Week in Review: Chebet's ascent continues
Double Olympic champion runs second-fastest 3,000 ever in meet in Morocco
Beatrice Chebet’s rise to the top of the female distance running world continued in a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday when the 25-year-old Kenyan ran the second-fastest time in history in the women’s 3,000 meters.
Chebet, winner of the 5,000 and 10,000 in last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, entered the meet with a primary objective of bettering her personal best in the 3,000. And she achieved that goal and much more when she clocked 8:11.56 to better the African record of 8:16.60 set by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia in 2014, crush her previous best of 8:24.05 from 2023, and move to second on the all-time list behind the world record of 8:06.11 set by Wang Junxia of China in 1993.
Nadia Battocletti of Italy, the runner-up to Chebet in the 10,000 in the Olympics, finished second in a national record of 8:26.27, followed by Sarah Healey of Ireland, who placed third in a personal best of 8:27.02.
Ejgayehu Taye of Ethiopia finished fourth in 8:29.55 after being one of two competitors who ran close to Chebet for the first kilometer of the race.
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“I am so happy. I was not preparing for a world record attempt,” Chebet said in quotes on the meet website. “I just came to run my personal best and I succeeded. I just have to believe in myself and then maybe after some months or years, that world record will come. It is just a matter of time and I don’t want to rush things.”
Chebet, who set a world record of 28:54.14 in the 10,000 last May after winning her second consecutive title in the World cross country championships in March, has won her last seven races on the track, as well as nine of her last 10.
Her only loss during that stretch came in a 5,000-meter race in the Kenyan Trials for the Olympic Games last June when she placed second to Faith Kipyegon. However, she followed that defeat by winning the 5,000 and 10,000 in the Olympic Games and running 14:09.52 and 14:09.82 in the 5,000 in a pair of Diamond League meets and winning a 3,000 in 8:34.10.
She then capped the year by slashing a staggering 19 seconds off the world record in the five-kilometer road race with a 13:54 clocking in Barcelona, Spain, on Dec. 31.
With the temperature at 22 degrees Celsius (72 Fahrenheit) in Rabat on Sunday, Chebet was running close behind pacesetters Winnie Nanyondo of Kenya and Georgia Griffith of Australia when Nanyondo went through the first kilometer in 2:44.47.
Taye and 17-year-old compatriot Marta Alemayo were not far behind Chebet at that point in the race, but Chebet had a lead of close to 20 meters over Taye when Griffith led her through the 1,200-meter mark and no one was close to her when she passed 2,000 meters in 5:30.51.
Chebet was running a little behind the pace lights — that were set to a final time of 8:15.00 — with two laps left in the race, but she had caught up to them with a lap to go and she left them behind during her final circuit of the track.
“After a few laps I realised I was on my own, but I kept pushing myself as I wanted to show everyone what I can do,” Chebet said. “I really like this distance. It’s nothing like a 5,000 or 10,000. It’s something completely different and I am also good at it.”
She then added that “Timewise, I don’t have a big goal on the horizon. My main focus and goal are the World Championships in Tokyo.”
Chebet finished second to Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in the 5,000 in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and she was third behind Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands in the 2023 title meet in Budapest, Hungary. However, she has improved significantly since then, and based on the results from last year and the first five months of this year, she would be the current pick to win both the 5,000 and 10,000 in Tokyo if she competes in each of those events in the Japanese capital.
Historical context: When Wang Junxia of China ran 8:06.11 in the women’s 3,000 meters to win her country’s National Games in Beijing in September of 1993, it came a day after she had run 8:12.19 in a qualifying heat to crush the world record of 8:22.06 set by compatriot Zhang Linli in the first heat a few minutes earlier.
Zhang’s time had bettered the world record of 8:22.62 set by the Soviet Union’s Tatyana Kazankina in 1984.
Kazankina is regarded as one of the greatest female middle-distance runners of all time, as she won three Olympic gold medals and set world records of 1:54.94 in the 800, 3:52.47 in the 1,500, and 8:22.62 in the 3,000 during her career. But two Chinese women, including Wang, bettered her 1,500 best in the National Games in 1993, and another five, led by Wang, topped her record in the 3,000 in that meet.
In addition, Wang’s 8:06.11 effort in the 3,000 came five days after she had run an astounding 29:31.78 in the 10,000 while annihilating the global best of 30:13.74 set by Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway in 1986.
Prior to their world record binge in Beijing, six Chinese women, all of whom were coached by Ma Junren, had combined to win three gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze in the 1,500, 3,000, and 10,000 in the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
But the fact that China had won a single bronze medal in those same events in the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, a year earlier led many people, including U.S. runner PattiSue Plummer, to question the legitimacy of their performances.
Ma attributed some of his charges’ success to their regular consumption of a high-energy drink that contained a caterpillar fungus.
While that ingredient was not banned by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) at the time, a story in the December 1993 issue of Track & Field News said that “the substance, according to legend, was discovered over 1500 years ago by herdsman who said their yaks became energized after eating it.”
Plummer, who had placed fifth in the 3,000 and 10th in the 1,500 in Barcelona, was quoted as stating in the same story that “This goes beyond drugs,” when she learned of the world records by the Chinese runners.
Other coaches, contacted by the magazine, clarified that the caterpillar fungus had gone beyond “known” drugs, and they wondered if the Chinese had come up with a new drug in the form of the fungus.
Whatever the case might have been, no Chinese woman has set a world record in a race of 1,500 meters or longer since 1997.
Furthermore, Chinese runners have combined to win a total of seven medals in the 1,500, 5,000, 10,000, marathon, and 3,000 steeplechase in the 23 outdoor global championships contested since 1993, with the last medal coming in the 2009 World championships in Berlin when Xue Bai won the marathon.
As for Ma, six of the runners he coached were among 27 athletes who were dropped from China’s Olympic team prior to the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, because they had “failed” blood tests. As a result, he was removed as an Olympic team coach and in 2004 he retired as deputy director of the Liaoning Provincial Sports Bureau.
Birthday wishes: Tshepiso Masalela of Botswana gave himself a nice gift on his 26th birthday when he ran a yearly world-leading time of 1:42.70 in winning the men’s 800 meters in the Diamond League meet in Rabat.
Masalela won a deep race in which Max Burgin of Great Britain finished second in 1:43.34 and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya placed third in 1:43.37.
Brandon Miller of the U.S. and Kethobogile Haingura of Botswana also ran under 1:44 with times of 1:43.52 and 1:43.82, respectively.
Masalela’s victory followed his win in 1:43.11 in a Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, nine days earlier and his time of 1:42.70 trimmed .12 seconds off his previous personal best that he had set while finishing seventh in the Olympic final in Paris last year.
Masalela was in second place when pacesetter Patryk Sieradzki went through 400 meters in 49.99 seconds. He then moved into the lead after the Pole dropped out and passed 600 meters in 1:16.62.
Burgin, who set a personal best while finishing second, wasn’t far behind Masalela entering the home straightaway, but the Botswanan expanded his lead in the final 60 meters of the race in which Wanyonyi was never in the hunt for the victory.
The streak is over: Soufiane El Bakkali’s brief two-race non-winning streak in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase came to a close in the meet in Rabat when he ran a yearly world-leading time of 8:00.70.
Cheered on by a partisan crowd in the Moroccan capital, El Bakkali was in third place when compatriot Abderrafia Bouassel paced the field through the first kilometer in 2:38.52. But he had taken the lead with three laps to go and he clocked 5:21.19 at 2,000 meters.
He appeared to have the victory well in hand with a lap and a half left in the race, but unheralded Frederik Ruppert of Germany began to make up ground on the two-time Olympic and World champion with 500 meters to go.
Ruppert had trimmed his deficit to four or five meters entering the homestretch and El Bakkali felt enough pressure from the German that he stepped on the final barrier of the race instead of hurdling it.
Nonetheless, the tall Moroccan’s 8:00.70 clocking was the fourth-fastest of his career and followed second-place finishes in the Diamond League Final in Brussels last September and in the Diamond League opener in Xiamen, China, on April 26.
Ruppert’s 8:01.49 clocking came in his first race of the outdoor track season, crushed his previous best of 8:15.08 set last year, and moved him to third on the all-time European list. It also slashed nearly nine seconds off the previous German record of 8:09.48 set by Damian Kallabis in 1999.
Edmund Serem of Kenya finished third in a personal best of 8:07.47 and he was followed by Samuel Firewu of Ethiopia in 8:09.98 and Daniel Arce of Spain in 8:10.58 in a contest in which 10 runners ran under 8:12 and 14 broke 8:14.
Firewu had defeated El Bakkali in Xiamen.
“I am extremely happy to celebrate this victory in my country and in front of my fellow Moroccans,” El Bakkali said in quotes on the meet website. “Their support today was outstanding. I really want to thank them very much. Achieving the World Lead makes the moment even more special.”
Big week: Payton Otterdahl of the U.S. notched a pair of victories in the men’s shot put last week.
On Thursday, he and World indoor champion Tom Walsh of New Zealand tied for first place in the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, when they each had a top put of 21.71 meters (71 feet 2 ¾ inches). But Otterdahl was awarded first place because his second-best put was farther than Walsh’s No. 2 effort.
On Sunday, Otterdahl won the event on his final effort of the competition in the Diamond League meet in Rabat as his yearly world-leading effort of 21.97 (72-1) topped the 21.95 (72-¼) best of Olympic bronze medalist Rajindra Campbell of Jamaica.
Olympic fourth-place finisher Otterdahl was in the lead for much of the competition after registering a put of 21.83 (71-7½) on his first attempt. But Campbell had overtaken him with his 21.95 (72-¼) effort in the fifth round.
Joe Kovacs of the U.S., the three-time Olympic silver medalist, finished third at 21.52 (70-7¼) in his first meet of the season and he was followed by compatriots Adrian Piperi at 21.47 (70-5¼) and Jordan Geist at 21.42 (70-3½).
“I keep improving throughout the competitions,” the 29-year-old Otterdahl said in quotes on the meet website. It was the third competition of the year and I got better every time. I have a few more to do in Europe before I head to the U.S., so I have to keep improving.”
Another first: After breaking 44 seconds in the 400 for the first time in a Grand Slam Track meet in Miramar, Florida, on May 3, Jacory Patterson of the U.S. won the first Diamond League race of his career in Rabat on Sunday when he overtook first-place Zakithi Nene of South Africa in the final 10-15 meters of the race.
Nene appeared to have a comfortable three- to four-meter lead over second-place Patterson entering the home straightaway. But Patterson began to cut into his lead with about 60 meters to go and the 25-year-old quarter-miler really began to gain ground about 30 meters later.
His winning time of 44.37 seconds left him nine hundredths of a second up on Nene, who finished well ahead of the American duo of Quincy Hall in 44.90 and Bryce Deadmon in 44.97.
Olympic champion Hall was racing for the second time this season while coming back from an injury.
Bayapo Ndori of Botswana, who had been one of the hottest 400 sprinters in the world during the early part of the season, pulled up early in the backstretch with what appeared to be a cramp or an injury to his left hamstring.
Although Patterson’s time was a little off the yearly world-leading mark of 43.98 that he had run in the Grand Slam Track meet, it was still the third-fastest time of his career and gave him three wins in three 400-meter races during the outdoor season.
“It feels great to be the fastest man of the year and to race in this circuit because it was my first Diamond League race ever,” said Patterson, who began the season with a personal best of 44.81 from the 2021 season. “If you would have asked me a year ago if I would be doing this, I would have said no. I am just blessed to be here. The atmosphere is electric, shoutout to the fans for coming out and watching us.
“This is crazy. I have worked hard, just as everyone else, that’s it. There is no other explanation than that for the progress I have made. For sure I can go much faster. It’s still early in the season and I don’t wanna peak right now, but I can tell there is much more in the tank.”
Breakthrough race: Jonah Koech of the U.S. entered the Diamond League meet in Rabat best known for his accomplishments at 800 meters, but he left it as the 11th-fastest American ever in the 1,500 after winning that race in 3:31.43.
The 28-year-old native of Kenya, who had placed fifth in the 800 in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last year, had run five 800-meter races during the indoor season, including a fifth-place finish in the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships in February. But his season-opening outdoor race was a stunner as he slashed nearly six seconds off his personal best of 3:37.27 from last September and moved from 12th place to first during the final lap.
Reynold Cheruiyot of Kenya placed second in 3:31.78, followed by compatriot Festus Lagat in 3:32.06, Frenchman Azeddine Habz in 3:32.25, and Moroccan Anass Essayi in 3:32.88.
Pacesetter Boaz Kiprugut of Kenya had come through 400 meters in 55.18 seconds and 800 in 1:52.09, but none of the 17 runners who would finish the race were close to him and second pacesetter Abe Alvarado of the U.S. after two laps, and Alvarado still had a decent-size lead over Habz at 900 meters before dropping out of the race with 500 meters to go.
Habz, who has run 3:29.26, Vincent Keter of Kenya, and crowd favorite Essayi were running 1-2-3 when Habz began the bell lap at 2:50.61. Koech was in 12th place at that point and a solid 20 meters behind the leader.
However, he had moved into 10th place at the start of the backstretch and he was in eighth with 200 meters to go. He continued to pass people around the final turn and he was fourth behind Habz, Essayi, and Lagat when he turned into the home straightaway. But he shifted gears shortly after that and simply ran away from everyone during the final 50 meters of the race while bettering the previous meet record of 3:32.37 set by Abdelaati Iguider of Morocco in 2008.
“I am very pleased for being in the first place tonight and for achieving the meeting record and personal best as this was my objective,” he said in quotes on the meet website. “The pace of the race was quick and very tight. This victory is a great preparation for the upcoming events. My primary focus this year is to improve my speed and competitiveness.
“Finally, I would like to thank the crowd for their support, they were absolutely amazing. They really pushed me to give the maximum in this race.”
Quick opener: Femke Bol of the Netherlands made her long-awaited start to the outdoor season in Rabat when she won the women’s 400-meter hurdles in a meet record of 52.46 seconds.
After setting a combined three world indoor records in the 400 in the 2023 and ’24 undercover seasons, Bol’s only previous races this year had been a pair of anchor legs on Dutch teams that won the mixed and women’s 4 x 400 relays in the European Athletics Indoor Championships in March.
Employing a new start, Bol moved into the lead early in the race and ended up finishing well ahead of second-place Andrenette Knight of Jamaica, who finished second in 53.90. Ayomide Foloruso of Italy placed third in 54.74.
Bol’s time was the second fastest in the world this year behind a 52.07 effort by American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in a Grand Slam Track meet on May 3 and it marked the 17th time that she has run under 52.50 in a race.
McLaughlin-Levrone, the two-time Olympic champion and the woman who has set the last six world records in the event, has run under 52.50 on 13 occasions.
Dandy double: Kristjan Ceh threw over 72 meters (236-2) in the men’s discus on consecutive days last weekend while winning a meet in Croatia on Saturday and in his home country of Slovenia on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Ceh had finished second and third in his first two meets of the season and had a season best of 66.92 (219-6) entering the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, last Saturday.
But the 2022 World champion won that meet with a national record of 72.34 (237-4) that came on his sixth — and final — throw. He also hit 70.06 (229-10) in the fourth round and 69.05 (226-6) in the third while producing the top four efforts of a competition in which Alin Firfirica of Romania placed second at 64.80 (212-7).
Ceh’s top mark bettered his previous national best of 71.86 (235-9) from 2023 and it moved him to sixth on the all-time performer list after he had previously been tied for sixth with Yuriy Dumchev of the Soviet Union and Daniel Stahl of Sweden.
“I’m not surprised with the result because I was just waiting for this,” Ceh said in a World Athletics post. “The training was so good, compared to last year. I’m preparing for the World Championships in Tokyo, but it’s still a long way – four months to go – a lot of time to prepare even more.”
Ceh, who had been disappointed with his fourth-place finish in last year’s Olympic Games, followed up his performance on Saturday with a winning throw of 72.11 (236-7) in the Mednarodni Atletski Miting Ptuj in 5. Memorial Roberta Preloga meet in Ptuj, Slovenia, on Sunday.
Enrico Saccomano of Italy finished a distant second at 59.87 (196-5).
Another double win: Like Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia in the men’s discus, Yann Chaussinand of France was victorious in a pair of meets in the men’s hammer throw last weekend.
The 27-year-old Chaussinand first posted a personal best and yearly world-leading mark of 81.91 (268-8) in the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, on Saturday and he followed that with a best of 79.42 (260-6) in the Meeting International de Forbach in Forbach, France, on Sunday.
Chaussinand defeated a very good field in Zagreb as Olympic bronze medalist Myhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine placed second at 80.36 (263-7) and Olympic silver medalist Bence Halasz of Hungary finished third at 79.44 (260-8).
The eighth-place finisher in the Olympic Games, Chaussinand posted a mark of 76.62 (251-4) in the first round before improving to 78.62 (257-11) in the second and then hitting his 81.91 (268-8) effort in the third. He followed that with throws of 77.36 (253-9) and 79.03 (259-3) before fouling on his final attempt.
His top throw on Sunday left him well ahead of second-place Marcin Wrotynski of Poland, who had a best of 75.54 (247-10).
Big comeback win: Brooke Andersen of the U.S. won her third hammer throw competition of the year without a loss when she unleashed a yearly world-leading throw of 79.29 (260-1) on her sixth — and final — effort in the USA Track & Field Throws Festival in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday.
Andersen, the 2022 World champion, had taken the lead in the meet at the University of Arizona’s Drachman Stadium with a throw of 77.99 (255-10) in the third round. But compatriot, and 2019 World champion DeAnna Price had overtaken her in the sixth stanza when she uncorked a season best of 78.51 (257-7) as the second to last thrower in the competition.
Undeterred, Anderson entered the circle for her final effort and got off the fifth-best throw of her career to win her third consecutive Throws Festival title.
Rachel Richeson of the U.S. finished third with a best of 76.65 (251-5) and she was followed by compatriots Janee Kassanavoid at 76.42 (250-8) and Annette Echikunwoke at 75.47 (247-7).
Kassanavoid won bronze and silver medals, respectively, in the 2022 and ’23 World championships and Echikunwoke was the Olympic silver medalist last year.
An appreciative Andersen’s post on Instagram was as follows: 79.29m🤩 & a great series!
Climbing in the right direction one meet at a time✨
Starting to feel more like myself in the ring again and I gotta say it feels pretty gosh darn good!
Thanks for making the trip out to Tucson @coach_nathan_ott ! Couldn’t have done it without everyone in my corner, thank you all so much! Time to keep building!
Solid start: After missing the entire 2023 outdoor season due to an injury to his right foot and having a hamstring issue prevent him from competing in the Olympic Games last summer, 2022 World 1,500-meter champion Jake Wightman of Great Britain ran 3:35.26 to win that event in the Track Fest meet in Los Angeles on Saturday.
The 30-year-old Wightman, who had upset Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway for the 2022 global title, ran his final 400 meters in 55.50 seconds and his last 800 in 1:53.93 in winning his first race of the outdoor season at Occidental’s Jack Kemp Stadium.
Sam Ellis of the U.S. placed second in 3:35.77, with compatriots Sam Prakel and Luke Houser finishing third and fourth, respectively, in times of 3:36.13 and 3:36.16.
After pacesetter Luciano Fiore came through the first 300 in 42.98 seconds and 700 in 1:39.85, World indoor bronze medalist Houser was in the lead when he clocked 2:38.26 to start the bell lap.
Wightman was in fifth place, a second and a half back of Houser at that point, but he had moved into second place at the start of the final backstretch before falling back to fourth heading into the final turn. However, he made strong move midway through the curve, surged into the lead with 120 meters to go and he won going away.
Significant win: Senior Klaudia Kazimierska of the University of Oregon moved to fourth on the all-time collegiate list in the women’s 1,500 meters when she ran 4:03.26 to win that event in the Track Fest meet on Saturday.
Kazimierska, who had run 2:02.92 to win the 800 in the Big Ten Conference championships on May 18, used a big kick in the final straightway to win a race in which U.S. Olympian Emily Mackay finished second in 4:03.33 and Katie Snowden of Great Britain was third in 4:03.74.
After first pacesetter Emily Boone had clocked 48.02 seconds for the first 300 meters of the race, second pacesetter Ellie Leathers had clocked 1:53.24 at the 700-meter mark. Kazimierska briefly found herself with a lead of about five meters on the chase group after Leathers dropped out at 900 meters, but Snowden, Gabbi Jennings, Mackay, and Shelby Houlihan were closing in on her when she came through 1,100 meters in 2:59.36.
Snowden, Jennings, and Mackay were all ahead of Kazimierska with 200 meters to go, but the Polish runner who had finished 10th in the Olympic final last year was a close fourth as she swung out into the second lane entering the home straightaway and no one could repel her final sprint as she surged past first-place Mackay with about 40 meters left in the race.
Behind the first three finishers, Jennings placed fourth in 4:04.43 and Houlihan, the World indoor silver medalist in the 3,000, ran 4:04.76 in fifth.
Although Kazimierska had lowered her personal best to 3:59.95 last summer, the all-time collegiate lists kept by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross County Coaches Association does not include marks made after the collegiate championships have ended.
Briefs: Akani Simbine of South Africa won his fifth 100-meter race of the season without a loss when he ran 9.95 seconds in a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, on Sunday. It was his third Diamond League victory of the season as he ran the second half of the race significantly faster that anyone else in the contest in which Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya finished second in 10.05 and Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley of the U.S. placed third in 10.07. . . . . . . Olympic silver medalist Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia posted her fifth victory in six 800-meter races this year in Rabat when her 1:57.42 clocking left her a tenth of a second in front of World indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso of South Africa. Addy Wiley of the U.S. finished third in 1:57.55 and Anais Bourgoin of France placed fourth in a personal best of 1:57.81 in a race in which nine women ran under 1:59. . . . . . . Olympic 200 champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana finished ninth in 10.43 in the men’s 100 in Rabat and he later pulled out of the 200 that was won by American Courtney Lindsey in 20.04. Tebogo appeared to have eased up during the final 10 meters of the 100. . . . . . . Olympic 100 champion Julian Alfred of St. Lucia won her second 200 of the outdoor season when she clocked 22.15 in the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, on Saturday. Alfred, the yearly world leader at 21.88, finished well ahead of Spaniard Jael Bestue, who placed second in 22.92. . . . . . . World indoor 1,500 champion Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia won her first outdoor race of the season at that distance when she clocked 3:58.14 in the Hanzekovic Memorial. Tsegay had won the World indoor title in 3:54.86 in March after having run 3:53.92, the second-fastest short track time ever, five weeks earlier. . . . . . . Bayanda Walaza of South Africa ran a personal best of 9.94 in the men’s 100 while winning that race by nearly three tenths of a second in the Hanzekovic Memorial. The time by the 19-year old Walaza moved him to fourth on the all-time U20 performer list. . . . . . . Valarie Allman of the U.S. won her 21st consecutive meet in the women’s discus in the USA Track & Field Throws Festival in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday. The two-time defending Olympic champion fouled on three of her six throws, but her fourth-round effort of 68.45 meters (224 feet 7 inches) left her nearly four meters in front of compatriot Gabi Jacobs, who finished second at 63.78 (209-3). . . . . . . Kenneth Rooks of the U.S., the Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, won his season-opening race in that event when he clocked 8:14.25 in the Track Fest meet in Los Angeles last Saturday. Rooks’ time was the second fastest of his career, as he had run 8:06.41 while finishing second to Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco in the Olympic Games. . . . . . . Eduardo Herrera became the first Mexican to break 13:00 in the men’s 5,000 when he won that event in 12:58.57 in the Track Fest meet. Herrera ran his final 800 in 1:56.62 and his last 1,600 in 4:00.52 while finishing well ahead of Ky Robinson of Australia, who placed second in 13:05.23, and Morgan Beadlescomb of the U.S., who was third in 13:05.47. . . . . . . Athing Mu-Nikolayev of the U.S., the 2021 Olympic and 2022 World champion in the women’s 800 meters, finished second in the third section of the 1,500 in the Track Fest meet. Mu-Nikolayev ran 4:10.70 after having previously run 4:21.18 in winning a race at Cal State Los Angeles on May 15. . . . . . . Junior Alexis Brown of Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, won the women’s 100 in a personal best of 10.93 and the 200 in a wind-aided 22.37 in the NCAA Division II championships in Pueblo, Colorado, last Saturday. Brown preceded her victory in the final of the 200 by lowering her personal best to 22.35 in a qualifying heat.
Looking ahead: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. is scheduled to compete in the women’s short hurdles category when the third Grand Slam Track meet of the season is held in Philadelphia on Saturday (May 31) and Sunday (June 1).
The two-time Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, McLaughlin-Levrone had earned a combined $200,000 in prize money after she won the long hurdles division in the first two Grand Slam Track meets of the season.
While the long hurdles category consists of the 400 hurdles and the 400, the short hurdles division consists of the 100 hurdles and the 100.
The meet, which will be held at Franklin Field, will begin at 4:39 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, on Saturday and at 3:41 p.m. on Sunday.
Peacock’s broadcast of the meet will start at 4 p.m. on Saturday and at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Concerning cancellation: The USA Track & Field New York City Grand Prix, originally scheduled to held on June 21, has been cancelled.
USATF released a statement last Friday in which it stated that it was disappointed to learn of the cancellation, and “While USATF does not organize this event, we understand the impact this change may have on athletes seeking critical opportunities to compete, earn prize money, and gain world-ranking points.”
The cancellation of the New York City Grand Prix comes during a year in which the USATF Bermuda Grand Prix was not held after a three-year run.
The two-day USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix is also not on the competition schedule after it had been staged at UCLA’s Drake Stadium in May of 2023 and 2024.
The Bermuda Grand Prix took a big financial hit in January when the Bermuda Tourism Authority did not renew its support for the event because it had determined that the meet was not providing the desired return on investment.