Despite problems with a shoe, Deborah Maier of Berkeley took 13th in the finals of the 5,000-meter run Thursday night at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Maier worked her way up from the middle of a tight 16-woman field to second as she rounded the curve with 2,000 meters—five laps—to go in the 3.1-mile race.
But the leaders, including American record holder Molly Huddle, began pulling away with a mile to go, and Maier fell back to sixth with a mile to go and eighth with three laps left in front of a record Trials crowd of 22,602 at Hayward Field.
Her time of 15 minutes, 37.56 seconds was only 24 seconds behind upset winner Julie Culley, who clocked 15:13.77 ahead of Huddle’s 15:14.40 and the final member of the London Olympic teammate Kim Conley at 15:19.79.
The UC Berkeley junior said she had a shoe problem during the race and didn’t feel well as she made her way through the press tent.
Despite the issues, she was only 6 seconds behind her season best of 15:29.24 on a cold and wet night.
On June 22, Maier took ninth in the 10,000-meter final for about two-thirds of the race.
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