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December 29, 2020
Hall, Seidler earn USATF Athlete of the Week honors (Dec. 14-20)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Winning The Marathon Project with the second-fastest time ever by an American woman,
Sara Hall
(Flagstaff, Arizona) was selected as USATF Athlete of the Week, and three-time Olympian
Maren Seidler
was the winner of the 39th USATF Throwback Athlete of the Week award for setting an American indoor record in the women’s shot put on December 20, 1977. In the absence of regular competition during the Covid-19 pandemic, we are taking a weekly look back at some of the great efforts by American track and field athletes through the years.
Eleven weeks after finishing second at the London Marathon in a then-personal best 2:22:01, Hall roared back at Chandler, Arizona, to cross the line in 2:20:32 and win The Marathon Project, a custom-designed race that featured many of America’s top distance runners. Hall was on pace to break Deena Kastor’s American record of 2:19:36 through much of the race before slowing slightly as she won by more than two minutes.
Hall has been competing at the elite level for 18 years after representing Team USATF in the 3,000m at the 2002 IAAF World Junior Championships. She is a three-time veteran of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 3,000m, and was the gold medalist in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2011 Pan American Games. Five years ago in her marathon debut at Santa Monica she finished in 2:48:02. Since then she has top-10 finishes at New York City and Chicago, and she was fifth at Berlin last year.
One of the greatest female shot putters in U.S. history, Seidler set an American indoor record at Munich with a throw of 18.31m/60-1. That effort came after a grueling period of training following the World Cup in Dusseldorf in September, where Seidler had finished fourth with a 50-10.25 throw. Dissatisfied with her training, Seidler sought the help of German coach Christian Gehrmann, who had worked with Al Feuerbach and Mac Wilkins, among others.
Seidler told Sports Illustrated, “I’d had another blah year. I just finally got tired enough of the same old thing that I was either going to do it right or stop. I didn’t want to stop, so I floated a loan from my father and went to Munich. My 10-year vacation was through.”
Already a three-time Olympian at that point, Seidler won the 1980 Trials, her fourth straight Trials victory, and was an 18-time national champion in her career, 11 times outdoors and seven indoors. A silver medalist at the 1979 Pan American Games in her third time at that meet, she set 10 American records outdoors from 1974-79, culminating in her 19.09m/62-7.75 in 1979 that stood for six years.
Seidler, a graduate of Tufts University, was the first U.S. woman to break the 17m, 18m and 19m barriers and was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2000. She is currently a realtor in Tucson, Arizona.
More top performances from last week:
Marty Hehir won the men’s Marathon Project in a huge personal best of 2:08:59 to move to No. 7 on the all-time U.S. performer list
Now in its 19th year, USATF’s Athlete of the Week program is designed to recognize outstanding performers at all levels of the sport. USATF names a new honoree each week and features the athlete on USATF.org. Selections are based on top performances and results from the previous week.
2020 Winners: January 9, Miranda Melville; January 16, Paul Perry; January 23, Natosha Rogers; January 30, Tyler Day, February 6, Devin Dixon; February 13, Elle Purrier; February 20, Tori Franklin; February 27, Sandi Morris; March 4, Abdi Abdirahman; March 12 Marielle Hall; March 19, Tim Tollefson; April 2, Louise Ritter; April 9, Francie Larrieu Smith; April 16, Erin Gilreath; April 23, Suzy Powell; April 30, Joe Dial; May 7, Dawn Ellerbe; May 14, Ramona Pagel; May 21, Brian Oldfield; May 28, Jackie Joyner-Kersee; June 4, Jesse Owens; June 11, Mary Decker Slaney; June 18, Leroy Burrell; June 25, Sandra Farmer-Patrick; July 2, Jim Ryun; July 9, Evelyn Ashford; July 16, Wilma Rudolph & Shelby Houlihan; July 23, Pat Daniels & Ryan Crouser; July 30, Michael Norman & Mildred “Babe” Didriksen; August 6, Valarie Allman & Parry O’Brien; August 13, Sara Hall & Kevin Young; August 20, Justin Robinson & Jackie Joyner-Kersee; August 27, Donavan Brazier & Renaldo Nehemiah; September 3, Ryan Crouser & Mike Powell; September 10, Ryan Crouser & Wilma Rudolph; September 17, Rudy Winkler & Kate Schmidt; September 24, Ryan Crouser & Jay Silvester; October 1, Payton Chadwick & Carl Lewis; October 8, Sara Hall & Florence Griffith Joyner; October 15, Shadrack Kipchirchir & Johnny J. Kelley; October 22, Katie Thronson & Billy Mills; October 29, Jaci Smith & Joan Benoit Samuelson; November 5, Molly Huddle & Julie Brown; November 12, Tierney Wolfgram & Hal Connolly; November 19, Lon Myers; November 26, Earlene Brown & Tom McCormack; December 3, Keira D’Amato & Willye White; December 10, Emily Sisson & Frank Shorter; December 17, Jenna Hutchins & Kenny Moore; December 24, Sara Hall & Maren Seidler.
We welcome your nominations!
To nominate an athlete for USATF Athlete of the Week, please send a detailed email about his/her performance to
communications@usatf.org
.
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