FRONT-RUNNING JOSETTE ANDREWSTHRILLS FANS FROM TOKYO TO NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY,AND LOCATIONS FAR BEYOND.

By ELLIOTT DENMAN
  As over 58,000 jammed Tokyo’s National Stadium, ready to applaud the
fittest, finest and fleetest  of humanity on this penultimate day (September 20th) of the 20th World Athletics Championships, a much-much-much smaller group gathered, 13 time zones to the East,  in Saratoga Springs, New York, ready to scream their lungs out far-far-far louder (per capita, of course)  than those in the Japanese capital, the world’s largest city.
   Gathered in Tokyo were track and field royalty, from World Athletics chief/World record-breaker/Olympic double champion Sebastian Coe,  to leaders and members of 198 competing national delegations;  to a large array of visitors; to a host-nation fan base just loving this sport, even as their own beloved Team Japan members were being limited to two (bronze medal) invitations to that gloried stadium podium…to Mr. and Mrs. Robby and Josette Andrews.
   Gathered, meanwhile, in that Saratoga Springs holiday site were members of Team Andrews, a subset of Team USA, a subset of Team New Jersey.  Robby Andrews had risen to brilliance at Monmouth County’s Manalapan High School; then University of Virginia; wife Josette (nee Norris) Andrews at Bergen County’s Tenafly High School, then  the U. of North Carolina and Georgetown University.
   They’d  already seen Josette’s USA teammates run up a stream of triumphs, medal-winning performances, and brilliant deeds earlier days at  this biennial celebration of ancient Greek  confidence in  mankind’s ability to register Citius-Altius-Fortius (faster-higher-stronger) achievements  on a regular basis.
  While Josette’s hubby, Robby Andrews (himself track and field royalty as a USA Olympian, USA national champion, national collegiate champion and national scholastic record-breaker) was in Tokyo, his dad and Josette dad-in-law Bob Sr. (himself a star middle-distancer at Penn, now coaching heaps of youngsters, “the next generation of Olympians,”  with golden aspirations of their own);  his sister (and doctor) Kristin Andrews Fitzgerald (who’d had a superb track career at St.Joseph’s University) , and several of their nearest and dearest, gathered before a TV screen in Saratoga Springs.
   Lining up for that women’s 5,000-meter final that moment in Tokyo were 16 brilliant racers, a stellar group topped by greatest-of-all-timers Beatrice Chebet  and Faith Kipyegon of Kenya.  Each had already proven golden in Tokyo, Chebet in the 10,000 (Sept. 13) and Kipyegon in the 1,500 (Sept. 17.)  With them were two Americans,  Shelby Houiihan and Josette Andrews, and a dozen more.
  The two qualifying heats two days earlier had been fast; the final would be slower and entrancingly strategic.
    The global pundits guaranteed us Chebet and Kipyegon would run 1-2. Or 2-1.
   And they were right….but, oh, the drama along the way.
  Let me now pass the baton to Mr. Bob Andrews.
  Take it away, Bob:
   “We saw an Incredible, incredible performance by both Americans.”
    “ Josette (who was in the front pack along with Houlihan for over 10 laps) showed so much poise and courage to lead the race and knowing the world  record -holder was in the field. 
   “As the race progressed ,JJ (Josette) used tremendous self-talk to continuously re-set her effort and stick with her commitment to remain in the front of (or right up with) the pack, to stay in contention to  achieve her dream.  She knew that she finally had full health and a solid training regimen to compete at this level.
  “The race was a progression, with each 1000 meters faster than the previous.  
   “Josette showed savvy competitiveness , protecting her spot in (first or) second place, on the inside lane,  many times, from other runners trying to cut in on her. This paid off as she boldly took the lead (again) with 800 meters to go, as all of New  Jersey (most loudly, most excitedy so. those Garden Staters on holiday  in the Saratoga Springs enclave)  rose to their feet cheering, as she summoned her flight to the finish line.
“My hairs stood on their ends as we excitedly watched, jumping up and down, cheering on from Saratoga Springs, Kristin, grandson Reece (2 years  old, in his high chair) and granddaughter Frankie (4 months old ) being held by her grandma.  Lolli (Bob's wife Mary Fregosi).
  “As I reflect on the courage and grit of my talented daughter-in-law I am so grateful that God has blessed me with two global caliber athletes to cheer for, long after my own career in the sport has ended. (But not really, folks, since Bob has been a top-notcher in the Masters ranks.)
  “They (Robby and Kristin)  have been frequent visitors to the Gone Running/Shore AC youth running program taking place in Central NJ that has been that starting point for so many of NJ's talented young runners.
    “Kristin screamed, ‘Go Aunt Josie’ leading her young family of supporters and (hopefully) preparing the next generation of  Team USA members.”
  Said Kristin: “ Watching Josette stand on that starting line is emotional for me. I know what it takes to get to this moment: a world championship finalist, hours and hours of sacrifice, time, mental, and physical preparation; sacrifices that hundreds make and yet only the rare few make it here (to  the Worlds level.).
  “Before she even makes one more step, she is victorious in my eyes.
  “It was the same feeling I felt for my brother (Robby), with whom I got to experience the highest of highs (all those wins, all those records) and the lowest of lows in his career  (most notaby a still-controversial DQ call in the 2016 Rio Olympic 1500 semifinal, just as he seemed poised to run the final, likely as a strong gold medal challenger.)
  “More than me, as he stood in the (Tokyo) crowds, he (Robby) knew exactly what Josette is feeling. “
   Back to Bob: “ With all of that in mind, and even  though I am forever biased in favor of her, Josette  ran the best race of her life in the biggest race of her life. She showed grit, guts, talent and desire.  Aunt Jojo (Josette) is the real deal and it was an honor to watch her with my babies today!”
   For the record:  Chebet (who’d run 14: 45:59 in her heat), outkicked Kipyegon (14:56.71 in her heat) to take the gold in 14:54:36  over Kipysegon’s 14:55.07, as Nadia Battocletti of Italy surged late to snare the  bronze in 14:55.42.
   Houlihan, running sizzlingly after a gut-wrenching, still-controversial four-year suspension, was a sterling fourth (14:57.42), fighting off Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay (14:57.82.)
   And, in this race of her life, in sixth place, Josette Andrews clocked in at 15:00:25, ten more of the world’s finest trooping in behind her.
   This Worlds final wasn’the swiftest 12 and a half laps, not even close,  any of them had ever run.  But it sure was enthralling.
   Chebet (13:58:06) owns the world record with Tsegay (14:00:21) second and Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich (14:01:29) third on the all-time list.
  The American record has been in the books since Alicia Monson’s 14:19:45 in 2023. it’s trailed by Houlihan’s 14:23.92 in 2020,  with Andrews’s brilliant 14:25:37 in Rome this June third on the list.   All-time world-wise,  Monson ranks 17th, Houlihan 26th and Andrews 29th.
    So this immediate conclusion:  Houlihan and Andrews surely punched far-far-far  over their weight in Tokyo.  

•    Back in 1951, Staten Islander Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants slugged the oft-called “shot heard round the world” with his pennant-clinching home run blast off the Brooklyn  Dodgers’ Ralph Branca in an epic clash at New York’s Polo Grounds.   And Bobby Thomson was Bob Andrews' uncle, whose sister, Marion Thomson Andrews, had competed in  in the National AAU Track and Field Championships several times in the mid-1930s.

The immortal Thomson passed away in 2010, but  friends of this extended family  surely knew that the  Giant giant, “up there,” was cheering his lungs out for Josette Andrews, too.  
              They’ll guarantee that, if you listened quite carefully. that  Bobby Thomson  could still be heard in Tokyo, Japan;  in Saratoga Springs and Staten Island, New York;  in Manalapan and Tenafly, New Jersey, and perhaps-perhaps-perhaps,  in the old Walter Winchell-ism, “all ships at sea.”