FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 24, 2009
By/contact: Fred Baer 650-345-4114 (Mobile: 650-483-3733)
SAN MATEO -- Stephanie Brown Trafton is not resting on her Olympic laurels this season.
The USA’s only field event gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Games established a personal best and 2009 world leading discus throw of 217 feet, 2 inches (66.21 meters) on her second attempt at USA Track & Field’s Pacific Association Championships at College of San Mateo Sunday afternoon.
She won a duel with American Record holder Suzy Powell-Roos of Modesto, who had her season best of 203-0 on her first throw. (Her record, which Brown Trafton is chasing, is 222-0 in 2007.) bsp;
Those are the top two performances by Americans this season. Brown Trafton’s mark is the fifth best ever by an American and improves her own No. 3 performer ranking, just behind No. 2 Becky Breisch (221-0). “I’m really not interested in being fifth, I’m interested in being first,” Brown Trafton said.
(Powell-Roos, a three-time Olympian, and Breisch each own two of the top performances – all performed at sites more renowned for favorable winds than San Mateo. Three were performed in Maui and one at Hartnell College in Salinas – all in 2007. Brown Trafton got her previous best, 217-1, last May at Salinas. She won Olympic gold with her 212-5 first round throw.)
The athletes did have some helpful quartering breezes on Sunday at CSM’s hilltop campus, which affords athletes and spectators spectacular views of San Francisco Bay.
“I’d like to have more meets here,” Brown Trafton said. “I intend to PR every meet, but you can’t always meet your expectations. Even if I throw over 220 or 225 this year, I’m still a long way from being my best. I could be throwing over 230, with the right conditions. Eventually it will come. It’s a matter of international experience. =2 0I really have just one year of that kind of experience.”
Brown Trafton, a San Luis Obispo native and two-time Olympian who now lives in Galt (near Sacramento), likes having the USA record holder as a competitor. “It provides a bit of a challenge. I have something to prove.”
Lifelong Modesto resident Powell-Roos said, “It’s always nice to have good competition locally. Conditions were really incredible. The set-up is gorgeous. I was blown away by the scenic beauty.”
The pair will meet three more times over the next month – at the May 30 Reebok Grand Prix meet on Randall’s Island, New York; the June 7 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore.; and the June 25-28 USA Championships, also in Eugene. The latter meet will determine the USA team for the World Championships in Berlin in August.
Brown Trafton realizes that she is now a target (pointing to her back). “What’s different now is the expectations. I’ve never been the one people are gunning for. I’ve always been the underdog.”
Other top PA championship marks Sunday:
Four-time Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff of Isleton won easily at 5-7 (1.70 meters).Stanford grad Erica McLain, a 2008 Olympic triple jumper who now lives in Menlo Park, won her specialty at 44-2 (13.46m). Cal grad Tim Bogdanof won the men’s 110 meter high hurdles in 13.81 seconds.
Here are Sunday’s discus throw series:
Suzy Powell-Roos:
61.87 (203-0), 61.41m (201-5), 61.38m (201-4), 60.73m (199-3), 61.20m (200-9), 58.34m (191-5). Stephanie Brown Trafton:
62.72m (205 feet, 9 inches), 66.21m (217-2), 64.99m (213-2), 61.30m (201-1), 64.00 (209-10), foul.Top all-time US A women’s discus performances:
| 67.67m | 222-0 | Suzy Powell-Roos | Wailuku, Maui | Apr. 14, 2007 |
| 67.37m | 221-0 | Becky Breisch | Wailuku, Maui | Apr. 16, 2007 |
| 66.54m | 218-8 | Breisch | Hartnell Col.,Salinas | May 17, 2007 |
| 66.23m | 217-3 | Powell-Roos | Wailuku, Maui | Apr. 16, 2007 |
| 66.21m | 217-2 | Stephanie Brown Trafton | Col.of San Mateo | May 24, 2009 |
| 66.17m | 217-1 | Brown Trafton | Hartnell Col., Salinas | May 8, 2008 |
| 66.10m | 216-10 | Carol Cady | San Jose City Col. | May 31, 1986 |
