August 23, 2004 11:51 am
New Yorker comes in 43rd in women's racewalk
ATHENS, Greece - It took her more than a dozen years to reach the Olympic Games, but Teresa Vaill wasn't exactly satisfied with her one-hour, 38-minute, 47-second performance in the 20-kilometer racewalk Monday.
``My legs gave out after a while, I never felt strong out there,'' said Vaill, a Pine Plains, N.Y., athlete who now lives and trains in Gainesville, Fla. She was the lone American entry in the 12.4-mile race and placed 43rd in the 57-athlete field.
At 41, she's also the senior member of the U.S. Olympic track and field team, finally reaching the games after unsuccessful bids in 1992, when women's racewalking made its debut on the Olympic program, 1996 and 2000.
Illness, injury and technique problems wrecked her Olympic aspirations all those years, but she wasn't denied in 2004.
A 1:35:57 victory in last month's Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif., proved her ticket to Athens.
Vaill walked at steady pace for half the race, reaching 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in 47:19, only to slow to 51:28 for the second 10K. Two warnings for technique miscues kept her wary over the final kilometers.
``It wasn't the heat or anything today, it was the wind that hit me,'' said Vaill. ``But I'm not complaining. It took me long enough to make the Olympics.
``This has been my dream for so long. All that hard training paid off. I finally got here, and it was great.
``There were a lot of people out there, and that was good. They were cheering for all of us.''
They were cheering loudest of all for 22-year-old Athanasia Tsoumeleka, who broke away from the big lead pack on the final loop and went on to take a hugely popular 1:29:12 triumph that brought Greece its first track and field gold medal of its own games.
Russia's Olimpiada Ivanova took the silver (1:29:16), and the bronze went to Australia's Jane Saville (1:29:25.)
For Saville, it was pure redemption from the events of 2000. Leading the Sydney Olympic 20K walk and entering her hometown stadium filled with over 100,000 fans, she was greeted with the dreaded red paddle sign, indicating a shocking disqualification.
This time, her technique was faultless.
``I just wanted to get a medal of any kind,'' she said. ``This is outstanding.''
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