Bend long-distance runner sets sights on Tokyo Olympics

(Update: Adding video, comments)

'I couldn't express those feelings until it actually happened'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo were postponed a year, due to the pandemic, but that hasn't stopped Bend's Mel Lawrence from training hard, in hopes of competing on the world's biggest stage this summer.

The long-distance runner is set to compete in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final of the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene later this month, where she could punch her ticket to Tokyo.

She says she primarily trains in the afternoons at Central Oregon Community College's blue track, to get her body in line with the start of race times.

"It's 7 1/2 laps," Lawrence said Tuesday. "And there are five barriers per lap, but one of them is over a water pit, similar to horse racing."

And Lawrence's path to the Summer Games is straightforward: Finish in the top 3, and she's in.

"So it's pretty black and white, which is nice," Lawrence said. "A lot of countries, it's like a selection process, and there's a lot more politics involved with it. But for the U.S. you get top 3 on the day, and you get to go."

Starting June 20, she'll be running in the first round of the women's preliminaries.

And if all goes as planned, she'll be in the steeplechase final, looking to take home a top 3 finish.

But what would it mean for Lawrence to make the team?

"Oh gosh. Just like, all sorts of things," Lawrence said. "Probably like something I wouldn't know what that actually felt like 'til that moment hits."

"And you kind of see it in a lot of athletes, as they cross the line, and it's tears, and excitement and all sorts of things. So I think it's one of those things. It would mean a lot, but I couldn't express those feelings until it actually happened."

For now, she says she's focused on the next task at hand, in Eugene, and is hopeful she can represent her country this summer in Tokyo.