Angela Daigle after her US Indoor 60m win in Boston (© Kirby Lee)
Angela Daigle’s 60m triumph was the highlight of the third and final day of the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships in a meet which was dominated by first-time winners at Roxbury Community College’s Reggie Lewis Center on Sunday (27 Feb.).
50,000USD bonus is shared by Daigle and Godina
Daigle won the women’s dash in 7.09 seconds to equal the fastest time in the world this season and capture a $25,000 bonus for the single best performance on the 2005 U.S. indoor circuit based on the IAAF scoring tables. Daigle, 28, netted 1203 points in the final women’s event to overtake Erin Gilreath’s winning mark of 24.46m (1199 points) in the Weight Throw on Friday (25 Feb), the first day of the three-day meeting.
Only minutes earlier Gilreath’s points lead had been attacked by Danielle Carrruthers in the women’s 60m Hurdles. Needing a time of 7.94 to take the series lead she had another superb run to cap her season but fell short by a hundredth of a second.
Carruthers had led the four-meet series since the opening competition with a victory in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games (29 Jan), and had improved to 1191 points with her win in Tyson Invitational (11 Feb).
The $25,000 men’s best performance bonus went to John Godina who won Saturday’s men’s Shot Put final with 1230 points thanks to a world season’s leading mark of 21.83m.
Click here to go to the report of Saturday’s competition (26 Feb)
Women’s 60m - Breakthrough for Daigle
Daigle had only one professional career victory to her credit before Sunday when she won the 60m in the Millrose Games on 4 February, and with a career best of 7.21, Daigle’s prospects of running 7.10 to win the series title didn’t seem exactly great. Nursing a strained hamstring suffered at Millrose and running out of the eighth lane, her chances looked even more remote.
Yet Daigle powered out of the blocks with a .124 reaction time and held off a late charge by 2004 Olympic 200m finalist Muna Lee by two hundredths. Me’Lisa Barber was third in 7.18.
“I was not thinking about the bonus, all I was thinking that I had to get across the line,” Daigle said. “When I got here, I told myself either you are going to run or you are going to worry about your hamstring. I thought my chances were really good. I knew what I could do. It was just a matter of getting it together at the right time. That has been the crutch that kept me down for so long but I think that I am getting there.”
Daigle’s coach Ernie Gregoire called the outside lane draw an advantage. He believed that Daigle was capable of running under 7.20 but was hesitant to place any limitations if she executed her race plan.
“Nothing could have been better today for us than for her to be in lane eight,” said Gregoire. “She had to execute. Our motto is that if you execute properly, the performance will take care of itself. She drove out and went right into her frequency when she got out of the drive phase. It was beautiful.’’
Long-term coaching relationship with Gregoire
Daigle has been training with Gregoire and the Southern California Cheetahs programme at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California since completing her collegiate eligibility at Fresno State in 1999. A San Francisco native, she solicited Gregoire’s coaching services when they met at the World University Games. Gregoire, however, tried to dissuade Daigle and encouraged her to find a coach in Northern California instead of relocating to Los Angeles.
“Coach means everything to me. He didn’t know me from Adam at first. We’ve been working together for so long,” Daigle said of Gregoire, who also coaches Tony Allmond, who finished second in the Long Jump Saturday, and Mike Mitchell, a finalist in the 400m Sunday (28 Feb).
Daigle showed flashes of brilliance in 2003 when she ran the third leg on the U.S. gold-medal winning 400m relay in the Pan-American Games. In 2004, Daigle finished second to Marion Jones in the Millrose 60m and was eighth in the U.S. Olympic Trials 100m to earn a berth in the Athens relay pool.
“Year after year, everything would come down to the wire and I wouldn’t come through,” the teary-eyed Daigle said. “Everything happens in God’s time. You have to be patient. I have worked and worked. It is slowly coming together. There was something in my heart that keeps bringing me back to the track every day and every year.”
In the beginning, Daigle seemed lost in the shuffle training under Gregoire, who has worked with 2004 U.S. Olympian Angela Williams, who won an unprecedented four NCAA 100-metre titles at USC. Daigle’s notoriety in the early years with Gregoire was for her flamboyant self-designed uniforms which included a leopard-skin one-strap halter top that she ran in during the 1999 U.S. Championships.
17.31m Triple Jump but not enough for the bonus
Walter Davis entered the USATF Championships among the top contenders for the men’s series title after bounding 17.62m in the Triple Jump for the second-best indoor mark of all-time by an American in Baton Route, the previous weekend.
However, Davis’ chances began to dwindle after Godina’s Shot Put mark elevated the Triple Jump standard to 17.69m needed for the 2001 and 2002 NCAA champion to achieve.
In fact the event victory itself was in jeopardy when Davis experienced a cramp in his left calf that sent him sprawling to ground in distress on his first jump but his second and sixth attempts put the competition beyond doubt – 17.06 and 17.31m.
“I had the (series title) on my mind today but when my calf started cramping I knew I wasn’t going to go out there and do it,” Davis said. “I had put up a big number last week so I wanted to be consistent with big numbers. I was disappointed but I got away from it healthy and a (win).’’
First time winners dominate
Hazel Clark won the women’s 800m in 2:01.98 for her second national title, the first coming in 2000, but first-time winners generally prevailed on the third and final day of competition just as they had done on Saturday.
Inaugural men’s champions on Sunday (27 Feb) included Mardy Scales in the 60m (6.61m), Bershawn Jackson in the 400m (46.05), Kevin Hicks in the 800m (1:48.73), Joel Brown in the 60m Hurdles (7.60), Brad Walker in the Pole Vault (5.65m).
Along with Daigle and Carruthers, the other first-time women’s winners were DeeDee Trotter in the 400m (52.01), Amber Antonia in the 3000m Race Walk (12:55.69), Shani Marks in the Triple Jump (13.65m).
Kirby Lee for the IAAF
