FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2022
bendbulletin.com/sports
LOCAL CYCLING
TRACK AND FIELD | WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gravel Grinder
reaches final
stage in the
Ochocos
Frerichs balances training, school ahead of championships
Having already held
races in Dufur, Bend and
Sisters over the past three
months, the final stage of
the Gravel Grinder series
will take place this week-
end in Prineville.
The Ochoco Gravel
Grinder will kick off the
final of the four races on
both Saturday and Sun-
day at 9 a.m. starting at
Walton Sno Park in the
Ochoco National Forest.
Close to 200 bikers
are set to compete in the
races over the weekend,
almost doubling the total
from the previous year.
“Conditions are so
much better than they
were last year,” said race
director Chad Sperry,
who’s company Break-
away Promotions is in its
second of coordinating
the races. “Most impor-
tantly the roads and the
scenery in the area is
better because we didn’t
have the extreme heat in
June like we did last year.
“The heat never shut
off, so it was super dusty,”
Sperry added. “It was just
a struggle for the riders to
go through those dusty
roads.”
Improved weather
conditions might make
for easier races, but the
courses will still be a chal-
lenge.
There are two days of
races, with each day hav-
ing three separate races
— the Small, Big Grinder
and E-Bike Grinder —
which range from 61.5
miles to 82.2 miles.
“It is going to feel and
look a lot different be-
cause the road quality is
so much better,” Sperry
said.
Close to 75% of the
riders will compete in
both Saturday and Sun-
day’s races. During the
two days of racing, they
will eclipse 100 miles and
2,988 feet of elevation
for the small and e-bike
grinder races and 140
miles and 8,968 feet of
elevation gain for the big
grinder race.
“This year we kept
Saturday a big faster,
smoother, not as techni-
cal,” Sperry said. “Sunday
will be our more difficult
day.”
Saturday’s Big Grinder
is the longest race of the
event in terms of miles,
spanning 82.2 miles,
while gaining 5,718 feet
of elevation.
Both the Small and
E-Bike Grinder riders will
cover 61.5 miles and gain
4,293 feet of elevation
during the Saturday race.
Exploring the west
side of the Ochocos on
the race’s second day, the
Big Grinder, while still
exceeding 70 miles, is
shorter than the first day,
yet the elevation gain will
be more than 2,000 feet
(7,997 in total) than the
first day’s race.
Like the Big Grinder,
the second day of racing
in the Small and E-Bike
Grinder will see a steady
increase in elevation gain
— 6,801 feet of elevation
(up from 4,293 on the
first day) — but will also
be just short of two miles
longer at 63.4 miles.
— Bulletin staff report
INSIDE
NHL — Less than a week
after his draft-night slide,
Shane Wright has moved
on and is looking to prove
teams wrong as a key
young player for the Seat-
tle Kraken as the franchise
looks to grow following a
somewhat disappointing
first season. Story on A7.
BY LUKE NORTON
The Oregonian
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian via TNS
Emma Coburn (left), Courtney Frerichs (center) and Courtney Way-
ment clear the hurdle during the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase
final during the USA Track and Field championships at Hayward Field
in Eugene June 26.
Try a Google search for
Courtney Frerichs, and the
phrase “American record”
pops up in the suggested box.
Frerichs is the first Amer-
ican woman to break 9 min-
utes in the 3,000-meter stee-
plechase, with a time of 8
minutes, 57.77 seconds, a feat
she accomplished at the 2021
Prefontaine Classic.
The time set the U.S. record
and ranks Frerichs fifth on the
world all-time list. The pre-
vious American record also
belonged to Frerichs, 29, who
trains with the Portland-based
Bowerman Track Club. Before
she set the American record
twice, she set the collegiate re-
cord during her time compet-
ing at the University of New
Mexico in 2016. Frerichs also
earned the silver medal at the
2017 world championships in
London and at last year’s To-
kyo Olympics.
Frerichs has spent her ca-
reer chasing, and earning,
titles such as All-American,
national champion and Olym-
pian. She’ll be seeking to do
the same this month at the
2022 World Athletics Cham-
pionships in Eugene.
Off the track, she’s spent the
past two years chasing a differ-
ent accolade: a master’s degree
in nutrition.
“It’s really helped me feel like
I also have a purpose and goals
outside of running, since being
an elite athlete can be so singu-
larly focused,” Frerichs said.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics
presented an opportunity for
Frerichs to take advantage of
the prime of her career, she
said. Through fall 2019 and
winter 2020 she completely
devoted herself mentally and
physically to her training.
Suddenly, in the wake of
COVID-19, the games were
postponed and the future
was uncertain. Frerichs was
left without a goal to pursue,
something tangible to achieve.
Frerichs has always been
driven by a desire to give back
to younger athletes, she said,
and the lack of any immediate
competition opened up an op-
portunity to do so. She wanted
something to strive for and
achieve outside of running.
See Frerichs / A6
TRACK AND FIELD
Fostering hope
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP file
Britain’s Mo Farah celebrates winning the gold medal in the men’s 10,000-meter final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The four-time Olympic
champion has disclosed he was brought into Britain illegally from Djibouti under the name of another child. He made the revelation in a BBC documentary.
U.K. Olympic great Mo Farah reveals he was trafficked as a child
BY DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press
LONDON — Olympic great Mo Farah — the winner of four gold medals and one of Britain’s greatest and best-loved athletes — has
been carrying a secret burden all these years: He was illegally brought to the U.K. as a youth and forced to care for other children before
he escaped a life of servitude through running.
In a new documentary, Farah says his real
name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and that he was
taken from the East African nation of Djibouti
when he was about 8 or 9.
He says a woman he didn’t know brought him
to Britain using fake travel documents that in-
cluded his picture alongside the name Moham-
med Farah.
The revelations come as Britain struggles to
deal with a surge of people fleeing conflict and
hunger in Africa, the Middle East and Asia on
flimsy boats organized by human traffickers
who assist the desperate to cross the English
Channel.
Criminal gangs are also smuggling people
into the country and forcing them into sex work,
criminal activities and unpaid labor.
See Farah / A6
GOLF COMMENTARY
Tiger has big voice, just not as much visibility
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland
— Tiger Woods has a voice
that can be as a big as his golf
game.
What he lacks is enough
visibility.
Woods left little room for
interpretation Tuesday when
the 15-time major champion
hammered away at Greg Nor-
man’s new Saudi-funded LIV
Golf series as not being in
golf’s best interests.
He said players who
couldn’t resist the money —
some received more than
Woods has earned in his en-
tire PGA Tour career — had
“turned their back” on the
very tour that made them fa-
mous.
None is as famous as
Woods. He is not just the en-
gine that drives the train. For
the modern game, he’s the en-
tire railroad.
“What these players are
doing for guaranteed money,
what is the incentive to prac-
tice? What is the incentive to
go out there and earn it in the
dirt?” Woods said. “You’re just
getting paid a lot of money up
front, and playing a few events
and playing 54 holes.”
They were his strongest
comments to date, one of the
lengthiest and most passionate
answers from Woods, who for
so many years preferred that
his clubs delivered the mes-
sage.
What the PGA Tour
wouldn’t give to have Woods
at full strength, playing a full
schedule, in the midst of one
of the most disruptive mo-
ments in golf.
The British Open is only
the third tournament Woods
has played his year — four in-
cluding the two-day charity
pro-am in Ireland last week
— and probably will be his last
until he gets to the Bahamas at
the end of the year for a holi-
day event he hosts.
While Norman was laying
the ground work last fall and
figuring out how to spend all
that money from Saudi Ara-
Peter Morrison/AP
Tiger Woods prepares to tee off on the 7th hole during a practice
round at the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland,
on Monday.
bia’s sovereign wealth fund,
Woods was out of the public
eye from February to the end
of November recovering from
his car crash outside Los An-
geles.
He spoke for the first time
in the Bahamas and said his
allegiance was to the PGA
Tour and “that’s where my leg-
acy is.”
See Tiger / A7