BERLIN – When Shannon Rowbury was sent tumbling to the track for the first time in her career five days ago, it was an experience that left her understandably shaken.
She knew that with one, perhaps two, more races to come, the last thing she could afford was to start running scared.
So she talked her way through it.
“I talked to a few really important people in my life,” she said. “I spoke with a good friend from college. Dan Pfaff (physiologist) gave me some advice. I talked to the sports psych guy. I just tried to talk to people to go through all of my fears from what happened in that race and get rid of them.”
Rowbury wasn’t afraid to place herself into the thick of things in the 1500m final. In fact, a little of the Old Shannon surfaced at the right time.
With the pace picking up over the final 200 meters, Rowbury used some of the nifty footwork she developed through years of Irish dancing to sidestep a collision and spill, putting herself in contention for a medal. She crossed the finish line fourth in 4:04.18.
The aforementioned collision resulted in the disqualification of race winner Natalia Rodriguez of Spain, sliding all the runners up a spot.
That gave Maryam Yusuf Jamal, who finished in 4:03.74, the gold. Lisa Dobriskey of Great Britain, who ran 4:03.75, got the silver. And Rowbury wound up earning the bronze, the first medal earned by an American woman at the World Championships in the event since Regina Jacobs took silver in 1999.
“In my mind, I was fourth. I didn’t quite get it,” Rowbury, who was ninth in the Olympic final last summer in Beijing, said. “But I’m proud to be among the best women in the world. I’m proud to have certainly improved my performance from the Olympics. I hate to see something like this happen. I want to win on my own merit, not because of something someone else did.”
That someone was Rodriguez, who appeared to want to make a move toward the inside rail as the runners rounded the final curve. Problem was that the space was occupied by Gelete Burka of Ethiopia, one of the gold medal favorites in the race. It appeared that Rodriguez elbowed Burka out of the way, sending her tumbling.
At the time, Rowbury was running behind Burka and was able to leapfrog the fallen Ethiopian and continue her charge toward the front.
“(Rodriguez) didn’t have the space to make that move, but in that situation no one ever has the space to do what they do,” Rowbury said. “The whole championships have been quite physical. That's a good training for me. When something like this fall happens, the key is to react really quickly to get back into the race. It is so unfortunate that that kind of thing happens. Burka was obviously in great shape.”
Immediately after the race, Rowbury figured she finished fourth. There was no victory lap or celebration. Like all athletes who finish outside the top three, she hurried through the television mixed zone and out of view within Olympic Stadium.
“I didn’t feel like I made any errors, but I didn’t feel like I had it and that sucks,” Rowbury said. “Even if I get the bronze after that, that's not the way I wanted it to happen”
No matter how it happened, Rowbury has the bronze, a medal that validates the resurgence of American women’s middle distance running we’ve seen this season. It’s been a year in which Jenny Barringer and Christin Wurth-Thomas both broke four minutes, a year in which Anna Willard joined Wurth-Thomas and Rowbury in the 1500m final, the first time the U.S. has ever done that at Worlds.
Wurth-Thomas wound up finishing fifth in 4:05.21. Willard was sixth in 4:06.19.
“Oh my gosh, we did amazing,” Rowbury said of the U.S. women. “For three of us to be in the final was huge, and it’s going to keep getting better. I know we have a good crop of girls, and we’re going to keep stepping it up. The times across the board from high school to college to professional have really improved. I think that’s a great sign.”
Rowbury said next time, she hopes to be joined on the medal podium by her teammates.
I hope we get a few medals. I would love to see that,” she said. “Other countries in other events get two, sometimes three athletes on the podium. Why can’t we do that? I don’t see any reason we can’t. I’m hopeful, certainly. I know it’s early in my career and I’ve got a way to go. I’m excited to see what I do and what all the rest of us do too.
No comments:
Post a Comment