Teen is going the extra metric mile

EUGENE, Ore. -- She ran smoothly and steadily, her waist-length blond hair fanning out behind her as the Hayward Field crowd cheered her on.

Jordan Hasay, 16, has the face of an angel and the slender body of a child, but on Friday she displayed the competitive instincts of an experienced, world-class athlete.

Hasay, who recently finished her junior year at Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo, picked off enough runners down the stretch in her semifinal race to earn a berth in the finals of the women's 1,500 Sunday at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Her time of 4 minutes 14.50 seconds set a national high school record, and if she looked like a girl among women and giggled like a kid at a Hannah Montana concert, she didn't perform like one.

"It's one of those fairy tale stories," said Stephanie Hightower, women's chair of high performance for USA Track and Field.

Hasay had hoped to run here but wasn't sure it would happen, so she planned to leave Friday for the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

But she learned Wednesday that she had made the field for Thursday's quarterfinals after two runners dropped out. Then, she advanced to Friday's semifinals and her travel plans got seriously rearranged.

The junior national team left without her. She had business left here, including the national high school record.

"It's always been in the back of my mind," she said, pulling her warmup pants and shirt over her USA uniform.

"When we were at 3:22 at 1,200 I knew if I pushed it I would get it."

She needed that push and had the energy for it, never breaking form or looking tired.

The top six in each of the semifinals would advance to the final, and Hasay wasn't in the top six as the field came to the final curve.

With more than 20,000 people clapping and cheering -- probably double the size of the biggest crowd she had ever competed in front of before this -- she coolly made her way through the pack and finished fifth.

It was nothing new to Hasay. She staged a similar kick less than two weeks ago to pass two rivals and win the 1,500 at the USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships, earning that trip to Poland.

"I just wanted to stay relaxed the first two laps. The last 300 I just wanted to give it all I had and see what I could do," she said.

"It was incredible on that last lap. I could just hear the crowd scream. It was so exciting. At the end they were chanting, "Go to Oregon.' "

First, she gets a shot at going to Beijing.

She probably won't make the top three, but she's not a gimmick.

"Is she taking away from the others? No, because probably if anything they're worried about her running," Hightower said.

"You don't know what can happen with that kind of youth and that kind of energy. Hopefully she's motivating them to do some things, like run a little bit faster on Sunday."