The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Olympic team seems more realistic now…
Crested Butte has a new national champion among its ranks. This past weekend at the legendary Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, current CU Buff and Crested Butte resident Emma Coburn won the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in the 2011 USATF National Championships. She ran it in a time of 9:44.11, besting 2010 NCAA steeplechase champion Bridget Franek of Penn State by just 0.79 seconds.
Coburn, the current NCAA and Big 12 steeplechase champion, earned herself a spot at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships to be held this August 27 through September 4 in Daegu, South Korea. The IAAF World Championships are, outside the Olympics, the most important event for track and field athletes.
“I’ve never been this happy in my entire life,” Coburn told reporters immediately following the race. “This season and the whole year went better than I could even dream. Everyone has been so supportive but they haven’t put pressure on me and that’s so nice going into meets like this.”
Steeplechase is a discipline evolved from what was essentially a race from the church steeple in one town to the church steeple in another. Now raced over 3,000 meters, a steeplechase involves four barriers at 36 inches high for men’s steeplechase and 30 inches high for women with one water jump 28 inches deep at the deepest and gradually getting shallower over the course of 12 feet to merge with the level of the track surface.
Unlike the barriers used in hurdles, steeplechase barriers don’t fall over when struck, adding a level of technical difficulty to the race. Steeplechase has been run in every Olympic games since its inception in 1896, though with varying lengths. Women’s steeplechase was only officially added to the Olympics at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Coburn, who is undefeated this year in steeplechase competition, won the event this past Sunday thanks in large part to her technical skills on the hurdles and water jump. That prowess she attributes in part to being raised in Crested Butte.
“Growing up and being athletic, just doing lots of sports other than running like alpine skiing, snowboarding, basketball and volleyball, as well as track and cross-country running helped,” she said Tuesday afternoon after returning to her home. Also, just growing up in an athletic, outdoor-centric culture like Crested Butte, where Coburn summited her first 14’er with her family when she was eight, “helped even me out as an athlete,” she added.
According to a race description published on letsrun.com, Coburn was initially led out in the first 500 meters by last year’s champion Lisa Aguilera but made it clear after the first hazards that she could dominate the race. With about 1,000 meters to go, last year’s NCAA steeplechase champion Bridget Franek moved to the front of the race with Coburn tucking in behind her. A third woman, Delilah DiCrescenzo, was also racing up front with them, with chase groups 5 and 10 meters back.
Coming into the final two laps DiCrescenzo had seemingly been dropped while Stephanie Garcia of Virginia had come to the front, with all three women on pace to best the Olympic A standard of 9:43. With only 200 meters to go, Garcia fell on the water jump while Coburn and Franek cleared it without hesitation. At that point Coburn pulled away from Franek and crossed the line victorious.
After the race in an interview with letsrun.com, Coburn expressed her gratitude to her coaches, teammates, and family, stating that she hadn’t come in to the race expecting to win but only looking for a spot on Team U.S.A. for South Korea. “This is the time of the year where most racers are at their peak, so I knew the level of competition would be high,” Coburn said. After having beaten some of the top female competitors in the United States and having run under the Olympic A standard of 9 minutes, 43 seconds in the past (Coburn ran a 9:40.51 at Stanford’s Cardinal Invitational in March), Coburn says that this victory makes making the Olympic team “seem more realistic and achievable.”
Coburn said while fitness is important, confidence is a bigger factor. “Getting to a starting line and not being scared and knowing these are all the best professionals, but it’s okay, I belong there. I’ve run times these women have run and I can hang,” she said in her post-race interview.
Coburn expects to be at home in Crested Butte for a few weeks now, where she will do some training. Then she’ll go to Europe and prepare for her collegiate cross-country season in the fall.
