Tarmoh pulls out of re-run; Felix gets the 100m spot by default

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10817032

Athletics: Dead heat rematch axed as Tarmoh gives up spot

AAP
NZ Herald
7:37 AM Tuesday Jul 3, 2012


Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh, in
foreground, finished in a dead heat
for the last U.S. spot in the 100 to
the London Games.
Photo / AP /USA Track & Field

Jeneba Tarmoh conceded the final Olympic spot in the 100 metres rather than race against training partner Allyson Felix.

Tarmoh notified USA Track and Field on Monday of her intention to withdraw. Her agent, Kimberly Holland, already made it known that Tarmoh would not participate in a runoff Monday night to settle a third-place tie at the U.S. track trials.

In an email sent through her agent to USATF, Tarmoh said: "I understand that with this decision I am no longer running the 100m dash in the Olympic Games and will be an alternate for the event."

Tarmoh, who felt all along she had won the race on June 23, did not specify in her statement why she was giving up a chance to possibly run the 100 in London. USATF President Stephanie Hightower said the organization was "disappointed" Tarmoh had a change of heart.

The runoff was scheduled to be shown in prime time on NBC in conjunction with the network's coverage of the swimming trials. It would've been a boon for track. Now, it's another blow for a sport that's taken its fair share of late.

The controversy in the 100 overshadowed the entire trials because USATF had no protocol in place to deal with a dead heat. And while top officials scrambled to draft a tiebreaking procedure, the athletes didn't want to talk about it until after the conclusion of the 200 - nearly a week later.

The tiebreak also didn't exactly address this particular situation - an athlete commits to racing and decides not to at the last minute. The matter, however, was resolved once Tarmoh stepped aside.

Felix will now race in both the 100 and 200 in London. Tarmoh didn't qualify in the 200, but is eligible to run in the Olympic 400-meter relay.

"The situation has been difficult for everyone involved," Felix said in a statement. "I had accepted the USATF decision and was prepared to run at 5 p.m. I wanted to earn my spot on this team and not have it conceded to me so I share in everyone's disappointment that this runoff will not happen. All I can do now is turn my focus to London."

Tarmoh only reluctantly agreed to the runoff. She believed she won on the track fair and square nine days ago.

"In my heart of hearts, I just feel like I earned the third spot," she said Sunday. "I almost feel like I was kind of robbed."

Tarmoh leaned across the finish line and looked up to see her name on the scoreboard in the third spot behind winner Carmelita Jeter and runner-up Tianna Madison. The 22-year-old Tarmoh even took a celebratory lap around the track, waving an American flag. She received a medal and held a news conference.

Then, she found out about the dead heat from reporters.

The situation has been a debacle since Felix and Tarmoh crossed the line in 11.068 seconds. The options USATF presented to settle the tie were a runoff, coin flip or one athlete conceding the spot to the other.

The athletes and their agents met with USATF representatives Sunday, and Felix and Tarmoh chose to settle matters on the track. Tarmoh, however, was clearly unhappy with the choice.

"This decision was really hard for me to make," Tarmoh said. "I was pushed into a corner. They said if you don't make a decision, you give your spot up. I work too hard to just give my spot up. I had to say it was a runoff."


The difference in attitude between Felix and Tarmoh is perhaps the difference why Felix is a world champion and Tarmoh will never get there. Felix was prepared to run on Monday night regardless. Unless she is injured, Tarmoh's decision to pull out of the run-off is weak as piss. She claims she has worked too hard to just give the spot up. Then why not run one more time and prove it? This was an Olympic Games spot up for grabs - some people would crawl over hot coals to make the team. All she had to do was run a 100m race against a girl she (Tarmoh) claims she had already beaten. I guess she just didn't want the spot as much as Felix did.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/london-olympics/allyson-felix-to-run-100m-and-200m-sprint-double-at-london-olympics/story-fn9dheyx-1226416062510

Allyson Felix to run 100m and 200m sprint double at London Olympics

by: Jim Slater
From: AFP
Herald Sun
July 03, 2012


Allyson Felix (right) will run the 100m and 200m sprint double in London after fellow American Jeneba Tarmoh
withdrew from individual competition. Source: Getty Images

ALLYSON Felix will run in the 100m and 200m double at the London Olympics after Jeneba Tarmoh backed out of a planned run-off for the last 100m berth, USA Track and Field announced.

Tarmoh sent an email to officials overnight saying that she was withdrawing from the run-off, which had been scheduled to settle a women's 100m final deadlock for third place from nine days earlier.

Tarmoh and Felix shared third, and the last Olympic berth on offer, after a photo finish proved inconclusive and each was timed in 11.068 seconds on June 23 during the US Olympic Track and Field Trials, which concluded on Sunday.

"I, Jeneba Tarmoh, have decided to decline my 3rd place position in the 100m dash to Allyson Felix," Tarmoh wrote in an email forwarded from Tarmoh's agent, Kimberly Holland, to USA Track and Field president Stephanie Hightower.

"I understand that with this decision I am no longer running the 100m dash in the Olympic Games and will be an alternate for the event.

"As an alternate I understand that I will be asked to run if another 100m runner decides not to for personal reasons, and/or on the 4x100m relay."

Tarmoh, who secured a trip to London as part of the US Olympic 4x100m relay pool by virtue of her top-four 100m finish, did not explain why she changed her mind after agreeing to the runoff.

Felix and Tarmoh, both sponsored by Nike, are training partners under coach Bob Kersee, who was adamant that he did not want to have a run-off until Tuesday because of the potential injury risk to both women after they ran Thursday through Saturday in 200m heats.

On her Twitter account, Tarmoh posted, "Big thanks to friends and family who support my decision" and even a critic's tweet to her that said, "if u felt u won the 1st time then prove it in the runoff... u don't deserve to go to the Olympics anyway", but still gave no clue as to what changed her mind.

Tarmoh, 22, has spoken to her former high school coach, Steve Nelson, who told the San Jose Mercury-News that while Tarmoh does not blame Felix, "it has definitely affected her emotionally... This is Jeneba against the world. She feels like it's everybody against her."

Felix said in a statement she wanted the run-off to legitimise her place in London in the event.

"The situation has been difficult for everyone involved,'' Felix said.

"I had accepted the USATF decision and was prepared to run. I wanted to earn my spot on this team and not have it conceded to me, so I share in everyone's disappointment that this runoff will not happen.

"All I can do now is turn my focus to London."

Felix, the 2004 and 2008 Olympic 200m runner-up, easily booked her berth in the 200 at London on Saturday by winning the final in 21.69, the sixth-fastest time in event history and the best time in the world since 1998.

"I guess it was all about fighting to make the team,'' Felix said of her effort.

"It has been an emotional time trying to make this team.''

The emailed ending brought a bizarre finish to a soap-opera tale that began with Tarmoh having been shown third on the stadium scoreboard in 11.07 and her thinking she had taken a London spot for nearly an hour after the race.

USA Track and Field had no protocol in place to settle such a deadlock so in consultation with athletes and the US Olympic Committee (USOC) devised a system in 24 hours that allowed for one athlete to back out, a coin flip or a run-off.

Officials also set a deadline of Sunday for a resolution and Kersee wanted to wait until after the 200 to settle the matter.

On Sunday, Kersee, Felix and Tarmoh met with USA Track and Field officials and they compromised on staging a Monday run-off, allowing the organization to meet a Monday deadline to submit the Olympic track roster to the USOC.

"We are disappointed that Jeneba has changed her mind," Hightower said. "We all worked hard to reach a consensus on the tiebreaker.''

Why isn't Felix running 400's this year?

http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/trackandfield/story/_/id/8128003/2012-olympics-jeneba-tarmoh-stands-decision-concede-spot-100

Jeneba Tarmoh stands by decision

ESPN.com news services
July 4, 2012,

Jeneba Tarmoh on why she conceded her spot on the U.S. women's 100-meter team to Allyson Felix.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Jeneba Tarmoh didn't think it was quite right the way she had to earn her place again in the 100 meters for the Olympics.

Still, a day after conceding the spot to training partner Allyson Felix, Tarmoh was at peace with her choice not to participate in a runoff to break a third-place tie. She realizes that some will second-guess her decision and can't understand why she would walk away from a moment so big.

"If standing up for what I believe in and not running because I believe I earned that spot, because I believe the emotional roller coaster they put me through was too much to go through at the moment -- if that's what makes you a quitter then I guess the definition of a quitter is misconstrued nowadays," Tarmoh told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.

She said the response to her resolution has been more favorable than anything. After leaving the U.S. track trials on Monday, a flight attendant even asked for her autograph at the airport and her seat companions wanted to know all about her story.

"That makes me feel confident," said Tarmoh, a standout at Texas A&M before turning pro last year. "But I do believe there are people out there that I can never convince why I made the decision I made. That's not my job. It's not to convince you to understand my position. I'm thinking what's in my heart."

She takes offense to any implication that she quit -- a label no athletes want attached to their name.

"How can I be a quitter?" Tarmoh said. "To define me as a quitter, it doesn't make any sense."

The entire situation has been confusing since Tarmoh and Felix crossed the line in 11.068 seconds on June 23.

There are those who view Tarmoh's choice not to race as a disappointment and a lost opportunity for the sport. USA Track and Field didn't have a protocol in place to break the tie and after adopting one on the fly, it looked like the story might come to a satisfying ending, with a one-on-one matchup to be televised during prime time.

Not to be.

"We all got blindsided a little bit," U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said Tuesday. "It's unfortunate. But it is what it is. We have to respect these athletes' decisions."

The athletes and their agents met with USATF representatives Sunday, and Felix and Tarmoh announced they wanted settle matters on the track. The other options were a coin flip or one athlete conceding the spot.

Tarmoh was clearly unhappy. She felt like she had already earned her spot fair and square.

When she finished the original race, Tarmoh looked up to see her name on the scoreboard in the third spot behind winner Carmelita Jeter and runner-up Tianna Madison. She took a celebratory lap and soaked up the moment, hardly believing she was going to the Olympics in the 100.

It was all taken away when she learned officials took a second look at the results and declared a dead heat.

"I went from an ultimate high to a low," she said.

On Monday, hours before the winner-take-all race was scheduled to be take place and shown on NBC, Tarmoh threw in the towel. She wasn't going to race, not in her emotional state.

"I worked really, really hard to earn that spot in the 100," Tarmoh said. "It was more than me winning, it was me practicing since November and training every day. It was me cramping up in the middle of practice, me throwing up at practices. It was me getting mentally prepared, physically prepared, then going to the trials, and making it through each round and staying focused.

"It was me knowing that when I crossed that finish line, that I put my all on the track, waiting for my time to come on the board and seeing what place I got. That's why it hurt so much, to see that it was my time and my name on the board in third place. All of a sudden someone's telling me, `Sorry, we changed our mind. You didn't get third. It's a dead heat.' It was an emotional roller coaster."

Tarmoh is still going to the Olympics as a member of the 400-meter relay pool, USATF officially announced Tuesday.

Jeremy Wariner, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, also made the squad as part of the relay pool. Wariner didn't qualify for a spot in the 400 at U.S. track trials.

The roster announced Tuesday includes four reigning Olympic champions: Lashawn Merritt (400), Angelo Taylor (400 hurdles), Dawn Harper (100 hurdles) and Stephanie Brown-Trafton (discus). It also includes 19 American record holders.

While she's in London, she's going to catch up with a brother she's never met. Tarmoh was young when her half brother moved to England, and can't wait to meet his family.

"I'm so thrilled for that," she said.

For now, it's back to practice with coach Bobby Kersee and trying to put the 100 incident behind her.

Asked if he supported Tarmoh's decision, Kersee said, "What I would have done in Jeneba's position was make a decision, and she made it."

As for this incident affecting her friendship with Felix, Tarmoh said that won't be the case.

"I sent her email and told her how I felt," Tarmoh said. "She responded, `I hope it doesn't change our relationship. I hope it makes it stronger.' I feel the same way. It hasn't affected our relationship in any negative way. I'm really happy with that."