Jones earns respect in hurdles
By Christopher Hunt
photo by photorun.net
EUGENE, Ore. – Jenn Stucynski kept saying before the Olympic Trials that she would treat the competition like any other meet.
That was until she missed twice on her opening height in the pole vault. One more and she could have been watching the Beijing Olympics at home. Stucynski, of Churchville in upstate New York, tried to relax but the announcer didn’t help. If she makes this she’s on the team, he said, if she missed she’s done.
“Great, thanks a lot,” she thought.
Stucynski cleared her opening height -- 15 feet, 1 inch – by nearly two feet then went on to break her own American record, vaulting 16-1 1/4. When she cleared her opening height she pumped her fist then laid down on the mat and covered her face. Her previous record was 16-0.
“I was more happy to make that height than the American record,” Stucynski said.
She struggled with finding her steps all afternoon she said. Stucynski said she never truly felt comfortable on the runway even at her American record attempts.
“I can tell you throughout the entire meet, I never got on,” she said. “But I’ll tell you, it worked OK. Now we’ll go back and see what happened. Either the weight got it out of my legs or I was too amped up and running through. I’m not sure really which one.
“I don’t know,” she went on later. “I had two jumps and my coach (Rick Suhr) kept telling me, ‘You’re over by this much.’ I felt I was over (my mark) but I couldn’t get it into my head. On the runway I didn’t feel good, but on that one I just tried to run and jump and see what happened.”
She made her record clearance on her third attempt as well. After two tries at a world record 16-5 1/4, she waved her hand across her neck to call it quits.
“I was done,” she said. “Mentally, I was done. My body was done. I was just done.”
Stucynski started as a basketball player at Fredonia and then at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester before trying the pole vault four years ago. Now she’s one of the best vaulters in the world.
“I’m really happy to be on the team,” she said. “Now I can go back and see what happened and get ready for Beijing.”
Lolo Jones could have enjoyed a record of her own if the wind would have backed off. Jones won the 100 hurdles in a wind-aided 12.29, the fastest time ever run by an American under any conditions. Damu Cherry finished second in 12.58 and Dawn Harper third in 12.62. 2004 Olympic champ Joanna Hayes, who has been struggling with a leg injury and limped noticeably after the semifinal, finished seventh.
Jones ran a legal 12.45 in her semifinal heat, which is the fastest time in the world this year. After she extended her arms and pushed her hands down in a “settle down” gesture. Then she said “one more.”
“I was just telling myself to calm down,” she said. “I hope the crowd didn’t think I was talking to them.”
Jones said that after she won the World Indoor title that most people told her that the world indoor meet was a "fluff meet."
"So I put that one under the carpet," she said. "Now I won the U.S. title, so it's like, do I get the respect now?"
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
Jones earns respect in hurdles
By Christopher Hunt
photo by photorun.net
EUGENE, Ore. – Jenn Stucynski kept saying before the Olympic Trials that she would treat the competition like any other meet.
That was until she missed twice on her opening height in the pole vault. One more and she could have been watching the Beijing Olympics at home. Stucynski, of Churchville in upstate New York, tried to relax but the announcer didn’t help. If she makes this she’s on the team, he said, if she missed she’s done.
“Great, thanks a lot,” she thought.
Stucynski cleared her opening height -- 15 feet, 1 inch – by nearly two feet then went on to break her own American record, vaulting 16-1 1/4. When she cleared her opening height she pumped her fist then laid down on the mat and covered her face. Her previous record was 16-0.
“I was more happy to make that height than the American record,” Stucynski said.
She struggled with finding her steps all afternoon she said. Stucynski said she never truly felt comfortable on the runway even at her American record attempts.
“I can tell you throughout the entire meet, I never got on,” she said. “But I’ll tell you, it worked OK. Now we’ll go back and see what happened. Either the weight got it out of my legs or I was too amped up and running through. I’m not sure really which one.
“I don’t know,” she went on later. “I had two jumps and my coach (Rick Suhr) kept telling me, ‘You’re over by this much.’ I felt I was over (my mark) but I couldn’t get it into my head. On the runway I didn’t feel good, but on that one I just tried to run and jump and see what happened.”
She made her record clearance on her third attempt as well. After two tries at a world record 16-5 1/4, she waved her hand across her neck to call it quits.
“I was done,” she said. “Mentally, I was done. My body was done. I was just done.”
Stucynski started as a basketball player at Fredonia and then at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester before trying the pole vault four years ago. Now she’s one of the best vaulters in the world.
“I’m really happy to be on the team,” she said. “Now I can go back and see what happened and get ready for Beijing.”
Lolo Jones could have enjoyed a record of her own if the wind would have backed off. Jones won the 100 hurdles in a wind-aided 12.29, the fastest time ever run by an American under any conditions. Damu Cherry finished second in 12.58 and Dawn Harper third in 12.62. 2004 Olympic champ Joanna Hayes, who has been struggling with a leg injury and limped noticeably after the semifinal, finished seventh.
Jones ran a legal 12.45 in her semifinal heat, which is the fastest time in the world this year. After she extended her arms and pushed her hands down in a “settle down” gesture. Then she said “one more.”
“I was just telling myself to calm down,” she said. “I hope the crowd didn’t think I was talking to them.”
Jones said that after she won the World Indoor title that most people told her that the world indoor meet was a "fluff meet."