Poor discus effort leaves Rome baffled

By MIKE PRATER

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - American discus thrower Jarred Rome picked a bad time to have one of his worst meets of the year.

And here's the most frustrating part: He doesn't know why it happened.

The U.S. national champion and former Boise State standout from Marysville, Wash., finished 14th in qualifying at the Summer Olympics on Saturday. His top throw of 201 feet, 11 inches was 14 inches shy of qualifying for Monday's 12-man finals - and 20 feet shy of his best toss this season.

``It's the Olympics, and you definitely don't want to do this poorly. ... It's a disappointment and I'm pretty upset,'' Rome said.

Rome finished seventh in Group A qualifying and didn't even stick around to watch the 20 athletes in Group B. Instead, he jumped on a team bus and headed back to the Athletes Village to figure out what went wrong on the biggest day of his life.

When Frantz Kruger of South Africa produced a 204-5 effort on his second of three throws in Group B qualifying, Rome was officially history in Athens.

Ian Waltz, a former Washington State track All-American from Post Falls, Idaho, also struggled inside a hot and steamy Olympic Stadium. His top qualifying mark of 193-5 left him in 22nd place in a field of 39.

Casey Malone of Fort Collins, Colo., who finished third behind Rome and Waltz at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month, competed in Group B and advanced to the finals with the eighth-best qualifying mark of 207-7. Robert Fazekas of Hungary had the top mark at 223-5, followed by Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania at 222-4.

Rome's day started at 5 a.m. - qualifying started at 9 a.m.- and it was a good start, he said. So many Olympic athletes have talked about feeling poor in their first Olympic experience, or struggling with the transition of being in Europe.

``I felt great today,'' Rome said.

He warmed up outside the stadium, went into a stadium holding area, and then tossed two more warmup throws inside Olympic Stadium. By the time he threw, Rome was ready for his Olympic debut.

``I thought for sure I was going to get a big throw,'' he said.

First throw: 194-8.

``I didn't get proper flight on it, but it still went 59 meters with poor technique and I was like, `Wow, OK, I'm ready,''' Rome said.

Second throw: He chucked it into the right side of the huge, green protective caging.

``That's the first time in my career that I've hit the cage in a meet, so I was a little rattled by that,'' he said.

Rome put his massive hands on his head, worked his fingers through his long hair, took a deep breath, and then walked away from the pit to put on his warmup suit.

``Maybe I went a little too fast on that second throw. I just told myself to slow down and focus on the third throw,'' Rome said.

Third throw: 201-11.

``Unfortunately, I think I went too slow, and there was no power in my legs,'' he said.

Olympic experience over.

``I just don't know what happened out there. I wasn't nervous. I'm pretty seasoned. I felt like a big throw was there. The whole season I've been on top of my game, and the day you want it to be the best, I wasn't, and that sucks,'' Rome said.

U.S. track and field coach Criss Somerlot watched from stands.

``From a technical standpoint, Jarred had a good day. He just didn't nail a big throw like he's capable of,'' he said. ``I'm reasonably certain that if you had the discus qualifying tomorrow, Jarred would step in with a big throw. He wouldn't let that happen two days in a row.''

Rome, 27, has competed in 16 meets this year. Except for the Stanford Invitational in March, this was his worst performance. He has hit 206 feet or better in 14 of the 16 meets - a mark that easily would have qualified him for the finals. He came into Saturday's qualifying with the ninth best throw in the world at 221-6.

``I've had just a killer season. Since that second meet of the year, I've been unstoppable, so to come here and do this is really a letdown for myself, my family and obviously the U.S.,'' said Rome, whose parents were in the stands.

Waltz, 27, was equally disappointed with his performance - his worst of the season, he said. He came in with a top throw of 217, which would have qualified him third Saturday.

``It's my worst meet of the year. It just felt like my power was down. I'm on the Olympic team, so I can't be too upset. But I'm not happy with where I finished,'' he said.