10B SPORTS
---
TRACK & FIELD
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008
Kansas posts four victories at Arkansas meet
BY DANNY NORDSTROM
dnordstrom@kansan.com
Jordan Scott still wasn't satisfied. Despite posting his season-best pole vault at the Arkansas Twilight Meet, the sophomore felt he could have done better.
"It was fun because the weather was gorgeous," he said. "It was
After clearing the winning height of 5.31 meters, Scott's attempt at the next level proved daunting. Scott knocked the bar with his hand after nearly clearing it. Still, he thought the dav was a success.
just like a big practice with friends from other schools, but it actually counted. It was a great atmosphere."
Joining Scott in his success at the Arkansas Twilight meet were several other Jawhaws.
"It was just like a big practice with friends from other schools, but it actually counted. It was a great atmosphere."
Senior sprinter and hurdler Ashley Brown regionally qualified for nationals in the 100-meter hurdles with her time of 13.68 seconds.
Senior Egor Agafonov won his ninth consecutive competition, winning the hammer throw with an impressive toss of 67.56 meters.
Brown has been plagued by weather and injuries this season. She posted several regionally qualifying times earlier this season, but because of wind speeds, those times were not eligible. If wind speeds exceed four mph at the beginning of a race, the times cannot be accepted as qualifying marks.
With the conclusion of the last
Despite the difficult season, Brown is still optimistic about the Big 12 Conference Championships, to be held from May 16 to 18. Even though Brown was seeded higher in the Big 12 last season, she is still excited to compete next weekend.
"You always want to be sitting on top, but I think it's less pressure for me than it was last year," she said.
For the women, junior Stephanie Horton took home her second victory in a row in the women's shot put with her throw of 15.73 meters.
JORDAN SCOTT Kansas pole vaulter
Roundting out the victories for Kansas was the women's 1,600-meter relay team. They improved on their regional qualifying mark with a new time of 3 minutes, 35.81 seconds. The new time is the second best 1,600-meter relay in KU history.
regular meet at the Arkansas Twilight, the Jayhawks now look forward to the Big 12 Conference Championships in Boulder, Colo. on May 16.
Some feel that Boulder's altitude of 5,430
feet might have an effect on the athletes.
Brown, for one, is competing in four events in one day and feels that her recovery after each event might be hindered by the thinner air.
Head coach Stanley Redwine doesn't think the altitude will have much effect on the results, as Colorado will be the only team to partially benefit.
"When it's time to race, it's time to race," Redwine said. "If you look for excuses going in, you're probably going to find them. We can't control the altitude, but we can control what we're trying to do and we have to go in and compete our very best."
With a week off from competition, the Jayhawks should be rested for the meet and ready to compete.
Edited by Russell Davies
Senior hurdler Ashley Brown gets ready to land after coming over the last hurdle at the Kansas Relays on April 19. Brown finished with a time of 13.68 seconds Friday at the Arkansas Twilight Meet.
Weston White/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
KENTUCKY DERBY Autopsy on fallen horse tests for steroid use
STANTON, Del. — The trainer of Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles on Tuesday ordered drug testing as part of the autopsy, intent on dispelling any suggestion the fallen filly may have been on steroids.
Larry Jones said the tests for performance-enhancing drugs will come back negative on Eight Belles, who was euthanized after breaking both front ankles Saturday.
"I guarantee there were no steroids ever on the horse," Jones said at a news conference at Delaware Park, site of the filly's first win.
Jones said he was responding to unspecified criticism that his horse must have been on steroids because she was so large.
"We're taking a lot of abuse out there. . . We're being accused of steroid abuse because she was so large," he said. "I can tell you that (owner Rick) Porter goes to the sale to look for good horses and that's one of the thing you look for — a horse that's big enough, strong enough and fast enough to compete in big races."
Jones also took a swipe at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has been critical of jockey Gabriel Saez. PETA has said Saez should have known that the horse was in trouble and that he went to the whip too often.
"I think that it is really and truly the most ridiculous thing I've heard of," he said.
Jones said PETA is capitalizing on a sad situation.
"When this started I feel like maybe their heart was in the right place," Jones said. "I think maybe they were generally concerned."
Associated Press
》 IRAO
Baghdad course boosts morale British officer creates 'Green Zone' golf for troops in Iraq
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD — The weight of the 9-iron felt just right. My first swing off the first tee was smooth and the ball sailed straight and true.
For a brief moment I forgot where I was. Then I gazed down the fairway — actually just a few clumps of grass, scrub brush and plenty of rocks.
This is golf, Green Zone style.
One recent afternoon — squeezed in between sandstorms and incoming mortar rounds — a colleague and I hit the links. We dubbed it the Baghdad Open.
But there's nothing really open about it. The nine-hole Crossed Swords Golf Course is closed in by 15-foot concrete blast walls and
Black Hawk helicopters buzzed overhead. Bursts of gunfire interrupted backswings. The threat of incoming rockets and mortars was ever present.
watched over by humorless Gurkha guards from Nepal.
The course — a total of 479 rugged, dusty and nerve-fraying yards — was created a year ago by a British military officer who was part of a NATO training mission. Its name comes from one of Saddam Hussein's eccentric architectural legacies that's now a Green Zone landmark: two giant hands holding curved sabers that served as an archway for the late dictator's parade grounds.
- Private bedrooms and bathrooms
- Free continental breakfast
All inclusive rent and utilities
Our LuXURY
Amenities!
· All inclusive rent and utilities
· Private shuttle bus to campus every 40 minutes
· Resort style pool
· Private bathrooms and bathrooms
- Free continental breakfast
The course "is the sole entertainment that we have here in Iraq,"
"The NATO boys that came up with it -- it is one of the best things they could have done for morale out here."
The short irons and sand wedges along with woods used at a mini driving "range" consisting of a small tee box and net were donated by Nicklaus Golf Equipment. Putters
said Air Force Maj. Al Geralt of San Diego as he finished a round. He reported his score was somewhere between "abysmal and miserable."
land nearby.
"But it's loads of fun," he said. "The NATO boys that came up with it — it is one of the best things they could have done for morale out here."
Players are allowed only two clubs — a short iron or a pitching wedge, along with a putter. I chose a 9-iron, the club my father taught me to use for my short game since my first feeble swings in preschool. My competitor, Associated Press photographer Petr David Josek, went with a pitching wedge.
The greens would more aptly be called "browns" as they are made of dirt. The cups are fashioned out of baked bean cans sunk into the ground with large, creepy beetles crawling in the bottom.
So long as you don't expect anything resembling the country club back home.
There was, of course, a sand bunker. But oddly, for a desert country, just one.
Arguably the most hallowed spot of American golf — Augusta National, home of the Masters — bills its Amen Corner, holes No. 11, 12 and 13, as among the toughest tests in the golfing world. But I would challenge Tiger Woods to a round at the Green Zone course any day — just to see how his steely concentration would hold up when the mortar alarm blares: "Incoming! Incoming! Take cover!" and shells
AL GERALT Air Force Major
The fee is a small donation (most people give $2 for a round) and about $800 has been raised so far. Once they hit the $1,000 mark, all future
The first challenge was getting by the Gurkha guards. Despite gaining access a few times before, on this particular day our security badges were deemed insufficient. After 45 minutes of explaining, pleading and miming a golf swing — the guards had little command of English — a British officer took pity and got us to the first tee at what must be one of the quirkiest courses in the world.
were donated by the Yes! company.
Our tree time was 5 p.m. The day had cooled to about 109 degrees.
proceeds will go to the National Fallen Heroes Foundation, a charity that helps the families of American soldiers killed in Iraq.
It has competition, though. Several years after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, the Kabul Golf Club was cleared of landmines and reopened. Near the DMZ separating the Korean peninsula, the single, 192-yard hole at U.S. Camp Bonifas playfully billed itself as "the world's most dangerous golf course."
In the Green Zone, there is so little grass on the course golfers must carry their own: swatches of artificial turf for all shots except putts.
7