After a controversial first semifinal in the women’s 800 meters that saw four women tumble to the track 250 meters into the first heat, order was restored when a protest was upheld late Saturday that allowed the four women, including Oregon Track Club Elite’s Nicole Teter, to advance to Monday’s final.
Teter said she got caught in the middle of several runners who were losing their balance and that caused her to fall.
“Someone pushed somebody in lane two out, she almost regained her balance and then she tumbled over in front of me,” she said. “Somebody pushed me and then I tried to hurdle the girl on the ground, didn’t, somersaulted over her and then jumped back up because this is the Olympic Trials.”
When she fell, she said she thought one thing: “Get up and finish because who knows what’ll happen; you just gotta finish.”
Alice Schmidt was out in front of the crash and led the race from start to finish.
“I heard people go down and I heard the crowd go oh, but I was luckily out of the mess,” Schmidt said.
Rachel Yurkovich also has another day to compete. The Oregon junior had the sixth-best qualifying javelin throw, 172-5, to move on to Monday night’s final.
Despite moving on, Yurkovich was unhappy with her performance. She had hoped to reach the Olympic ‘A’ standard of 198-6.
“I’m feeling good, I just didn’t have it today apparently,” she said. “I just feel like there’s a lot of people that want (the qualifying standard) for me.”
The women’s 400m hurdles went according to form, as Tiffany Ross-Williams and Sheena Tosta each won their semifinals and will be among the favorites in today’s final.
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