MORE
Most Recent Entries
- Smith Out Of Mix For 4x400
- Cherry Fourth In Closest Olympic Hurdles Finals Ever
- Colwill Nails Down Spot in Diving Finals
- Cherry, Colwill Advance
- Railey Takes Sailing Silver
- Cherry Advances To Semifinals
- Railey Must Wait
- Smith In The Mix For 4x400
- No Live Colwill On TV Or Web
- Colwill, Tarantino Take Tough Fourth
- Local Sailor Going Like The Wind
- The Virtual Olympic Experience
- Missing The Games
- Updating the Locals
- Olympic Chicken Bisquits?
Monthly Archives
|
Chris Colwill can finally make plans to be in the Beijing Olympics. And his parents can now book their travel plans to see him compete in those games.
After Colwill’s performance Saturday afternoon in men’s 3-meter individual springboard at the U.S. Diving Olympic Team Selection Camp in Knoxville, Tenn., he’s a certainty to make the squad in that event. The 23-year-old Tampa Prep and University of Georgia graduate took second place in his third list of dives and first in the fourth and final list to lock up his first trip to the Olympics.
The Selection Camp committee still has to gather Sunday to determine the roster and the official announcement will not come until Monday. But Colwill has done everything needed to land a spot on the U.S. Olympic diving roster in 3-meter individual. He dominated the camp, took second place at last month’s Olympic trials and owns all other tiebreakers.
The lone second-place finish Colwill had at the camp came to Troy Dumais, who earned the first Olympic slot in individual 3-meter by wining the trials.
Tonight, Colwill will try to earn his second Olympic slot when he and dive partner Jevon Tarantino compete in 3-meter synchronized. They won the first two lists in the event Thursday and are expected to repeat that showing in the final two lists tonight.
Brooksville’s John Capel, left congratulates Tyson Gay after Gay’s first-place finish in the opening rounds of the men’s 200-meter qualifying at Friday’s U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Capel finished third to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals
This is a short feature from Tribune correspondent Patrick O’Neill on former Brooksville Hernando and University of Florida track and football star John Capel, who is trying to make a third consecutive Olympic team after serving a two-year-suspension for testing positive for marijuana.
EUGENE, Ore.—John Capel credits his 8-year-old daughter, Janya, with keeping him honest. After Capel, who served a two-year suspension from track for smoking marijuana, ran his opening-round 200-meter race Friday in the US Olympic Track and Field Trials, he said his daughter keeps on him about staying out of trouble.
Capel, in the same heat with 100 winner Tyson Gay, qualified third in a time of 20.73 to advance to today’s quarterfinal round. Being “hardheaded” led him to be a rule-breaker, Capel said.
“I had to figure it out on my own,” he said. “I never was the type of person who went by the rules too much. I always kind of went by my own [rules]. When you’re out here doing professional athletics, professional sports, you have to follow their rules. It took a little bit for me to learn that.”
Capel, who has another daughter, Serenity, and a 1-year-old son, John, Jr., said its Janya who stays on top of him. She was reading on a 6th-grade level in 1st grade and that’s when she looked her father’s name up on the Internet and discovered about his troubles.
Janya Capel read her father’s MySpace page and Googled his name, he said.
“She’s read every story just about that’s ever been written about me since 2004,” Capel said with a smile. “She gets on me about every day. [She asks:] Are you still smoking? Are you still getting in trouble?
Capel said he’s learned his lesson. Although 29, he say he’s ready to bring his career back into high gear. Unable to qualify in the 100, Capel says the 200, a race in which he’s a former world champion (2003), is more forgiving and more attuned to his racing style.
“The 200 is a more patient race,” he said. “You’ve got a chance to make a couple of mistakes, and I think that’s a lot better race for me.”
In his heat, Capel said he let up coming off the turn. “I let up about 110 (meters). I just kept my composure, stayed strong coming home, and tried not to let too many people pass me coming in.”
Capel, who spent time as forklift operator and “breaking cement” when he was out of the sport, said he’s still shaking off rust.
“It was all about being rusty, getting the rust off, getting my body back,” he said. “That’s been the only hard part.”
Capel said he’s not bitter about a decision to keep him off the 400 relay team at the 2004 Games after it was discovered he tested postive for pot at an a meet earlier that summer.
“They got to make sure they save face for US Track and Field,” he said. “Who knows what would have happened, but it was all for the better. It just makes you hungrier and stronger.
“I feel like as long as I keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll progress and get better and better. As long as I keep in shape, and stay focused. I’ll be around for awhile.”
Freedom High graduate and University of Florida sophomore Calvin Smith (center) leans out Darold Williamson (left) and Greg Nixon for fifth place in the 400-meter finals at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Photo by David J. Biesack.
This just in for our correspondent, Patrick O’Neill, at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Things were not looking good for Florida sophomore Calvin Smith as he came off the last curve in Thursday night’s 400-meter final at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials.
Struggling in last place, the 20-year-old Freedom High graduate turned into the home stretch in last place looking as if he’d lost contact with the field that included some of the top 400 runners on planet Earth.
Then something happened. While the Hayward Field crowd was watching to see if 2004 Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner would be able to run down eventual winner LeShawn Merritt, Smith dug deep, and started to kick.
In a flash, Smith went from eighth to fifth, a finish that likely means Smith will be selected for the 1,600-meter relay pool in Beijing.
“I was definitely worried, but I just kept saying in my head, ‘This is on TV, can’t get last, and I want to go to Beijing’ so I kept pumping,” he said. “I have all my friends and family watching back home and I didn’t want to let them down, nor did I want to let myself down, so I found a piece of that in my heart and just kept working.”
Merritt won in a time of 44.00, with Wariner second (44.20). Smith was fifth in 45.57, just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Darold Williamson (45.58) in sixth.
Smith and Gators coach Mike Holloway had discussed several scenarios for the final. Making top three was the foremost goal, but in the 400, unlike most events where only the top three go to the Games, any runner in the final has a shot at being selected to run on the 1,600 relay squad.
“Like I told Cal, the higher he places the better chance he has to run in the relay,” Holloway said. With a fifth-place finish, Holloway told Smith he did what was necessary to get to Beijing.
“He told me they’re taking top six (to Beijing),” Smith said.
Minutes after the final, fourth-place finisher Reggie Witherspoon (45.01) was celebrating with Smith. “You’re going to Beijing Cal, going to Beijing,” he said.
Friday morning, Holloway said he confirmed Smith will be part of the US Olympic relay pool, although that is no guarantee he will get to run a leg in the Games.
After his race, Smith said he was hoping to take a week or more off because he was tired of running. “That’s not an option,” Holloway said. “If he wants to be part of the relay team in Beijing he has to show the coaches he’s ready to run.”
Tampa’s Calvin Smith didn’t finish in the top three of the men’s 400 to earn an individual place on the U.S. Olympic team but his fifth-place finish in 45.57 seconds has almost certainly landed him a spot in the Beijing Games as a member of the U.S. pool of runners for the 4x400 relay.
Typically, the top six finishers in the 400 at the trials go into that pool, and fifth place is the first alternate for the open 400. Smith, a Freedom High product and University of Florida sophomore, said he is looking forward to his second trip to Beijing. In 2006, Smith competed there in the IAAF World Junior Championships and earned a gold medal in the 4x400.
“It means a lot because I’ll be running in the Olympics,” said Smith, the son of former Olympian and 100-meter world record holder Calvin Smith. “I don’t care what leg. Just give me one, as long as I’m there.”
Smith went from dead last to fifth place in the final 75 meters thanks to a powerful kick. LaShawn Merritt, the 2007 world outdoor 400 silver medalist and 4x400m gold medalist, upset defending Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner to win in 44.00. Wariner clocked 44.20 and third place went to David Neville (44.61).
St. Petersburg’s Rose Richmond, a Lakewood High graduate, finished what she called a “very disappointing” ninth in the women’s long jump finals and will not be making a return appearance in the Olympics.
“I’m really upset. I worked hard this year but I guess this just wasn’t my time.
Was she satisfied making the finals?
“No. I wanted to win. That’s all I came out here to do.”
In the opening round of the women’s pole vault Thursday, Wharton graduate Natalie Moser, now competing for UF, was unable to clear the starting height of 13 feet, 5.25 inches and is out of the competition.
Clearwater’s Robert Margalis has reached the finals of the 200-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Neb.
Margalis, who took third place in the 400 IM finals on Sunday—one place from making the Olympic team—had the sixth-fastest qualifying time Thursday morning at 2 minutes, 1.33 seconds, then came back to post the No. 7 time in the semifinals at 2:01.16. The top two qualifiers were Ryan Lochte of Daytona Beach and North Baltimore’s Michael Phelps, the same two guys who broke the 400 IM world record Sunday and grabbed the Olympic berths up for grabs in the event.
In Thursday’s 200 IM qualifying, Lochte went 1:59. 49 and Phelps swam 1:59.70. In the semis, Lochte blew away the field with his 1:57.57 while Phelps went 1:58.05. Finals are Friday night.
In women’s 100 free qualifying Thursday, St. Petersburg’s Megan Romano swan 56.01 for the No. 32 qualifying time while Tampa’s Chelsea Nauta was 46th at 56.40. The top qualifier was American record holder Natalie Coughlin, who swam 53.64, just .25 off her record.
Advancing to the semifinals is St. Petersburg native, Emily Silver, whose dad, Bob, used to be my sports editor at that paper across the bay. The name escapes me. Emily was an all-American at Cal Berkeley and her folks live in Bainbridge Island, Wash. She posted the No. 6 qualifying time at 54.74.
After winning the first two lists at the U.S. Olympic Diving Team Selection Camp in Knoxville, Tenn., Chris Colwill of Brandon is on the verge of clinching a spot in the Beijing Games for 3-meter springboard.
Colwill, a Tampa Prep and University of Georgia graduate, won his first list of six dives with a total of 492.35 points, a comfortable 40.05 points ahead of second-place Jevon Tarantino, who is Colwill’s dive partner in 3-meter synchro.
In synchro that evening, Colwill and Tarantino teamed up to win their two lists. They are the favorites to win that event’s Olympic berth. Competition in synchro concludes Saturday night.
In his second individual list, Colwill still took first place despite having problems with his fourth dive, an inward 3-1/2 somersault tuck. He scored between 4.5 and 6.5 on that dive for a total of 49.30 points and lost the lead to Tarantino. But Colwill bounced back to score 84 on his next dive and a whoipping 96.25 on his final dive, a reverse 3-1/2 somersault tuck that judges awarded him either 9s or 9.5s. Colwill wound up with 467.10 points, 6.3 ahead of second-place Tarantino.
“I fell pretty good but I have to stay focused,” Colwill said. “My goal was to start off really strong and I tried to keep it going. I didn’t do as well on my second list but I’m very happy with how I composed myself after I missed that fourth dive.”
With two first place finishes under his belt, a second-place finish at last month’s Olympic trials and owning all the other tie-breakers (performances at previous World Cups and World Championships) used in determining the second berth on the U.S. Olympic dive team for 3-meter springboard, Colwill would have to suffer a major collapse in Saturday’s final two lists not to make the trip to Beijing. The spots not clinched at the trials will be officially announced Monday, the day after the Selection Camp ends.
All events are being contested at the University of Tennessee’s Aquatics Center.
After posting a lifetime best in the morning qualifying sessionn of the 200-meter freestyle, Tampa’s Chelsea Nauta saw her Olympic hopes end in the event when she finished 16th in the semifinals Tuesday night at the U.S. trials in Omaha, Neb.
Nauta, a Tampa Prep product now competing for the University of Georgia, swam 2 minutes, 0.17 seconds in the semifinals at the Qwest Center. The eight qualifiers for the finals all broke 1:59, including No. 1 seed and American record holder Katie Hoff, who went 1:57:10. Hoff’s American record is 1:56.08.
If she had made the finals, Nauta had a good shot at making the Olympic squad in the 4x200 free relay. Typically, the top six finishers in the finals of the trials’ 200 free are selected for that relay pool. The top two finishers in the finals earn the individual Olympic berths in the event.
Also in the women’s 200 free first-round qualifying, 17-year-old Megan Romano of St. Petersburg Northeast High, finished 46th overall and sixth in her heat at 2:01.91. That’s about a second off her PR (2:00.98) but Romano came into the meet still suffering the lingering effects of mononucleosis.
In Tuesday’s other qualifying event, the 200 individual medley, Clearwater Countryside’s Melanie Margalis, the younger sister of national team swimmer Robert Margalis, had the 69th-fastest time at 2:20.02.
Above: Freedom High’s Calvin Smith (left), now a sophomore at the University of Florida, battles Reggie Witherspoon in Monday’s semifinals of the 400-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic Trials
This just in from Patrick O’Neill, the Tampa Tribune’s correspondent at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore.
EUGENE, Ore.—Coming off the final turn in Monday’s 400-meter dash semifinal, Tampa’s Calvin Smith II realized he was sitting in fifth place, out of the money if he wanted to run in Thursday’s Olympic Track and Field Trials final.
Realizing what was at stake – the eight finalists are considered for the U.S. Olympic relay pool in the 4x400 and the top three are guaranteed Olympic berths in the 400 – the Freedom High graduate and a University of Florida sophomore, did what he does best: kicked in as hard as he could.
“I just had to power all the way though, and I came in third,” he said. “It feels good [to make the final]; can’t wait. I’m just going to go out there and better run my race the next time.”
Early in the semifinal, Smith, who ran 45.43 seconds for third place, said he was trying to keep up with eventual second-place finisher Darold Williamson (45.16). The heat winner was former Baylor University star Reggie Witherspoon in 44.99.
“I didn’t want to get too far behind like I did in the other (quarterfinal) race.”
With two rest days to look forward to, Smith said he’s viewing Thursday’s final as just another race—but he admits he’s scared.
“I’m always scared every race I run,” Smith said. “But I figure if you’re not scared, you shouldn’t be out here running.”
Before the race, Smith’s father, Calvin Smith, a former Olympic medalist, world champion and former world record holder at 100 meters, gave his son some simple advice by telephone from Tampa.
“I just told him to go out and do it, don’t worry about the past,” Calvin Smith said. “I told him he had to stay in the race and don’t let them get away like [Sunday] night.”
In the women’s 400 semifinals, St. Petersburg’s Ashlee Kidd, a Georgia Tech graduate, improved her time but her 52.37 was only good for 7th place in her heat, not enough to make the final.
“My first round didn’t go well,” she said. “My whole race was just off. ... I wanted to come back today and run a better time. I ran a better time, I felt a little bit better, but I still didn’t get the results that I wanted, plus I wanted top four; didn’t get top four.”
Kidd said her goal was to earn an Olympic berth.
“It’s just like any other meet,” she said. “You have to see it like any other meet. I knew who I was up against. It’s not a weak event.
“But it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, it just matters what you do at the trials. Anybody has a chance Kidd said she may run some races in Europe this summer. “The season’s definitely not over yet. This is not my last race.”
Late Monday night, former Lakewood High and Indiana University star Rose Richmond advanced out of the qualifying round of the women’s long jump and into the finals with her mark of 21 feet, 4 inches. Richmond’s qualifying mark came on her third and final attempt of the prelims.
The top 12 jumpers reached Thursday’s final and Richmond was tied for sixth place with fellow 2004 Olympian Grace Upshaw. The No. 1 jump Monday was Hyleas Fountain, a two-time outdoor champio in the heptathlon who went 21-10.25.
Clearwater’s Robert Margalis got back in the pool and shook off the disappointment of finishing third in Sunday night’s finals of the 400-meter individual medley by turning in a lifetime best in the 200 freestyle.
No, Margalis’ time of 1 minute, 41.31 seconds wasn’t good enough to make tonight’s semifinals in the event, but a personal record is always a good thing to swim after you have just missed making the Olympic team by one place. Also swimming the prelims in the 200 free was Clearwater’s Grant Johnson, who was 44th in 1:51.67.
Margalis is still expected to compete in the 200 fly, 200 IM and 1,500 free. His little sister, Countryside High’s Melanie Margalis, swam her first event at her first Olympic Trials, finishing 69th in the prelims of the 400 free in 4:21.24.
Tampa Prep graduate Chelsea Nauta, a freshman at Georgia, also had a good showing in Monday’s prelims. She took 23rd in the 400 free with her personal best time of 4:15.14. Also in the 400 free, Countryside’s Katie Kastes, now at Arkansas, who went 4:19.94 for 61st place.
Another local athlete competing Monday included Academy of the Holy Names product Kelley Hug, who was 52nd in the 100 backstroke at 1:03:50. She currently swims for Stanford University. Also in that event was St. Petersburg Northeast’s Megan Romano, who is trying to overcome the effects of mononucleosis. She started her trials campaign with 55th place in 1:03.60.
A total of 121 swimmers competed in the women’s 100 back, including Natalie Coughlin and Hayley McGregory. In one heat, McGregory broke Coughlin’s world record with her time of 59.15. In the next heat, Coughlin got it back with her 59.03.
In the men’s 100 back, Jesuit High’s Tommy Wyher, now swimming for UNC, went 57.07 for 39th in the field of 83 qualifiers.
Clearwater’s Robert Margalis was once again in the worst possible position at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials: third place, just one spot away from making the Olympic team.
With Olympic star Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte of Daytona Beach both swimming under the previous world record for the 400-meter individual medley, Margalis, a Clearwater High and University of Georgia product, wound up third at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb.
Phelps swam 4 minutes, 5.25 seconds to beat his previous WR of 4:06.22 and Lochte, who competed for the University of Florida, also eclipsed that mark at 4:06.08. At 4:13.85, Margalis swam just off his lifetime best for his third, third-place finish in three appearances at U.S. trials. In the 2000 trials, Margalis was third in two events, the 1,500 free and 400 freestyle.
It was another Olympic trials disappointment for Margalis, but his father, Bob Margalis, said his son wasn’t too upset.
“We talked to him face-to-face after the race and he’s fine,” Bob Margalis said. “He said it was an honor being part of a race where two people broke the world record. He’s OK. He’s the kind of kid who puts it behind him pretty quickly.”
Margalis is still expected to swim in the 200 freestyle (today), 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 1,500 free.
Photo caption: Darvis Patton, left, crosses the finish line ahead of Travis Padgett, center, and Groveland’s Jeffery Demps in the 100 meter semifinals at the U.S. Olympic track trials.
This just in from Patrick O’Neill, our correspondent at the Olympic track trials in Eugene, Ore.:
EUGENE, OR - The party ended abruptly for Olympic sprint hopefuls 29-year-old John Capel of Brooksville and recent high school graduate Jeffery Demps of Groveland. Both Floridians were eliminated in Sunday’s semifinal heat of the 100-meter dash at the US Olympic track and field trials.
Capel, the veteran, was sixth in his heat in a time of 10.21. Demps, a Florida football recruit who shocked the track-savoy Hayward Filed crowd Saturday with a national high school and world junior record of 10.01 in the quarterfinal, was eight and last in the same heat with a time of 10.34.
Demps, who left from the meet Sunday hoping to be in Gainsville for football practice today, said breaking the record was the highlight of his athletic career, but football remains his first love.
“To come out here and break the world junior record in track is just incredible,” he said. “It’s better than throwing a touchdown.”
Demps said he plans to run for the Gators, but he’s not planning any more races for the summer.
“I just grew up loving the game (football),” he said. “Track is something I can also do.”
Capel, who Saturday said he had a good chance of making top three in the 100 final, said he wasn’t sharp after taking time off from sprinting. He plans to run in the 200 heats beginning Friday.
“It’s difficult [to lose] because you want to go to the Olympics in two events; you at least want to try, but it’s just the kind of thing that happens at the Olympic trials,” Capel said. “You’ve always got to be prepared. Today I wasn’t prepared.”
Also on Sunday, South Florida sophomore and Freedom High graduate Mikese Morse finished 13th in the long jump final with a leap of 24-feet, 7.25 inches. After fouling on his first two attempts in the final, Morse got in his one legal jump on his last attempt. His mark was more than a foot off his personal best of 25-11.
Morse said he came to the meet hoping to compete for a berth on the US team.
“I still thought I had a big jump in me,” he said. “When you’re out here you have to shoot for the big one or else there’s no reason to being out here. I thought I could get a big jump, but it just didn’t happen yet.”
Being on track’s biggest US stage was a “good experience,” Morse said. “I know I’ll be back next year trying to compete for the World Championship team.”
Another Freedom product, University of Florida sophomore Calvin Smith, advanced to today’s 400-meter dash semifinal with a second-place finish in his heat in a time of 46.14—exactly a second off of his personal best of 45.14.
Despite running in an event dominated by veteran U.S. runners, Smith said he’s at the trials to run with the best of them.
“It’s pretty hard, a lot of people have been running 44 (seconds) this year and a couple of 43s, so I just got to get out there and do my best even though I haven’t ran those times yet. Hopefully I’ll hit ‘em.”
Tyson Gay almost didn’t get the chance to do it, but when he did, he set the American record in the 100-meter dash. Recent Groveland South Lake High graduate Jeff Demps eclipsed a national high school recod in the event, while Brooksville’s John Capel ran a season best in the 100 to reach Sunday’s semifinals.
Gay broke Maurice Greene’s American mark in the 100 by running 9.77 seconds in his quarterfinal at the trials.
“It tells me I’m in pretty good shape,” Gay said. “We’ve got two more rounds left.”
The runner-up in Gay’s quarterfinal was Jeffery Demps of Groveland, who got out of the blocks a bit ahead of the favorite and wound up setting a national high school mark at 10.01. The previous record was 10.08, held by J-Mee Samuels, who now runs for Arkansas but failed to reach the semifinals of the 100. Demps is headed to the University of Florida on a football scholarship—unless he makes the Olympic team. That scenario might make him choose to red shirt his freshman season. He was the Class 3A state champion this season in the 100 and last month won the BAYTAF Classic youth meet at Jefferson High.
Gay tied the fourth-fastest time in the history of the event, despite clearly easing up over his final few strides. He almost didn’t escape the opening round when he eased up too soon and had to speed up again and lunge across the finish line in fourth place.
Two other Floridans—Walter Dix, the 2007 NCAA champion from Florida State, Xavier Carter of Palm Bay—were among the 16 sprinters advancing to the men’s 100 semifinals on Sunday.
At 10.06, Capel was just the 11th qualifier in the 100-meter dash Saturday evening at the trials, almost three tenths of a second off Gay and his Americann record. But from his vantage point as an experienced sprinter competing in his third US trials, the 19-year-old Capel is heading into today’s semifinals and finals with a good shot of landing a berth on another US Olympic team.
“Those guys were running fast, but the ultimate goal is, ‘Can they come back and do the same thing tomorrow?’ ... This is my third Olympic trials. That’s why I’m saying, ‘Can they come back and do it again tomorrow? That’s the hard part. A lot of the young guys don’t understand. It’s not NCAAs where you’ve got three rounds; it’s four rounds so can they come back and repeat what they did today?”
With a smile on his face after finishing fourth in his quarterfinal heat, Capel boldly said today’s 100 final will be slower than the quarterfinal in which six sprinters ran below 10-seconds.
“I’m thinking to win the trials you have to run 9.90-something,” Capel said. “It won’t be 9.8, no where near that. Because these guys, they’re looking tired, and I’m not. I’m happy. To take your body to those limits and come back and do it again that’s pretty difficult, and to do it for four rounds, even more difficult than people think.”
Capel, who will also run in his specialty, the 200, said he’s been feeling stronger with each race.
“I’m a little rusty, but it seems like each round I’m getting better and better, so hopefully tomorrow I can drop under 10 seconds. I think I got it in me. I’ve just got to keep it moving.”
Late Friday, Freedom High’s Mike Morse, now a sophomore at the University of South Florida, advanced to today’s finals of the men’s long jump. Morse qualified with his preliminary round mark of 25 feet, 6.75 inches. The top 12 jumpers advanced and Morse, USF’s school record holder at 25-11, grabbed the last qualifying spot.
Tribune correspondent Patrick O’Neill contributed to this report
Before he competed in Saturday’s shot put final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials pn Saturday, the public address announcer told the Hayward Field crowd that Tampa Baptist and Florida State graduate Garrett Johnson was a Rhodes scholar. After the 24-year old Johnson failed to register a legal throw in the final, falling out the ring three consecutive times, Johnson admitted it’s hard to be both an academic superstar and an athletic superstar.
Right now, he’ll have to settle for academic superstar. After two years at Oxford, an ocean away from his coach and under almost daily wet conditions, Johnson said lost ground in his event.
The “perfect world” would be to be a strong scholar and shotputer, he said.
“That’s a perfect world, but life is not always perfect,” Johnson said. I was in Oxford for two years. No coach. No training partners. It rains pretty much every day in Oxford. It’s not the best environment. I knew that going, but you just can’t pass up the chance attend Oxford.”
Johnson plans to keep competing in the shot put.
“The strength is there. The power is there, but the timing was off,” he said. “Next year, hopefully a better training environment, train hard and get some big throws.”
He called his trials experience “bittersweet.”
“It’s great to be here but you want to do well when you’re here, and so to not perform at your best is disappointing. But you know, you’ve got to keep it in perspective. It’s still an honor to be here.
Tribune correspndent Patrick O’Neill filed this report
In his first appearance at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Freedom High’s Mike Morse, now a sophomore at USF, has advanced to the finals of the men’s long jump. Morse qualified with his preliminary round mark of 25 feet, 6.75 inches late Friday night in Eugene, Ore. The finals will be held Sunday at 6:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The top 12 jumpers advanced and Morse, USF’s school record holder at 25-11, grabbed the last qualifying spot.
In the men’s shot put, Tampa Baptist’s Garrett Johnson, a Florida State and Oxford University graduate, reached tonight’s finals of the shot put with his prelimary-round throw of 64-1.75. That was the No. 10 throw out of 12 finalists. Finals are at 7:40 ET.
Earlier this afternoon, Jeff Demps, who just graduated from South Lake High in Groveland, ran the second fastest 100-meter time ever by a prep sprinter with his 10.12. That moved him on to the quarterfinals along with such names as Walter Dix of Florida State, who led all qualifiers at 9.96, and former Brooksville Hernando High and University of Florida standout John Capel, who went 10.16 for the 11th-fastest time of the first round. Quarterfinals are tonight at 8:01 p.m. ET.
Former Wharton High track and field standout Natalie Moser, a senior at the University of Florida, has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the pole vault.
Moser had been on the bubble to make the trials. She was tied for the 24th and final qualifying spot with three other vaulters with a mark of 14 feet, 1.25 inches. Wednesday, USA Track and Field officials decided to take the entire field of 24 qualifiers in both the women’s and men’s pole vault.
Moser was a state champion for Wharton her senior year and the Southeastern Conference indoor winner last year. She went on to set the Gators’ indoor pole vault record at the NCAA Indoor Championships by clearing 14-1.25. With that mark, she wound up second at the NCAAs after three rounds of a jump-off.
Moser has since been hampered by a knee injury but has recovered this spring and summer to return to the vault and the U.S. trials. The top three finishers in the women’s vault earn spots in the Beijing Olympic Games. The top seed is 2008 World Indoor Champs silver medalist and two-time USA Outdoor champion Jenn Stuczynski, who is the current American record holder at 16-0.75.
Joining Moser at the meet as a Wharton and UF alumnus will be Alex Harris, who qualified in the triple jump with his mark of 52 feet, 2 inches.
Advertisement
