Heptathlon field, meet the new Hyleas Fountain.
Fountain racked up the most first-day points in her career after setting lifetime bests in the shot put, 100m hurdles and the 200m Friday, starting off the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials on a record-setting note that wasn’t matched the rest of the day. She last set three first-day personal bests in 2005.
“I think what’s going to happen when this meet is all said and done, I think it’s going to be the highest performance by an American since Jackie Joyner,” said Dan O’Brien, Jacquelyn Johnson’s coach at Arizona State.
Of her 3,989 points on Friday, 1,178 came in her first event, the 100m hurdles, running 12.65. The time set an Olympic Trials, American and U.S. National Championship record for the heptathlon hurdles. The race had a wind of 2.8 meters per second.
“The hurdles was definitely a great start for me,” Fountain said. “Coming off of that into the high jump, I was on a high.”
Fountain was followed in second place by Diana Pickler’s 3,750 points and Jacquelyn Johnson in third with 3,717. Pickler won the high jump with a personal record of 6-0.5. Fountain jumped 5-11.25 to tie for second.
Fountain, the 2007 U.S. outdoor champion, roared back to win the final two events. She threw the shot put 44-10.25 and added a 23.31-second 200m.
Fountain’s record in the heptathlon is 6,502, and needs to score only 2,513 points in three events tomorrow to tie it.
Comparing yesterday to her three-PR heptathlon in 2005, Fountain said, “It’s been a while for me to have such a great PR, but this is definitely better than that day.”
Johnson is in third despite personal bests in the 100m hurdles, 200m, and shot put while tying her personal best in the high jump. Her coach, former Olympic decathlon champion Dan O’Brien, admitted to being dumbfounded by Fountain’s show.
“I thought if Jacque had a day like today, she’d be the first-day leader and win the meet easily,” O’Brien said. “And all the sudden Hyleas comes out like a woman possessed and it’s like ‘Wow.’”
Nike’s Virginia Johnson came close to Fountain in the two sprints, running 12.83 and 23.38, and finished the day in fourth place.
In the women’s triple jump qualifying, former Team XO member Simidele Adeagbo finished tied for second with a jump of 45-10.75 after coming in ranked seventh. The other top 11 qualifiers included winner Shani Marks, who jumped 47-0.75, and Oklahoma’s Toni Smith, who tied Adeagbo. Stanford’s Erica McLain leapt 45-9.75 for fourth.
Another Eugene native, Nicole Teter of Oregon Track Club Elite, finished second in her heat and sixth overall in the women’s 800m quarterfinals with a time of 2:05.01. Stuck behind eight runners after 400 meters, the “rusty” 2008 indoor U.S. champ found room to advance in the final 200 meters.
“There was some jostling, and I just decided you know you gotta be up there as close to the front as possible,” Teter said.
The Hayward Field women’s 100m record was broken four times in 20 minutes during the event’s quarterfinals. Marshevet Hooker ended with the fastest of them all, running a wind-aided 10.76 to claim the top seed for tomorrow’s semifinals.
“Hopefully she’s tired,” defending U.S. champion Torri Edwards said.
Edwards cruised to a 10.85 win, the second fastest overall. After excellent starts, Edwards shut down her races late with her large lead.
“My start is on this time. I’m happy about that,” Edwards said. “I tried to shut it down as much as possible for tomorrow, when I’m going to need it.”
2004 Olympic silver medalist Lauryn Williams (10.86) and Muna Lee (10.89) rounded out the record-breaking foursome. All four have shots to win the 100m title today.
In the 400m hurdles, Tiffany Ross-Williams and Sheena Tosta ran the top two times of the day, an expected finish for both. Ross-Williams, the 2007 U.S. champion, will run in the semifinal today at 4:10 p.m.
Stephanie Brown-Trafton of Nike won the preliminaries of the women’s discus with her throw of 208-8. Suzy Powell-Roos and Aretha Thurmond finished second and third, respectively, and were the only other competitors to throw farther than 200 feet.
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