EUGENE, Ore. -- Ups and downs of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials that ended Sunday:
Up: Eugene's organizing committee. It turned the trials into a must-attend event, and that probably will carry over to the next running in 2012. Sellout crowds, a fan festival, bands, big screens next to Hayward Field, and an atmosphere better than any track meet -- including the Olympics -- I have attended in the United States.
Down: Eugene's organizing committee, for inflating attendance beyond the capacity by counting everyone who wandered into the vicinity. Why exaggerate the truth when it was so impressive anyway?
Up: USA Track & Field for awarding the event to Eugene.
Down: USA Track & Field for kowtowing again to NBC schedulers and creating a competition program that allowed what should be a six-day meet to drag over eight (plus two rest days), making some days painfully bereft of action.
Up: Bernard Lagat. The only double winner (1,500 and 5,000 meters) in the trials is a tactical master, capable of controlling the field from the back (5,000) or the front (1,500).
Down: Alan Webb. After a 2007 season in which he posted the world-leading time in the 1,500, the former prep mile phenom now must contemplate comeback No. 2 in his checkered international career after finishing a non-contending fifth in the final.
Up: Every miler and distance runner who took risk by pushing his or her limits, including "Hey There" Delilah DiCrescenzo in the steeplechase, where she tried to be a factor before finishing last. (Deserved props, Delilah, after my snarling blog about your stiffing media after the race.)
Down: Athletes such as Torri Edwards, who dropped out of a final (the 200) because, according to a statement from her agent, she didn't like her lane, or Galen Rupp and Josh Rohatinsky, who ran prelims of the 5,000 as a workout, with no intention of running the final. All deprived other athletes of places.
Up, Down, Up: Tyson Gay. He blitzed the 100, was injured in the 200, then accepted that misfortune with grace rather than rail against the unforgiving nature of the selection system.
Up, Up, Up: Lauryn Williams. The sprinter who rises to the occasion in big meets was as delightfully ebullient as always, whether losing a spot in the Olympic 200 by a hundredth of a second or winning one in the 100 by 3/100ths.
