Driscoll Remains On Track

Bloomsday notebook

There are no trolley tracks near the race course in Spokane, but Jean Driscoll wasn’t taking any chances.

“Everybody knows about the crash at Boston. I had lost my consecutive string out there. I didn’t want to lose it here,” Driscoll said after winning her ninth-straight Bloomsday women’s open wheelchair race.

After her first Bloomsday victory, Driscoll went on to win the Boston Marathon. She kept that pattern going until two weeks ago, when she caught a wheel in a trolley track and dumped her chair.

She rallied to finish second, but that wouldn’t have been good enough in Spokane.

“Because of the crash, I was very tentative on the downhills today,” she said. “I braked on every single downhill. I wasn’t going to crash here today. I raced very conservatively.”

Still, she had to sweat out a near-disaster.

“Right at Mile 5, right before I started climbing Doomsday, I flatted my left tire,” she said. “For the last 2-1/2 miles I was just praying, ‘Lord, let me be strong enough so that no women pass me. I want to win this one.’ “

She finished in 36 minutes, 76 seconds ahead of the woman she supplanted as the Bloomsday champion, Candace Cable, a four-time champion before Driscoll arrived.

Driscoll, 30, from Champaign, Ill., definitely has her sites set on 10.

“Lord willing, I’ll be back here next year and I would love to be able to get No. 10,” she said. “This is an amazing career I’ve had out here. This is where it started. This is where I won my first national race. Ten is one of those numbers, it’s hard to believe I’m right up on it.”

Teamwork

Wheelchair racing has a different look and the changes are just beginning.

The top three finishers in the men’s open, led by three-time champion Paul Wiggins of Tasmania, compete for Cannondale, the bicycle manufacturer.

“It was a really good day for me and possibly a better day for Team Cannondale,” Wiggins said. “It was the first time that Cannondale put a team together. Today was the first opportunity we’ve had to get out there and race as a team.”

Wiggins finished in 27:28. Eric Neitzel of San Diego was second, followed by Mustapha Badid, a Frenchman living in Stephenville, Texas.

Wiggins believes wheelchair racing is in for many changes.

“It’s better now and in the next six to eight months you’ll see some huge steps forward. It will be much better again,” he said. “I think it will make other groups team up as well. I think it’s only going to be good for racing. There are no negatives. Cannondale came on board here … they’re treating us as athletes, nothing less. It can only be good for the sport.”

Looking out for your own

Teddy Mitchell was the highest American finisher in the men’s open racing, placing 13th, almost 2-1/2 minutes behind Lazarus Nyakeraka.

He was satisfied with his effort, but …

“I still think that for USA Track and Field to certify a race, half the prize money should go to Americans or it shouldn’t be a recognized race,” the 25-year-old from Arkansas said. “We’re supporting the distance runners of the world in this country. There’s no support for our athletes. It’s really sad.

“I think this is a great race and I think a lot of races should learn from it - double money for Americans, the situation they have here where if you’re American you get twice as much.”

Mitchell’s $300 prize was doubled to $600.

“I can run local races and make almost as much. It’s just the exposure you get from these races. The money’s not there for the Americans,” he said. “(Race founder) Don Kardong is really good here because he tried to make an international field … he tried to balance it out, which is nice. I don’t have any complaints with this race.

“But I really think the governing body that does the certification of this race … they ought to make it mandatory that half the money goes to Americans.”

Governments support athletes in other countries, something that doesn’t happen except for the best of the best, which makes it hard for the second tier to make the jump to join the elite.

“I think the competition is great. Running against foreign athletes prepares us for international competition,” Mitchell said. “It’s great to have these guys here so you know where you stand. At the same time, these guys are finalists in the Olympic Games and world cross country. But they’re living over here making enough money to live off the road racing. Americans (get no support). It’s hard to find a job that gives you enough time to train and get weekends off to race.

“It seems to be difficult as Americans to try to make it in your own country.”

Double dipping

Americans fared much better on the women’s side, with local favorite Kim Jones winning.

Carole Zajac of Massachusetts was second and Kari McKay, an Almira, Wash., native was sixth. They certainly noticed the double prize money.

“I’ve been nervous for a week,” said McKay, who ran for Eastern Washington University. “I’m just getting back into it again. The (doubled) prize money ($2,700) is nice. I have to pay some bills. I think I can afford dinner for a week, anyway.”

Zajac, 24, a two-time NCAA cross country champion for Villanova, said, “This is one of the best races in the country as far as support, organization, and just the atmosphere. And the double prize money always helps.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo