LONDON — Shalaya Kipp discovered running at the Olympics can be a lot rougher than running in a college meet for the University of Colorado.
“You get out there and there’s more elbows than you’ve ever seen,” Kipp said of Saturday’s women’s steeplechase semifinal, “even though they’re the same number of people.”
Kipp failed to advance to Monday’s final, but teammate Emma Coburn qualified easily. Coburn, who made her international debut a year ago when she ran at the world championships in South Korea, led most of her heat before cruising in third.
“Walking out here, hearing the crowd, and everyone’s cheering so loud even though there were no Brits in our race — it was a really great atmosphere to be in,” said Coburn, who grew up in Crested Butte.
Coburn didn’t intend to lead so much of her heat, but pacesetter Clarisse Cruz of Portugal tripped early on, putting Coburn in the lead.
“Luckily I avoided her fall,” Coburn said. “It was close to being a disaster, but I was paying close enough attention because it was still pretty early on, where there’s lots of jostling, rubbing elbows and everything. I was on edge at that point, guarding my space.”
Because the pace was a little slower than Coburn wanted to run, she felt she had no choice but to take the leader’s role. She kept it until late in the race when Sofia Assefa of Ethiopia and Habiba Ghribi of Tunisia overtook her.
“I was kind of relieved when the two other women came up with 600 to go, to just get a little bit of a break, and try to latch onto them,” Coburn said. “I eased up little bit that last 100, so I’m confident I can run similar to this performance again in the final — hopefully a little bit faster, too.”
Kipp got trapped in the back of her heat early and could not recover, but she will have great memories of the day she became an Olympian.
“Oh my gosh, they open those doors (to the track), I heard a sound and at first I thought it was the wind,” Kipp said. “Then I realized it was the crowd, they’re fantastic, they’re so loud. I thought when you heard that kind of noise on TV, they’re like adding it in, but it’s real.”
Coburn seems remarkably unaffected by the magnitude of the event, grateful for the opportunity without letting it affect her ability to perform.
“I am definitely so thrilled to be here, and I’m so honored to have these three letters (USA) across my chest,” Coburn said. “I have to just treat it like any other meet. It’s a 400-meter track, there’s the same amount of water jumps, there’s the same amount of barriers. Although there’s an Olympic Village and there’s flags and there’s gear and there’s media, I just have to have a tunnel of what the end goal is. Remember it’s a steeplechase and it’s 3,000 meters. If it’s at Potts (track) in Boulder or in London, England, in the Olympics, I have to try and stay focused and grounded.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jmeyer26
