Brian Basili Wants to Get Back on the Horse

The plight of Brian Basili's steeplechase debut -- broken arm, Big East qualifier, surgery, and subsequent bone infection -- made him the most famous Villanova steepler since Amos Korir (although for different reasons).  The story garnered tremendous interest on almost all running websites, including Track and Field News, LetsRun, and FloTrack.  The Brian Basili story is also the most read story in the 4-year history of this blog (go HERE to see the original).

 Running Times has now issued a nice update:

Basili’s Big Break

A college steeplechaser suffers a startling fall, but isn’t intimidated.

By John A. Kissane

June 7, 2013

Progressing through the middle laps of his steeplechase debut, Villanova redshirt sophomore Brian Basili knew he was on a good one. Though competing in the slower of two heats at the April 5 Colonial Relays, Basili calculated his pace as near that run by High Point University’s Benji Szalai, the 9:00.14 section one winner. “On the last lap,” he recalls, “I looked at the clock at the top of the backstretch and started to pour it on.”

It’s unclear where to place blame — The faster pace? A split-second’s lapse in concentration? — but Basili hit the third-to-last barrier with his lead leg and crashed to the track. His landing was violent enough to fracture his left humerus, or upper arm bone, at midshaft, and yet the neophyte steeplechaser popped up and resumed running.

To those at trackside, the final 250m of Basili’s race were nothing short of remarkable and also rather off-putting.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Villanova head coach Marcus O’Sullivan. “When Brian got up he started shaking his arm, so I looked at it as he was just shaking it off. I yelled to him to relax — everything’s OK, just get home and you’ll still hit the Big East qualifying time [of 9:25. But then as he swept around the turn and was making it to the water jump I knew something was wrong.”

For the rest of the article, go to Running Times, right HERE.