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Friday 6:22:2012 Special Coverage DAY
Oregon Daily Emerald
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online: dailyemerald.com mobile app: trials.dailyemerald.com twitter: @odesports
Vol. 114, Issue 2
OLYMPIC TRIALS “I knew as soon as I let it go and I hit it, it was going to be a good throw.” AMBER CAMPBELL olympic qualifier
jeff matarrese PHOTOGRAPHER Nike athlete Amber Campbell cheers after her longest hammer throw flies for 71.80 meters. Campbell’s mark secured her a spot in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She will be joined by Jessica Cosby and Amanda Bingson.
HAMMER TIME
Three women, two men punch their tickets to London’s Summer Olympics in tense hammer throw competitions Isaac Rosenthal sports reporter
Amber Campbell won the first event of the 2012 Olympic Trials, taking first in the women’s hammer throw with a meetrecord mark of 71.80 meters. Joining Campbell in London will be Amanda Bingson who just graduate from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and American record holder Jessica Cosby, who earned their invitations to the Olympics with throws of 71.78 and 70.77 meters, respectively. Campbell and Cosby both entered the afternoon having met the Olympic-A standard of 71.50 earlier in the year, but Bingson needed a personal best to qualify. She improved on her first four throws before fouling on her fifth and just missing a firstplace mark on her sixth and final throw. But her toss of 71.78 was good enough to move into first place at the time, and it eventually punched her ticket to London. “I knew that I had to hit that 71.50 if I wanted to go anywhere,” Bingson said. It will be the second Olympic Games for Nike athletes Campbell and Cosby; but Bingson is a first-time Olympian. For the returners, it’s a chance to make the Games feel less like a defining experience and more like a routine competition. “I definitely feel more prepared,” Cambpell said. “Having done two World Championships between the Olympics, you really get a feel for how things go at a major championship.” For Bingson — just a few weeks removed from her college graduation — this is all very new. “I’ve only been doing this for just over three years,” she said. “To come out at the Olympic Trials, throw the A-standard and now be an Olympian” — her eyes glowed — “is just an amazing
feeling, and I have nothing else to compare it to.” She said her coaches had been planning on using this year as a building block to the 2016 Olympics but instead focused most of their energy on the collegiate season, in which she placed third at the NCAA Championships with a throw several meters shorter than her qualifying mark on Thursday. The previous meet record for the Olympic Trials — a mark 0f 70.72 posted by Cosby at the 2008 Trials — was twice broken in the qualifying round, first by Cosby (70.77 meters) and then later by Bingson (71.22). Both throwers posted their best distance on their third and final qualifying throw. Campbell and Brittany Riley each threw better than 69 meters to place third and fourth respectively, with the fifth through ninth qualifying spots separated by just 1.22 meters.
Men’s hammer throw With a fifth-round throw of nearly 75 meters, Kibwe Johnson won the men’s hammer throw competition at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Beaverton, Ore., on Thursday. His first throw of the afternoon would have been enough to win the event at 74.40 meters and stood as the mark to beat — until his fifth-round throw of 74.97. He and third-place finisher A.G. Kruger will wear the stars and stripes in London after both met the Olympic-A standard earlier this year. Kruger will be competing in his third Olympic games, while Johnson will make his Olympic debut after fouling out of the 2008 Trials. “I’ve been a starving hammer thrower for so long,” Johnson said. “I’m happy to finally do it — ’08, I felt like I had a real good shot and it just fell short. I made some changes, and the changes have been paying off.”
Chris Cralle finished in second place with a throw of 74.36, but the personal-best effort still fell below the Olympic-A standard of 78 meters, meaning that despite his finish, he will not compete in London. Regardless, he was more than satisfied with his performance. “I’m always surprised when I throw well, so I’m happy with today,” Cralle said. For an unattached competitor claiming to be sponsored by only his parents, the experience of simply reaching the finals of the Trials was reward enough — for now. “This is the best experience I’ve had in track and field in six years,” he said. “I’m just glad to be up here with A.G. and Kibwe, I’ve looked up to them for six years of throwing, and I’m just glad to be able to finish with them.” Lucias MacKay launched a throw of 68.87 meters on his first attempt to take the lead in the first flight of qualifying throws. However, the mark was barely good enough to rank within the top nine after the second flight of throws. That round featured a stronger field that included the only two athletes to previously achieve the Olympic-A standard of 78 meters. Mackay, the only Oregon Track Club representative in the hammer throw competition, ultimately qualified in the ninth and final slot and threw at the beginning of the rotation in the finals. He edged out Army’s Michael Mai by less than half a meter. After posting the best throw in the first qualifying flight, MacKay could only nervously watch the second qualifying set. “I knew I was going to have to win the flight to make the finals,” MacKay said. “It was pretty gut-wrenching towards the last round, and it ended up being down to a Georgia grad and a Florida grad for the last spot, and Georgia won out.” irosenthal @ dailyemerald . com
FOLLOW ASHTON’S DECATHLON
EUGENE SATURDAY MARKET
HAMMER THROW PHOTOS
HEAT SHEET
Join the conversation on Twitter as Oregon alum Ashton Eaton competes in the Decathlon, with the hashtag #EatonWatch
Get into the city’s downtown area and meet the locals at a market filled with more than 100 vendors.
Some shots from the first event of the Trials held yesterday at Nike’s facilities in Beaverton, Ore.
Keep pace with today’s action — check out our schedule, so you don’t miss a lap of the day’s big races.
@dailyemerald
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