Women's Olympic Steeplechase First Round in the Books

By LetsRun.com
August 4, 2012

The morning session featured the women's steeplechase round 1 and the start of the men's 100m and men's 400m. We start with the steeplechase recaps below. All the favorites advanced but there was some drama.

Heat 1: Olympic Champ Struggles
When the kicking got going in this one it was unheralded Gesa Krause of Germany powering away at the front followed by Etenesh Diro of Ethiopia. Milcah Chemos of Kenya who won every Diamond League meet she ran last year before losing at the World Championships and has won every Diamond League meet she's run this year was farther back. She got the third of four automatic qualifying spots, but it did not look easy.

And then there was the Gulnara Galkina, the defending Olympic champ. She had to get into the final on time as she finished 5th in 9:28.76.

NCAA Champion Shalaya Kipp of the USA was 12th and did not advance in her first Olympics. Nonetheless it was an amazing experience (unlike at Worlds, the morning sessions here are before a sold-out crowd) for Kipp. She said, "They opened those doors and I heard the sound and at first I thought it was the wind and then I realized it was all the people, the crowd, they're fantastic, they're so loud. I thought when you hear that kind of noise on TV they are adding it in, but it's real."

Afterwards, Milcah Chemos did not have too much to say about her heat, but did complain about the weather. One thing is apparent is that many of the Kenyans do not like rain or the chance of rain. If the whether turns for the worse this week, it will be interesting to see how that affects the distance races.

1	1945	Gesa Felicitas Krause	GER	9:24.91 Q	(PB)
2	1707	Etenesh Diro	ETH	9:25.31 Q	.
3	2328	Milcah Chemos Cheywa	KEN	9:27.09 Q	.
4	2401	Polina Jelizarova	LAT	9:27.21 Q	(NR)
5	2858	Gulnara Galkina	RUS	9:28.76 q	.
6	1870	Barbara Parker	GBR	9:32.07	.
7	1381	Zhenzhu Li	CHN	9:34.29	(SB)
8	1650	Diana Martín	ESP	9:35.77	(PB)
9	1072	Genevieve LaCaze	AUS	9:37.90	(PB)
10	2200	Korene Hinds	JAM	9:37.95	(SB)
11	2468	Salima El Ouali Alami	MAR	9:44.62	.
12	3302	Shalaya Kipp	USA	9:48.33	.
13	2076	Sudha Singh	IND	9:48.86	.
14	1185	Sviatlana Kudzelich	BLR	9:54.77	.
15	3101	Binnaz Uslu	TUR	10:31.00	.

Intermediate	Bib	Athlete	nat	Mark
1000m	2858	Gulnara Galkina	RUS	3:08.77
2000m	2858	Gulnara Galkina	RUS	6:22.09

Heat 2: Emma Coburn Advances

Heat 2 featured a fall in the first 800. Clarisse Cruz of Portugal was in the lead, hit a hurdle and went down (photo here). Emma Coburn, the US champ, then took over the front leading duties and would lead until the final push for home began.

Coburn said the plan was not to lead, but after the fall she wanted to ensure she would make the final on time, so she led.

Sofia Assefa of Ethiopia got the win in this one convincingly as Coburn was a comfortable qualifier for the final. Marta Dominguez, the 2009 World Champion, had to fight a little bit more to make the final in the final automatic spot. Clarisse Cruz survived the fall to make the final on time.

Afterwards Assefa sounded confident for the final, "It was a great race. I didn't even use my full energy to win the heat. I was saving my energy for the final. Winning the race will give me extra confidence for the final."

Coburn said it despite being the Olympics the key is to focus on the task at hand, "I'm so thrilled to be here and so honored to have these three letters across my chest, but I have to treat is as another meet... It's (still) a 400 m track, there's the same amount of water jumps, the same amount of barriers. It's about keeping everything in perspective. Although there's an Olympic village, there's flags, there is gear, there is media. I just have to have a tunnel (vision) of what the end goal is. It's a steeple chase, it's 3000 meters. Whether it's Potts (Field) in Boulder or London England at the Olympics I have to stay focused and grounded."

Coburn now turns her focus to the final. She was 12th last year, and said she "would like to meet that or beat that. Try and be a little more engaged in the race rather than off the back like I was in Daegu."

1	1699	Sofia Assefa	ETH	9:25.42 Q	.
2	3069	Habiba Ghribi	TUN	9:27.42 Q	(SB)
3	3278	Emma Coburn	USA	9:27.51 Q	.
4	1646	Marta Domínguez	ESP	9:29.71 Q	.
5	2723	Clarisse Cruz	POR	9:30.06 q	(PB)
6	2896	Yelena Sidorchenkova Orlova	RUS	9:33.14	.
7	3164	Valentyna Horpynych Zhudina	UKR	9:37.90	.
8	2342	Lydia Chebet Rotich	KEN	9:42.03	.
9	2111	Stephanie Reilly	IRL	9:44.77	.
10	3096	Gülcan Mingir	TUR	9:47.35	.
11	2691	Katarzyna Kowalska	POL	9:48.60	.
12	2749	Beverly Ramos	PUR	9:55.26	.
13	2764	Cristina Casandra	ROU	9:58.83	.
14	1394	Anna Yin	CHN	10:09.10	.
15	1426	Ángela Figueroa	COL	10:25.60	.

Intermediate	Bib	Athlete	nat	Mark
1000m	3278	Emma Coburn	USA	3:09.56
2000m	3278	Emma Coburn	USA	6:21.03

Heat 3: Bridget Franek Makes Her First Final

Heat 3 featured 2011 World Champion Yuliya Zaripova of Russia.

American Bridget Franek, hoping to make her first final at a global championship did some of the early leading. She got knocked out of the front four automatic qualifying spots when the pace increased for home, but Franek held on to run 9:29.86 and make her first final.

In the mixed zone, when Franek was told she had made the final she shrieked, high fived people around her, yelled, "This is awesome" and was really excited. Soon after she was holding back tears. Making the Olympic final clearly meant a lot to Franek as the emotions overcame her.

"It's so amazing. I made two World Championships teams and I never made the final... I kind of thought, if I can't get it done here, maybe I'm not cut out for this level," she said.

Franek said she was running for some of her training partners (Lauren Fleshman, Julia Lucas) who couldn't make it to the Olympics and for the people back home in her home state of Ohio. She said the support from everyone has been amazing and she realized "the prelims wouldn't be shown" on NBC, so making the final is even better because everyone back home will now get to see her.

1	1700	Hiwot Ayalew	ETH	9:24.01 Q	.
2	2902	Yuliya Zaripova	RUS	9:25.68 Q	.
3	2340	Mercy Wanjiku Njoroge	KEN	9:25.99 Q	.
4	1952	Antje Möldner-Schmidt	GER	9:26.57 Q	(SB)
5	3290	Bridget Franek	USA	9:29.86 q	.
6	2762	Ancuta Bobocel	ROU	9:31.06	.
7	3118	Docus Inzikuru	UGA	9:35.29	.
8	1732	Sandra Eriksson	FIN	9:50.71	.
9	1863	Eilish McColgan	GBR	9:54.36	.
10	2467	Kaltoum Bouaasayriya	MAR	9:58.77	.
11	1267	Silviya Danekova	BUL	9:59.52	.
12	3189	Svitlana Shmidt	UKR	10:01.09	.
13	3093	Özlem Kaya	TUR	10:03.52	.
14	2700	Matylda Szlezak	POL	10:08.84	.

Intermediate	Bib	Athlete	nat	Mark
1000m	1952	Antje Möldner-Schmidt	GER	3:08.73
2000m	1700	Hiwot Ayalew	ETH	6:19.31

Other Action: LaShawn Merritt Out of 400m, Usain Bolt Starts 100m, Ryan Bailey Runs Fast

The big news in round 1 of the 400m was defending champ LaShawn Merritt pulling up and not advancing. Merritt dropped out of Monaco with a problem in his left leg two weeks ago and the problem caused him to drop out here. He talked of trying to run the relay afterwards, but there is no way the US can risk putting him on the team.

Former Florida State star Jonathan Borle blasted a 44.43 Belgium national record. There is no doubt this track is really fast.

Blade runner Oscar Pistorius made the second round and David Epstein of SI has a lengthy article on Pistorius' blades and any advantage he may have here.
*IAAF recap of 400 here
*NY Times article on Pistorius advancing

In the 100m, Usain Bolt won his heat in 10.08, the slowest winning time of any of the heats as Bolt had a bad start and never really exerted himself. Ryan Bailey, the third place at the US Trials, ran a 9.88 pr. Once again as we said above, "There is no doubt this track is really fast."

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