8/29/2015
Decathlon - Final
Ashton Eaton
“The first day, you’re an athlete. Anybody can do it. The second day, you’re a decathlete. I woke up this morning like, ‘oh my gosh. I haven’t felt like this in a while.’ In the hurdles, it was really hard getting over 9 and 10. It was like, geez. I’m getting old. It was just kind of difficult. The pole vault was tough. It was kind of dangerous out there. A lot of things happening. With the world record, I was just trying to have fun. I knew I was on track and all that. I get to the javelin and, same as the pole vault, I’m thinking that I’m getting tired. I didn’t know if it was possible. But in the javelin, I got all fired up. I don’t know for any reason but where do you find that inner strength? I don’t know but you have to search for it and dig anyway. I got fired up in the javelin and threw it big. But in the 1500, I was having doubts if I could run that fast. It’s been two years since I’ve done a decathlon like this. It was very different than Eugene was. These are 12 hour days. Each day in Eugene was 12 hours, so it was easier on the body. I have a lot of people who believe in me. My coach, my physio, my wife, my family is all here and they said, ‘hey! You can do this!’ And I said, ‘alright. I believe you. I’ll do it for you.’
“I got here and realized what I didn’t have last year. And I missed it. So I was really trying to enjoy it. I was having a lot of fun talking with the guys because we share things that nobody else will experience and they won’t last forever. So I was just trying to take advantage of that and I’m glad I did.”
“I just wanted to see them because we choose to not do certain things in life to have these experiences. And our family understands that. We don’t see them a lot; we don’t see our friends a lot. It’s tough on a person. We understand it’s temporary but it’s still hard, but for them to see why, that’s worth it.”
Zach Ziemek
“Probably the highlight of the day was the javelin. I’ve been working pretty hard on that and I was able to get a season’s best which is nice. I just went out there after nine events and ran like heck.
“I always aim to score over 8000 which is nice. Being part of being on the team with Ashton and him breaking the world record again in his personal best is just amazing.”
Men’s 5000m - Final
Ben True
“The more I do these, the more calmness I have and the more I’m willing to thrust myself on the back of those guys and tell them I’m there and not let them make those little bit of gaps. I think I was one or two places behind. Galen’s a great runner, but he doesn’t have that quick explosiveness. I think that maybe if I was in front of him when those guys made a move, I probably would have blown up in the last 50, but I probably would have been able to make a move on them. Whether or not I’d be able to hold it is a different story. The longer you stay with the lead, the better you do.”
“It was very tactical and very slow at the beginning like I knew it was going to be. I just put myself near the front and just waited for the move to happen. I just bided my time so that when that move happened I was able to cover everything.”
Galen Rupp
“It was definitely slow with a big kick at the end. I tried to put myself in a good position with a lap to go, that’s what I tried to do. Those guys were a little quicker at the end.”
“I thought I was in a good spot with a lap to go when it started to break open. I was right there, I stayed out of traffic for the most of it. I just didn’t have the speed at the end.”
“As far as the 5k, this is probably the best 5k I’ve run in the championships. Coming back off a really hard race in the 10, I ran well today. I did everything I could. I just didn’t have the speed, the same as those guys at the end.”
Ryan Hill
“I thought it was going to be like this, maybe a tad faster. I thought at least it’d be 13:30s, 13:50 is pretty slow. Still, the strategy would have been the same either way, to hang around 10th and pick people off. Try to get into the top five, if I’m lucky into the top three. But ultimately I got shoved around a little bit. I started at the back of the pack instead of tenth and when I really went for it, the guys were just better than me ahead.”
Women’s 4x100m Relay - Final
English Gardner
“The first leg is always a tough leg. You set the tone for the rest of the team. I basically just went out there and did the best I could and get as much as I could on the first let to set my team up for a medal. I think we all handled our job well.
“It (the silver medal) means a lot, this is my second one running with USA in the 4x1 and coming out here and getting a medal. You always want to go out there and do better. We have next year and I’m definitely excited for it. We’re all going to work as hard as we can to be able to give the United States the best performance they deserve.”
Allyson Felix
“We knew it was going to be tough. We knew Jamaica had a really strong squad and so we just wanted to go out there and do the best that we could.
“We’re going to put the squad together and come together and next year we’re going to work harder and try to give a better outcome.”
Jenna Prandini
“It was a great experience. We got the baton around and ran a really good race. I’m really happy.”
Jasmine Todd
“I think we ran a season’s best. It was a tough field out there. I couldn’t be more happy to run with these ladies. I’m really excited to get ready for Rio to get out there and come back stronger.”
Men’s 4x100m Relay - Final
Trayvon Bromell
“At first I really didn’t hear them say ‘set’ so I was still down. I came up and they said ‘go,’ so I went. I pushed hard to try to get us out there. I know I gave off the baton in a good position. I knew Gatlin was going to handle his business. It felt good contributing to this relay.”
Justin Gatlin
“My leg was a blur. What I focused on was Trayvon getting out of the blocks, hitting the tape. Before we even started, I said go out there and catch whoever is in lane 7. I’ll go out there and catch whoever is in lane 9 or lane 8. We wanted to go out there and put a big enough stagger, not just on the rest of the field, but the Jamaicans and that’d put a little pressure on them. I didn’t see the replay of my leg, I don’t know exactly. I think between me and Trayvon, we had smooth legs. By the time I handed off to Tyson, I still didn’t see the Jamaicans. I think that we had a good transition going from second to third. It just got kind of bobbly and we got out of the zone from third to fourth.”
Tyson Gay
“I felt I ran a strong leg. Unfortunately I think either I came slow or Mike left early. I’m not sure. I don’t know what happened. I don’t want to point fingers, we came into this as a team. We had three strong legs until it came to the fourth leg and we just had a mishap.”
Mike Rodgers
“I don’t know if I left on time, I don’t know if I left early. I don’t know what happened. I took my steps out and had my hand back, it wasn’t there. I tried to stop before the zone but it didn’t happen today. I probably took off faster than I usually do probably because of adrenaline, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to look at the video. I’m very disappointed. We have to swallow it and get over it.”
Masters Men’s 800m - Exhibition
Anselm LeBourne
“This was a great race for me. Coming to Beijing, I’m the oldest guy in the race. I’m 56. All the other guys are 50, 51, so they have a good half decade on me. But that’s okay. I ran 2.03.75. It’s the end of the season. It’s been a long, long season.”
“This experience is the best experience ever. I’ve learned so much coming to the World Championships. I want to volunteer now, I want to be part of USATF. I really want to put masters on high. I’d like to elevate masters, I want people to understand 56 is not a death sentence. 51, 52 is not a death sentence. We’ve just begun.”
Masters Women’s 400m - Exhibition
Renee Henderson
“First off, as much as I hate the 400, as much as I wanted to be a part of this whole Masters-Beijing IAAF movement, it was such an opportunity to be here. So, I just dug in and felt the pain to run the 400. That is not a fun race. I wanted to do a lot better. I had a calf cramp, Anselm tried to rub it out. And someone from USATF sent a banana back to the call room for me. I had to start out of blocks on my heel, so my calf wouldn’t cramp up. I wasn’t able to go as fast as I wanted to, this was my slowest time. But when you’re here, you have to do what you have to do, you have to do your best and that’s what I did today.”
“It (the experience) was so wonderful. First of all, being on the same warm-up track as Allyson Felix; I was talking with Christian Taylor. You keep having these constant out of body experiences. Oh my God, they just won a gold medal in the World Championships and they’re talking to me. It was wonderful, just being here up close and personal.”
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