News30 May 2003


Homecoming for McKelvy in 100 metre Hurdles at Home Depot Invitational

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Miesha McKelvy in action (© Kirby Lee for the IAAF)

31 May 2003Carson (USA)Taking a break from the 100m hurdles now and then hasn’t seemed to be a detriment to Miesha McKelvy.

McKelvy emphasized the sprints over the hurdles during the early season. The move seems to be paying off for the American, who will compete in the inaugural Home Depot Invitational on Sunday, 1 June.

In the Prefontaine Classic last Saturday, McKelvy, 26, moved into third on the all-time United States performer list after clocking 12.51 to finish second to Brigitte Foster’s national Jamaican record 12.45. McKelvy’s performance followed a win in the adidas Oregon Classic the previous week.

McKelvy trails only three-time world champion Gail Devers (12.33) and 2001 world champion Anjanette Kirkland (12.42) on the all-time U.S. list after supplanting 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Melissa Morrison (12.53) for the No. 3 spot.

The Home Depot Invitational, the third stop on the USATF Golden Spike Tour, will be the first event to held at the Home Depot Center, an 85-acre, $140-million project in the Los Angeles suburb on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills. The facility, which has been designated as an official U.S. Olympic training site, has a 27,000 soccer stadium, 13,000-seat tennis stadium, velodrome and will serve as training camp for the San Diego Chargers.

The Home Depot Invitational will be a homecoming for McKelvy, who grew up in Cerritos, a 10-minute drive from Carson. McKelvy will face a field that includes Morrison as well as Joanna Hayes, a member of the 1999 U.S. World Championship team in the 400m hurdles, who is returning to competition for the first time in two years.

``My coached changed everything around having me run the sprints," McKelvy said of her coach Rahn Sheffield, who trained McKelvy as a collegian at San Diego State. ``I thought ``That’s Boring.’ I am a hurdler. I want obstacles. I want technique. I was tired of being a sprinter. I don’t what’s going to happen this year. I have to give it to God because I don’t have a clue. He is going to have to lead me. I am just out here."

McKelvy was in a similar situation last season when she returning to competition after a year layoff following her marriage to Arizona Cardinals tight end Freddie Jones.

Nevertheless, McKelvy dropped her personal best from 12.78 to 12.60 in finishing second in the USA Track & Field Championships to become the fourth fastest American of all-time.

McKelvy only began running the hurdles during her junior year at Gahr High in Cerritos when she was thrust into the event after the team’s top hurdler wasn’t able to make it to a meet. At San Diego State, McKelvy didn’t become academically eligible until her junior year.

During her senior season in 1999, McKelvy finished fourth in the NCAA championships and then placed second in the USATF championships to earn a berth in the World Championships in Seville. In 2003, she was ranked fifth in the world for her first-ever global listing.

McKelvy will be looking for another World Championships berth in the USATF Championships at Stanford in June.

``It was good to have this race for because you don’t want to go nationals without any confidence from prior races," McKelvy said. ``This has done wonders for me."

Three-time world champion Maurice Greene will be looking for a confidence boost in the Home Depot meet after finishing third in the adidas Oregon Classic in 10.33. It will be the third race for Greene, who ran 20.16 in Martinique in April.

``I think my 20.16 is more indicative of what kind of condition I am in," Greene said. ``My expectations (at the Home Depot Invitational) are to win and run a fast time. In Portland, my body wasn’t just working did not want to go. I wasn’t prepared for that. You never know when it is going to happen. All you can do is prepare yourself at the time. If your mind is saying go and your body is saying `No,’ there is nothing that you can do about it.’‘

Greene won’t be able to afford another relapse on Sunday against a 100m field that includes training partner Jon Drummond and Bernard Williams, who teamed with Greene on the 2000 U.S. Olympic gold medal 400 relay; 2001 world 200m bronze medalist Shawn Crawford, 2001 indoor national 200 champion Coby Miller and J.J. Johnson.

Greene, who lives in Los Angeles, will have plenty of support. His mother is traveling from Kansas City to watch the meet. Greene is also bringing his high school team at Woodland Hills Taft, where he coaches with 1992 Olympic 400m gold medalist Quincy Watts and American 800m record holder Johnny Gray, to watch.

There will be also plenty of local interest in the women’s 100m with Allyson Felix, a senior at L.A. Baptist High who set a world junior record 200m record of 22.11 in the Banamex Grand Prix in Mexico City on 3 May, and in the women’s 400m with Ana Guevara of Mexico.

Felix, who competed in the 100 and 200 in a California high school state qualifying meet on Friday night, will face world 100m leader Kelli White; 2001 national champion Chryste Gaines; four-time NCAA 100m champion Angela Williams; 2003 indoor 60m bronze medalist Torri Edwards; and 2001 World Indoor 200m silver medalist LaTasha Jenkins.

Guevara is among the main draws from an expected crowd of 10,000 in the large hispanic population in Southern California. Guervara, who went undefeated in 2002 en route to a share of the IAAF Golden League Jackpot, has defeated 2000 Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman of Australia twice this season. She set a world 300m best in the Banamex Grand Prix and ran a 2003 world best of 49.34 in the 400m at Prefontaine.

Stacy Dragila, Tyree Washington, Allen Johnson, Regina Jacobs, John Godina, David Krummenacker are other world champions scheduled to compete.

Dragila, the 2000 Olympic women’s pole vault champion, defeated Russian Svetlana Feofanova in the Prefontaine Classic in a showdown between the world outdoor and indoor record holders. Dragila will face compatriots Mel Mueller, a 2000 Olympian, and 2002 U.S. indoor champion Mary Sauer.

Tyree Washington, the 2003 World Indoor 400m champion, ran a global-leading 44.70 in the Prefontaine meet. Washington’s challengers include 2000 U.S. Olympic 1,600m relay gold medalists Alvin and Calvin Harrison and Jerome Young and Jerome Davis, who ran on the 1999 U.S. World Championships gold-medal 4 x 400m.

Three-time world 110m high hurdle champion Allen Johnson pulled out of the Prefontaine Classic with battling a calf injury, but has been confirmed his participation in the Home Depot Invitational according to meet organisers.

Longtime nemeses Regina Jacobs and Suzy Hamilton will duel in the women’s 1,500m. At the age of 39, Jacobs set a world 1,500m record of 3:59.98 at the adidas Boston Indoor

Games earlier this year and was victorious in a meet record 4:01.67 in the World Indoor Championships in the meet record time of 4:01.67. Hamilton, a three-time Olympian, ran 4:03.47 to finish second in her season opener at Prefontaine.

Three-time world shot put champion John Godina, who pulled out of Prefontaine with a hyperextended finger, has been overshadowed this season by compatriot Kevin Toth, who is the world yearly leader and has posted victories in the adidas Oregon Classic and the Prefontaine meet. John Davis, a 2000 U.S. Olympian, looks to challenge in the shot put that will also include a masked competitor named ``The Unknown Shot Putter."

Krummenacker heads the 1,500m field after winning the 2003 World Indoor 800m title and becoming the first runner since 1976 to be top-ranked in U.S. in the 800m and 1,500m in the same year in 2002.

The women’s discus features Americans Kris Kuehl, Suzy Powell and Seilala Sua, who were ranked among the top 10 in the world in 2002. The men’s long jump features Miguel Pate, who defeated Savante Stringfellow and Dwight Phillips at Prefontaine in a match up of the world’s top jumpers in 2002.

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