Team USA women impress in Saturday morning qualifying

August 15, 2008 from USATF press release (BEIJING) Team USA's women had a relatively easy time in qualifying rounds Saturday morning at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. The U.S. women's 400 trio of Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg and Dee Dee Trotter all will compete in Sunday's semifinal round. The #1-ranked Richards (Austin, Texas) won her quarterfinal heat in 50.54, the fastest time of the day. Wineberg (Cincinnati, Ohio) was second in heat 3 in 51.46 to advance automatically, and Trotter (Knoxville, Tenn.) was fourth in heat 1 in 51.41 and had to wait until all 7 rounds were completed to see if her time would hold up as one of three time-qualifying spots. It did, as the fastest non-automatic qualifier.

The United States will be represented by two women in tonight's shot put final as second-generation Olympian Michelle Carter (Ovilla, Texas) and Jillian Camarena (Tucson, Ariz.) surpassed the automatic qualifying mark of 18.45m/60-6.5 in Saturday morning qualifying action. Carter beat the mark on her first attempt of 18.49m/60-8 to finish 12th overall in qualifying, while Camarena tossed a season-best 18.51m/60-8.75 on her third and final throw to sit in 13th. Kristin Heaston (Opelika, Ala.) was 23rd overall with a mark of 17.34m/56-10.75 and did not advance.

A pair of Americans will be in the women's pole vault final Monday night. American record holder Jenn Stuczynski (Churchville, N.Y.) cleared 4.50m/14-9 on her first attempt to advance, while April Steiner (Springdale, Ark.) also cleared 4.50. Erica Bartolina (Hammond, La.) failed to make her first height of 4.30/14-1.34 and will not be in the final.

Fam fares well in steeple

Competing in the city where he won the 2001 World University Games gold, Anthony Famiglietti (Knoxville, Tenn.) advanced to Monday's final of the men's 3,000m steeplechase with a bold, front-running effort in Saturday's semifinals. "Fam" took the lead from the gun, enjoying a gap of as much as 8 seconds, and wasn't passed until going over the last hurdle in the final stretch of his race. He ended third in his heat in 8:17.34, a new personal best, to get to the final. Billy Nelson (Longmont, Colo.) was 10th in the same race in 8:36.66, and Josh McAdams (Orem, Utah) was ninth in heat 3 in 8:33.26 as neither man advanced.

Hyleas Fountain (Kettering, Ohio) avoided disaster in the heptathlon and was in second place with 5,029 points after the fifth event, Saturday morning's long jump. After fouling on her first two attempts, Fountain was forced to play it safe and get in a legal mark in her third and last try. Barely getting her foot on the take-off board, she posted a mark of 6.38m/20-11.75 (969 points), the seventh-best jump of the competition. She owned the top personal best in the field (6.88m/227) heading into the meet but still stands in strong position heading into the last two events, the javelin and 800m. Natalia Dobrynska of Ukraine won the long jump with a mark of 6.63m/21-9 (1,049) and re-took the overall lead with 5,045 points. American Jaquelyn Johnson (Tempe, Ariz.) was in 21st place with 4,405 points after a long jump of 5.88m/19-3.5 (813).

The women's 100m crew eased through the quarterfinal round as Torri Edwards (Irvine, Calif.) won heat 1 in 11.26, Lauryn Williams (Miami, Fla.) was second in heat 2 in 11.39, and Muna Lee (College Station, Texas) was third in heat 3 in 11.33.

In men's discus qualifying, Michael Robertson (Beebe, Ark.) threw 61.64m/202-3 to place 16th , Casey Malone (Fort Collins, Colo.) had a best of 61.25m/201-0 for 19th , and Ian Waltz (Chula Vista, Calif.) was 25th with 60.02m/196-11 as none advanced to Tuesday's final.

Eastler 43 rd in 20km RW

The first event of the morning was the men's 20 km race walk final, featuring Olympic Trials champion Kevin Eastler (Aurora, Calif.). The two-time Olympian ran a steady pace to place 43rd in 1:28:44 in a race won by Valeriy Borchin of Russia in 1:19:01.

For more information on Team USA at the Olympic Games, including athlete quotes, event schedule, TV schedule and complete results, visit www.usatf.org