CUFFE INSPIRES WITH BRAVE PERFORMANCE IN JUNIOR WOMEN'S 5000M
By David Monti
(c) 2010 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

DES MOINES, IOWA (26-Jun) -- Aisling Cuffe, a wide-eyed eleventh grader from Cornwall High School in Upstate New York, came here to the USA Junior Outdoor Championships to earn a berth on Team USA for next month's IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada.  She had hoped to make the team at 3000m, but finished third in that event last Thursday to Emily Sisson and Jordan Hasay, despite running a personal best 9:20.94, well under the IAAF qualifying standard of 9:35.00

"This year she wanted to go world's in the 3000," her coach Dave Feuer told Race Results Weekly in an exclusive interview.  "Unfortunately, probably the only two girls in the country who could beat her happened to sign up for the same race."

So Cuffe decided to start today's 5000m, the distance at which she won at last year's junior championships with a 16:43.58 personal best.  Although there was little doubt that she would win today's race, she not only had to place in the top-2 to make the team, but she also had to beat the IAAF World Junior Championships time standard of 16:30.00. That was a tall order for any 16 year-old, but made even more difficult by the 90°F (32°C) temperatures accompanied by 55% humidity under a scorching Midwest sun.  According to the USATF team selection policy, she had to have the standard by the end of today's meet.

"We're not too happy about the time of the race with the heat and all," said Feuer of the late afternoon start time.  "She had to average 79's and we thought that she'd be the only one trying to do it, and we were right."

Cuffe bolted to the lead at the gun, and settled into her pace.  She hit the first full lap in 80.4 seconds, then ran 79.2, 79.4, 80.0, and 79.7.  The small crowd of perhaps 300 cheered as the stadium announcer explained Cuffe' challenge.  With each lap her lead over the main field grew, from 11 seconds, with ten laps to go to 53 seconds with two laps to go.

"Obviously, nobody was even close to that pace," Feuer observed.

Cuffe's pace slipped to the low 81's and 82's, but with two fast final laps the standard was still possible.  She began to lap the other runners, passing all but one by the finish.  Spurred by the crowd, she dropped down to 77.1 seconds for her penultimate lap, but then the wheels fell off.  Her loping stride began to stiffen, and her head and back drooped forward.  Precious seconds were slipping away.

"She went and was on (pace) for about half the race, had a couple of bumps above 79, but came back," sighed Feuer.  "But she was just spent."

Cuffe forced herself to finish the last circuit in 89.7 seconds, by far her slowest of the race.  Clocking 16:52.25 she won by some 36 seconds, but her dream of competing for Team USA --at least for this summer-- was shattered.  Although she made it off of the track with just a small amount of assistance, she crumbled to the floor of the recovery area under the stadium.  Comforted by her mother, Mary O'Hanrahan, and coach Feuer, she rose to her knees to vomit repeatedly into a trash can.  She was unable to speak to the media.

"It's a great effort, having run the 3000 two days ago and PRing, with a 9:20 was, I'm sure, part of it," her coach reasoned.  "Obviously, the heat (was a factor), but it wasn't all the heat."

Cuffe was helped out of the recovery area by her coach and mother, then driven away by the Drake Stadium medical staff in a golf cart for further treatment.  She was smiling as the cart pulled away on the sky blue track, the stadium then early empty.

"She's special," said Feuer who managed a wan smile.  "She's, you know, above and beyond whatever you could ask someone to do.  She doesn't do it all on talent.  She wasn't always this fast.  She started out, obviously, above average, and she is so into what she does and dedicated."

The other two junior distance races held today, the 1500m for men and women, had happier endings.  Jordan Hasay of the University of Oregon and Rachel Schneider of Georgetown University went 1-2 and in 4:26.38 and 4:27.26, respectively.  Both possessed the 4:28.00 qualifying standard before the race and made the team (Hasay said she would double in the 1500m and 3000m in Moncton).  On the men's side Princeton's Peter Callahan (3:46.42) and Loyola-Los Angeles' Elias Gedyon (3:47.65) both got under the 3:48.00 standard and locked in their places on the national team.

Anna Pierce won the open 1500m with a strong final 100m to pass both Shannon Rowbury and Erin Donohue in the final 20 meters of the race.  Pierce clocked 4:13.65.  Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Shalane Flanagan was tripped and tumbled to infield about 900m into the race.  She finished 11th in 4:19.56.

"It got messy in the middle," said Flanagan who will make her marathon debut in New York in November.  "I got caught up in it."

The five-day USA Outdoor Championships conclude here tomorrow.

ENDS