Fortune did not smile on all ex-BYU runners at the Olympics Saturday. Julie Jenkins, the national collegiate champion at 800 meters as a Cougar in 1987, was denied a spot in the women's final when she was spiked during her semifinal heat and faded to a last-place finish.
The kind of fate that awaited former Cougar sprinter Frank Fredericks - who won the silver medal in the men's 100 meter run - did not greet Jenkins. She was very much in the thick of her eight-woman heat until she was bumped and spiked - it appeared accidentally - at about the 500 meter mark.With blood pouring from her ankle, she faded badly and literally limped to the finish line, more than six seconds behind the winner, Lyubov Gurina of the Unified Team.
"I'd like to make a protest," said Jenkins as she made her way away from the track and into the adjoining tunnel after her race. As she looked for a U.S. official to file her complaint she said, "These things usually don't work, but at least I'll feel better."
"It seemed like somebody stepped on my ankle and then spiked me from behind," said the 27-year-old native of Plain City, Utah, running in her first Olympics. "The whole race seemed like it was a lot of pushing and shoving, and then that happened. I was making a move to get outside. If I just could have gotten out of that pack.
"I don't know," she continued, "maybe it was my fault because I let myself get boxed in. It was the most tactical race I think I've ever been in. We were in a big bunch the whole time."
Jenkins had survived the first round of qualifying on Friday and looked strong as her semifinal heat - the second of the two heats - left the starting line Saturday. She took the lead briefly before she was joined by the pack. After the first 400 meters, the runners were still tightly bunched.
"I'm upset," she said. "I know I can run faster."
The mishap ended something of a star-crossed year for Jenkins, who was hit by a van in a crosswalk in New York City a year ago while preparing to run in the U.S. national championships. She had back surgery last December and wasn't able to run competitively until late April. Her comeback peaked when she made the U.S. team - against considerable odds - by placing second at the Olympic Trials in New Orleans in June.
The winnter at the U.S. Trials, Joetta Clark, managed to qualify out of her heat Saturday. Unless Jenkins gets a favorable ear to hear her protest, Clark will be the lone American in the women's 800 final Monday night.