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Lagat Completes First Leg of Olympic Qualifying Double
Tegenkamp, Dobson also punch tickets to Beijing
By Parker Morse, Running USA wire

EUGENE, Ore. - (June 30, 2008) - Bernard Lagat and Matt Tegenkamp, the first and fourth place finishers at last summer's World Championships 5000 meter final, earned their spots on the U.S. Olympic Team Monday evening here at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field. The duo will be joined by former Stanford standout Ian Dobson of Team Running USA, who like Tegenkamp will be running in his first Olympic Games.

Before the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track and Field even got started, track watchers were pointing to the men's 5000m final as the race to watch. Lagat and Tegenkamp would be joined by 2000 Trials champion Adam Goucher, NCAA champion Bobby Curtis and former NCAA champions Chris Solinsky and Jonathon Riley (both training partners of Tegenkamp).

With all that horsepower in the field, the chance of an electrifying race was almost balanced by a chance that the major players would spend the race jogging and eyeing each other warily before sprinting the last lap. Recent Colorado graduate Brent Vaughn, however, pushed to the front before the race was even 200 meters old and opened a four second gap before he reached the 400 meter mark.

Vaughn, who claimed after the race that he "had nothing to lose," explained that "I didn't want to let the guys just jog a 5K...I thought maybe I could steal it."

Vaughn's ability to maintain his pace didn't match his audacity, however, and after he knocked off the first kilometer in a manageable 2:41, Bolota Asmerom led the pack in reeling Vaughn back in. When he was absorbed again at 2000m (5:26), the weight of the pace fell squarely on the shoulders of Goucher. With his wife Kara already on the team by virtue of her second place finish in the 10,000m on Friday evening, Goucher was looking to book his ticket, but unlike the other contenders lacked an Olympic "A" qualifying mark. Goucher needed the pace to be sharp, and to finish faster than 13:21.50, so he took the lead and tried to push it himself.

Goucher's effort would be futile as well. "I thought the pace might do it. I figured I could close with a 4:08 mile. But as we went along, I realized I was 4 or 5 seconds down, and it wasn't happening," said Goucher.

When Chris Solinsky took the lead with a kilometer remaining, Goucher shut down and jogged off the track. "[Coach] Alberto [Salazar] waved me off with two laps to go. He was probably waving me off earlier, but I couldn't hear him."

Solinsky thinned the pack to six: himself, Tegenkamp, Dobson, Asmerom, Lagat and Curtis. At the bell, it was increasingly obvious that Solinsky's possession of the lead existed only at the will of Lagat, and when the World champion finally turned on the jets with 200 meters remaining, the race for the win was over. Lagat won Olympic bronze and silver medals for Kenya at 1500m in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and that speed remains with him. He finished in 13:27.47, and the announcer dutifully reminded the crowd that Steve Prefontaine's Trials record of 13:22.8 from 1972 at Hayward still stood.

In the scramble for spots behind Lagat, Tegenkamp immediately took control. Solinsky struggled to hang on, but found Asmerom passing him by first, and then, quicker, Dobson. Tegenkamp was next to the line in 13:29.68, and Dobson closing on him with 13:29.76. Solinsky wound up fifth.

"I have a hunger to get the gold again for the U.S. this year, like I did last year in Osaka, only this time in the Olympics," said Lagat who announced in a Tuesday press conference that if he earns a spot in the 1500m, where he is also the defending World champion, he intends to contest both in Beijing.

"It was the best possible outcome given the conditions," said Tegenkamp, crediting his coach Jerry Schumacher. "We stuck to the big picture. Our goal since '04 was to stick to the plan and it came out exactly as we wanted it."

For Dobson, it was a dream come true, "I'm really happy. This is just overwhelming. I have such a great coach [Terrence Mahon] who has invested a lot in me and it feels so good to make him proud."

U.S. Men's Olympic Trials 5000m
Eugene, OR, Monday, June 30, 2008

1) Bernard Lagat (AZ), 13:27.47
2) Matt Tegenkamp (WI), 13:29.68
3) Ian Dobson (CA), 13:29.76
4) Bolota Asmerom (OR), 13:31.24
5) Chris Solinsky (WI), 13:32.17
6) Bobby Curtis (PA), 13:35.00
7) Stephen Pifer (CO), 13:37.46
8) Matt Gabrielson (MN), 13:38.06
9) Brent Vaughn (CO), 13:39.15
10) Thomas Morgan (NC), 13:47.76

Complete Olympic Trials results and more at: www.usatf.org/events/2008/OlympicTrials-TF/

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Atlanta Track Club Announces Professional Field for AJC Peachtree Road Race
Local runners expected to contend in women's Masters field
By Bill Stewart

ATLANTA - (July 1, 2008) - While Georgia's historic drought has forced a change to the finish line of the 39th running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race, race officials expect little to change in the intense competition to get there first. Once again, many of the world's best runners have chosen to spend their July 4 morning in Atlanta - along with 55,000 others - traversing 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) along Peachtree Street on Friday.

"Despite this being an Olympic year, which limits participation from some top U.S. runners, we expect a very competitive field," said Atlanta Track Club Executive Director Tracey Russell. "At Peachtree, we have a history of strong performances in Olympic years, as many of the world's runners are at their best on July 4 as the Games approach."

Top 10 runners from 2007 expected to compete are Kenyans Peter Kamais (sixth in 2007) who this spring set his 10K personal best of 27:11 and Daniel Kipkoech (eighth last year) who placed seventh in the highly competitive Lilac Bloomsday Run in May.

Newcomers to Peachtree are expected to make up the rest of the challengers, including two Ethiopians, Burka Gebo and Tesga Dmessew, who both performed well at the tough Bolder Boulder 10K in Boulder, Colo. In that race, Gebo took third and Dmessew second. Their battle will resume in Atlanta along with the addition of Kenyan challengers, MacDonald Ondara (who finished ahead of Kipkoech at Bloomsday) and Robert Letting, who has finished no worse than second in any of his U.S. 10K races this spring and set a personal best of 27:45 to win the Crescent City Classic in New Orleans.

The top American in the field is Josh Moen, who last year finished 13th overall and was the sixth American as Peachtree hosted the USA Men's 10K Championship. This year, many of the top U.S. men and women are in Eugene, Ore. attempting to earn a trip to Beijing at the 2008 Olympic Track & Field Trials.

Three professional female runners return from last year's top 10, Kenya's Neriah Asiba finished fifth in 2007, consistent top Peachtree finisher Kathy Butler of Great Britain finished sixth, and Angelina Mutuku of Kenya finished ninth. Asiba has continued to run well this spring with four top four places in distances ranging from 10K to the half-marathon. Butler has finished in the top six at Peachtree for the past four years and Mutuku set a new personal record in March for the 10K in placing third at the Azalea Trail Run in Mobile, Alabama.

An early favorite on the women's side is Pauline Wangui of Kenya, who was to be the top seed last year but could not run due to visa problems. Other challengers include Nataliya Berkut of the Ukraine who finished fifth in 2006, Ethiopian Emebet Bacha, who finished fifth in this year's World Junior Cross Country Championships, and Kenyan Hyvon Ngetich, who has set 10K and half-marathon personal bests this year.

In the women's Masters division (40 years and older), it will not be the humidity, but the heat as the race should be intense this year. Last year's winner, Russian Firaya Sultanova-Zhdanova is expected to run as well as California's Sylvia Mosqueda who finished second, a mere six seconds back. Utah's Michelle Simonaitis, who was third, will also be in the field, along with four-time Olympian Colleen De Reuck of Colorado, who has three of the top 50 times ever run at Peachtree, including her personal best of 31:16. Finally, add in three more American masters, Donna Garcia, Jody Hawkins and Stephanie Herbst-Lucke, who all have recently run times equal to or faster than last year's fourth place time and this should be a great race to watch. Of local interest, both Garcia (Marietta) and Herbst-Lucke (Atlanta) currently reside in Georgia.

The men's Masters race should be a battle of three U.S. runners, Eric Ashton, Sean Wade (third last year) and Dennis Simonaitis (second last year) against two strong foreign runners, Kenyan veteran Gideon Mutisya (fourth last year) and Morocco's El Arbi Khattabi. Auburn graduate Scott Strand from nearby Birmingham could also challenge for a top position based on his performances this spring.

The Atlanta Track Club is the second largest running organization in the United States with more then 9,000 members. Aside from organizing the Peachtree, the country's largest running event of any distance, the Atlanta Track Club puts on more then 25 running events per year including The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. For more information, visit: AtlantaTrackClub.org

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Severy, Haefeli Take USA Trail Titles
By Nancy Hobbs

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. - (June 29, 2008) - It took incredible climbing skills to win this year's USA Trail Championships on Sunday and no one exhibited more prowess on the hills than Jonathan Severy, 26, Aspen, CO, who raced to victory over the grueling 13.2K course in just under one hour (59:51) besting national runner-up Clint Wells, 33, Superior, CO, by nearly one minute.

"Clint took the race out and led up the first climb (a 500+ foot ascent with more than 20% vertical gain which the Open men had to run three times). He's one of the smartest runners I know and I knew he'd be the one to watch. I passed him after the first descent (about ½ mile into the race), and kept the lead," recounted Severy.

Severy spends much of the year in Winooski, VT, where he just finished his first year in medical school at the University of Vermont.

"At medical school, I don't have much time so I go out and run one hour as hard as I can. There are hills around my apartment, but nothing like the mountains in Colorado. I really liked the hill (on this course). I just figured I would go one pace no matter what and today that pace was faster than everyone else," said Severy who seemed as excited about his upcoming wedding to Natalie Florence (whom he met while an undergraduate at CU Boulder) in two weeks as he was about his win. "I'm getting hitched and going to Spain!"

Wells, who finished second in last weekend's USA Mountain Running Championships - the all-uphill Mt. Washington Road Race - said the course was easier than Mt. Washington, but, "I just didn't have the power up the hill."

Rounding out the top five were Matthew Russell, 25, Boulder, CO, timed in 1:02:24, Jason Delaney, 28, Golden, CO, in 1:02:53, and Jared Scott, 25, Flagstaff, AZ, in 1:03:12.

Andy Ames, 45, Boulder, CO finished in seventh place to win the Masters division in 1:04:36.

"I felt OK and just tried to keep it going. I tried to get any lead I could going up and I felt if I could hold off Bernie (Boettcher) the first lap (there were three laps of 4.4K each) I could do it again. He's a great downhill runner so it wasn't a given," said Ames who held off Boettcher, 45, Silt, CO, for the Masters win.

Another Masters runner led the women's race from start to finish as 40-year-old Laura Haefeli, Del Norte, CO, showed no signs of fatigue from her record-setting Masters performance at Mt. Washington last weekend.

Haefeli finished in 45:16 over the two-loop 8.8K women's course. Of the course, Haefeli responded, "Crazy! It was great. The hill was pretty severe. Even in Europe I've never run anything that steep for that long. I was thinking on my run, 'I need to be the Bernie Boettcher of the downhill.' Then if I could just be half of that, it would be great. I was ahead on the uphill - he (Boettcher) came blowing by me on the first downhill."

"I'm pleased with my time and finish," said Haefeli, who hopes to include the World Mountain Running Trophy in her plans this September. "I'm planning to race the Berry Picker (a Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team selection race) next month in the hopes of making the team."

Haefeli is the only U.S. woman to win an individual medal at the World Trophy. Last year in Ovronnaz, Switzerland, she won the bronze medal to lead the U.S. women to their second consecutive team gold medal.

In second place, Megan Kimmel, 28, Silverton, CO, posted a time of 45:54. Kimmel also plans to race the Berry Picker as do third and fourth place finishers Brandy Erholtz, 30, Bailey, CO, and Rachael Cuellar, 26, Albuquerque, NM who ran 46:41 and 46:55 respectively. Erholtz already earned her spot on the 2008 mountain team with her win at Mt. Washington (which was a team selection race) and plans to use the Berry Picker as a tune-up for Switzerland which is again hosting the World Trophy, and Cuellar was on the 2006-07 gold medal teams.

Paul Petersen, 16, Broomfield, CO, was the Junior men's champion in 44:34 - over the same two-loop course as the women. Kerry Sheader, 18, Grand Junction, CO, was second in 50:54, while Taylor Fletcher, 18, Steamboat Springs, rounded out the top three.

USA Trail Championships
Steamboat Springs, CO, Sunday, June 29, 2008

MEN - 13.2K
1) Jonathan Severy, CO, 59:51, $900
2) Clint Wells, CO, 1:00:48, $700
3) Matthew Russell, CO, 1:02:24, $400
4) Jason Delaney, CO, 1:02:53, $200
5) Jared Scott, AZ, 1:03:12, $150
6) Drew Casselberry, NV, 1:03:35, $100
7) Andy Ames, 45, CO, 1:04:36, $50

WOMEN - 8.8K
1) Laura Haefeli, 40, NM, 45:16, $900
2) Megan Kimmel, CO, 45:54, $700
3) Brandy Erholtz, CO, 46:41, $400
4) Rachel Cuellar, NM, 46:55, $200
5) Gina Lucrezi, CO, 48:28, $150
6) Shannon Platero-Roach, NM, 48:33, $100
7) Jeanne Hennessy, CO, 48:36, $50

More race results at: www.runningseries.com/races/championships.php

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German Fernandez: Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year
California record-setter named nation's top high school performer

RIVERBANK, Calif. - (June 26, 2008) - In its third decade of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in partnership with RISE Magazine, has announced German Fernandez of Riverbank High School (Riverbank, Calif.) as its 2007-08 Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

The award, which recognizes not only athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the track, distinguishes Fernandez as the nation's best high school boys track & field athlete. A national advisory board comprised of sportswriters and sport-specific experts from around the country helped select Fernandez from the more than 534,000 high school boys track & field athletes nationwide. Fernandez is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade Male High School Athlete of the Year award, to be presented at a special afternoon ceremony prior to The ESPY Awards in July.

The senior distance runner finished the 2008 outdoor season ranked #1 in both the 1600 meters and 3200 meters among prep competitors nationwide. At the California Interscholastic Federation State Track & Field Championships, Fernandez's performance in the 1600 meters (4:00.29) broke the California Interscholastic Federation state meet record (4:02.62), set in 2001 by 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion Ryan Hall. Fernandez's time was only 0.78 seconds away from the National Federation of High School Athletic Associations record (3:59.51), set in 2001 by the current U.S. record holder in the mile and 2000-01 Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year Alan Webb.

After a mere two hours of rest following the 1600 meter race, Fernandez clocked an 8:34.23 finish in the 3200 meters, shattering the National Federation of High School Athletic Associations record (8:41.10), set in 2000 by Dathan Ritzenhein, the runner-up in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. This performance also broke a hand-timed CIF state meet record (8:44.9) set by the late Eric Hulst in 1975.

Fernandez recently returned from the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals, where he dominated the 2 mile with a winning time of 8:34.40, crushing a 29-year-old national high school record of 8:36.30 set by Jeff Nelson. Fernandez's 3K split of 7:59.83 also broke the national record (8:03.67) set by Galen Rupp in 2004.

Also the 2007-08 Gatorade California Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year, Fernandez placed first in the 8K race at the USA Junior Cross Country Championships in 24:18. He finished 25th at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships (24:15), leading Team USA to a sixth place team finish in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Fernandez has maintained a 3.25 GPA in the classroom. He has donated his time as a youth basketball coach in addition to serving as a race course monitor at the annual Riverbank Wine & Cheese Run, a charity race associated with the ShadowChase Running Club. Fernandez, who works a multi-shift schedule as a part-time host at the Riverbank Applebee's, has remained an active peer leader in his school and community despite a demanding, year-round focus on elite-level distance training.

"German has had a great year, from his fall cross country triumphs to his World Cross Country Championships performance this past winter, to a string of impressive doubles on the track in the spring," said Dave Devine, an assistant editor with DyeStat. "But nothing prepared folks for what he did at the California state meet. That 4:00.29 / 8:34.23 double is not only the performance of the year, it is, without a doubt, the best one-day distance double in prep history. There are other great runners this year, but German, on a good day, is on another level."

Fernandez has signed a National Letter of Intent to run at Oklahoma State University this fall.

"Without question, German is deserving of recognition as the nation's best high school boys track & field athlete based on his statistics on the track and the tremendous ability he's demonstrated," said Gatorade Senior Vice President of Sports Marketing Jeff Urban. "But he is also a shining example to peers and aspiring young athletes of what a leader and a student-athlete should be. He represents everything we hope for in a Gatorade Player of the Year recipient."

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport. The selection process is administered by RISE Magazine, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

For more on the Gatorade Player of the Year program, including nomination information and lists of past winners, visit: gatorade.com/playeroftheyear

Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
(805) 696-6232
Ryan@RunningUSA.org | www.RunningUSA.org