News10 Jun 2004


Heavy rain hits NCAA Championships

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Hyleas Fountain in the NCAA Heptathlon Hurdles (© Kirby Lee)

All but three events were postponed because of hard rain and lightning yesterday (9 June)on the first of four days at the NCAA Championships.

After the Heptathlon 100-metre hurdles and one of the two flights in the women's Javelin trials had been run off, rain, which had presented us with 4 cm or so in the previous 24 hours, began to fall more heavily, and the two events were suspended.

In mid-afternoon the downpour abated enough to allow the three women's 4x100 heats to be run, which were run by Louisiana State (43.04), Texas (43.41) and Arkansas (43.84).

Then a real downpour began, and lightning flashes were seen, and competition once more came to a halt. After five hours or so, the Games Committee decided to finish the javelin qualifications and the other first-day events of the heptathlon.

The rain obligingly relented, and the 28 heptathletes, as game a bunch of young ladies are you are likely to see, began high jumping some nine hours after the Hurdles had finished. It was about the fastest High Jump competition I ever saw  (sort of speed chess with a crossbar); I timed a bunch of the jumps, and they were averaging less than 20 seconds from the time the bar was set until the jump was finished! 

Iventa Grunte (LAT) of Wichita State University had the best jump, 1.74, just 3 cm off her PB. Then it was down to the other end of the field for the shot put, with the best put of 14.07 coming from Andrea Pressley, and the 200, taken in 24.41 by the defending champion, Hyleas Fountain.

At the end of the day (it was actually 12:45 a.m. 10 June), the leader was Jacquelyn Johnson, of Arizona State and just a year out of high school, with 3433. Pressley is a close second, with 3424, and Fountain third at 3380.

About that time I returned to the press box to discover that host Texas' women's 4x100 relay team (mentioned above) had been disqualified for a rules violation - namely that they had used tennis balls cut in  half, instead of the tape specified by the rules, for their exchange zone check marks. Sometimes I think some of our university athletics coaches must be lawyers at heart! 

According to the local weather news, more than 16 cm (6-plus inches) fell on downtown Austin in the 24 hours of June 9. And as I write this (at 4:10p.m.) it has started to rain again. ….

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