Prep sensation Jordan Hasay was supposed to be in Poland by now, running with athletes her own age.
Instead, she ran herself into a 1,500m final Sunday afternoon where she was the youngest runner – at age 16 – by five years. She finished 10th out of 12 runners in 4:17.36.
She gave her week of work positive reviews.
“I’m really happy with the way I performed these three days,” said Hasay, who just finished her junior year at Mission College Preparatory High School in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
“I learned that I could come out and compete and not be too intimidated, and at the same time I learned that I still have a lot of work to do to be up there and perform consistently at this level,” she said.
Even with what she called a slow pace at the beginning, Hasay was last for the first half of the race. She slid by the last two runners only within the last lap.
Her final kick “just wasn’t there at the end,” she said, shrugging with a laugh.
She hadn’t expected to even make it as far as she did, so a laugh was due.
After running a national high school record 4:14.50 in the 1,500 on Friday, Hasay delayed joining the U.S. team on its flight to the World Junior Championships to run in the final. It took a petition from her coach to U.S.A. Track & Field just to get her that far. Once she qualified, there was no question she’d run yesterday. Still on an emotional high, fatigue wouldn’t be a factor in Poland, she said.
“I definitely feel like this was worth it. I learned a lot of racing strategies,” she said. “I still have a whole week to recover and I’ll just jog it easy and no more hard workouts, just race.”
Hasay will run the 1,500 in Poland on Friday. She likes her chances after her Trials by fire.
“It’s going to be totally different racing over there with my same level so I’ll probably have a lot of confidence going into the world meet,” she said.
In less than a week, she went from the last runner to make the qualifying rounds to a runner the Hayward Field crowd serenaded with chants of “Come to Oregon.”
Her reception startled even her, a veteran of the track and field spotlight since before she was in high school.
“I’m definitely surprised. It’s really cool and when they were doing the intros and everyone screamed for me,” Hasay said. “It’s so nice to have a town that’s so supportive of track and field.”
Did the wooing help steer her toward a career as a Duck?
“Maybe a little bit, I don’t know, I’m still keeping it open.”
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