Final-day pressures aplenty as U.S. fills out track berths

Jenn Stuczynski set an American record in the pole vault.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Allyson Felix felt no final-day pressure at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. She’s just that good.

Wallace Spearmon, Jenn Stuczynski and Marshevet Hooker are good, too, but all had to endure their share of bumps, bruises and thumping hearts before their Olympic trips were sewn up Sunday.

The day after Tyson Gay’s untimely fall reminded everyone there are no sure things in track, the two sprinters and the pole vaulter worked harder than anyone might have imagined to make it to Beijing.

Spearmon, thought to be a shoo-in in the men’s 200, needed a late burst to finish third.

Stuczynski set the American record in the pole vault at 16 feet, 13‚Ñ4 inches, but only after she missed on her first two jumps at the lowest height and needed an emotion-draining third and final attempt to keep her chances alive.

And Hooker, who ran the fifth-fastest time ever in the 100 (it was wind aided) to start the meet last weekend, crashed across the line to win the third and final spot in the 200 by .01 seconds. She needed that because she didn’t qualify for the 100 despite her fast times in qualifying.

“I felt relief, I felt blessed, I felt joy, I felt everything at once,” said Hoover, who paid the price with scrapes on her elbow, hip, hand and leg. “And I felt the sting.”

That pain will go away. Others, like Anwar Moore, will have to live with it for four years. Moore, an underdog who finished first here at the Prefontaine Classic last month, was in third place with about 15 meters left, but stumbled over the final hurdle and wound up sprawled on the ground.

Later, three-time 1,500 national champion Alan Webb finished fifth in one of the more competitive fields at trials, while Bernard Lagat, Lopez Lomong and Leonel Manzano — three men with a mile’s worth of fascinating stories behind them — all made it.

Felix cruised to victory in the 200, finishing in 21.82 seconds to secure the trip she didn’t wrap up last week in the 100, when she finished out of the top three in the 100.

“I’m a laid-back person. I was just relaxing, waiting for this, thinking about it, waiting to get started,” she said. “I’m relieved, but it’s not done yet hardly. Now it’s time to go back to work.”

Spearmon figured to coast to victory but he finished third, just ahead of Rodney Murtin to get the final spot in the 200, the one freed up when Gay fell Saturday in the quarterfinals.

“I got third, and the question is now, if he was here would I have made the team?” Spearmon said. “I can’t answer that question. I’m here. That’s all I can tell you.”

The other spots went to Walter Dix, who will get a chance to double that won’t go to Gay, and defending Olympic gold medalist Shawn Crawford, thought to only have an outside shot at a spot but finished second, .005 behind Dix.

Crawford trained with coach Trevor Graham before the last Olympics, and though he wasn’t ever involved in a doping scandal, his name came up because Graham was a key player.

“Whatever he did with anybody else, I’m not worried about it,” Crawford said. “I know what I did. I can’t hold that against a person. People make mistakes. I didn’t make those mistakes. I’m not worried about it.”