Media Credit: Jarod Opperman Hyleas Fountain won the long jump in 22-7 on her way to winning the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, scoring 6,667 points. Fountain's score is the best in the world achieved this year in the heptathlon. Joining Fountain for the heptathlon in Beijing are a pair of ex-Pac-10 athletes: Jacquelyn Johnson (Arizona State) and Diana Pickler (Washington State).

For once in the heptathlon, the focus wasn't on Hyleas Fountain during the 800m.

Fountain had long since sealed up her victory, which would eventually total 6,667 points, the third-best performer in event history.

Jacquelyn Johnson had also secured her second-place finish, making her first Olympic team with a personal best score of 6,347.

Instead, the final event became a showdown between Diana Pickler in third place and Virginia Johnson in fourth, separated by 20 points before the race. To beat Pickler and take over the coveted third-place spot, Johnson needed to beat her by at least 1.5 seconds.

In the end, Johnson won her heat in 2:15.88, but missed her spot to Beijing by an excruciating 0.7 seconds.

"I just attempted to go with her every time she moved," a relieved Pickler said later. "I haven't been known in the past to race to beat out a person in the 800. If I didn't do it here I don't know where else there would be to do it."

Pickler finished with 6,257 points, 10 more than Johnson.

Fountain's last-place finish in the 800m was about the only thing she didn't excel at during the two-day competition. She set personal bests in five of the first six events en route to the world's best score this year, a personal best by 165 points. It is Fountain's third U.S. title.

Her key was staying healthy.

"That's, of course, half the battle," she said.

For the second day in a row, the 27-year-old Georgia alumna blew out the field in the first event, leaping 22-7, a personal best by almost nine inches. She followed that with a win in the javelin, though her score of 824 points was off the 1,000-point pace she had been averaging for each event.

Jacquelyn Johnson stayed close, jumping 21-2 and throwing the javelin 1 foot, 6 inches away from Fountain's mark.

Dan O'Brien, Johnson's coach, was very happy with the four-time NCAA heptathlon champion's performance, but said Fountain was just too much.

"I was calling (Johnson) the next JJK (Jackie Joyner-Kersee)," he said, "but she's going to have to deal with Hyleas Fountain for the next couple of years."

agreif@dailyemerald.com

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