Trials over, but U.S. team not set for Athens
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The U.S. track and field team is almost set for the Athens Olympics.
The Olympic trials concluded Sunday with triumphs by the sport's young stars - Allyson Felix in the women's 200 meters and Alan Webb in the 1,500.
And they also ended with victories by some old pros - Stacy Dragila in the pole vault and Gail Devers in the 100 hurdles.
The 37-year-old Devers, who prefers the term "seasoned" to describe her age, is set to become the third U.S. track and field athlete - joining Carl Lewis and Willye White - to compete in five Olympics.
Still to be determined are the final rosters for the women's 100 and 200 because Torri Edwards is fighting a doping offense.
Edwards finished third in the 200 to earn her second spot for Athens. She won the 100 on the meet's opening weekend.
In between, she acknowledged she tested positive at a meet in Martinique for a banned stimulant. She said she ingested glucose that, unbeknownst to her, included the stimulant as an additive. Her voice cracked with emotion as she spoke following Sunday's race.
"It's been a tough last week for me dealing with all this," she said. "I am innocent and I am going to go and fight my case."
An arbitration panel hearing on her case is scheduled today in Orange County. That decision could take a week or more, then either Edwards or the International Association of Athletics Federations could take the case to an international arbitration panel, where the finding would be binding.
Meanwhile, Devers waits to find out whether she would move onto the team in the 100, where she finished fourth in the trials.
She could compete in both events, or drop out of the 100 to concentrate on the hurdles. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 100, but has never medaled in the hurdles, even though it's her best event.
"There's no decision to be made at this point. I'm going to go home and pray on it," she said. "If a decision is to be made, I'm going to let God make that decision for me."
If Devers ends up making the 100 field, then withdraws. Marion Jones would be in the 100 in Athens to defend her gold medal, even though she was fifth in the final in Sacramento. LaShaunte Moore, the fourth-place finisher in the 200, would take Edwards' place in that event.
Felix, at 18 the youngest member of the U.S. team, ran the second-fastest 200 in the world this year at 22.18 seconds. She was among a group of young athletes who made the U.S. team, bringing fresh faces to the bedraggled sport's biggest stage.
"It's just great to have so many young people on this Olympic team," she said. "I'm in great company. There's so many of us, and we're all excited, passionate and we're just ready to go."
Among those youngsters headed to Greece is the 21-year-old Webb, who broke Jim Ryun's 36-year-old high school mile record three years ago, then faded from sight. He spent one unhappy year at Michigan, then turned professional and was a miserable 10th in the U.S. championships last year.
This year, he emerged as a world-class runner, beating a strong field in Ostrava, Czech Republic, then breaking Ryun's 37-year-old mark with the fastest mile on U.S. soil by an American.
On Sunday, Webb burst from the field with a 55-second third lap, a move that stunned his competitors. Thanks to a slow early pace, Webb's time was only 3:36.13.
"I knew that once I made my move, that would be it, and it would be over," Webb said. "With about 300 to go, I knew I'd broken them."
Dragila won the pole vault at 15 feet, 7 inches, then took three unsuccessful shots at a record 16-1/2.
"I was feeling that good and I wanted to see if I had it in my bag of goods today," Dragila said. "But then the wind started shifting. I thought I could do it with the smaller pole. I gave it a good shot."
She will go to Athens to defend her gold medal against young Russian stars Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbaybeva.
"I'm not done yet," Dragila said.
Edwards was the only athlete facing drug allegations to make the Olympic team.
Three of the "BALCO Four" - Tim Montgomery, Alvin Harrison and Chryste Gaines - failed to qualify for the team. The fourth, Michelle Collins, withdrew from the meet, citing a hamstring injury. The four have not tested positive but are accused based on evidence gathered in the criminal probe of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
Alvin Harrison's twin brother Calvin, who tested positive for a stimulant, also failed to make the team. Distance runner Regina Jacobs tested positive for a steroid and was banned from the sport for two years, one day after announcing her retirement from the sport.
There were reports this week that Mickey Grimes and Larry Wade also had tested positive for steroids. Grimes was seventh in the 200 final on Sunday. Wade, the world's third-fastest 110-meter hurdler this year, withdrew from the trials with an arm injury.
