Moody top US finisher in Daegu

Daegu Women's Marathon

DAEGU, South Korea – Tera Moody (Colorado Springs, Colo.) ran her second fastest ever marathon to finish 17th in 2:32:04 in the first final of the 13th IAAF World Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Team USA also advanced seven athletes from the qualifying rounds during the morning session at Daegu Stadium.

Nine Americans made their World Championships debut; however, none of the five who were competing in the qualifying rounds advanced into the finals.

Meanwhile, as expected, four Olympians led Team USA in the qualifying rounds:

Team USA moved a step closer toward securing its first ever medal in the women’s discus as 2008 Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton (Oceano, Calif.) posted the sixth best overall qualifying mark at 61.89m/206-3.5.

Two-time Olympian Derrick Miles (Tea, S.D.) and Jeremy Scott (Brookland, Ark.) qualified for the finals in the men’s pole vault where they will be hoping to give Team USA its first medal in that event since 2007.

In the opening round of the men’s 800, Team USA Olympians Nick Symmonds (Springfield, Ore.) and Khadevis Robinson (Santa Monica, Calif.) qualified into the semifinal round. Symmonds was sixth in the 2009 World Outdoor Championships.

Women’s Marathon
The marathon saw the field go out in a very large front pack, with 27 women running within seconds of each other through 25 kilometers. The women ran through a three-loop course through downtown Daegu, with temperatures in the high 70s at the start and the humidity at 72 percent. Tera Moody ran in the mix with the leaders, even spending time at the front of the pack. The group went through 5 km in 18:34; 10 km in 36:26; 15 km in 54:11; 20 km in 1:12:39 and 25 km in 1:30:35.

By 30 km the pack thinned to 19 runners, but Moody stayed with the pack as they split in 1:48:35. However, the leaders made a break for it over the next five kilometers and the pack disintegrated with only four women leading the race. By 35 km, Moody was 1:11 behind the leaders and split 2:06:30. By the 40 km mark, eventual winner Edna Kiplagat of Kenya pulled away from the rest of the field and maintained her lead to win in 2:28:43. Moody finished in her second-best time ever in 2:32:04 to place 17th.

The rest of the U.S. squad finished within 10 places of one another. Kathy Newberry (Ann Arbor, Mich.) was 30th in 2:37:28. Alisa McKaig was 32nd in 2:38:23, Colleen De Reuck (Boulder, Colo.) was 38th in 2:44:35 and Zoila Gomez (Alamosa, Colo.) 40th in 2:46:44. This was a first World Championship appearance for Newberry, McKaig and Gomez. In the Marathon World Cup team scores, Team USA took sixth place.

Women’s Steeplechase
Emma Coburn (Crested Butte, Colo.) ran her second fastest time ever to advance into the finals of the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. Coburn found herself just outside of the automatic qualifiers as she took the final water jump in fifth place; however, as Lyubov Kharlamova of Russia stumbled a bit in the water jump, Coburn powered through the final 150m to take fourth place in the second heat in 9:38.42.

Fellow Americans Bridget Franek (Eugene, Ore.) and Stephanie Garcia (South Riding, Va.) did not fare as well. Franek was seventh in the first heat in a time of 9:43.09. Garcia, who was a late addition to the Team USA roster, took seventh in the final heat in 9:53.47.

Women’s Discus
2008 Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton had a best throw of 61.89m/206-3.5 to place sixth overall in qualifying and advance into the final. Three-time Olympian Aretha Thurmond (Opelika, Ala.) was 13th with 59.88m/196-5, and Gia Lewis-Smallwood (Champaign, Ill.), appearing in her first World Championships, was 15th overall with a best throw of 59.49m/195-2. Neither woman made the 12-person field for the final.

Decathlon
Trey Hardee (Austin, Texas) and Ashton Eaton (Eugene, Ore.) stood first and second, respectively, in the decathlon after three events that were held during the morning session. Hardee tallied 2,680 points after finishing second in the 100 (10.55), fifth in the long jump (7.45m/24-5.5) and ninth in the shot put (15.09m/49-6.25).

Eaton, the 2011 world leader, opened the grueling two-day event by running the fastest time in the 100 (10.46) and placing third in the long jump (7.46m/24-5.75) en route to 2,665 points. He had a mark of 14.44m/47-4.50) on his first throw in the shot put before fouling on his final two attempts. Ryan Harlan (Houston, Texas) won the men’s shot put with a mark of 16.49m/54-1 but stood in 23rd place overall with 2,418 points.

Men’s 800m
Nick Symmonds and Khadevis Robinson both advanced to the semi-finals of the 800m. Symmonds moved from second to first in the final 20 meters of the first heat to cross the line in 1:46.54. Robinson finished third in his heat in 1:48.41 to advance automatically. While Charles Jock (San Diego, Calif.) did not advance to the finals, he took fifth in the fourth heat in 1:47.95 in not only his first senior national team, but also his first trip out of the United States.

Men’s Pole Vault
Jeremy Scott and Derek Miles advanced out of Group B with qualifying vaults of 5.60m/18-4.5 for the finals which will be held Monday night. Both passed at 5.65m/18-6.5.

The six-foot 9-inch Scott, appearing on his second World Outdoor team, was flawless clearing on his first attempts at 5.35m/17-6.75, 5.50m/18-0.50 and 5.60. Miles, who at 38 is the oldest member of Team USA men’s squad, found success on his first attempts at 5.35m and 5.60m. He cleared 5.50m on his second attempt. Mark Hollis (Elkhart, Ind.) didn’t make it out of Group A qualifying. After clearing 5.35m on his first attempt, he failed to clear 5.50 on three attempts.