Steve Christilaw: Track teaches lessons beyond sports
If you’re a fan of W.P. Kinsella’s book, “Shoeless Joe,” or the movie based on that book, “Field of Dreams,” heaven is a cornfield in Iowa.
For some, it’s the Rose Bowl in Pasadena or Fenway Park in Boston, the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles or Madison Square Garden in New York.
For others it’s Augusta National or the old course at St. Andrew’s. Or Churchill Downs. Or any stadium where your favorite team calls home.
But if you’re a fan of track and field there can really be just one nirvana for your sport, and for the past week, fans have flocked there to watch the United States select its Olympic track and field squad ahead of next month’s games in Rio.
It’s called Track Town, USA, but most of us know it by its historic name: Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene.
My friends pointed that out frequently last week. Care to guess how many selfies I got from them, standing next to the Track Town, USA sign?
But it’s fun to see something like the Olympic Trials through the eyes of a track and field coach.
Jim McLachlan, the longtime track and cross country coach at West Valley and now an assistant at Community Colleges of Spokane, was in the stands at Hayward with his longtime friend Steve Llewellyn, the former girls’ cross country coach at University.
And Dick LaLonde, a former distance runner at Ferris and SFCC, and now a retired high school coach, was parked in the stands, apparently hoping to take selfies with the fast and the furious.
For serious track and field fans, Eugene is a must for big-time meets. The last three Olympic Trials have been held on the Oregon Ducks’ home track and the field has hosted the trials five times since 1976.
Hayward Field is the Yankee Stadium of its sport. Hayward is the place where track and field legends were built.
Over the last week, a few more took shape.
At 34, Justin Gatlin is old for a sprinter. Aches and pains are regular training partners, and the guy breathing over his shoulder as he eases into the starter blocks is Father Time, not Usain Bolt.
But during the trials, Gatlin showed there’s still life in those legs, winning both the 100 and 200 meters with the fastest times in the world this season in both events.
Gatlin already is a track legend, and the fact that he is the fastest man in the world heading to Rio de Janiero at an age when most sprinters are well into retirement only bolsters that legend.
In the semifinals of the 200, Gatlin was lined up outside of 19-year-old phenom Michael Norman, and stayed on the youngster’s shoulder throughout the race as both secured a spot in the finals.
Take a look at that race on You Tube. In a few years, we may well look back and look at that semifinal heat as the moment where Gatlin passed the baton to his worthy successor.
Speaking of youth, Dalilah Muhammad dominated the women’s 400 meter hurdles, but in her slipstream is 16-year-old Sydney McLaughlin, who also punched her ticket for Rio.
Emily Dickinson wrote: “Hope is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all.”
These youngsters arrived in Eugene with feathers and hope. On track’s most famous oval they sprouted wings and showed they are ready to fly.
But that’s not all that proved legendary at Hayward Field.
The 5,000 meter final was supposed to be a showcase for Oregon’s Galen Rupp, but someone forgot to tell that to 41-year-old Washington State legend Bernard Lagat.
Rupp held a large lead late in the race, but was passed by Paul Chelimo, who took a substantial lead into the final turn.
But at the end, there was Lagat, squirting past at the tape to win, earning a trip to his fifth Olympic Games.
His win should be a lesson for distance runners.
Lagat was asked about his strategy for the race.
It wasn’t about a race strategy, he said. It was about being able to react to what was happening during the race and seizing on opportunities when they presented themselves.
That’s a lesson we all can learn.