Sanya Richards went for an easy 400-meter run in yesterday’s semifinals, before shutting it down for Thursday’s final.
“I wanted to execute the first 300 (meters) of my race and then about 320 I wanted to relax and I looked up at the Jumbotron and I thought I had enough room to just shut it down,” she said after cruising in with a time of 50.75 seconds.
Going into the final, Richards, the American record holder, said she felt completely ready to go and ready to run a fast time.
“100 percent,” she said. “When I saw the time, I thought, ‘Man, if I’d pushed that one in it might have been a 49-low race’ and I felt really strong. I’m gonna save that run for on Thursday and hopefully the time will come.”
Richards knows she is expected to win, but she embraces that role.
“I enjoy being the favorite,” she said. “I know the target is on my back but it just means that I’ve worked really hard and I have the best times going in and that’s always a bonus.”
Joining Richards in the final will be two Olympic 4x400m gold medalists in Monique Henderson and Dee Dee Trotter, as well as 2007 World Championships 4x400m gold medalist Mary Wineberg and 2007 U.S runner-up Natasha Hastings.
“I would’ve liked a faster time, but we just ran a round yesterday, so I am satisfied with the win,” Wineberg said, referring to her first-place finish in her heat.
In the women’s 5,000m, 16 of the 19 finishers in the semifinals advanced to Friday’s final. Oregon’s Nicole Blood did not finish her race, stepping off the track with an apparent injury. She told reporters that she was OK, but she had an ice pack on her right leg.
Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher, the first- and second-place finishers in last Friday’s 10,000m final, won the two heats. Flanagan finished in 15:35.86, while Goucher had the fastest time, a 15:32.22.
“It’s going to take a lot faster than that in Beijing, but my plan was to go out there and get my rhythm back and not get tripped up,” Flanagan said. “I wanted to qualify and didn’t take anything for granted, because a number-one seed time doesn’t mean anything.”
Oregon Track Club Elite’s Lauren Fleshman finished third in her heat behind Flanagan.
Jennifer Barringer, coming off a dominating performance in the NCAA Championships, set a Hayward Field record in the second semifinal of the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, breaking Lisa Nye’s seven-year-old record of 9:49.41. She eased past the finish line in 9:48.50.
Like many of the athletes at the Trials, Barringer had good things to say about the crowd.
“To have a whole stadium where most of the people don’t know me behind me, it means so much,” she said. “You hear things when you are on the track that really move you. That’s a feeling that few people in life ever get. This is an awesome place to be and I am so honored.”
The winner of the first heat, Nicole Bush, just missed getting Nye’s record first, finishing in 9:49.53.
American record holder Lisa Galaviz was third in Bush’s heat, also moving on to the final.
Fresh off her heptathlon win, Hyleas Fountain leads all qualifiers in the women’s long jump with a mark of 21-10.25.
Brittney Reese, Funmi Jimoh and Akiba McKinney – the first, second and third seeds coming in – were the top qualifiers after Fountain.
“I felt like it could have went a little better,” Reese said. “My speed wasn’t on today, so hopefully on Thursday I can get it together and make the Olympics.”
The top five seeds in the women’s high jump all advanced to Friday’s final.
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