On an evening when Athing Mu’s quest to win a second consecutive Olympic title in the women’s 800 meters came to a crashing halt, Cole Hocker turned in a masterful performance in winning the men’s 1,500 in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Monday.
Mu was running in a tightly-bunched nine-runner pack a little more than 200 meters into the race when she suddenly went down after apparently getting tripped. Although she scrambled to her feet fairly quickly, the field was probably five seconds or so ahead of her by the time she started running again.
According to splits on the meet website, Mu had reduced the gap between her and first-place Michaela Rose of LSU to about two and a half seconds when Rose came through 400 meters in 57.68 seconds. But her deficit had grown to about 3.1 seconds at the start of the backstretch and it was more than five and a half seconds when eventual winner Nia Akins led the field through 600 meters in 1:27.53.
With Mu physically and emotionally exhausted at that point, she slowed down substantially and ended up crossing the finish line in tears in 2:19.69, more than 22 seconds behind Akins’ personal best of 1:57.36.
While Mu’s mishap cast a pall of sorts over the final event of the day, Hocker had brought the crowd to its feet about an hour and a 45 minutes earlier when he won a terrific 1,500-meter race in which the first eight finishers bettered the previous Trials record of 3:34.09, with seven of those runners, including Hocker, setting personal bests.
Hocker, 23, had won the Olympic Trials in 2021 after speeding past defending Olympic champion Matthew Centrowitz in the final home straightaway. But his latest victory came after he had run in fourth place for the first 1,200 meters of the race, moved into third behind Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler heading down the backstretch for the final time and then surged into the lead with 250 meters to go.
Although Nuguse was unable to catch Hocker after the former University of Oregon standout went past him, he pushed him all the way to the finish line as Hocker ran 3 minutes 30.59 seconds to Nuguse’s 3:30.86.
Kessler finished third in 3:31.53, and he was followed by Vincent Ciattei in 3:31.78, Nathan Green of the University of Washington in 3:32.30, and Henry Wynne in 3:32.94.
Hocker’s time bettered his previous best of 3:30.70 that he had run in finishing seventh in last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and tightened his hold on sixth on the all-time U.S. performer list.
Nuguse’s time was the sixth fastest of his career while Kessler moved to 11th on the all-time U.S. performer list and Ciattei is now 13th. Green, who had finished 10th in the NCAA championships 16 days earlier, is now tied for 16th.
Although accurate splits were not available for Hocker’s final three 100-meter segments of the race, he ran his last lap in 52.63 seconds, his final 600 in 1:20.80, and his last 800 in 1:49.45.
Hocker told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports that he was “just ready for anything today. I know I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. In 2021 I was able to depend on my kick. Today, it was going to take a little bit more than just a kick and that was absolutely true. I just know that once I made a decision, commit to it, and that’s what I did.”
Nuguse, who had finished fifth in the 1,500 in last year’s World Championships before lowering the American record in the mile to 3:43.97 while finishing second to Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway (3:43.73) in the Prefontaine Classic last September, disdains slow, tactical races. Therefore, it was not a surprise when he was in the lead after covering the first 300 meters in 41.70 seconds.
He then clocked 56.47 for the first lap, 1:55.30 (58.83) for two laps, and 2:51.33 (56.03) for three while being closely followed by Kessler, Ciattei, and Hocker, in that order.
Fifty meters later, Hocker made his move and no one in a very talented field of U.S. runners could overtake him.
Nuguse had finished third in the 2021 Trials as a collegian at Notre Dame, but an injury ultimately led to his decision to withdraw from his qualifying heat of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“It means so much to be able to come back and really just, make up a lot for what I wasn’t able to do three years ago,” Nuguse said to Johnson. “I know I’m really fit. I know I’m where I want to be. So I’m excited to go to Paris.”
Kessler, who had signed a professional contract shortly after setting a U.S. high school record of 3:34.36 in the 1,500 while running for Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2021, had been eliminated in the semifinals of that year’s Trials. But he said making the 2024 Olympic team had been his No. 1 goal since he passed up an opportunity to run collegiately for Northern Arizona University.
“Ever since I turned pro, this is the one race on my mind,” he said. “So it was surreal…and I had to process everything. So much pressure on myself. So relieved. So happy. So proud to be on the podium with these guys.”
While Mu’s fall in the women’s 800 was the biggest storyline out of that event, Akins ran a personal best of 1:57.36 while finishing well clear of second-place Allie Wilson in 1:58.32 and third-place Juliette Whittaker of Stanford in 1:58.45.
Rose, the consummate front runner, finished fourth in 1:59.32 and Sage Hurta-Klecker, who almost went down while trying to avoid the fallen Mu, placed fifth in 2:00.38.
Kristie Schoffield had led the field through 200 meters in 27.50 seconds and past 300 in 42.30, but Rose was in the lead when she came through the end of the first lap in 57.68.
She still led entering the backstretch, but Akins had taken over first place when she came through 600 meters in 1:27.53.
Rose was in second place, just ahead of NCAA champion Whittaker and Wilson, entering the home straightaway. But while it took her 16.30 seconds to run her final 100 meters of the race, Wilson covered that stretch in 15.03 and Whittaker had a split of 15.35.
In addition to the men’s 1,500 meters and the women’s 800, finals were also held in the men’s 400, the women’s 5,000, the men’s long jump, and the women’s high jump on Monday.
The heptathlon also concluded with its second day of competition, while first-round heats were held in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles and women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, and qualifying took place in the women’s discus.
Grant Holloway and Valarie Allman produced particularly noteworthy qualifying performances in the high hurdles and discus.
Holloway ran a shockingly fast 12.92 seconds in winning the first of four heats. It was the second-fastest time of his career and the first sub-13 clocking in the world this year.
In addition, it was tied for 14th on the all-time world performance list and tied for seventh on the all-time U.S. list.
Defending Olympic champion Allman unleashed a huge effort of 70.89 meters (232 feet 7 inches) on her first — and only — throw in the discus while topping 70 meters (229-8) for the eighth meet during her career.
In another surprise in the women’s discus, 2023 World champion Laulauga Tausaga-Collins did not advance to the final that will be held on Thursday after all three of her throws landed outside of the throwing sector.
Anna Hall won her third consecutive national title in the heptathlon after undergoing surgery on her left knee in January.
The 23-year-old totaled 6,614 points, the fifth-best score of her career, while finishing ahead of the personal-best performances of second-place Chari Hawkins (6,456 points) and third-place Taliyah Brooks (6,408). Michelle Atherley finished a close fourth with 6,391 points.
Hall began the second day of competition with a 10-point lead over Hawkins and a 23-point advantage over Brooks after she totaled 3,884 points in the first four events on Sunday.
Brooks took a nine-point lead after the long jump on Monday when her 6.29 (20-7¾) effort earned 940 points to the 908 that Hall was awarded for her best of 6.19 (20-3¾). But Hall held a six-point lead over second-place Hawkins and a 74-point advantage over third-place Brooks after she threw 45.57 (149-6) on her one fair throw in the javelin.
She then padded her margin of victory by a substantial amount when she concluded the heptathlon by winning the 800 meters, perhaps her strongest event, in 2:04.39.
Brooks ran 2:13.39 and Hawkins clocked 2:14.76.
The seemingly eternally optimistic Hall then admitted to Johnson that the road back from her surgery has not been easy and there were numerous times when her struggles got the better of her.
“There were so many days. I left practice, just like defeated,” she said. “And I thought about quitting, and everyone around me was like, ‘No, we’re doing this.’ Like we can do this. And they did that until I started to believe too. I really can’t believe that we’re here.”
Hall, the bronze medalist in the 2022 World Championships, had moved to fifth on the all-time performer list when she totaled 6,988 points in winning the Hypomeeting in Gotzis, Austria, last May.
However, she finished second to Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Great Britain in the World Championships when her 6,720-point total left her a mere 20 points behind Johnson-Thompson.
She had competed with an injured knee during that meet and when it was still giving her problems after the start of the new year, she underwent the surgical procedure.
Prior to the U.S. Olympic Trials the men’s 400 meters was shaping up as one of the more wide-open events in the Olympic Games and that stilled appeared to be the case after the final at Hayward Field on Monday as Quincy Hall ran down Michael Norman in the home straightaway after the 2022 World champion had been in the lead when he came through 200 meters in 20.90 seconds and 300 in 32.15.
Hall, a 400-meter intermediate hurdler until he made the switch to the 400 last year, was in sixth place after the first 100 meters (11.26), in fifth at 200 (21.52), and in third at 300 (32.59). However, his closing 100 in 11.58 was nearly seventh tenths of a second faster than what Norman ran over the same distance.
The 25-year-old Hall’s winning time of 44.17 cut two tenths of a second off his previous best that he had run during his bronze-medal winning performance in last year’s World Championships, while Norman hung on to finish second in 44.41 and Chris Bailey placed third in 44.42 to tie his personal best.
Vernon Norwood finished fourth in 44.47, and he was followed by Bryce Deadmon in 44.61 and 16-year-old prep sensation Quincy Wilson in 44.91.
Wilson, who just finished his sophomore year at Bullis School in Potomoc, Maryland, had entered the Trials with a personal best of 45.13 seconds, which was the world U18 (under 18) record. But he topped that mark with a 44.66 clocking in his first-round heat on Friday that broke the previous U.S. high school record of 44.69 set by senior Darrell Robinson of Wilson High in Tacoma, Washington, in 1982, and he bettered it in his semifinal on Sunday when he ran 44.59.
Hall’s 44.17 clocking moved him to fifth on the yearly world list as he became one of 10 performer this year who have run between 44.05 and 44.39.
Elle St. Pierre and Elise Cranny were the co-favorites entering the women’s 5,000 meters on Monday and they should why by finishing first and second with times of 14:40.34 and 14:40.36, respectively.
Karissa Schweizer placed third in 14:45.12 and six-time NCAA champion Parker Valby of the University of Florida finished fourth in a personal best of 14:51.44, a time that bettered the Olympic qualifying standard of 14:52.00.
That could be crucial because St. Pierre, Cranny, and Schweizer are all entered in a second event in the Trials, and if one of them later decides to drop the 5,000 after qualifying for Paris in another event, Valby would be next in line for a spot on the Olympic team.
The 5,000 began at a fairly pedestrian pace so Valby moved to the front before the first 200 meters were completed and proceeded to lead the race until there were just over two laps remaining.
Valby, who is expected turn pro in the near future, came through 1,000 meters in 3:00.23, 2,000 in 5:58.89 (2:58.66), and 3,000 in 8:57.57 (2:58.68). She was at the front of an eight-runner lead pack at that point, but the group had been reduced to five when she came through 4,000 meters in 11:56.14 (2:58.57), and it was down to her, St. Pierre, Cranny, and Schweizer by the time World indoor 3,000 champion St. Pierre took the lead heading into the second-to-last lap.
Valby managed to stay fairly close to third-place Schweizer for the next 300 meters, but her chances at a top-three finish began to disappear after that.
St. Pierre and Cranny began to pull away from Schweizer with 200 meters to go before the two of them duked it out during a thrilling homestretch battle that St. Pierre won by a couple of inches.
The two field event finals on Monday produced a couple of surprising winners from the collegiate ranks as Jeremiah Davis of Florida State won a tight competition in the men’s long jump and Charity Hufnagel of Kentucky took the women’s high jump.
Davis, who entered the long jump with second-place finishes in the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships to his credit this year, was in third place at the end of round one with a wind-aided leap of 7.90 (25-11). But he took the lead on his next jump when he spanned 8.18 (26-10) and he improved on that by two centimeters when he leaped 8.20 (26-11) on his third attempt.
No one was able to top that mark, although Malcolm Clemmons of Florida and Jarrion Lawson both jumped 8.18 in the sixth round, and Johnny Brackins of USC hit 8.17 (26-0¾) in the third.
Hufnagel won the NCAA outdoor title in the women’s high jump last year, but she came into the Olympic Trials following a disappointing 12th-place finish in the NCAA meet on June 8, when she also placed seventh in the heptathlon with a personal best of 5,846 points.
Nonetheless, she won the competition by clearing a personal best of 1.94 (6-4¼) on her first attempt, while it took second-place Rachel Glenn of the University of Arkansas three tries. They each missed three attempts at 1.97 (6-5½).
Vashti Cunningham, who had won a combined 13 consecutive national indoor and outdoor titles entering the meet, tied Jenna Rogers of Nebraska for third at 1.91 (6-3¼), but she made her third Olympic team when she won the jump-off against Rogers.
After passing the opening height of 1.73 (5-8), Hufnagel made 1.78 (5-10), 1.83 (6-0), 1.88 (6-2), 1.91 (6-3¼), and 1.94 (6-4¼) on her first attempts.
While Holloway’s 12.92 clocking was the top performance in the first-round heats of the men’s 110-meter high hurdles, six other competitors ran under 13.20, led by Jamal Britt in a personal best of 13.07 and 2022 World silver medalist Trey Cunningham at 13.12.
In the women’s discus, collegiate throwers Jayden Ulrich of Louisville (63.61/208-8), NCAA champion Veronica Fraley of Vanderbilt (62.85/206-2), and Erika Beistle of Grand Valley State (61.68/202-4) were the No. 2-4 qualifiers.
There were no major surprises in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase as Kaylee Mitchell won the first heat in 9:29.54 and Gabbi Jennings took the second in 9:23.88.
Krissy Gear, last year’s USATF champion, did not attain an automatic qualifying spot by finishing among the top five runners in the second heat, but she did advance to the final as a time qualifier when she ran 9:30.92 to place sixth.
There will now be a two-day break from competition before the Olympic Trials reconvene on Thursday for its final four days.
Thursday’s meet will start at 7:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, with first-round heats of the men’s 800 meters.
Two finals will be contested that day, with the women’s discus starting at 7:50 and the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase beginning at 10:18.
You can click on the following link for a meet schedule and results.