CUFFE INSPIRES WITH BRAVE PERFORMANCE IN JUNIOR WOMEN'S 5000M
By David Monti. (c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
June 26, 2010
DES MOINES, IOWA (26-Jun) -- Aisling Cuffe, a wide-eyed eleventh grader
from Cornwall High School in Upstate New York, came here to the USA
Junior Outdoor Championships to earn a berth on Team USA for next
month's IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada. She had
hoped to make the team at 3000m, but finished third in that event last
Thursday to Emily Sisson and Jordan Hasay, despite running a personal
best 9:20.94, well under the IAAF qualifying standard of 9:35.00
"This year she wanted to go world's in the 3000," her coach Dave Feuer
told Race Results Weekly in an exclusive interview. "Unfortunately,
probably the only two girls in the country who could beat her happened
to sign up for the same race."
So Cuffe decided to start today's 5000m, the distance at which she won
at last year's junior championships with a 16:43.58 personal best.
Although there was little doubt that she would win today's race, she
not only had to place in the top-2 to make the team, but she also had to
beat the IAAF World Junior Championships time standard of 16:30.00.
That was a tall order for any 16 year-old, but made even more difficult
by the 90°F (32°C) temperatures accompanied by 55% humidity under a
scorching Midwest sun. According to the USATF team selection policy,
she had to have the standard by the end of today's meet.
"We're not too happy about the time of the race with the heat and all,"
said Feuer of the late afternoon start time. "She had to average 79's
and we thought that she'd be the only one trying to do it, and we were
right."
Cuffe bolted to the lead at the gun, and settled into her pace. She hit
the first full lap in 80.4 seconds, then ran 79.2, 79.4, 80.0, and
79.7. The small crowd of perhaps 300 cheered as the stadium announcer
explained Cuffe' challenge. With each lap her lead over the main field
grew, from 11 seconds, with ten laps to go to 53 seconds with two laps
to go.
"Obviously, nobody was even close to that pace," Feuer observed.
Cuffe's pace slipped to the low 81's and 82's, but with two fast final
laps the standard was still possible. She began to lap the other
runners, passing all but one by the finish. Spurred by the crowd, she
dropped down to 77.1 seconds for her penultimate lap, but then the
wheels fell off. Her loping stride began to stiffen, and her head and
back drooped forward. Precious seconds were slipping away.
"She went and was on (pace) for about half the race, had a couple of
bumps above 79, but came back," sighed Feuer. "But she was just spent."
Cuffe forced herself to finish the last circuit in 89.7 seconds, by far
her slowest of the race. Clocking 16:52.25 she won by some 36 seconds,
but her dream of competing for Team USA --at least for this summer-- was
shattered. Although she made it off of the track with just a small
amount of assistance, she crumbled to the floor of the recovery area
under the stadium. Comforted by her mother, Mary O'Hanrahan, and coach
Feuer, she rose to her knees to vomit repeatedly into a trash can. She
was unable to speak to the media.
"It's a great effort, having run the 3000 two days ago and PRing, with a
9:20 was, I'm sure, part of it," her coach reasoned. "Obviously, the
heat (was a factor), but it wasn't all the heat."
Cuffe was helped out of the recovery area by her coach and mother, then
driven away by the Drake Stadium medical staff in a golf cart for
further treatment. She was smiling as the cart pulled away on the sky
blue track, the stadium then early empty.
"She's special," said Feuer who managed a wan smile. "She's, you know,
above and beyond whatever you could ask someone to do. She doesn't do
it all on talent. She wasn't always this fast. She started out,
obviously, above average, and she is so into what she does and
dedicated."
The other two junior distance races held today, the 1500m for men and
women, had happier endings. Jordan Hasay of the University of Oregon
and Rachel Schneider of Georgetown University went 1-2 and in 4:26.38
and 4:27.26, respectively. Both possessed the 4:28.00 qualifying
standard before the race and made the team (Hasay said she would double
in the 1500m and 3000m in Moncton). On the men's side Princeton's Peter
Callahan (3:46.42) and Loyola-Los Angeles' Elias Gedyon (3:47.65) both
got under the 3:48.00 standard and locked in their places on the
national team.
Anna Pierce won the open 1500m with a strong final 100m to pass both
Shannon Rowbury and Erin Donohue in the final 20 meters of the race.
Pierce clocked 4:13.65. Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Shalane
Flanagan was tripped and tumbled to infield about 900m into the race.
She finished 11th in 4:19.56.
"It got messy in the middle," said Flanagan who will make her marathon
debut in New York in November. "I got caught up in it."
The five-day USA Outdoor Championships conclude here tomorrow.
ENDS
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