by Larry Eder
Women’s 400m
Francena McCorory, qualifier
“I tried to conserve as much energy as possible, but I feel good about it. Tomorrow is going
to be a lot different. I think I’m just going to have to give it my all, and I’m ready.”
Natasha Hastings, qualifier
“It went pretty well. I just wasn’t expecting to run that fast to the break, but overall
I feel pretty good.”
Men’s 800m
Nick Symmonds, qualifier
“(The race) went out probably as expected. It was a little more crowded than I would have
hoped, but I just wanted to key up Brian Gagnon, so I did that and got around him. I don’t know who the kid was pushing the 50 meters, but he dug deep and it was tough to get by him.
“Erik Sowinski looks really, really good, so he’ll hopefully go for a ride. I don’t know
if I can beat him right now. He’s a good indoor runner, but I’m going to try to see if I can sneak by him in the last 50.”
Tyler Mulder, qualifier
“I intended to keep myself a little closer because I knew Tyler Mulder and Michael Rutt
were going to be just ready to go, but I traded my spot in that last 200. I can’t spot him anything. I tried to move up on him a little closer, and I couldn’t. It worked out today.
“I can’t wait for tomorrow. We have such a good group of guys running this year. I’m excited
to see what happens tomorrow, and I’m ready to compete.”
Mark Wieczorek, qualifier
“It’s a prelim. They are only taking the winner, so you want to treat it like a final almost
and make sure you win the race. “
“I just tried to sit on the leader and make sure I had enough in the end to make sure I
won the heat, so I executed pretty well.”
Women’s 800m
Ajee’ Wilson, qualifier
“Before we started, my coach just told me to control the race. I wasn’t really focused on
time. I was just really paying attention to my body. I just treated it like any other race.”
Chanelle Price, qualifier
“I wasn’t too concerned about time. I wanted to just get out there and focus and make it
back to tomorrow. Don’t really focus on time too much. Don’t really worry everybody else. Just go out there and do my own thing.”
Men’s 3,000m
Bernard Lagat, winner
“The race started quite fast. I was waiting for the moment when Galen was in the top, so
that I could keep an eye on all of them. Halfway, I could see all the guys that I was watching in the front, and all I had to do was watch how they are running and be composed not to make any mistakes and to just go the way I felt comfortable. At 200 meters
to go, and that’s what I did basically was and hold off the pace all the way.”
“Nothing is changing. As a matter of fact, I’m going to go and do good training even though
the World Championships are really close. I’m going to do hard training, especially for this one week and a half, so that when I go to Poland, it’s just going to be tempering until we start competition. “
“My thoughts going into Poland as a defending champion, I want to see if I can do it again.
I have the confidence. I’ve been doing good training right now. What I have to do is do what exactly what I did tonight. This is like a championship race. That is exactly the time that wins the championships. If I run smart and I keep an eye on the guys that
are tough – the few Ethiopians I have been watching and the Kenyans – I think I will be safe. I’m going to use that strategy I used tonight to make sure that I get the gold medal in Poland.”
Galen Rupp, runner-up
“It went to plan. Just opened it up a little bit through 600, and I was able to shut it
down the last two (laps) which was nice. I think it saved a lot energy for tomorrow, which was good.
“It was good. The guys took it out, so it made it honest so I think that fit in well with
what I’ve been doing all year. I’m in good shape, so I could relax and now that it was going to come down to a kick. I was just gathering myself. I’ve got a couple more weeks of rest and just sharpening up, and I think I’ll be ready to go the time (the meet)
comes around.”
“Tomorrow it’s going to be a crazy race. I think with so many talented guys in there and
a couple guys fighting for the World Championships spot, and that’s the goal to make that team.”
Men’s long jump
Tyron Stewart, winner
“The competition was great. I had a PR for indoors. The competition was a little slow at
first because we had some big jumpers, so it was kind of slow. Once we got to the finals, everything kind of picked up and we went from 26-low to 26-high, and I won.”
“I’m not really too excited because it’s not really over yet. This is just the first step,
so I’ve got to stay focused and I’ve got to get back to practice.”
Men’s heptathlon
Gray Horn, winner
“I still can’t believe it. I had an injury a couple of weeks ago with my tailbone. I didn’t
even know I would be here, let alone come and perform the way that I did. I just wanted to go out there and have fun. I knew what kind of score I wanted and I had that attitude.”
Jeff Mohl, runner-up
“I mostly just came out to have fun. I just figured it would be a good opportunity. I got
a pretty good start yesterday. I was close to my PRs in everything. Coming into today, I felt pretty good. I was just looking to hang on and I got a pretty good pole vault PR and had a good enough cushion. I felt confident going into the 1,000m to get second.”
Men’s Weight Throw
AG Kruger, winner
“I came out to today thinking, ‘just be consistent and do what I’ve been doing all year,’ and it came good. I think four of my five throws are what got me first,
so it’s just that good consistency and good strength training that got me set-up and ready to roll. I know there’s a little bit more, but I still won so that’s a good day.”
