A golden finish for track and fieldSaalfeld first in 800m; relay takes silverby Joshua Weinstock on September 14, 2009 A compelling evening for the U.S. Athletics Team started with a golden performance and concluded with a wild finish at Taipei Stadium on Sunday. Michael Saalfeld ran his best time in the 2009 Deaflympics with a 1:52.86 in the 800-meter run, winning a gold medal. He didn’t lean at the finish line, but it was barely a photo-finish result. Saalfeld’s failure to lean at the finish line during the 800m heat Saturday nearly cost him a spot in the final. He crossed the line with three other runners in a photo finish that determined he ran third. “I’m glad that Michael won the gold, but he still needs to learn to lean at the line,” mid/long-distance coach Karen Sanfacon said. “It can make all the difference in future meets.” Saalfeld beat out Russian Andrey Andreev, who had a time of 1:52.99, but it wasn’t his only medal of the day. The 4x400m men relay team came in second to Ukraine with a time of 3:15.25. But on the third hand-off during the relay contest, the Ukraine team committed a potentially costly error as they won with a time of 3:13.91. After the handoff to the anchor, Volodymyr Turkov veered left, blocking American anchor Josh Hembrough’s path. The American fans exploded in jubilation as the stadium jumbotron displayed USA in the number one slot about 10 minutes after the conclusion of the race. However, it wasn’t official as U.S. officials had to file their second protest in as many days. Head coach Thomas Withrow protested that the Ukrainian runner did not go right after the handoff and interfered with the other runners. Video replays showed Turkov did not make contact with Hembrough. The review was inconclusive, and the protest was denied. “I’m happy for the guys anyways. It would have been better if they actually came in first,” American fan Ursa Rewolinski said. “But they deserve it!” The four relay runners for USA, in order, were: Delvin Furlough, Michael Saalfeld, Craig Saalfeld, and Hembrough The women’s 4x400m relay team finished fourth with a time of 3:58.19. There was an apparent interference, but it was unintentional and no adjustments were made to the results. Belarus set a world record of 3:50.58 in the event. In the men’s 4x100m relay, officials denied the U.S.’s protest of their decision to disqualify the relay team from the final. The controversial decision was that the four U.S. runners did not wear the same uniform in the semifinals — some wore loose track tops, and others wore tight track tops. Therefore, the U.S. was not allowed to compete in the final. China won the men’s 4x100m with a time of 42.08. Ukraine committed no errors for silver in 42.33, and crowd favorite Chinese Taipei came in third with 42.79 in a close-contested final. The women’s 4x100m foursome performed admirably. The team improved its training camp time by four seconds, finishing with a time of 49.91, sprinting coach Jesse Bailey said. It wasn’t enough, however, as Belarus broke the world record of 47.93 with a time of 47.73. The U.S. finished sixth. Erin LaFave competed for the second time in the women’s 5,000m run, which evens out to 13 laps. She did not run her best time and finished sixth in 19:17. The Taipei Stadium crowd gave a standing ovation for Australian Melinda Vernon as she crushed the world record with 16:23.27. The old record was 16:56.80. The crowd gave another standing ovation for the men’s javelin throw. There were no Americans in the event, but nobody stood a chance. Venzuelan Abreu Garcia blew everyone away in the javelin throw, extending the world record with a throw of 73.47 meters. Masamitsu Sato of Japan was a distant second with 59.32 meters. Sunday was the last evening of competition for the U.S. Athletics team. The marathon is scheduled to take place Monday, but U.S. has no participating runners. In all, the U.S. Athletics Team amassed five gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Their haul is a significant improvement from the one-gold, eight-medal performance at the 2005 Melbourne Deaflympics. The 10 overall athletics medals are good enough to tie for third highest, with Belarus. Russia has earned the most — 24 medals. The U.S. tied second in gold-medal count, again with Belarus, as Russia finished with seven golds. |
 U.S. sprinter Michael Saalfeld hands the baton to Craig Saalfeld for the third leg of the 4x400m relay finals on Sunday at Taipei Stadium. (Photo by Jason Chiou)
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