EUGENE - If there was any doubt Rachel Yurkovich was competing for more than herself in the Olympic track and field trials, it ended Saturday.

This year’s NCAA Division I women’s javelin champion for Oregon, Yurkovich wiped back tears as she talked about her performance in the qualifying rounds at Hayward Field.

“I just feel like there’s a lot of people that want it for me,” said Yurkovich, of Newberg.

Yurkovich, a three-time Pacific-10 Conference champion, is one of the favorites to claim one of the top three spots in Monday night’s final. But she’ll have to reach the Olympic ’A’ standard of 198-6 to reach the Beijing Games in August. Her season best is 191-1.

Saturday, Yurkovich qualified for the final with a best toss of 172-5, finishing third in the first of two flights and sixth overall.

“I didn’t have it today,” she said.

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Defending 100- and 200-meter world champion Tyson Gay nearly didn’t make it past his 100 qualifying heat Saturday.

Gay led the race easily and eased up drastically for a few steps, misjudging the finish by about 10 meters.

He was able to avoid distaster when he made a quick burst to the line, qualifying for the next round with his fourth-place finish in 10.14 seconds.

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Though still in high school, Zach Abbott shared the Hayward spotlight with some of the world’s top athletes.

The senior-to-be at David Douglas High school in Portland finished sixth in the 1,500 wheelchair exhibition race in 3:57.97, just off his personal best of 3:56.42, set at the U.S. paralympic trials in Arizona earlier this month.

Encouraged by his parents, Abbott started competing at age 11.

“I hated it at first, then it just grew on me,” he said.

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Two of three athletes with strong Oregon ties continued their run through the men’s 800 preliminaries.

Former Willamette University runner Nick Symmonds and UO sophomore Andrew Wheating each ran well enough in Saturday’s semifinals to qualify for Monday night’s final.

Symmonds came from behind to win the second heat in 1:45.61.

Wheating, the Oregon sophomore who finished runner-up in the NCAA 800 final, was second in the first heat in 1:46.23.

Scherer, a former Pac-10 400 champ for Oregon, was fifth in the heat in 1:47.14, missing the final by one place.