Fisher runs away with men's 10,000 meters
American record holder's surge with kilometer left leads to Olympic Trials victory
Grant Fisher has clearly been the best male distance runner in the U.S. this year.
So with a kilometer left in the men’s 10,000 meters on the first evening of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday, Fisher did the smart thing. He stepped on the accelerator in order to break up a four-runner lead pack that included himself, Nico Young of Northern Arizona University, Woody Kincaid, and Drew Hunter.
It didn’t take long for Fisher’s move to produce results, for 100 meters after he increased his pace, he entered the home straightaway with a five to six-meter lead on second-place Young.
With two laps to go, he had a 12-meter advantage over Young, who was being closely followed by Kincaid and Hunter.
The 27-year-old Fisher continued to up the ante on the second to last lap and his lead had grown to approximately 40 meters over second-place Kincaid as he headed into the bell lap. Although Kincaid made up a substantial amount of ground on Fisher in the final home straightway, the holder of the American record in the 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 meters had room to spare when he crossed the finish line in 27 minutes 49.27 seconds.
Kincaid, who had outkicked Fisher in winning the 10,000 in the Olympic Trials in 2021, placed second in 27:50.74, followed by Young in third in 27:52.40 and Hunter in fourth in 27:53.35.
Casey Clinger of BYU placed fifth in 27:59.71, followed by Conner Mantz in 28:00.90.
“Oh totally man,” Fisher said when Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports asked him if he had made his move because he did not want the race to be decided by a kick. “Those last two laps I was just pushing and pressing into it. These guys have really good kicks so I wanted to drag it out of them a little, and to be back here on Team USA, I’ve been here with Woody before, and now with Nico for the first time. And man it feels good.”
Fisher, Young, and Kincaid had run 26:52.04, 26:52.72, and 26:57.57, respectively, when they finished first, second, and seventh in The TEN meet at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, California, on March 16. But few expected the pace to be as fast in the race at the University Oregon’s Hayward Field on Friday as the race-time temperature was probably 20 degrees warmer than it had been for that depth-laden personal best fest in March.
Mantz, who won the men’s race in the U.S. trials in the marathon in Orlando, Florida, in February, did the pacesetting for most of the first six-plus kilometers as he led the field through 1,600 meters in 4:18.13, 3,200 in 8:45.11 (4:26.98), 4,800 in 13:18.54 (4:33.43), and 6,400 in 17:53.76 (4:35.22).
Paul Chelimo briefly spent some time at the head of the lead pack, but Sam Chelanga was in front at the end of the 17th and 18th laps before collegiate record-holder Young led for most of the next three laps.
Andrew Colley had the lead when he went through 8,800 meters in 24:48.36, but Fisher was close behind him heading down the backstretch before making his move with two and half laps to go.
Fisher ran his last 1,200 meters in 3:00.82, his final 800 in 1:58.60, and his last 400 in 58.12 a little less than a year after he had finished a disappointing fourth in the 10,000 in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships before withdrawing from his qualifying heat of the 5,000 due to an injury he had aggravated in the 10,000.
While the men’s 10,000 was the only final held on Friday, the first day of the decathlon was a tightly-contested one as Heath Baldwin of Michigan State University was in first place after the first five events with 4,508 points, followed by Zach Ziemek in second with 4,477 and Kyle Garland in third with 4,456.
Harrison Williams, who won last year’s USATF Outdoor Championships, was in seventh place with 4,278 points.
Baldwin, a graduate student, had totaled a personal best of 8,470 points in finishing second to Ayden Owens-Delerme’s Puerto Rican record of 8,732 in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, California, in April. But he had chosen not to compete in the NCAA championships on June 5-6 so he could be fresh for the Olympic Trials.
That decision appeared to have paid dividends as Baldwin’s first-day score on Friday was 39 points higher than he had totaled at Mt. SAC.
Baldwin was in 12th place after he ran 10.85 seconds in the 100 to start the decathlon, but he had moved into fifth in the overall standings after leaping 7.46 meters (24 feet 5¾ inches) in the long jump. He then found himself in second place after registering personal bests — as well as the competition’s top performances — of 16.52 (54-2½) in the shot put and 2.13 (6-11¾) in the high jump.
He trailed 2022 World Championship bronze medalist Ziemek by 22 points entering the 400 meters. But he outscored Ziemek by 53 points in the event when he ran 48.58 seconds to Ziemek’s 49.72.
Aside from the 400, in which his performance ranked 13th, Ziemek turned in the top time in the 100 at 10.46 seconds, was the No. 2 performer in the long jump at 7.47 (24-6¼) and in the shot put at 15.83 (51-11¼), and he was awarded the third-most points in the high jump after clearing 2.10 (6-10¾).
In addition to the competition in the men’s 10,000 and decathlon, qualifying rounds were held in 12 other events on Friday, including in the 400, 1,500, 3,000-meter steeplechase, pole vault, shot put and javelin on the men’s side of the meet.
Michael Norman, the 2022 World champion in the 400, cruised to an easy 45.31 clocking in winning the fifth of five heats in that event. But the biggest news to come out of the first round was the world U18 (under 18) record of 44.66 set by 16-year-old Quincy Wilson of the Bullis School in Potomoc, Maryland.
Wilson, who just finished his sophomore year at Bullis, had set the previous U18 record of 45.13 in winning the New Balance Nationals Outdoor meet on June 13. But he crushed that time in the second heat on Friday with an effort that left him nearly two tenths of a second ahead of runner-up Christopher Bailey, who ran 44.86.
Wilson’s time also broke the U.S. national high school record of 44.69 that had been set in 1982 when senior Darrell Robinson of Wilson High in Tacoma, Washington, had run that time while finishing second in the Olympic Sports Festival in Indianapolis.
Although it was a qualifying race, Wilson appeared to be running all-out in his heat and he told Johnson that he had entered the race with an attitude that he had nothing to lose.
In the 1,500, Colin Sahlman of NAU won the first heat in 3:38.67, and Hobbs Kessler and favored Yared Nuguse finished first and second in the second heat with times of 3:37.50 and 3:37.61, respectively. But Cole Hocker, the silver medalist the World Athletics Indoor Championships on March 3, moved into the lead early in the third — and final — heat and ended up running 3:34.54 in a race in which four other runners broke 3:36.
Matthew Centrowitz, the 2016 Olympic champion in the 1,500, had withdrawn from his heat earlier in the day.
Centrowitz, whose father Matt had run in the 1,500 in the 1976 Games in Montreal, is a three-time Olympian who won the World indoor title in 2016, and placed second in the 2013 World Championships and third in the 2011 meet.
He said earlier in the year that this would be his final season of racing.
In the steeplechase, Matthew Wilkinson won the first heat in 8:20.61 and Kenneth Rooks took the second in 8:26.90 while finishing just in front of American record-holder Evan Jager, who timed 8:27.07 in second.
Rooks had won both the NCAA and USATF titles last year while running for BYU before finishing 10th in the World Championships.
Thirteen men advanced to the finals of the pole vault by clearing 5.70 (18-8½) or 5.65 (18-6 ½) in the qualifying round on Friday, However, KC Lightfoot, the U.S. record-holder at 6.07 (19-11), was eliminated when he missed all three of his attempts at 5.60 (18-4½) after clearing 5.40 (17-8½) and 5.50 (18-0½) on his first tries.
In the men’s shot put, two-time Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs was the top qualifier with his single effort at 22.13 (72-7¼), and he was followed by Payton Otterdahl at 21.70 (71-2 ½) and two-time defending Olympic and World champion Ryan Crouser at 21.44 (70-4¼).
Crouser had won his first World indoor title on March 1 with a meet record of 22.77 (74-8½), but Friday was his first competition of the outdoor season as he has been dealing with an injury to his right (throwing) elbow.
In the men’s javelin, the top three qualifiers were Curtis Thompson at 79.64 (261-3), Jordan Davis of Southern Connecticut State at 77.14 (253-1), and Capers Williamson at 77.00 (252-7).
NCAA champion Marc Minichello of Georgia was the ninth of 12 qualifiers the final with a best of 70.64 (231-9).
In the women’s meet, qualifying heats were held in the 100, 400, 800, and 5,000, with qualifying rounds also being contested in the triple jump and hammer throw.
Reigning World champion Sha’Carri Richardson posted the top time in the 100 with a 10.88 clocking, despite getting off to a terrible start after stumbling to her right in the first 10 meters of the race.
The other heat winners were Melissa Jefferson in 10.91, McKenzie Long in 10.94, and Dajaz Defrand of Florida State with a wind-aided 11.05.
Jefferson won the USATF title in 2022 before finishing eighth in the World Championships at Hayward Field.
Long was running professionally for the first time after capping her collegiate career at Mississippi by winning the 100 and 200, and running the second leg on the victorious 4 x 100-meter relay team in the NCAA Championships on June 8.
Jacious Sears of the University of Tennessee, who had run a yearly world-leading time of 10.77 in mid-April, did not compete. Sears sustained an injury during the final of the women’s 100 in the SEC championships on May 11 and has not raced since then.
Shamier Little and Aaliyah Butler of the University of Georgia had the top two times in the 400 with heat-winning times of 50.13 and 50.44, respectively.
Little won the silver medal in the 400 hurdles in the World Championships last year, but she told Johnson after her race that her desire to not be bored had tributed to her decision to compete in both the 400 and the 400 hurdles in the Trials.
Butler had run a personal best of 49.79 in finishing fourth in the SEC meet in May, but she been eliminated in the semifinals of the NCAA championships when she placed fourth in 51.64 in her heat.
In the women’s 800, Michaela Rose of LSU posted the fastest qualifying time at 1:59.57 after she had come through the first lap of her heat in 56.50.
Allie Wilson took the second heat in 2:01.57, while defending Olympic and 2022 World champion Athing Mu placed third in 2:01.73 to automatically advance to the semifinals as one of the top six finishers in the race.
It was Mu’s first race since she had lowered her American record to 1:54.97 in winning the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field last September. She had been scheduled to run in this year’s Prefontaine Classic on May 25, but lingering soreness in her left hamstring had forced to withdraw from that meet.
Elle St. Pierre and Elise Cranny won the two heats of the 5,000 meters with times of 15:13.82 and 16:02.33, respectively.
St. Pierre, the World indoor champion in the 3,000, spent most of the first heat running behind NCAA champion Parker Valby of Florida, before surging into the lead with about 350 meters to go. Karissa Schweizer placed second in 15:15.42, followed by Valby in 15:17.56.
Cranny, who placed ninth in the World Championships last year, ran at the front of the lead pack for most of a tactically-run second heat before finishing more than three seconds in front of second-place Ella Donaghu, who timed 16:05.84.
Katelyn Tuohy easily advanced to the final with a fourth-place time of 16:09.22 while running her first professional race, and her first race of any kind since she finished fifth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships for North Carolina State last November.
Tuohy had entered that race as the defending champion, but an illness had contributed to her fifth-place finish in a contest in which Valby capped an undefeated season by winning the first of a record five national titles during the academic year.
There were no major surprises when it came to qualifying in the women’s triple jump and hammer throw.
Jasmine Moore was the top qualifier in the triple jump with a wind-aided 14.03 (46-0½), and she was followed by 2022 World Championship bronze medalist Tori Franklin at 13.86 (45-5¾) and Keturah Orji at 13.75 (45-1½).
Brooke Andersen, the 2022 World champion, led qualifying in the hammer throw with her single effort of 76.25 (250-2) and she was followed by 2019 World champion DeAnna Price at 75.52 (247-9).
Janee Kassanavoid, the silver medalist in last year’s World Championships, was the fifth of 12 qualifiers for the finals with a single throw of 71.61 (234-11).
Today’s meet will start this afternoon at 1 o’clock, Eastern Daylight Time, with heats of the 110-meter high hurdles in the decathlon.
That will be followed by the decathlon discus at 2:08 p.m., and the decathlon pole vault at 4:17.
Qualifying in the men’s long is scheduled to begin at 7:45, with the first track event, the semifinals of the women’s 100, starting at 8:58.
In addition to the conclusion of the decathlon, finals will be held in the women’s triple jump, starting at 9:20, the men’s shot put, beginning at 9:40, and the women’s 100, scheduled for 10:50.
You can click on the following link for live results of the meet.