Sports

Berkeley's Deborah Maier Battles to Second Briefly in Olympic Trials 5000

Walnut Creek native fell off pace in final mile, taking 13th at University of Oregon's Hayward Field.

Despite problems with a shoe, Deborah Maier of Berkeley took 13th in the finals of the 5,000-meter run Thursday night at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR.

Maier worked her way up from the middle of a tight 16-woman field to second as she rounded the curve with 2,000 meters—five laps—to go in the 3.1-mile race.

But the leaders, including American record holder Molly Huddle, began pulling away with a mile to go, and Maier fell back to sixth with a mile to go and eighth with three laps left in front of a record Trials crowd of 22,602 at Hayward Field.

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Her time of 15 minutes, 37.56 seconds was only 24 seconds behind upset winner Julie Culley, who clocked 15:13.77 ahead of Huddle’s 15:14.40 and the final member of the London Olympic teammate Kim Conley at 15:19.79.

The UC Berkeley junior, a native of Walnut Creek, said she had a shoe problem during the race and didn’t feel well as she made her way through the press tent.

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Despite the issues, she was only 6 seconds behind her season best of 15:29.24 on a cold and wet night.

On June 22, Maier took ninth in the 10,000-meter final for about two-thirds of the race.


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