Coburn-Frerichs Go 1-2 Again, Falland's Grip On Third Lost With Unfortunate Fall

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor/Photo by Paul Merca for TrackTownUSA

Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs went 1-2 in the women's steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials for the second straight time Thursday, but it was the dramatic chase for that loose third spot that encapsulated the wide spectrum of emotions that accompany this event, from elation to cruel heartbreak. 

At the end of Thursday's session, Coburn and Frerichs were near-cinches to make the U.S. team and they led fastest women's steeplechase final at every position through 10th in both U.S. nationals and Trials history. 

But the story of the race is what happened when Leah Falland, running a strong third with less than 800 meters to go, clipped the top of the barrier ever-so-slightly with a toe or a single spike. It through her off balance and she fell to Hayward Field track surface, landing on her hip. 

Falland got up as quickly as she could to continue fighting for third place, but the effort on tired legs ultimately wouldn't allow her to reach her goal. 

Val Constien, a former Colorado steeplechaser who works a 40-hour job and paid for her own trip to Eugene for the Trials, ran a seven-second personal best of 9:18.34 and nabbed the final spot. 

Constien, like Coburn, grew up in Colorado and attended the University of Colorado. 

"Emma is amazing," Constien said. "She's the face of women's steeplechase in America and being on a team with her is going to be so incredible."

Falland, a former standout at Michigan State who had battled back from injury and was running well coming into the Trials, gamely answered questions from the media as she tried to put her crushing disappointment into words. 

"I really tried to have a kick in the last 200 -- oh, shoot, I'm really sad," she said. "Yeah, I was just really cooked after all of it."

With 2016 Olympian Colleen Quigley pulling out of the Trials last week, the third spot became a scramble for the six women besides Coburn and Frerichs that possessed the Olympic standard. 

"I didn't think a top-three finish was possible until Leah fell down," Constien said. "But I took my shot and it paid off."

Constien closed her final lap in 71.14 seconds, faster than all of the other pursuers. Falland could only manage an 80-second last lap and drifted back to ninth. 

"I did see (the fall) as an opportunity for me to have an edge," she said. "Falling down is terrible. To fall down and get back up and get going is really difficult.

"I wish that she hadn't fallen because it would have been an even more exciting race."

Coburn, in winning the Trials for the third time, broke her own meet record with 9:09.41. The New Balance star and centerpiece of Team Boss won her first national title 10 years ago and has won the past nine championships she has competed in, only missing the 2013 nationals because of an injury. 

"I wanted to stay as chill as I could the first half and the Courtney with four laps to go started really pushing and I was excited about that because it thinned out the pack," Coburn said. "Seven hundred meters to go I made a big push and didn't look back. Courtney's a very, very, very good athlete. She's the American record holder in the event and so I knew I had to really grind if I was going to get some real estate between us. When I saw the finishing time I was a pretty surprised that I ran 9:09. It felt way easier than the 9:08 I ran in Doha a couple weeks ago."

Frerichs made her second Olympic team with 9:11.79. 

She will return to her altitude training camp in Park City, Utah and begin preparations for Tokyo, with an eye on working on her closing speed. 

Frerichs' mind has been on the doping violation and penalty handed down to Bowerman Track Club teammate and friend Shelby Houlihan, whose removal from the Trials caused shock waves just a few days before it began.

Houlihan and her coaches and teammates maintain her innocense and say that sensitivity of the testing caught her with something that she ingested accidentally in a burrito. 

"We found out that she had officially been given the ban just under two weeks ago, and that was probably one of the hardest weeks of my life," Frerichs said. "Shelby is somebody that I've basically walked alongside my entire career, we've made every team together, so for her not to be here is absolutely devastating.

"I really tried to regroup and show up for her."

BYU's Courtney Wayment, who placed fourth at the NCAA Championships, placed fourth again at the Olympic Trials -- finishing less than five seconds out of an Olympics berth. 

"I'm so grateful and extremely optimistic for the future," Wayment said, after running a personal best 9:23.09, making her the third-fastest all-dates competitor in collegiate history, trailing only Jenny Simpson and Frerichs. 

Six of the top 10 women in the race ran personal bests. 

Elsewhere on the track, in the 200 meters, Gabby Thomas ran a world-leading time of 21.98 in the first round. Thomas and Jenna Prandini (22.14) both ran personal bests and were the standouts of the event, which trimmed from 26 athletes to 16. 

"I had good success in the 100 meters, for me, and so I had high expectations for myself and wanted to get in there and compete for a good lane in the semifinals," Thomas said. 

Her time moved her to No. 10 in U.S. history. 

In the women's 800 meters, Athing Mu made her professional debut for Nike and won the second of five heats in 2:00.69, making it look easy. 

Chanelle Price was the only woman to dip under two minutes, running 1:59.86 to win the first heat. 

The men's 1,500 meters eliminated only five of the 29 athletes who competed in the first round. The fastest six times came in the third heat, where Sam Prakel won it in 3:39.02. 

Heavy favorite Rai Benjamin advanced in the men's 400-meter hurdles but there were some significant casualties. NCAA champion Sean Burrell of LSU, who picked up the event in April, hit a hurdle and somersaulted onto the track rounding the final curve. He did not advance. In the same heat, Quincy Hall, another U.S. team hopeful, fell with an apparent hamstring injury and did not finish.