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VALENCIA, Spain (08-Mar) -- It's about 7000 miles from the University of Oregon's Hayward field in Eugene to the Palau Lluis Puig Velodrome here where the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships are in their second day. But for Nick Symmonds and Nicole Teter the distance may feel a little shorter. That's because they get to see each other every day here as they normally would, training under coach Frank Gagliano for the Oregon Track Club Elite back in Eugene.
"Gags" may be the most experienced middle distance coach working in the United States. Originally from the Bronx, N.Y., he coached most of his career at Georgetown University, then moved on to coach professionals at the Reebok Enclave, Nike Farm Team and now the Oregon Track Club Elite, a Nike-sponsored club formed in 2006. He's 70 years-old and has just as much fire as ever, shouting splits and encouragement to his athletes at the recent AT&T U.S. Indoor Championships in Boston.
Unlike many of the other coaching groups in the United States, the Oregon Track Club has no marathon runners. Gagliano made it clear in a conversation at last month's U.S. Cross Country Championships that he's a track coach. Symmonds and Teter are his two best athletes, and both have advanced to today's 800m semi-finals.
"That was so hard!" said Teter after running 2:01.73 in her heat yesterday to advance on time. "I just was trying to hold on. I was just crossing my fingers. That's fast for me right now."
It didn't used to be. The 34 year-old Teter was America's top 800m runner in 2002, clocking 1:57.97 outdoors and setting the U.S. indoor record of 1:58.71. She won both the national indoor and outdoor titles at 800m that year, and in her spare time ran half a dozen 1500m races setting her 4:04.19 personal best. Since then, years of injuries have held her back, the most recent being a calf problem which cropped up at last year's U.S. athletics championships. She spent the second half of last year rehabilitating herself, and is only now returning to her old form.
Symmonds, at 24, is still the new kid on the block. A former standout at NCAA Division III Willamette University, he was so unknown before finishing second over 800m at the U.S. championships in 2006 that he wore his high school singlet in the meet. Since then, he's added needed punch to the U.S. middle distance corps, winning the U.S. Indoor title last year, beating Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy at the Prefontaine Classic, and making it to the IAAF World Championships. He also knocked his personal best time down to a world-class 1:44.54.
"I knew when I made my move I had to go wide," said the 24 year-old after winning his heat yesterday by running wide through turn three then coasting to the line in 1:49.30. "There's (only) just so much room indoors."
Symmonds, even more than his American rival Khadevis Robinson, is broad-shouldered and muscular. His running style is equally powerful and he's particularly strong in the final 50 meters. He knows he'll have to be ready to run a very quick final lap today in order to make it to Sunday's final.
"It's going to take a 25 (second final lap) in the semi-final to advance," he said.
Gagilano's big goal is to see Teter and Symmonds make the U.S. Olympic team (he's coached nine Olympians). They'll have a distinct advantage: the U.S. Olympic Trials will be held in Eugene. It's often wise to bet on the home team.
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