Already Tops in U.S., Lagat Eyes Beijing

[Woodmonkey]

EUGENE, Ore. — When Coach James Li awakened Sunday morning, he checked his computer for the start list of the men’s 1,500 meters at the United States Olympic track and field trials.

The news could have been better. His star runner, Bernard Lagat, had drawn the inside in Lane 1. There was sure to be a jostling rush among the field of 12 runners to gain early position and to avoid being tripped or boxed along the rail.

“Lane 1, that’s the place you can get into trouble,” Li said.

When informed of his position, Lagat did not seem too worried.

At 33, he was the most experienced runner in the field, having previously won Olympic silver and bronze medals in the 1,500 for his native Kenya. As an American citizen, he was now the reigning world champion in the 1,500 and the 5,000 meters. He made a joke, suggesting that Lane 1 had been given to the No. 1 runner.

“They know my number,” he told his coach.

At the gun Sunday night, Lagat sprinted to the front, then masterfully controlled a tactical race, making his newly refined move with just over 200 meters remaining to win the trials in 3 minutes 40.37 seconds. He became the meet’s only double winner after taking the 5,000 last Monday and cemented his status as a favorite at the Beijing Games, where he could become the most celebrated American track and field athlete.

Leonel Manzano, a two-time N.C.A.A. champion for Texas, smartly hung near Lagat and finished second in 3:40.90. Lopez Lomong overcame a balky ankle with essentially a quarter-mile kick to take third in 3:41.00. The top three finishers represented the possibilities of the American immigrant experience. All had been born outside the United States: Lagat in Kenya, Manzano in Mexico and Lomong in Sudan.

“That means America is a melting pot and America is where they welcome everybody regardless of their place of birth,” said Lagat, who came to the United States in 1996 to attend Washington State University and became a citizen in 2004.

As soon as he sprinted to the front and avoided trouble, Lagat strategically slowed the race to a crawl, wanting to see if anyone else would shift into passing gear. He was prepared for any kind of race.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Lagat had lost by twelve hundredths of a second to Hicham el Guerrouj of Morocco, the world-record holder who generally ran a furious pace. Consequently, Lagat trained for early speed. Guerrouj has since retired. After some frustration, and two years of tinkering, Lagat has changed his style, learning the tactics and the patience to run from behind in a slower race.

“If it’s fast, you are strong,” Li had told him before Sunday’s race. “If it’s slow, you are the fastest at the end.”

Lagat and five others in the race had achieved the Olympic qualifying time of 3:36.60, but half the field had not. Those other six runners had the double obligation of finishing among the top three and meeting the qualifying time, or they would not be eligible to compete in Beijing.

As Lagat expected, one of them, Gabe Jennings, moved to the lead at 300 meters. The 2000 Olympic trials champion in the 1,500, Jennings is an enigmatic free spirit. He is immensely talented, with an efficient shuffle that belies its awkward appearance, but he seems to drift sometimes in his eccentricity. Among other things, Jennings had in recent years turned to rock climbing and had ridden his bike from California to South America, where he was set upon by monkeys and a nasty case of hepatitis.

“His body goes where his mind is,” said Vin Lananna, who coached Jennings at Stanford.

On Sunday, Jennings’s mind was on a gallant, desperate attempt to reach the Olympic standard, but he went through 400 meters in 61.42 seconds and 800 meters in 2:00.70. The race was too slow. Even if Jennings won, the qualifying time for Beijing seemed beyond his reach.

Lagat ran just a stride behind Jennings, perfectly positioned to begin his push with 500 meters remaining, if necessary, or to keep his kick in reserve until the final half-lap. It was a blustery afternoon, with a headwind in the backstretch, but Li had ignored the gusty breeze, except to tell Lagat, “You know the last 100 meters is going to be a tailwind; that’s all that counts.”

Early on, Manzano, 23, tucked into third place. He had decided his best chances were to mirror whatever move Lagat made.

“What better guy to stick with,” he said.

Manzano’s family had emigrated from Mexico to Texas when he was 4. According to The Associated Press, Leonel’s father, Jesus, crossed the border 16 times, fording water even though he could not swim, trying to make money to send home to his family, before gaining legal residency in 1987.

When Leonel began running in the sixth grade, his family of farmworkers thought it was a frivolous pursuit. “They thought I was doing a lazy man’s job,” he said.

He eventually won nine Texas state high school championships and the 2005 and 2008 N.C.A.A. titles in the 1,500. Along the way, his father began to reassess his son’s career choice. When Leonel talked to his father during these trials, Jesus Manzano told him, “Don’t let us down.”

He did not, sticking with Lagat like an iron filing to a magnet. Then, just before the final lap, came the race’s scariest moment. Said Ahmed, also needing to reach the Olympic qualifying standard, pushed to the front through Jennings and Lagat, shoving Lagat by the shoulder into Lane 2. Later, Lagat made a rare criticism of a fellow runner.

“This is the finals; this is what we’ve all been sacrificing to get here for,” he said. “To get a cheap shot out of it was not good. I’m the first one to say I wasn’t too happy.”

At least Lagat had been pushed to the outside, instead of inside into oncoming traffic. Ahmed entered the final lap first, with Lagat a stride behind in 2:59.8. Jennings had begun to fade; he would continue weakening in the backstretch, before eventually finishing last in 3:47.92, exhausted by his forceful charge and probably by the wind.

Alan Webb, the American-record holder in the mile who had overtrained this year in his zeal to qualify for Beijing, began the race near the back, made an initial move in the second lap, then pulled into fifth place with 800 meters remaining. But he had faded in his semifinal heat and seemed to have nothing sustaining in his legs on Sunday. Webb finished fifth in 3:41.62 and became one of the meet’s biggest disappointments.

Entering the bell lap, Lomong, 23, sat in about sixth place, seemingly out of the race. He had wrenched his left ankle before the semifinals, and risked missing the Olympic team again after finishing fifth in the 800, just 11 hundredths of a second out of third place.

Be patient, he said he kept telling himself. Sit and wait.

“My left leg tried to give up on me with 500 meters to go,” Lomong said. “I was like, no, no, no, don’t do that.”

His story was among the most heart-wrenching at the trials. Lomong was one of the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, kidnapped at age 6 and yanked into that East African nation’s long-running civil war. For 10 years he lived in a Kenyan refugee camp until coming to Tully, N.Y., in 2001. He later became the 2007 collegiate champion in the 1,500 at Northern Arizona.

On Sunday, just as his effort seemed futile, Lomong began to recover and start an extended kick. Running in sunglasses, he moved up from sixth, to fifth, to fourth and eventually to third. “If we are going to cut my leg off at the finish line, it’s O.K., we will do it,” he told himself. But he was not stopping.

Lagat, meanwhile, bided his time, feeling strong and confident. He had changed his training this year, relying on fewer long runs beyond 10 miles, concentrating on shorter, fast-paced tempo runs. It was only a matter of time before he would pick off Ahmed and take the lead for good.

“I knew all I had to do was just to go to the front and push it all the way through,” Lagat said.

With about 230 meters remaining, he drew ahead. Manzano followed. In the final 100 meters, Lagat steadily opened the gap between himself and the others, reaching the finish line undefeated in nine races this season, indoor and out. He said he was confident he could win double gold in Beijing.

“You don’t want to be the best just in your country,” he said after running the final 400 meters in 54.9 seconds. “You want to be best in the world.”

After the race, Lomong jumped and shook his arms in celebration. He seemed in disbelief. Eight years ago, while a refugee in Kenya, he had watched on television as Michael Johnson won the 400 meters at the Sydney Games. Now Lomong, too, was an Olympian.

“I’m dreaming my whole life, Olympics, Olympics, running for the United States,” Lomong said. “This is America, this is the land of everybody.”

Lagat took a victory lap with his 2-year-old son, Miika, who kept repeating, “Daddy No. 1.”

In Beijing, Lagat will race in shoes bearing his son’s likeness.

“He’s going with me,” Lagat said. “He’s my good-luck charm.”

The Source