The toughest hurdle in Gail Devers’ 100-meter hurdle first
round race proved to be her own body. Devers, a UCLA alumna, came
out of the blocks favoring her left leg and pulled up short,
sliding under the first hurdle in obvious pain. “On my last
practice start I actually heard it pop,” Devers said of her
severely sprained left calf muscle at a press conference
afterwards. “Out on the warm up track I was waiting for it to
loosen up but it never happened.” Devers, who captured gold
at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics in the 100m, added that she first
sustained the injury a week earlier in Atlanta. It was the most
recent setback for the sprinter who has become accustomed to
untimely injuries and mishaps at the Olympics. She injured her
hamstring in the middle of the 100m hurdle semifinal race four
years ago in Sydney, Australia and crashed into the final hurdle
while leading in the finals of the same event at the 1992 Olympics.
“Everybody has their obstacles to overcome,” said
Devers, who participated in her first Olympiad sixteen years ago in
Seoul. “To tell you the truth I was only hoping to get
through the first round.”
SOFTBALL:While at UCLA, softball players have
become accustomed to unprecedented levels of success. But for the
ones who have continued on to play for the national team, their
success at the collegiate level has paled in comparison. The U.S.
National Team picked up its 78th consecutive win, a 5-0 victory
over Australia on Sunday, to advance to the gold medal game today
at 6 a.m. The game will be rebroadcast later tonight. Featuring
five former Bruins, Team USA has cruised throughout the tournament,
outscoring its opponents over eight games by a score of 46-0. Lisa
Fernandez, a former Bruin, threw a three-hit shutout on Sunday and
drove in two runs at the plate. “To be able to come out here
and perform at this level is a dream come true,” Fernandez
said at a press conference afterwards. “It is something that
I set my sights and my heart on for the last 11 months.” Team
USA will face Australia in the gold medal game. The Aussies
defeated Japan 3-0 to advance to the final with the help of a
former Bruin themselves. Tanya Harding, who pitched at UCLA during
the 1995 season, shut out the Japanese to propel her team into the
gold medal game. Harding, who has defeated the U.S. on two previous
occasions in her Olympic career, will likely be the starting
pitcher again in today’s game. “Right now we are
running on adrenaline and that is what we will be going on
[Monday],” Harding said. “We have got nothing to lose
now.”
BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Thirteen years later, Holly
McPeak and Elaine Youngs are still playing together. After leading
UCLA to a national championship in 1991, the two will be competing
for an even bigger prize. With their 2-0 victory over
Germany’s Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau, McPeak and Youngs
advanced to the semifinals of the women’s beach volleyball
event, where they will face fellow Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty
May. Should they defeat the top-seeded team, McPeak and Youngs,
seeded fourth, would advance to the gold medal game to play the
winner of the match featuring Australia’s Natalie Cook and
Nicole Sanderson and Brazil’s Adriana Beher and Shelda
Bede.