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Jorge Torres could not regain his peak…

Jorge Torres could not regain his peak fitness fast enough after a late-winter leg injury to be a contender in Friday night’s 5,000-meter final at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Even with a seventh-place finish, however, the convoluted U.S. team selection system gives Wheeling’s Torres a chance, albeit slight, to make the Olympic team.

It did not matter where Torres finished in the 5,000, unless he won. The issue is whether he or any other runners can meet the Olympic “A” qualifying standard, 13 minutes 21.5 seconds. Only one U.S. runner, Jonathon Riley, has done so.

Riley finished second to Tim Broe of Peoria, who still needs to make the “B” standard of 13:25.4 to get to Athens. If he does, Broe goes unless somebody other than him meets the “A” standard before Aug. 9. Riley goes to Athens if anyone else meets the standard.

Torres, 23, who clocked 13:41.79 Friday night, has a chance because he was the highest other finisher with the “B” standard. He intends to take one shot at the “A” in a July 27 race at Stockholm. His personal best is 13:24.17.

“It will be disheartening to have to wait another four years,” Torres said. “When you make the world championship final the year before (2003), you feel you’re in the right place at the right time.

“I’m 100 percent sure if it hadn’t been for the injury, I would have been running 13:15 this season. But there is nothing you can do about it. Hopefully, I have another two Olympic Games ahead of me.”

Jacobs takes ban

Two days after announcing her retirement from the sport, Regina Jacobs accepted Saturday a four-year ban for use of THG, the steroid at the center of the BALCO doping scandal. Jacobs, 40, who tested positive for THG June 21, 2003, was supposed to have an appeal heard Sunday. USA Track&Field immediately stripped Jacobs of one of her 12 national titles, the 1,500-meter crown won on the day of her positive test. Suzy Favor Hamilton inherits that title and runs for another–and a place in the Olympics–in Sunday’s 1,500 final.

Trials talk

World champion Tom Pappas was upset in the decathlon, finishing second to Brian Clay, who scored 8,660 points, nearly 200 above his previous personal best. Pappas had 8,517, 200 below his season’s best. . . . Monique Hennagan’s winning time in the 400 meters, 49.56 seconds, was fastest by a U.S. woman since 1997 and the first below 50 seconds by a U.S. woman since 2000. “I want to represent the `Old Heads,”‘ said Hennagan, 28, who ran on the Olympic championship 4×400-meter relay in 2000. . . . Melvin Lister wanted to win an Olympic berth in the long jump. Instead, he got one in the triple jump, an event in which he had not competed for three years after the 2000 Olympic trials. Lister, a car stereo installer, jumped 58 feet 4 inches, almost 3 feet longer than his previous personal best. “I had nothing to lose in the triple jump,” Lister said. “I just wanted respect.” Lister was seventh in the long jump, an event he had won at the 2000 trials.

Favorites Allen Johnson and Gail Devers each advanced easily to the high hurdles semifinals. . . . The trials end Sunday with 10 finals, including the men’s and women’s high hurdles, 1,500 and 200 meters and women’s pole vault. . . . Attendance at the 25,000-seat stadium has averaged 21,129.