BOSTON, Massachusetts, 1 March 2005 — Angela Daigle claimed an emotional 60m triumph at the US Indoor athletics championships Sunday — and a $25,000 bonus.
After five years as a professional athlete — meeting frustration after frustration along the way — the diminutive, oft-injured 28-year-old finally hit it big.
Running in lane eight — and thus unnoticed by some rivals in the center of the track — Daigle was a narrow winner of the women’s 60m.
And when her clocking of 7.09 seconds was announced, most of the 2,800 fans — along with Daigle — knew exactly what that time represented.
It matched the fastest in the world this year, and gave Daigle the 25,000 Visa Championship Series paycheck for the best single women’s performance in USA Track and Field’s four-meet series of indoor meetings.
Danielle Carruthers had been tipped as the likely winner of the bonus, but needed a 7.94sec in the 60m hurdles, just prior to Daigle’s race.
Carruthers crossed the line in 7.95, which kept Erin Gilreath, who had won the 20-pound weight throw on Friday, at the top of the bonus points standings based on the IAAF scoring tables. Carruther’s 7.95 scored out at 1,197 — but Daigle topped hem both with the 7.09, worth 1,203 points. Hoping to run her way into the Athens Games, she wound up eighth in the women’s 100m final at the US trials.
She did get to make the Greek trip — but only as a 4x100 relay team spare who never got to compete. Instead, her Olympic experience came as a spectator. “Now I know that you always have to pay your dues,” she said.
The men’s $25,000 payoff was never threatened on Sunday.
Shot putter John Godina had claimed it with a 21.83m throw on Saturday.
Two-time Olympian Walter Davis thought he had a shot at the bonus after a triple jump last week of 17.52, second-best in the world this year. But it wasn’t to be as he settled for an easy victory at 17.31 over his Olympic teammate Kenta Bell, whose best was 16.86.
It was a reversal of their finish at the Athens Games — where Bell was ninth and Davis 11th. After reaching 17.06 in the second round, Davis fouled his next jump and passed two more as he tried to ward off leg cramps. It paid off with his 17.31 winner in the sixth and final round.
DeeDee Trotter, fifth-place finisher in the Athens 400m final, and leadoff runner on the US gold medal 4x400 relay team, was the class of the women’s 400 field, crusing home decisively in 52.01.
Hazel Clark, another two-time Olympian, made her big move with 300 meters to go and swept to a 2:01.98 victory in the 800m.
For Hazel and her extended family — sister Joetta Clark and sister-in-law Jearl Miles-Clark — this represented a 10th national indoor title for the family team.
