Running with the leaders was Kara Goucher’s
primary goal entering her first Summer Olympics and she held true to that plan
Friday night in the women’s 5,000-meter track final before more than 90,000
fans at National Stadium in Beijing.
With
five laps remaining in the 3.1-mile race the Duluth native was second in a field of 15 before
ultimately being overtaken by an East African brigade. Goucher, 30, from Portland, Ore.,
placed ninth in 15 minutes, 49.39 seconds, less than one second out of seventh.
Ethiopia‘s
Tirunesh Dibaba, 23, became the first woman to win the 5,000 and 10,000 in the
same Olympics, with a victory in 15:41.40. She was the defending champion from Athens in 2004.
Ethiopian born Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey
was second in 15:42.74 and Ethiopia‘s
Meseret Defar was third in 15:44.12. Abeylegesse was also second in the 10,000.
" I couldn’t believe the [early slow] pace. I
thought, ‘What good luck, since my strength is my kick.’ But I’m at least a
year away from being able to kick with them. Dibaba was obviously born to run,
and she’s a fierce competitor in her heart and soul. They have to fight so hard
to get here, ," Goucher told Runner’s World and Running Times. [The Ethiopian]
national championships are like a Grand Prix final. Who would have thought a
few years ago – I know the pace was slow – that I would be in a race where I
could see the Olympic champion all the way? I was shocked by how slow it was.
"I thought we might start out at 15:30 pace
and then speed up. With a lap to go I tried to kick, but it wasn’t there. I
tried to maintain my composure to the end. I know everyone might think I’m
crazy but I really believe I could have won this race on the right night. I’m
going to go back and train hard, and be a better, more prepared athlete at the
next Olympics."
Goucher said that a week earlier, in the
10,000-meter final, she didn’t have the mental toughness needed to keep pace
with the frontrunners as she placed 10th. But she was up to the task in her
third Olympic race and second final, as the only Duluth-raised woman to compete
in a Summer Games and the only Duluthian to race in two track finals.
She was the top American among three
qualifiers in the 5,000. U.S.
record holder Shalane Flanagan, 27, of Pittsboro,
N.C., was 10th, less than two seconds behind
Goucher in 15:50.80 and Jennifer Rhines, 34, of Mammoth L:akes, Calif., was 14th in
16:34.63.
Patty
Wheeler of Duluth, Goucher’s mother who was in Beijing for the two earlier
races, was back home Friday and talked with Goucher by phone after the 5,000
final. Despite having to run with a sinus infection, diagnosed earlier in the
week, Goucher felt she had given a good account of herself.
"Kara really thought she had a chance to
medal and she wasn’t disappointed with her race, " said Wheeler. "It was different
from the 10,000 when, after that race, she thought she had a lot left in her.
She said [Friday] she gave it everything she had. She said she was just outkicked
by a fast group of women.
" Overall she’s looking at the last two weeks
as a really positive experience, a great experience that is only going to make
her a better runner."
Flanagan, the 10,000-meter bronze medalist,
said she wasn’t particularly surprised by a slow pace on a night which began
with 79 degrees and 74 percent humidity. The top five finishers were born in Ethiopia or Kenya,
although Tirunesh’s time was 90 seconds off her world-record best of 14:11.15,
set June 6 in Oslo, Norway.
"The Ethiopians and Kenyans like to play
games in championship races," Flanagan told Runner’s World and Running Times.
"My legs were tired. It was hard to change gears. I tried to ease into every
move, but with three laps to go I couldn’t get back into it.
"I’m a huge Defar fan. She came over to me
before the race and gave me a big hug. I think Dibaba just has a lot of innate
ability and she knows her body so well. She’s a great sprinter, beautiful to
watch. I aspire to have that kind of form."
While Goucher is already looking toward the
2012 Summer Games in London,
it’s likely she’ll be on the roads in the marathon and may have little track
racing in her future.
It’s likely she will make her marathon
debut Nov. 2 in the New York City Marathon, where there is more than $600,000
in prize money. A month earlier, on Oct. 5, it’s also possible that Goucher may
enter the Great North Run Half-Marathon in Newcastle,
England (as defending
champion) or the Twin Cities 10-Miler from Minneapolis to St. Paul (held on the same day
as the Twin Cities Marathon).
"I would love to run a marathon this year,
but in order to do that, I would have to be satisfied with the end of my track
season at the Olympics," Goucher told the News Tribune last month. " To do a
fall marathon, I would have to come home and train, no more racing. I’ve had by
eyes set on New York
for a long time and would love to run there this year or next. "
But first she planned to remain in Beijing with her husband, Adam Goucher, and do some
sightseeing before returning to Portland
on Monday. The Summer Olympics end Sunday with the men’s marathon and closing
ceremonies.
Kelly Grgas-Wheeler of Duluth,
Kara’s older sister, watched a tape-delayed Finnish television broadcast of the
5,000-meter final at a Montague Hall lecture hall on Minnesota Duluth’s campus
Friday morning, about an hour after the actual race which began at 7:40 a.m.
CDT and 8:40 p.m. in Beijing.
About 50 friends and relatives also viewed the race there.
"I thought [Kara] looked fantastic. The
leaders never put a big gap on her until the end. She proved that she belonged
there with the best runners in the world, said Grgas-Wheeler, a UMD assistant
women’s soccer coach. "The Olympics were probably overwhelming for her at
first, but [in Tuesday's 5,000-meter preliminaries] she settled in and [Friday]
she proved she belonged and for so long American distance runners haven’t
belonged there."
