CHANCES LOOKING UP FOR ACUFF.Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer SACRAMENTO - At first glance, there was nothing notable about Amy Acuff's opening high jump of the 2000 Olympic Track and Field Trials on Friday. The bar beckoned at 5-10 3/4. That was eight inches lower than the former UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX star's career-best mark, so the fact she cleared it on her first try didn't send any pulses racing. Except hers. What looked for all the track world to be a humdrum jump was, in fact, a huge step forward for Acuff, whose dreams of making a second Olympic team came close to crashing on June 22 when her car was rear-ended on her way to practice at UCLA's Drake Stadium Drake Stadium is a stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. It is primarily used for the Drake Relays, and is the home field of the Drake University Bulldogs. It opened in 1925 and currently holds 14,557 people. A large scale renovation of the stadium was completed in 2006. . Acuff, 25, suffered whiplash whiplash n. a common neck and/or back injury suffered in automobile accidents (particularly from being hit from the rear) in which the head and/or upper back is snapped back and forth suddenly and violently by the impact. in the accident and was understandably worried. ``It hurt pretty bad,'' she said. ``The next morning I was trying to put a spoon to my mouth and I was having shooting pains.'' Acuff missed four days of training. When she resumed jumping, she was in agony. ``It was really bad because I couldn't hold my upper body up to run,'' she said. ``It was a really retarded form of jumping.'' It wasn't until this week that Acuff began to feel like the jumper who set the collegiate outdoor record at 6-6. At the moment of impact, did Acuff see her Olympic dreams flash before her eyes? ``For a second, I thought it's bad timing,'' Acuff said. ``But I think everything happens for a reason. I just try to go with the flow no matter what happens.'' Acuff, one of track's pin-up girls, was deemed by a men's magazine to be one of the country's most beautiful athletes. On the track, however, she has suffered from a maddening lack of exposure. ``There was just a big lack of meets'' for high jumpers, Acuff said. ``I've been going to all-comers meets with 50-year-old men competing against me, (in conditions) where I was going over the river and through the dirt and jumping over curbs. It's really a relief to get out and feel a little bit of pressure, just enough to get the juices flowing.'' Sunday, she'll be one of 13 jumpers vying for three Olympic berths in the high jump final. If she makes the team, it will be no accident. <TODAY'S SCHEDULE Key events: Men's and women's 100 finals; final three events for heptathlon heptathlon: see under decathlon. heptathlon Women's athletics competition. Contestants take part in seven different track-and-field events: 100-m hurdles, shot put, high jump, long jump, javelin throw, and 200- and 800-m runs. ; men's shot put final; women's hammer final. Local connection: 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 (Thousand Oaks High), 100; Sheilla Burrell (CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge assistant coach), heptathlon; John Godina (UCLA), shot put; Inger Miller (USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. ), 100; Angela Williams (USC), 100. TV: Channel 4, 8 p.m. (tape delay) CAPTION(S): photo Photo: High jumper Amy Acuff is back in good form, less than a month after suffering whiplash in an automobile accident Ask a Lawyer Question Country: United States of America State: Utah Say you're at a red light in a left hand turning lane and the light turns green so you let up slightly on the break antedating moving forward and the vehicle . Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press Box: TODAY'S SCHEDULE (See text) |
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