US Olympic Track Trials 2012: The 5 Closest Competitions in Track Town USA

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Now that the 2012 U.S. Olympic Track Trials are over, it's time for reflection on a crazy week in Eugene, Ore.

Athletes who have trained for the past four years for their shot at the Summer Olympics put in their best efforts to make the U.S. team. Some of them made it very interesting.

Especially for the final qualifying spot, times and distances were often close. After several close calls and one incident that will go down in history, the U.S. team is now known.

Here we take a look back at the most compelling of these close finishes.

5. Four-Way Tie for Second in Men's Pole Vault

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In the men's pole vault, the final two Olympic qualifiers had to be decided from four athletes who finished with the same mark on Thursday in the final.

Brad Walker won the competition with a jump of 18 feet, 7 1/4 inches. The next four all jumped 18'4 1/2".

However, Scott Roth and Mark Hollis didn't have the Olympic "A" standard of 18'9 1/4" heading into the meet, so they passed on Walker's final mark of 18'7 1/4" to have a shot at 19'1", which would have put them over the mark.

They both missed, so they were disqualified from the Olympic team.

That left Jeremy Scott and Derek Miles in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Scott finished second because he didn't miss on his first attempt at his final height, while Miles needed a second shot to clear the bar.

4. Third Place in Men's 100-Meter Dash

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Although it wasn't quite as tight as the finish in the women's race, the men's 100-meter dash final had some drama of its own for the third and final Olympic spot.

Justin Gatlin took first place, and Tyson Gay cruised into second. The relatively unknown Ryan Bailey edged out Michael Rodgers and Darvis Patton for third place.

Bailey ran the race in 9.93 seconds, while Rodgers ran 9.94 and Patton ran 9.96. It was an exciting finish to the fastest race in the world.

3. Kim Conley Comes from Behind to Qualify in Women's 5,000-Meter Run

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Needing to achieve the Olympic "A" standard and get into the top three to qualify for London, Kim Conley was in danger of doing neither in the last 200 meters of the women's 5,000-meter run on Thursday.

Julia Lucas was in third for much of the race, but she ran out of gas at the very end. As her speed dwindled in the final lap, Conley picked up her pace, sprinting past Lucas at the line and sneaking just under the Olympic "A" standard of 15 minutes, 20 seconds.

Conley's final time was 15:19.79.

2. Galen Rupp Finally Beats Bernard Lagat in Men's 5,000-Meter Run

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After Conley's dramatic finish, the men's 5,000-meter race provided an entertaining battle for first place.

Distance-running legend Bernard Lagat and newcomer Galen Rupp ran side by side until the very end of the race. Rupp had never beaten Lagat before, but Thursday was the day that would change.

Down the home stretch, Rupp simply out-sprinted Lagat; not only beating his nemesis, but also the American Trials record set 40 years earlier on the same track by Steve Prefontaine.

Rupp's new record is 13 minutes, 22.67 seconds, just barely faster than Prefontaine's 13:22.8.

1. Dead Heat for Third Place in Women's 100-Meter Dash

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This one had to be No. 1.

The women's 100-meter dash debacle between Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix took nine days to decide, when the race itself only lasted for 11 seconds.

When Tarmoh and Felix tied for the third and final place on the Olympic team on Day 3 of the trials, both running 11.068 seconds in the 100, it touched off nine days of speculation on what the resolution would be.

USA Track and Field had no procedure in place for determining the winner in such a case. The runners were given the choice between a coin toss and a runoff, and if they couldn't agree, a runoff would be held.

In the end, an anticlimactic resolution came down on Monday morning, as Tarmoh conceded the spot to Felix. The incident that made the federation look foolish will be the talking point from these trials for years to come.

 

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