Associated Press Sanya Richards (right) crosses the finish line ahead of former Morse High standout Monique Henderson in the second heat of the women's 400 meters.

“I don't think people remember that any more,” she said.

The problem was, she did.

Henderson has realized what all track athletes do, that what you did in the past doesn't matter in the present, that breaking the national prep record doesn't make you run faster at the U.S. Olympic Trials or your opponents run slower.

“I feel like so much of that is gone,” Henderson said of her illustrious past, which includes being one of only four Californians to win the same event at the state meet all four years of high school. “I had to put it to the back of my mind and realize that it's only about the here and now, that it's only about your last race.”

Her last race is the 400 semifinals last night at the University of Oregon's historic Hayward Field, where she finished third in 51.07 seconds to claim one of the eight lanes in Thursday's final. The top three Thursday make the Olympic team; places four through six likely will go to Beijing as part of the 4x400 relay team.

It would be Henderson's third Olympics, an impressive achievement in its own right. She went in 2000, just months after her high school graduation, as part of the relay pool but didn't run. She went in 2004 again for the relay and won a gold medal by running the second leg.

The next step, of course, would be to make the team in the individual 400. She spent the two preliminary rounds trying not to expend too much energy while running just fast enough to get a favorable lane assignment for the final.

“It was a really easy race and it felt smooth,” Henderson said of her semifinal. “I think I'm right in the mix.”

She also thinks the top three Thursday will all go under 50 seconds, something she has done only once in her career – a 49.96 while finishing third at the 2005 nationals.

There is Sanya Richards, the American record holder at 48.70 who appears to have recovered from a rare immune system disorder called Behcet's Syndrome that slowed her last year. And there is Mary Wineberg, who ran yesterday's fastest semifinal time of 50.57. They appear to be slightly ahead of everyone else.

The third spot, though, is not so definitive.

Dee Dee Trotter, the reigning national champion who went 49.64 last year, would be the favorite had it not been for a mishap in her garage two months ago in Knoxville, Tenn.

Trotter had just driven home, opened her car door and reached into the passenger seat to collect some items.

“(The door) came flying back and I had my leg out the door, and bam,” Trotter said. “Two or three days later, my knee started swelling up.”

Turns out, she had chipped a bone off her femur. Doctors told her she needs surgery. She told them it was too close to the Trials and is running here with bone fragments painfully floating around her knee.

“But every day is a different day,” Henderson said. “I've learned that (in the Trials) anything can happen.”

Proof: What happened an hour later in the women's 800 final.

Two days earlier in the semifinals, Nicole Teter, one of the pre-event favorites, was involved in a four-woman pileup that looked like something out of NASCAR. She got up and finished fifth; the top four advanced to the final.

But judges reviewed video of the crash, determined that no one was at fault and advanced all four runners to the final. What normally is an eight-woman final grew to 12.

Then Teter finished fourth last night behind Hazel Clark, Alice Schmidt and Kameisha Bennett. The top three make the Olympic team, assuming they have achieved the Olympic “A” qualifying standard.

For the women's 800, it is 2:00.00. Clark, Schmidt and Teter have run under it. Bennett has not.

So Bennett is off the team. And Teter, with a nasty scrape on her right hip from Saturday's crash, is headed to Beijing.

Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; mark.zeigler@uniontrib.com