Capel .01 too slow in 100

By JOHN ROMANO

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 2000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The others had departed, leaving John Capel alone with his misery. Capel had just finished fifth in a semifinal heat in the 100 meters, falling .01 seconds short of reaching the final.

The other sprinters had hastily returned to their warmups and their entourages. Capel sat motionless for minutes. Finally he dropped to one knee and placed his hands and head on the bench in front of him in prayer.

Later, the Hernando High graduate and erstwhile former University of Florida football player described his emotions as he sat alone.

"Disappointment. Confusion. Mad about my race," Capel said. "But still giving God thanks for letting me have a chance to be here because there are a lot of people who aren't here."

Actually, Capel still is here. A former 200 NCAA champion, he gets another chance at making the Olympic team in next weekend's 200.

That was of little consolation in the minutes after Saturday's race. It also held no sway that his heat seemed tougher than the other semifinal. Capel's 10.20 would have gotten him into the final in heat No. 1 where Tim Montgomery placed fourth with 10.23.

"I wanted to make both of them. Obviously the 200 is a better race for me than the 100, but I needed to see where I was in the 100 to know what I needed in the 200. I didn't get a chance to see that," Capel said. "Now I have to go out in the first couple of rounds and blast them out and see where I'm at."

Capel, 21, said falling short will not make him feel more pressure in the 200.

"It'll put a lot of pressure on other people," he said, "because now I'm upset."

BIG SHOTS: Consider them the shots heard round the world.

Adam Nelson, C.J. Hunter and Andy Bloom qualified for the Olympic team in the shot put with three of the longest throws in the world this year.

"Today's performance scares the hell out of everybody in Europe," Hunter said.

Hunter came into the meet with the world's longest throw this year but he and Nelson bettered that mark with personal records. Nelson, a former nose tackle at Dartmouth, won the event with a throw of 72 feet, 7 inches. Hunter was second at 71-9.

The biggest celebration, however, came from Bloom. He was in fourth place before throwing 70-103/4 on his final attempt to move past 1996 Olympic silver medalist John Godina.

Bloom turned and shouted at the crowd before Hunter picked him up in a bear hug and they exchanged belly slaps.

"In '96 (trials) I was fourth. I know how bad that hurts," said Bloom, who will attempt to qualify in the discus next week."I really didn't want to be fourth again."

STILL GOING: Monique Henderson, the 17-year-old high school athlete from San Diego, qualified for today's 400 final with a fourth-place finish and a time of 51.24 in her semifinal.

Henderson, however, will have to make up ground if she wants to be the first U.S. high schooler to compete in the Olympics since 1976. Henderson's time was last among the eight qualifiers for the final. The top-three finishers today will go to Sydney.

OVER FOR NOW: Gail Devers does not feel her time has passed so much as maybe the time has come for other U.S. sprinters.

The two-time Olympic champion in the 100 failed to qualify for the event after finishing fifth in the final. Devers will have another chance to make the team in Sydney in the 100 hurdles.

Devers, 33, has been suffering from a pulled hamstring and strained Achilles' and said her training time did not allow her to be ready to run the 100 and the hurdles.

"I didn't have time to put my race together," Devers said. "I was hoping I could slip in here and make the team and then that would give me time to get my race together before the Olympics, but it didn't work out for me."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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