APRIL 7, 2009
2009 DRAKE RELAYS RELEASE #10
DES MOINES, IOWA ? It has been more than 20 years since the women's invitational discus was held at the Drake Relays.
So, when Drake Relays director Brian Brown elected to bring the event back for the first time since 1988, he wanted to make sure he assembled a field to warrant such a move.
Well, it can't get any better with reigning Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton, American record holder Suzy Powell-Roos and 2008 Olympic Trials champion Aretha Thurmond. Thurmond won the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials with a throw of 213-11, with Powell-Roos second at 206-5 and Brown Trafton third at 205-6.
“This is a field that we've never seen the likes of at Drake,” said Brown. “It is a U.S. high performance event in which our fans will see outstanding competition.”
Brown has even installed new stands along the northwest Drake Stadium throwing area to accommodate spectators for the event which will be held at 2:30 p.m. during the Saturday (April 25) session of the Drake Relays.
The 6-foot 4-inch Brown Trafton was the United States' first gold medal winner in the women's discus since Lillian Copeland in 1932. It was a significant personal victory for the 28-year-old Brown Trafton, who had never finished higher than second at a U.S. national championship.
She stood in first place after the first round in Beijing, China, with a strong throw of 212-5, which held up for the rest of the competition.
Earlier, Brown Trafton had thrown a personal and 2008 world leading best mark of 217-1 at Salinas, Calif.
She was runner-up at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials with a then personal best of 203-1 to make her first Olympic team.
Powell-Roos, who competed in the 1996, 2000 and 2008 Olympics, set the existing American record of 222 feet at the 2007 Maui “Big Wind” Discus Challenge to surpass the 21-year-old U.S. women's record of 216-10 set by Carol Cady in 1986.
A six-time USA runner-up (1997, 2000-03, 2006), Powell-Roos claimed her first U.S. title at the 2007 USA Outdoor Championships. She finished seventh in the 2007 World Outdoor Championships.
Powell-Roos was the longtime national high school record holder in the discus and was the 1994 Track and Field News High School Athlete of the Year.
Thurmond, who owns a personal best of 216-1 in 2004, also is a three-time Olympian, competing in 1996 and 2004, while placing 10th at the 2008 Olympics at 196-2. She was ranked No. 6 in the world in 2006, No. 7 in 2004, No. 8 in 2003 and No. 10 in 2002.
Thurmond has been among the top and most consistent American throwers for the last 10 years, winning the U.S. Outdoor Championships in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
As a senior at Washington, Thurmond set an American collegiate record of 215-3 in 1998. She won a gold medal at the 1999 and 2003 Pan American Games.
The field also includes Becky Breisch, who won the 2005 U.S. Outdoor Championship, while winning the 2003 NCAA Outdoor shot put title and 2004 NCAA discus crown at Nebraska.
Breisch, who was fourth in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, owns a personal best of 221-1 set in 2007.
Breisch won the women's university-college discus title at the Drake Relays three times (2004-06), setting a Drake Relays record of 205-5 in 2004.
Summer Pierson and Gia Lewis-Smallwood also will compete in the invitational. Pierson was ranked sixth in the U.S. in 2008 after finishing sixth in the U.S. Olympic Trials. She set a personal best of 199-5 last year and was fifth in the 2007 Pan American Games. Lewis-Smallwood had a personal best of 196-9 last year.
