Jordan Hasay
Mission Prep
California
Jordan Hasay has signed her name on everything from snowmen dolls to sports bras and bare stomachs.
She's been stopped in department stores and has three MySpace.com impersonators.
At one meet this year, the 5-foot-2 Mission Prep incoming junior had to sprint out of the stadium to get away from the adorations of a charging mob.
And all this came before Hasay, the 15-year-old running phenom from Arroyo Grande, had competed in her first international event. That's due to happen today at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
This time, though, the fanatics will be replaced by people with shared ancestry who have no clue the kind of running celebrity Hasay has become in the U.S.
In today's 1,500-meter prelim, Hasay, a third generation American of Czechoslovakian and British decent, returns to the land where her great grandparents emigrated from decades ago.
"We tried to contact some of our relatives, but it's like a long time ago," said Hasay, whose name is a derivation from Hasaj. "We know some of them, but I don't think we're going to bother them because they probably wouldn't even recognize us."
Not recognize Jordan Hasay? That would never happen at a meet in the United States.
With her trademark waist-long blond hair and signature tongue wag, she's easily one of the most talked-about runners on the Internet message board at Dyestat.com - where, with 45.35 percent of the vote Tuesday, she led a poll
of favorite California girls prep performers of the year.
One could hardly guess it's been an up and down year for Hasay, not with the most recent memory being a dominant showing in the 1,500 at the USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis last month.
Hasay's sophomore national-record time of 4 minutes, 16.98 seconds - the fourth-best U.S. high school girls mark of all-time - led to Hasay electing to run the distance in Ostrava, where she was originally scheduled to run the 3,000.
But Hasay's time, fourth in the world this year among youth runners, was good enough to help convince her she might have a better showing in the shorter distance.
Before leaving town last week, Hasay said she wasn't sure what distance she would run but talked about conquering the mind games and battles with nerves that have gotten the better of her in the past year.
After breezing to a national championship in cross country as a freshman, Hasay placed a disappointing 10th at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships in December. The pressure was high to see if Hasay could win the second leg on her way to a potential unprecedented four straight.
She questioned her own training techniques, and there was some regression in times from her freshman season.
"For me, it's more of a mental thing," Hasay said. "I can psych myself out, and I can be really nervous. That's been one of the challenges this year for me since I was so nervous for Foot Locker.
"During the race, I try to stay as relaxed as possible because the more relaxed you are, the faster you go."
With that secret to success, something she saw reinforced by the professionals at a meet in Indianapolis, Hasay seems worlds away from the Foot Locker performance.
Since losing two races at the Sacramento Meet of Champions midway through the high school track season, Hasay has looked invincible, blowing away the national competition by becoming the only highschooler in the country to post sub-10:10 times in the 3,200, - something she did four times.
Then Hasay surprised everyone with the speed she displayed in the 1,500 in June, where she ran a time well within the "B" qualifying mark for next year's Olympic Trials.
But Hasay said today's prelim and Friday's final event at the world meet aren't just about winning.
"It's my first international race, and our main goal is to just have fun and just do my best because I don't know how the flight and every-thing's going to affect me," Hasay said.
"It's kind of a whole new experience just going to another country. I'll be sleeping with a roommate and just doing different activities and just seeing all the other athletes from the different countries.
"It'll really prepare me for future world meets and hopefully, I'll be prepared for those meets and do better in them."
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