Lauryn Williams, NCAA champion at the University of Miami, found out Friday just how different the Olympics are, especially for a young runner.
“I’m pretty sure I’m not in Miami anymore,” she said. “I can’t click my slippers and go back there.”
Alan Webb felt the same way.
The difference is Webb, 21, is going home to Virginia after only one round of the 1,500 meters. But Williams, 20, has moved into Saturday’s semifinals of the 100.
“I ran a stupid race, stupid,” Webb said.
In this season when Webb finally had moved forward from days as the high school phenom who had broken Jim Ryun’s prep mile record, he looked more callow than ever in his Olympic debut before an estimated 35,000 spectators Friday night.
Webb allowed himself to get in trouble early, and he never got out of it. The final blow of an extremely physical race came when Webb clipped another runner’s shoe in the final curve.
“It killed my momentum,” Webb said. “I was fourth or fifth, and suddenly I’m dead last.”
He finished ninth of 13 runners in his heat in a time of 3 minutes 41.25 seconds yet failed to advance by only 11/100ths of a second. Teammate Grant Robison, however, ran 3:53.66 in his heat but advanced to the semis because officials ruled he had been unfairly obstructed.
Webb looked like a good bet to make the final. He had twice run personal bests this year and won an elite race on the European circuit.
But none of those races could have prepared him for this.
“There are always races where you get a couple bumps,” Webb said. “I felt like every 50 meters something was happening. It has never been that bad.”
Kenya’s Bernard Lagat, a gold-medal contender, felt his left shoe starting to come off because of contact with 300 meters to go.
“That was me–sorry,” Webb said to Lagat.
Lagat put his arm around Webb while explaining how he kicked off the loose shoe with 100 meters to go because he knew it would be easier to run without it. He still finished second.
“It gets really physical out there, and you have to be really strong to deal with it,” Lagat said.
“I’m happy I survived.”
Webb was kicking himself.
“I should have been up in the front, up in the front front, but I was pretty much all over the place,” he said. “It was my inexperience.”
He has four years to gain more. That time might have gone faster, Lagat thought, if Webb had at least made it to the semis.
“It’s good to go home with something from the Olympics,” Lagat said. “Going home with disappointment is going hurt for a long time.”
Bekele rules 10,000
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele showed why he was an overwhelming favorite in the 10,000 meters by running away from countryman Sileshi Sihine in the last 600 to win in 27:05.10.
That broke the Olympic record of 27:07.34 set by another Ethiopian, Haile Gebrselassie, in 1996. Bekele’s last 400 was a stunning 53.02.
Gebrselassie, the 1996 and 2000 champion but bothered by Achilles’ tendon problems, stayed with the pace for 7,000 meters before falling off to fifth in 27:27.70.
Dan Browne, who also is running the marathon Aug. 29, was the top U.S. runner, finishing 12th in 28:14.53.
Keeping track
Olga Schukina of Uzbekhistan, last of 38 in the women’s shot put Wednesday, was disqualified after a doping sample given four days earlier came back positive for the steroid clenbuterol. … All three U.S. women made the 100-meter semis, although Gail Devers was last of the 16 qualifiers. Devers, 1992 and 1996 champion in the 100, was in the field only because Torri Edwards had been banned for a doping violation.
