holder at both distances, Flanagan won in 15:35.86, as six runners went through from each semifinal to Friday's final.

Kara Goucher, Flanagan's 10,000 teammate for Beijing, won the other heat in 15:32.22.