Trip to meet pays off for miler Hood Earl shatters 800 record

BRUNSWICK – Graham Hood had plenty of reasons not to head to the New Balance Maine Distance Festival.

He’d already achieved the goal – a qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games – that had led to his entering the elite track meet in the first place. He was road-weary. And he was ready to scrap plans to attend the quaint little elite track meet held each year at Bowdoin College’s pastoral Whittier Field.

But after working his way east from Vancouver, British Columbia (the site of his qualifying run), there was Hood, toeing the line in Saturday night’s final event: The men’s mile.

Hood, a Burlington, Ontario, native who graduated from Arkansas, sat in the middle of the lead pack for three laps, then demolished the field with a 55-second final circuit to a win in the showcase event. His time: a speedy 3 minutes, 57.98 seconds.

Hood said if it weren’t for his agent’s urging, he never would have come to Maine.

“He said, ‘You should go. You won’t regret it. It’s a fantastic meet. It’s a great atmosphere … I’m glad he told me to, because he was right.”

Hood’s win capped the ninth edition of the Distance Festival, which featured perfect weather for endurance athletes (cool, with not even a puff of wind), and a cowbell-clanging crowd of 2,000 or so that showed up to root the runners on.

Three meet records were set in the condensed three-hour affair, which consists of only races 800 meters or longer.

The highlights:

. Pittsburgh grad Chantee Earl earned women’s outstanding performer honors when she bolted away from the pack with 200 meters to go in the women’s 800. She built up a five-meter bulge over the next 50 meters and cruised to the win in 2:00.26.

The time was a meet record (surpassing Jen Toomey’s 2:01.95), a personal best by more than two seconds for Earl, and earned her the meet’s outstanding female performer award.

“I knew that [Mary Jane Harrelson] was a kicker, and so the 58 pace was perfect,” Earl said. “I knew I could hold on and maintain with her and kick through the finish with her. [It was] who was gonna kick harder.”

. In the men’s 800, three-time NCAA champ Otukile Lekote of Botswana, who competed at the University of South Carolina, did things the hard way: He led from wire to wire, and built enough of an advantage over the first 700 meters to hold off a late charge by Bryan Woodward of the Nike Farm Team.

Lekote won the race in 1:46.02, while Woodward was a half-second back in 1:46.52. Lekote earned the men’s MVP award, and made a few new friends in the process.

After being introduced to the crowd before the race, he trotted to the starting line, clapping back at the crowd, egging the throng into more frenzied applause. The Whittier fans responded.

“I just appreciate the crowd. It’s important when they come down here to watch you compete,” Lekote said. “The next time they come they will be down here shaking your hand because they noticed you at the previous meet. That’s basically what I do try to get attention.”

Woodward said Lekote’s front-running tactic was impressive.

“He held it together really well considering he led the whole thing,” Woodward said. “That’s one thing I’ve got to commend him for. He’s able to run from the front and can hold onto it. A lot of guys can’t do that.”

. Lena Nilsson of Sweden, who just finished up her freshman year at UCLA as the NCAA 1,500-meter champ, unleashed a powerful kick to win that event in style and set a personal best of 4:09.89.

Nilsson said she had set a target time of 4:11, which she needed to qualify for the European championships later this summer.

To her delight, she cracked 4:11 with ease. Nilsson set her personal record of 4:12.16 back in 1999, before a series of injuries slowed her.

“When you’re healthy, you can do pretty good stuff,” Nilsson said.

Nilsson has been healthy since arriving in Los Angeles, and expected to run fast in front of the Brunswick crowd.

“This is supposed to be the one,” she said. “The tradition, the audience, all the people are great. I’ve just heard a lot of good stories about this place.”

Other men’s winners: Patrick Nthiwa (men’s 5,000 in a meet record 13:41.65) and Ray Hughes (3,000 steeplechase in 8:33.49).

The other women’s winner: Megumi Tanaka (5,000, 15:20.97).