Arnold Didn’t Lose His Nerve, He Lost His Place

Frazzled nerves did not get the best of Dominique Arnold in the final of the men’s 110-meter high hurdles at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at Cal State Sacramento on Sunday.

Arnold, a 26-year-old assistant coach at Cal State Northridge, produced the top times in the first and semifinal rounds of the Olympic trials, but in the final he brushed the fourth of 10 hurdles with his left trail leg, got over the fifth awkwardly and barely cleared the sixth before pulling up at the seventh.

“Nerves were not a problem,” said Arnold, who was attempting to make his first Olympic or World championships team. “I was pretty relaxed the whole trials. I had a lot of confidence heading into the final after the first two rounds, but I just didn’t get my trail leg up.”

Arnold, a Northridge resident, ran 13.36 in the first round last Saturday and a career-best 13.14 in the semifinals Sunday to move to 11th on the all-time U.S. performer list.

He trailed defending Olympic champion Allen Johnson, 1996 silver medalist Mark Crear and Terrence Trammell of the University of South Carolina over the first hurdle of the final but caught Crear and Trammell by the third barriers. He was gaining on Johnson at the fourth when he hit his trail leg while snapping down off the hurdle.

He didn’t hit the hurdle that hard, but it threw off his rhythm enough to produce a disastrous encounter with the fifth barrier. His chances of making the Olympic team evaporated there and after clearing the sixth hurdle with a half-hearted effort, he pulled up at the seventh before putting his hands on the barrier and bowing his head in disbelief.

He remained in that position for about 30 seconds before walking to the grass infield and lying face down for another minute. He got up, walked back past the starting line and left the track.

“I couldn’t believe it was happening,” Arnold said. “I was just shocked. As far as I was concerned, I was on the team. . . . I didn’t care about winning. Some people were saying after the semifinals that I might win [the final], but the top three was my only concern. My thought was to finish in the top three and make the team.”

Johnson’s winning time of 12.97 was the fastest in the world this year and in track terms, a level or two above Arnold’s semifinal clocking. But Crear’s 13.11 effort in second and Trammell’s 13.19 in third were within his reach.

“That was maybe the most disappointing thing that I’ve ever experienced because he was as ready as he’s ever been,” said Jeff McAuley, a Northridge assistant who has been training Arnold since 1998. “He was ready to run [under 13.10] in that race. Every single thing that he did in training that was an indicator said he was capable of running in the low 13s or even under 13.”

McAuley and Arnold both know that it won’t do any good to dwell on the past.

They were back practicing at Northridge on Wednesday and the outgoing Arnold was looking forward to an upcoming series of meets in Europe, where he’ll run in Stockholm on Tuesday, in London on Aug. 5, in Linz, Austria, on the 8th and in the Weltklasse meet in Zurich, Switzerland, on the 11th.

The 6-foot-1 1/2, 185-pound Arnold is expected to meet Johnson, Crear, Trammell, Anier Garcia of Cuba and defending world champion Colin Jackson of Great Britain several times in those meets. But his biggest goal is to pick up where he left off in the semifinals of the Olympic trials.

“Most everyone is going to be critical,” said Arnold, 1996 NCAA champion for Washington State. “That’s just the way it is in track. They’re going to downplay your accomplishments and say [I’m] a guy who just ran well on one occasion but will never do it again.”

Arnold’s 13.14 semifinal clocking bettered his previous best of 13.21 set last year and makes him the fourth fastest high hurdler in the world this year behind Johnson, Garcia and Crear.

It might have been faster if Arnold hadn’t felt a cramp in his right hamstring late in the race.

“I just kind of maintained that,” Arnold said. “To run a [career best in the semifinals] and still have something left in the tank was very encouraging.”

The errant trail leg cost Arnold dearly in the final, but McAuley doesn’t expect that to keep the former Long Beach Wilson High standout down for long.

“He lost a ton of money in that race,” McAuley said about Arnold’s potential for appearance fees in Europe and a shoe company contract in the U.S. “He’s disappointed that he’s not going to get to go to the Games, but he’s excited about going to Europe. We’re looking at the rest of this season as salvaging what we can.”

Said Arnold: “I couldn’t have done any better than I did [at the trials]. Everything was there. . . . I knew the hurdles were going to be coming up quick, but I was amped. I was ready to go.”