BLOOD, SWEAT, BUT NO CHEERS.Byline: PAUL OBERJUERGE ATHENS, Greece - Alan Webb Alan Webb is the name of:
The planet's middle-distance elite pushed back. Make that an even century since the U.S. won a gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize in one of track's signature events, the 1,500-meter run. Or it will be by the time Beijing 2008 rolls around. Webb, the latest and perhaps greatest American middle-distance hope in a generation, came to Athens thinking about a medal. He leaves thinking about what went wrong in the first round of qualifying, which he failed to survive Friday night at Olympic Stadium The Olympic Stadium is the name usually given to the big centrepiece stadium of the Summer Olympic Games. Traditionally, the opening and closing ceremonies and the track & field competitions are held in the Olympic Stadium. . Along with the other two U.S. metric-milers. ``Stupid race,'' Webb sighed moments after finishing a battered and bloodied ninth in his heat. ``Stupid.'' Webb, 21, is the slight, balding, unassuming college kid who, as a prep, trashed trashed adj. Slang Drunk or intoxicated. Our Living Language Expressions for intoxication are among those that best showcase the creativity of slang. all of Jim Ryun's schoolboy mile and 1,500 records, set nearly four decades earlier. He also is the guy who two years ago got a six-year, $1.5 million endorsement contract from Nike. Monstrous money for any track athlete not named Marion Jones Marion Jones, also known as Marion Jones-Thompson (born October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, California), is an American former athlete in track and field. She was the winner of five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, which she later relinquished after or Maurice Greene Maurice Greene may refer to:
Webb came back from an injury-induced layoff to run a 3-minute, 32.73-second 1,500 earlier this year, putting him among the world's elite. Or so he and many others thought. Then he was roughed up in his first Olympic race. ``It was like football out there,'' Webb said. Seems the veterans of the middle-distance world didn't stay out of his way or clear a path for the new kid. In fact, they made life just plain difficult. Webb was blocked, boxed in and ultimately forced to the outside to find some running room. He was jostled, bumped and spiked hard enough that blood was running down his leg. His time of 3:41.25 was the 25th best of the day. The top 24 times warranted a ticket to the semifinals. He seemed almost dazed daze tr.v. dazed, daz·ing, daz·es 1. To stun, as with a heavy blow or shock; stupefy. 2. To dazzle, as with strong light. n. A stunned or bewildered condition. trying to recollect rec·ol·lect v. rec·ol·lect·ed, rec·ol·lect·ing, rec·ol·lects v.tr. To recall to mind. See Synonyms at remember. v.intr. To remember something; have a recollection. what had happened. He was almost free-associating as he talked with reporters, just minutes after he finished. ``I was trying to make a move. I lost my momentum. I bumped into somebody ... one step ... and it cost me however many 10ths. I got spiked pretty badly. ``I wanted to be on the outside and stay out of trouble and toward the front. I should have been more aggressive, second lap, maybe out toward the lead ... or take fifth and be the leader in the back ...'' He called it the roughest race he's been in. You could call himnaive for not expecting that. ``My inexperience,'' he sighed. ``I should have been more worried about my position ... Everyone is really pumped up and really wants to run well.'' Webb said his plan was to stay near the front, ``in striking distance. But I was all over the place.'' He surged on the backstretch back·stretch n. The part of an oval racecourse farthest from the spectators and opposite the homestretch. of the final lap, then faded badly after he was spiked. ``It just killed my momentum and I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. who it was or what happened, and before I knew it I was dead last,'' he said. ``Out in fourth or fifth and right there, and then I'm dead last and it's like, `Aaaah.' '' In retrospect, Webb figures he should have gone to the front. ``Like, up in the front,'' he said. There figures to be a next time for Alan Webb. Or two, maybe even three. Middle-distance runners often peak around age 30. Or at least that's what we recall. An American last won the 1,500 in 1908. A guy named MelvinSheppard. Since then, though, it's been a handful of silver and bronze - and no medals at all since Jim Ryun's silver in 1968. Marty Liquori was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1971, but he didn't get it done in the Olympics. Neither did Steve Scott, the dominant middle- distance American of the 1980s. If anyone is going to end this red-white-and-blue drought in the next couple of Olympiads, it's going to be Webb. ``I want to be the best miler mil·er n. Sports One that competes in races one mile long. miler Noun an athlete, horse, etc., that specializes in races of one mile Noun 1. on the planet,'' he once told USAToday. He still has plenty of opportunity to be. But the old hands of middle-distance running made sure he won't be gaining that designation during his stay in Athens. Paul Oberjuerge, (909) 386-3865 paul.oberjuerge(at)sbsun.com |
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