Anna Willard
Anna Willard
American steeplechase records back and forth with Jenny Barringer. Willard was Brown University’s best female middle distance and distance runner but hadn’t even tried the steeplechase until her junior year, when another athlete got injured. Willard set a school record in her first steeple race (she would spend her last year of collegiate eligibility at the University of Michigan). She gives much credit to her former Brown coach, Craig Lake, with whom her relationship was initially tense. 3
Anna graduated from Brown in 2006 and enrolled in graduate school at the University of Michigan. She continued to excel at Michigan. She was named Michigan’s first female athlete of the year and was named the first female athlete of the year by the Big 10. She finished 2nd in the U.S. National Championships even with an injured ankle. She finished 8th in her first World Championships. 6
Anna Willard ?06 set an American record in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase on July 3 en route to winning the event at the Olympic Trials. Her 9:27.59 effort effectively punches her ticket to the 2008 summer games in Beijing, China, where she will represent the United States as the event makes its Olympic debut. Her time was also an Olympic Trials and Hayward Field record. 2
Willard competed as an undergraduate for Brown University and as a graduate student for the University of Michigan. Willard became engaged to fellow American steeplechaser Jonathan Pierce at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials. 4
Sudan’s Olympic Coach Jama Aden calls the half-finished main stadium in the capital, Khartoum, “the worst facility you can imagine.” But Sudan now has a genuine international running superstar, Abubaker Kaki Khamis, the Olympic favorite in the 800. Yet even Kaki knows his accomplishments can’t outweigh Susan’s documented reputation for genocide - and China’s support of the Sudanese regime even led to calls for boycotts of the Beijing Olympics. 10
Her time in the 1,500-meter run was an Olympic A standard and put her sixth in the United States coming into the trials. While Willard considered competing in both events, she ultimately decided to focus on her marquee event. 8
Heading into Thursday’s final, Willard sat as the third seed behind Barringer?s new NCAA record of 9:29 and Lisa Galaviz?s former American record of 9:28. However, unlike her competitors, Willard also posted times this spring that qualified her to run in two other events, the 1,500-meter run (4:06.26) and 800-meter run (2:02.72). The combination of her foot speed and her history of closing hard made her one of the pre-race favorites for the title. 7
Willard did not begin steeplechasing until her junior year at Brown, and she set the school record that year with a 10:35 effort at the ECACs. As a senior and her first year under the coaching of Director of Track and Field Craig Lake, Willard won the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship title and advanced to the NCAA meet, where she was an All-American. Her time of 10:06 from that season still stands as the school record. Willard also owns the outdoor 800-meter, 1,500-meter, 3,000-meter, and 5,000-meter records, all set in her senior season. Additionally, Willard anchored the All-American distance medley squad at the 2006 NCAA Indoor Nationals. 9
Willard went on to compete at the University of Michigan for one year while attending graduate school, and became a 2007 NCAA outdoor steeplechase champion and three-time Big Ten champion in her one outdoor season. In 2007, she claimed the Mideast Regional championship in the 3,000m steeplechase and a Big Ten Outdoor championship in the 1,500 - and 5,000-meter runs and the 3,000-meter steeplechase. At the 2007 USA Outdoor Championships, Willard finished less than one-tenth of a second out of first place in the 3,000m steeplechase. Her time of 9:34.72 was the second-fastest run by an American in 2007 and makes her the No. seed in the event at the trials. 5
