Stress fracture hurt Olympic chances of UW sprinter Jordan Boase

Jordan Boase left his first U.S. Olympic trials in track and field without realizing what might have been.

After failing to make the final in the 400 meters in Eugene, Ore., Boase revealed that he had been running for at least two months with a stress fracture in his left femur. Lack of training not only caused blisters to develop on his right foot, but also undermined his confidence.

"I don't want to blame the whole thing on that," he said. "It mostly just affected the training and my mindset ... There was just no way I could run my best."

Boase, an All-American at Washington, ran 46.60 in finishing seventh in the semifinal, well off the 44.82 that turned heads this spring as the second-fastest 400 run in the world at the time. Boase qualified for but did not run the 200 at the trials.

In track circles, Boase's rise has been close to meteoric. He started running track in the final months of his senior year at Bothell High, walked on at UW, and became a star. Overwhelmed by studies and sports — he had never competed on a team of any kind in high school — he took last year off from track at UW before returning this past fall.

Boase decided to run with the injury because it would take six weeks of complete rest to heal. He's doing that now, while facing a big decision — whether to turn pro or return for his final year of athletic eligibility at UW.

"I have to figure out the whole contract situation," which includes whether to hire an agent, Boase said this week. "I'm just waiting on all that so I can actually see my exact options."

He'll talk with UW coaches, and has asked for advice from former UW 10-time All-American JaWarren Hooker, about the possibility of turning pro.

If he returned to UW as a runner, it would be as a graduate student. Boase said he completed his course studies for a degree in sociology and a minor in history this spring.

"I wouldn't leave school if I hadn't," he said. "It gives me a lot more options."

Notes

• Washington State freshman Jeshua Anderson continues to impress, winning the 400-meter hurdles at the junior world championships in his first year running in the event. Anderson ran a personal-best time and WSU school-record time of 48.68 Friday night in Poland. Anderson, who competed at the U.S. Olympic track trials in Eugene, adds that title to those won this season in the NCAAs, Pac-10, and U.S. junior championships.

• A team of Spokane All-Stars felt the power of the defending Olympic gold-medal softball team rounding into form for Beijing. Team USA beat Spokane, 31-0, behind 35 hits to up its pre-Olympic tour record to 53-1 Thursday.

• Tacoma's Travis Stevens was ninth at the German Open July 6 in Braunschweig, Germany, in his final tuneup before the Olympics in Beijing. The event is a B-level judo tournament that included 49 players in Stevens' 81kg division. Stevens won two matches before losing narrowly to eventual champion Sven Maresch of Germany.

• Local rowers will compete in the 2008 junior world championships in Linz-Ottensheim, Austria, July 22-27. Cara Linnenkohl, Redmond (Lake Union Crew), women's single sculls; Shannon Stief, Mukilteo (Everett Rowing Association), women's pair; Rob Munn, Redmond, (Sammamish Rowing Association), men's eight.

• Among those named to compete in the 2008 world rowing under-23 championships, set for Bradenburg, Germany Thursday through July 20 are: Pocock Rowing Center's Lisa D'Aniello of Niskayuna, N.Y., and Kristin Hedstrom of Concord, Mass. in the lightweight women's double sculls; Washington's Blaise Didier of San Francisco in the men's eight; UW's Katelin Snyder of Winter Park, Fla., Northeastern's Katherine Glessner of Seattle and Yale's Jamie Redman of Spokane in the women's eight; Pocock's Joshua Adam, coach, lightweight women's double sculls; UW's Mike Callahan, coach of the men's eight.

• Marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe is in training and still hopes to overcome a stress fracture in her left thigh to compete at the Beijing Olympics. Radcliffe's agent said the 34-year-old runner, who was diagnosed with the problem in May while having an MRI for a hip problem, was still optimistic about going to the Games. She was the favorite for the gold medal in the marathon at the 2004 Athens Games but dropped out about a mile from the end, and also dropped out of the 10,000 meters a few days later with eight laps remaining. The women's marathon in Beijing is Aug. 17.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.