Track stars relay some inspiration
Eight-year-old Jailyn Lee could scarcely keep her feet from flying off the ground as she exited the Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
“Can we race to the car, Daddy?” she begged her father, Eddie Lee. “How about now?”
Having just watched Maurice Greene — a Kansas City, Kan., native once dubbed the “fastest man on the planet” — run the 100-meter dash, Jailyn was eager to test her own sprinting skills against a group of her friends.
Her father finally obliged, and with that the pack of children took off through the parking lot.
“It’s just like anything else,” said Eddie Lee, who brought his family from Topeka for the event. “They see a karate fight, they want to do karate. They see a race, and they got to run.”
Kansas University’s move to bring some of the best track athletes in the world to Lawrence for the 2005 Kansas Relays appears to have been a success with fans and athletes alike. The relays, which had experienced waning attendance in recent years, drew an estimated 24,200 people between Thursday and Saturday, the second-largest attendance figure in the meet’s history. The Saturday afternoon “Gold Zone” competitions. a three-hour stretch of events featuring upper echelon athletes like Greene and Olympian Marion Jones, drew a particularly large crowd to the Memorial Stadium bleachers, though KU officials did not have an estimate of the Saturday crowd size.
Several fans said the nice weather and high-caliber talent had drawn them back to the relays.
Lawrence resident Steve Edmonds, who came to the event with his wife, Chris, daughter Brynn Burns and three grandchildren, said he had returned to the event for the first time in seven or eight years.
“It’s a great idea to focus all of the big events in one afternoon,” he said. “It’s been a great time.”
KU senior Stacey Archambault, who attended the relays in 2004, agreed.
“Last year the stands weren’t nearly as full, and people were scattered around,” she said. “Now, it’s almost got more people than a football game.”
The improved atmosphere was not lost on the dozens of high school and collegiate athletes who competed in the relays. Several athletes said they were thrilled to perform before Saturday’s crowd.
Kassy Laber, a junior runner from the University of South Dakota, was competing for her second time in the meet.
“Especially in the home stretch, there were so many more people yelling and screaming,” she said. “That was cool.”
KU triple jumper Stanley Redwine Jr. and long jumper Barrett Saunders said the presence of the world class talent on the race docket increased the prestige of the event.
“There were definitely more people there than last year, and that helped push me on,” Redwine said.
“They definitely did a good job of promoting it this year,” Saunders said.
And while fan interest in the college and high school races appeared to be high, there was no doubt that much of the crowd had turned out to see Greene and Jones.
KU sophomore Frank Tankard, who ran in the relays two years ago as a high school senior, attended the event wearing a T-shirt with Greene’s face printed on it.
“He’s my favorite, so it was a real thrill to see him run,” Tankard said. “It’s something I’ll remember for a long time.”
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Photo Gallery: 2005 Kansas Relays — Saturday Events
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