Some track athletes take bumpy rides to Beijing berths

EUGENE, Ore. — Allyson Felix felt no final-day pressure at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. She's just that good.

Wallace Spearmon, Jenn Stuczynski and Marshevet Hooker are good, too, but all had to endure their share of bumps, bruises and thumping hearts before their Olympic trips were sewn up Sunday.

The day after Tyson Gay's untimely fall reminded everyone there are no sure things in track, the two sprinters and the pole vaulter worked harder than anyone might have imagined to make it to Beijing.

Spearmon, thought to be a shoo-in in the men's 200, needed a late burst to win the third and final spot in that sprint.

Stuczynski set the American record in the pole vault at 16 feet, 1 ¾ inches, but only after she missed on her first two jumps at the lowest height and needed an emotion-draining third and final attempt to keep her chances alive.

And Hooker, who ran the fifth-fastest time ever in the 100 (it was wind-aided) to start the meet last weekend, crashed across the line to win the final spot in the 200 by .01 seconds. She needed that because she didn't earn a spot in the 100 despite her fast times in qualifying.

"I felt relief, I felt blessed, I felt joy, I felt everything at once," said Hooker, who paid the price with scrapes on her elbow, hip, hand and leg. "And I felt the sting."

That pain will go away.

Others, like Anwar Moore, will have to live with it for four years. Moore, an underdog who finished first here at the Prefontaine Classic last month, was in third place with about 15 meters left, but stumbled over the final hurdle in the 110-meter race and wound up sprawled on the ground.

Felix cruised to victory in the 200, finishing in 21.82 seconds to secure the trip she didn't wrap up last week in the 100, when she finished out of the top three.

Spearmon figured to coast to victory but he finished third, just ahead of Rodney Martin, to get the final spot in the 200, the one freed up when Gay fell Saturday in the quarterfinals.

"I got third, and the question is now, if he was here would I have made the team?" Spearmon said. "I can't answer that question. I'm here. That's all I can tell you."

Gay's MRI showed a strain in a muscle in the back of his left leg. He's restricted to light workouts for the next two weeks, but said he'd be ready for the Olympics.

His absence means Walter Dix and Muna Lee, on the women's side, are the only American sprinters who will get a chance to double in individual events.