Zurich womens 1500: Pierce and Uceny DNF?

Uceny fell and took out a bunch of people in the last 150, I assume including Pierce.

It looked like things were getting chippy with Uceny in about Sixth, and Burka falling back a little from the front, and Uceny went down.

Gotcha. Thanks. Bummer for pierce and uceny. Seems to be the way their seasons are going this summer. I think they're in good shape. Just bad luck. Are they doing any more races this year?

Unfortunately part of racing.

I was once in the last 400 meters of 5,000 meter track race and someone decided to dash across the track from the infield. I was coming around the last turn and he slammed right into me. Next thing I knew I was on the track (face plant) and pretty groggy.

The guy was effusive in his apologies afterward. I told him to forget about it. What could I do?

Too bad because I was on PR pace and had it in the bag or so I thought. I had to wait a month and set my then PR in another race.

The people posting early on this thread clearly didn't watch the race. I did watch this and still don't know what happened.

Can someone tell me if the person with the huge lead (25 meters?) at the bell was a rabbit? The announcers seemed to think so but that was Mimi Belete who has run 4:01 each of her last two times out. I couldn't believe everyone in the field would let her go or that the announcers werent' talking about her.

If she was the rabbit, then she tried to steal it. If she wasn't the rabbit, I'm stunned she got such a big lead.

Uceny was in about 4th on the rail with 130 to go, got tangled up with the runner next to her, kept her balance, but then almost stopped. She got steamrolled and did a faceplant and about four or five other runners went down as well. Very strange reaction from her to the initial contact.

Yes, Belete was the second rabbit behind Cummins from Canada.

She had a huge lead but faded badly.

It appeared that Unceny cleared the congestion, but was stepped on from behind Dobrinsky.

Pierce stumbled on Unceny and went down.

CAQLa wrote:

It appeared that Unceny cleared the congestion, but was stepped on from behind Dobrinsky.

Pierce stumbled on Unceny and went down.

Something like this. But not really.

It was more like Rojo said. Uceny got her legs caught a bit with the runner in front and stumbled a bit, then she really slowed down (almost stopped) and Dobriskey went into the back of her and she fell down taking half the field with her. There was not a lot Lisa could have done about it.

Unfortunate for Dobriskey, I would imagine she could have got second had she not got into trouble.

trollism wrote:

CAQLa wrote:

It appeared that Unceny cleared the congestion, but was stepped on from behind Dobrinsky.

Pierce stumbled on Unceny and went down.

Something like this. But not really.

It was more like Rojo said. Uceny got her legs caught a bit with the runner in front and stumbled a bit, then she really slowed down (almost stopped) and Dobriskey went into the back of her and she fell down taking half the field with her. There was not a lot Lisa could have done about it.

Unfortunate for Dobriskey, I would imagine she could have got second had she not got into trouble.

It was really crazy. They were all there, Uceny looked quite good. Hard to know what the outcome would have been but it would have been pretty exciting.

Did a third woman fall? In the video it looks like Uceny inside, Pierce outside and someone behind them near rail. Am I seeing things or was there a third runner down?

Oh yeah! wrote:

Did a third woman fall? In the video it looks like Uceny inside, Pierce outside and someone behind them near rail. Am I seeing things or was there a third runner down?

I think at least 3 and after the race they showed 3 gals walking around the bend (Uceny and Pierce 2 of them).

FYI, looks to be on universal sports TV in a couple hours.

All the American's went down except Rowbury who stumbled during the incident but managed to stay on her feet.

Wurth-Thomas was able to get up and finish the race but ended up in last place. Both of her knees where taped and iced after the race, so hopefully she didn't suffer anything serious from the fall.

Dobriskey also stumbled from the fall and I suspect that affected her momentum as it affected Rowbury.

Twell was clear of the field during the incident and that's when she managed to move from 8th or 9th to 2nd or 3rd. She benefitted greatly from this incident and capitalized on it...Good for her!

Twell was funny.

She actually looked like she had some massive kick because the majority of the field came almost to a standstill while she was bombing around the outside.

Nice PB again though. Good consistency.

I only watched it live and haven't seen a replay but to me it looked like Uceny was stepped on from behind, stumbled, started to recover, and then was forced onto the rail by the african on her outside (not being racist, I just haven't seen the replay to see who exactly it was).

She needs to take a lesson from Mark Renshaw. When they start shoving you onto rail you shove back.

Video up now, including a full slow-motion reply near the end:

http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=7290613e-dc4b-4fcd-a83e-7804117caa83.html

A lot happens quickly, but the pace maker wound it up for failure and then it exploded.

I actually had to pause it over and over to see who went down. Pierce was coming up nicely when it happened too. Watch the recap of the fall at the end.

I don't think you can tell that it was any one person's fault. They were too tightly bunched from the slowish pace and once there was some contact it was just a big chain reaction.

The women's 1500 seems especially prone to that.

Thanks for the link.

Bad luck for the American's. Rowbury looked like she was Irish Step Dancing over all of the carnage in front of her.

What a mess!

Love the Brit announcers:

"What a mess that was"

referring to the pacemaker being passed: "Step off the track"