2001 March Issue

Alan Webb Ends Long Wait

by Sieg Lindstrom

A long time coming? For most of the U.S. track world it was. The fourth sub-4:00 by a high school miler that is. It may not have been so for 18-year-old Alan Webb, who was still crawling when the gap since the third prep sub-4:00 performance itself turned 18.

Nor was Webb’s breakthrough long coming for Marty Liquori, his predecessor in the line.

"I don’t look at it that way," Liquori says, thinking back to the summer of ’67 when he ran 3:59.8 behind a Jim Ryun World Record in Bakersfield. "It seems like yesterday, you know."

Reasonably, from Webb’s youthful perspective, the chase began just a year and a half ago when he raced 4:06.94 to break Ryun’s soph-class outdoor record.

If there was any eternity of waiting for the senior from South Lakes High (Reston, Virginia), it lasted weeks at the most, when a hip injury forced Webb to drop plans to take a sub-4:00 shot at the Pre meet last June. Don Sage, an ’00 senior now at Stanford, took Webb’s place at Pre and missed 4:00 by just 0.29...

more in the March issue of T&FN

Signing On The Dotted Line

by Jon Hendershott

World Record holder Stacy Dragila has been signing everything put in front of her for more than an hour at Reno's Pole Vault Summit, greeting fans of all ages who patiently waited their turn in an ever-present line to meet the sport’s highest-flying woman. . .

It becomes clear after talking with her for even a short time that Dragila and those closest to her have their feet planted firmly on the ground. It's often a matter of showing people in the world at large—such as by autographing posters, t-shirts and muscles—that the glitz of fame hasn't dazzled her eyes.

"I tell people up front, 'Hey, I'm human just like you,'" she says. "Kids come up to me at clinics and they are literally shaking. I grab them and say, 'Look at me, I'm just like you; two arms, two legs, two eyes.' "But I also tell them that I had a dream. I was dedicated to what I wanted to achieve, I went after it and worked hard and I was very fortunate to get it.

"I also tell people, especially youngsters, that I'm also another whole person. I have other interests in my life and things I want to achieve in other areas. I'm not centered on nothing but the pole vault."

Dragila credits coach Dave Nielsen with also opening her up to that outlook. When a foot injury sidelined her in '98, she questioned whether or not she could return to the lofty heights she had enjoyed in the event.

"Dave and I talked and he knew I was struggling, with life in general," she recalls. "It was very generous of him to say, 'You need to be well-rounded. You can't have only the pole vault in front of you.'

"That's what's so neat about Dave: he isn't selfish, so goal-oriented in what I do vaulting. He wants to make sure I'm a balanced person in life in general.". . .

more in the March issue of T&FN

Bob Kennedy Interview

by Sieg Lindstrom

A 4:05.17 prep miler himself, Kennedy was with Marty Liquori--for decades the last high schooler to run sub-4:00--when news of Alan Webb’s breakthrough came:

T&FN: Did you and Marty have any discussion after Webb's sub-4:00 the other night?

Kennedy: Briefly, but nothing of substance. But that was certainly an impressive race, and hopefully will open the floodgates again. I think this is a great crop of high school runners that can hopefully do some great things on the international level in the future.

T&FN: Do you have any advice for Webb, Dathan Ritzenhein, Ryan Hall and the rest of them? You’ve competed through a revolutionary time in world distance running. The competition has never been tougher.

Kennedy: My advice is and always has been, "Stay the course; focus on what you can control, and take it a step at a time." If you're Alan Webb right now or Ritzenhein, and you're thinking, "OK, what do I have to do right now to win an Olympic gold medal?" well, that's great. I mean you should be thinking that in the back of your mind, but let's address the immediate future.

Let's accomplish that goal, and then let's readjust and move to the next one. Because it can be overwhelming if you start thinking about records and fast times and medals and contracts and all that stuff right now. Just step by step. That's the only way to get there, I think. . .

more in the March issue of T&FN

by Kirk Reynolds

"Precocious" seems an appropriate label for horizontal jumper Walter Davis. So does "extravagantly talented." In only his fourth year of organized track & field, Davis finished the millennial season with bests of 26-91/4 and 56-0 and took 11th in the Olympic triple jump. What’s more, he actually qualified for the U.S. team in both the events—the first to do so since Sherman Landers 80 years earlier.

Davis took 3rd in both jumps at the Olympic Trials, but after deliberating he gave up his LJ spot so he could focus on the TJ.

"I like the triple jump," he says. "In the triple you’ve got to have good timing. You have to have technique and you have to be strong. In the long jump, you can have somebody that’s fast and hits one good jump. And that one good jump will win it.". . .

more in the March issue of T&FN

A listing of the top 15 athletes, listed by personal record, eligibile to compete in NCAA Div. I outdoor competition in 2001. The code at end indicates place in last year’s meet, if any.

. . . all men's and women's events, in the March T&FN

The latest in the aches-and-pains department:

Two-time reigning marathon world champ Abel Antón of Spain is considering retirement after slow recovery from November knee surgery.

Two former World Rankers have announced their retirement: South African pole vaulter Riaan Botha and German distance runner Stéphane Franke.

Marathon priorities: Olympic 4th-placer Jon Brown will run in London, but skip the Worlds because it comes too soon thereafter. The British star says he might instead try to run the 10K in Edmonton.

Olympic 200 runner John Capel, who still has collegiate eligibility at Florida, has declared himself eligible for the NFL draft. . .

more in the March issue of T&FN

Sadly, Field-Event Presentation
Hasn't Kept Pace With The Technological Revolution

by E. Garry Hill

To modify a line from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, "All track & field events are created equal—some are just more equal than others."

While we like to pretend that all events are equal, in the simplest sense the haves and have-nots of our sport are well delineated by the simple ampersand that separates them.

Track comes first; field comes second. Unfortunately, most jumpers and throwers have come to accept this as a basic fact of life, and even a huge field fan like me will grudgingly admit that for the uninitiated it’s much more exciting to watch people racing head-to-head against each other than it is to watch a seemingly endless progression of throws or jumps.

The "seemingly endless" nature of field events, however, is as often as not a function of how poorly the events are presented, not some inherent flaw in the disciplines themselves. . .

more in the March issue of T&FN