Hyleas Fountain dominates at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships – Athletics news
American Heptathlete, Hyleas Fountain, emerged as the overall winner after putting up a scintillating performance at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The foundation of the historic win for Fountain was laid at the 100m Hurdle contest, which greatly contributed towards reaching the tally of 3706 points and outdoing her close rival, Sharon Day, with a margin of 43 points. There was no doubt in the fact
that she had finished as an outright winner in the sprint hurdle, where, for stopping the clock in 13.17 seconds, she bagged a staggering 1099 points. However, amid her poor display in the High Jump and Shot Put, she provided room to both Day and Wade to remain
in the contest.
The Columbus born Fountain was into athletics since her early schooling years. Taking full advantage of the mentorship and coaching provided to her by Al Moten, she continued with her passion even while studying in the University of Georgia, where Wayne
Norton took on the responsibility of guiding the young girl for excelling in her athletic career. The efforts put in by both her coach and herself, paid dividends and the veteran athlete now boasts of NCCA championships in the Heptathlon and Long Jump category.
Steadily building up her form and fitness, Fountain prevailed at the U.S Olympic Trials where she managed to put a staggering total of 6667 point on the board. This huge score, which was also her personal best, played a vital role in helping her to qualify
for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The U.S Olympic Trials had observed the young athlete displaying her personal best in five of the seven heptathlon events.
Appearing in her first Olympics, Fountain hit the finishing line third, but after Lyudmila Blonska was found positive for a banned drug, the American was later alleviated to the second position. Fountain was also the 12th finisher at the 2005
World Championships, which she later on improved to 8th rank in the 2006 edition of the event.
Looking quite happy over her success, Fountain was of the view that she could still improve her score further and said, “Oh definitely, I went in there. I just had to focus on myself. I knew if I tried to get out as hard as I could, and stay in front, I
could really run a decent time. I just had to believe in myself just so I could finish.”
Besides Olympics, Fountain qualified for other prestigious events also, but she could not put up a good show in them. Given this fact, her success at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships was really a big one for her.
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