BYDGOSZCZ, Poland - Jordan Hasay was in a horrible traffic jam Friday morning.

The 16-year-old wasn't driving in Bydgoszcz. Hasay was caught up in heavy racing traffic in her 1,500-meters heat at the 12th annual IAAF World Junior Championships and she was being roughed up plenty.

“The race was really aggressive. Girls were throwing elbows,” the Arroyo Grande resident and Mission Prep senior-to-be said in a phone interview from Bydgoszcz Friday. “I tripped twice. I almost fell three times.”

She stayed on her feet and worked her way free well enough to qualify by time for the Sunday final. Hasay finished fifth in 4:20.82 in heat three which was the last, and fastest, one.

The top three finishers in each heat, plus those with the next three fastest times, advanced. Hasay had one of those next three fastest times so she will race at 5 p.m. Sunday Bydgoszcz time (8 a.m. PDT).

Hasay's 1,500 best is the 4:14.50 she ran at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus. She set the national girls high school record. Stephanie Twell of Great Britain and Asmerawork Bekele of Ethiopia loom as the favorites Sunday.

Twell's best is 4:06.70. She has run 4:09.29 this year. Bekele's best is the 4:10.02 she ran this year. Bekele won Hasay's heat in 4:17.05.

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Hasay's strategy against those two? “I haven't talked with my coach (Dr. Armando Siqueiros) yet,” she said. “I'll probably get in a chase pack and try to run them down. (Twell) took off really fast in her heat, then she slowed down.”

Twell was second in heat one. Alex Kosinski, Hasay's former high school rival who just finished a good freshman season at the University of Oregon, won the heat in 4:19.14, with Twell just behind in 4:19.18. Kalkidan Gezahegne of Ethiopia took heat two in 4:19.60.

Hasay made it past “the roughest race I've ever been in.” That includes each of the three she ran at the Olympic Trials, an event laden with professionals. Racers at the Olympic Trials usually give each other little quarter.

Hasay's run there has been well-chronicled. She set a record with her July 4 run that got her into the final. Then came the “Come .... to .... Oregon!” chants from the crowd and an interview on NBC.

Her race in Poland Friday “was a lot rougher than the Olympic Trials,” said Hasay.

“(Bekele) and the Kenyan girl (Stacy Chepkemboi Ndiwa) went out really fast.” Chepkemboi Ndiwa went through the first 400 in a swift 1:04.82

Then, “The first two runners slowed down,” the field bunched up more and Hasay was being jostled.

“I tried to stay to the outside,” she said. Finally, “I had to go all the way out to lane three,” to get decent running room.

By the bell lap, “I was really shaken up,” said Hasay. “I tried to take the lead but (the front-runners) didn't want to be passed. The front three took off with about 300 meters left.

“My heat was the fastest, so I knew I'd be in the final. I just kind of coasted in. (Chepkemboi Ndiwa) passed me right near the end,” but Hasay knew she was moving on.

She advanced despite not feeling her most chipper. “I was so jet-lagged,” she said with a laugh. “I ran a 4:20.82 at 2 a.m. my time - that's not too bad.”

Even on her tight schedule, Hasay said she's been able to see some of Bydgoszcz which is one of Poland's biggest cities.

“It's nice,” she said. And, “The stadium is a lot nicer than the one in Czech Republic. This one is the best one in the country. The (city officials) here are really into track and field.”

Hasay won the girls 1,500 silver medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships at Ostrava, Czech Republic last year.

She's up against a more salty field at these Championships. World Youth Championships women's 1,500 meter gold medalist Sammary Cherotich of Kenya is not competing. However, 1,500 Youth bronze medalist Sheila Chepkirui Kiprotich, another Kenyan, did run Friday and did not advance.

July 12, 2008