Week in Review: Terrific trio steps to the fore
Kincaid, Nuguse, and Hodgkinson pace weekend of superb performances
Contrary to some comments I saw online over the weekend, William ”Woody” Kincaid did not come out of nowhere to run the fourth-fastest indoor time in history in the men’s 5,000 meters in the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic.
It’s understandable why some people might feel that way. Kincaid was coming off a disappointing 2022 season in which a side cramp led to him dropping out of the 10,000-meter qualifying race for the U.S. team that competed in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. And in the World Championships itself, the 2021 Olympian was eliminated in a first-round heat of the 5,000 when his 11th-place time of 13 minutes 25.20 seconds left him nearly a straightaway behind first-place Jacob Krop of Kenya.
So how did Kincaid run a U.S. record of 12:51.61 on Friday night to move into fourth on the all-time world performer list? His time places him behind the terrific east African trio of Ethiopians Kenenisa Bekele (12:49.60 in 2004) and Haile Gebrselassie (12:50.38 in 1999), and Kenyan Daniel Komen (12:51.48 in 1998).
He settled into a race in which other runners – including fellow American Joe Klecker – pushed the pace, which allowed Kincaid to relax and get towed along before he unleashed a strong kick that shot him past Klecker during the final lap on the hyper-fast 200-meter oval at Boston University.
“Joe did a lot of the work; it was kind of the perfect race,” Kincaid told Citius Mag in a YouTube interview after lowering the previous national record of 12:53.73 that Grant Fisher set on the same track last year. “It’s easy to have that second boost when you have a really loud audience and you have someone right there, but out of reach.”
The crowd at Boston University was not close to capacity when the men’s invitational 5,000 was run, as the meet had begun approximately 8½ hours earlier. But those in attendance were licking their chops in anticipation of the 5,000 after Yared Nuguse of the U.S. had set an American record of 7:28.24 in winning the 3,000 about two hours earlier.
And with runners such as Commonwealth Games 1,500 champion Ollie Hoare of Australia ready to help out with the pacesetting, the ingredients were there for a sub-13 minute race.
American Cruz Culpepper, who had placed fourth in the mile in 3:57.16 earlier in the day, handled the early pacesetting duties by taking the field through the first 1,200 meters in 3:07.61 before dropping out just before 1,400 meters. Hoare then took over briefly before Sam Atkin, fresh off a British record of 7:31.97 in the 3,000 behind Nuguse, moved into the lead and led the field until just before 2,000 meters, which Hoare passed in 5:12.67.
Hoare was followed closely by Klecker, Dylan Jacobs of the University of Tennessee, Eduardo Herrera of the U.S., and Kincaid at that point.
Herrera began to lose contact with the lead group shortly after that and Jacobs had begun to gradually fall off the pace by the time Hoare came through 3,000 meters in 7:47.88 after running the previous kilometer in 2:35.21.
Hoare led through 3,400 meters in 8:50.98 before pulling off of the track and the head-to-head duel between Klecker and Kincaid ensued.
Klecker led through 4,000 meters in 10:23.17, but Kincaid was only two tenths of a second behind him 400 meters later. However, Klecker began to draw away from Kincaid for the next lap and a half and had a lead of about 12 meters with 300 meters left in the race. He looked so strong at that point that the announcer calling the race on the FloTrack site said “It’s all Klecker and the clock” with 250 meters left in the contest.
But it wasn’t.
Kincaid began to make up ground on Klecker coming down the home straightaway for the penultimate time and he really began to reel him in during the second-to-last turn. He stormed past him 20 meters into the backstretch and crossed the finish line with a time that bested his previous indoor best by nearly 14 seconds and was more than six seconds faster than his outdoor best of 12:58.10 set in 2019.
Klecker finished second in 12:54.99 to move to seventh on the all-time indoor performer list while Jonas Raess of Switzerland placed third in 13:10.96. Jacobs finished fourth in 13:11.01 to move to third on the all-time collegiate performer list, with Canadian Ben Flanagan fifth in 13:11.12. The first eight finishers broke 13:15.
Kincaid, who was high-fiving spectators alongside the track seconds after finishing the race, ran his final 200-meter lap in 26.27 seconds and his final 400 in 56.39. In contrast, the gallant Klecker clocked 31.03 and 61.09 over those same distances while crushing his previous best of 13:04.42 set during an outdoor meet in May of last year.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Kincaid confirmed what others had previously speculated about — that he had left the Bowerman Track Club in Oregon and had been training with Coach Mike Smith and his contingent of high-caliber collegiate runners at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
He posted: "‘What we said is less than what we saw’ - Eavon Boland
12:51 AR
Massively satisfying race this last weekend.
This race was the legs talking after a lot of uncertainty stepping away from Bowerman this fall. Thank you Mike Smith and his team for the refreshing and enjoyable first month in Flagstaff.
’What do you say to people who say you don't have a good offense?
...
We have a good offense!’”
Different tactics, similar result: Like Woody Kincaid, Yared Nuguse entered the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic on Friday intent on putting a disappointing 2022 season behind him. But unlike Kincaid, he did not come from behind while setting a U.S. record of 7:28.24 in the men’s indoor 3,000-meter run.
The 2021 Olympian in the 1,500 took the lead shortly after 1,800 meters and pulled away from everyone after that.
Austen Dahlquist, one of two designated pacesetters in the race, led the field through 400 meters in 59.12, 800 in 2:00.23, and 1,200 in 3:00.98 before dropping out.
AJ Ernst briefly took over the pacesetting duties, but 19-year-old Ethiopian Addisu Yihune, perhaps feeling the pace was lagging, moved from fifth place to first over the ensuing 180 meters and led the field through 1,400 meters before Ernst re-took the lead down the backstretch and clocked 4:01.20 at 1,600 meters.
He led the race for another lap before stepping off the track. Yihune had the lead at that point, but the smooth-striding Nuguse moved to the fore midway through the first turn and would never trail again.
He had a small lead on Yihune and Sam Atkin of Great Britain when he came through 2,000 meters in 5:00.77, but his lead had grown to six meters over Yihune and 10 over Atkin 200 meters later.
At 2,400 meters in 6:00.96, Nuguse still had a 10-meter lead over Atkin, who was now in second place. That advantage was close to 20 meters when he came to the bell lap in 7:00.65.
The crowd, sensing that Nuguse was on the verge of setting an American record, cheered him on mightily during his final go-round and he gave it his all, leaning across the finish line like a sprinter as his 7:28.24 clocking bested the previous U.S. indoor record of 7:30.16 set by Galen Rupp in 2013.
The time also moved Nuguse to ninth on the all-time indoor performer list and was faster than the U.S. outdoor record of 7:28.48 set by Grant Fisher last summer.
Atkin finished second in 7:31.97 to lower the British record of 7:34.47 set by Mo Farah in 2009 and Mario Garcia of Spain placed third in 7:34.74. He was followed by Yihune in a personal best of 7:36.13, Drew Bosley of Northern Arizona in a collegiate record of 7:36.42, and 19-year-old Hobbs Kessler of the U.S. in a personal best of 7:39.00
Bosley’s time broke the previous collegiate record of 7:38.13 that Nuguse had set last year while running for Notre Dame.
"I didn't really come in thinking, I'm gonna break the record. I'm gonna break the record,'" Nuguse said in a YouTube interview with Citius Mag. "It just kind of happened."
Final add, Terrier Classic: While the American records by Woody Kincaid in the 5,000 and Yared Nuguse in the 3,000 deservedly garnered the most headlines during the two-day meet at Boston University, three other winning efforts during the event were particularly noteworthy.
Going in chronological order, Crayton Carrozza of the University of Texas ran 1:46.28 in the men’s 800 and Luis Grijalva of Guatemala clocked 3:53.53 in the men’s mile on Friday, and Lucia Stafford of Canada timed 2:33.75 in the women’s 1,000 meters on Saturday.
Carrozza, a senior, was in third place after the first 400 meters of his race, but he moved into first on the third lap and defeated second-place Reed Cherry of Northeastern (1:47.84) by more than a second and a half with his personal best and yearly collegiate-leading time.
Grijalva, who placed fourth in the 5,000 in the World Championships last summer, ran his final 800 meters in 1:54.91 while breaking four minutes in the mile for the first time. His Guatemalan record gave him a comfortable margin of victory as Nick Dahl of the U.S. placed second in a personal best of 3:55.82.
Stafford, eighth in the women’s 1,500 in the World Indoor Championships last year, trailed pacesetter Rachael Walters when she came through 400 meters in 60.24, but she was never seriously challenged after Walters dropped out. She clocked 2:03.52 for 800 meters before running her final 200 in 30.23 seconds to finish with a national-record time that moved her to ninth on the all-time performer list in the infrequently-run event.
World best in the 600: Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain got what she came for in her season-opening meet at the Sportcity Indoor Track in Manchester, England on Saturday.
The silver medalist in the women’s 800 meters in the Olympic Games in 2021 and the World Championships last year, the 20-year-old Hodgkinson entered the World Athletics Tour bronze-level meet intent on breaking the long-standing world best in the infrequently-run 600 meters.
She accomplished her mission when she crossed the finish line in 1:23.41, three-hundredths of a second faster than the previous best of 1:23.44 set by Olga Kotlyarova of Russia in 2004.
Eirini Vasileiou of Greece was a distant second in 1:29.33 in a race that had three finishers.
"I expected to break the world record," Hodgkinson told BBC Sport. "It's a lot different chasing times than it is chasing positions because times it's literally all out and you've got to hope you've got enough in there. It was nice to start the season with something fun and accomplish what I set out to do."
Great Britain’s Issy Boffey, who won the women’s 800 earlier in the meet, served as the pacemaker for Hodgkinson’s record attempt. She led the field through the first 200 in 26.5 before Hodgkinson went through 400 meters in 54.59 and ran her final 200 in 28.82.
“In a 600 meters it’s a case of ‘too fast and you’ll die’ but ‘too slow and you can’t make up the ground’,” Hodgkinson told Athletics Weekly, “so myself and my coach planned to run 54 through 400 meters and then try to hang on.”
I’m not sure what to make of Hodgkinson’s performance. Obviously, it’s an outstanding effort. But when you look at the all-time performer list and see that Athing Mu of the U.S. ranks third at 1:23.57, it makes you wonder if the world best would not be substantially faster if the race were run more often.
I write that because Mu, the Olympic and World champion in the women’s 800, produced her 1:23.57 clocking in the 600 in 2019, when she was a junior at Trenton Central (N.J.) High who would lower her best in the 800 to 2:01.17 during the outdoor season. She now holds the U.S. record at 1:55.04.
Quick season opener: Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain set a national record in winning the women’s 60-meter dash in a World Athletics Tour gold-level meet in Karlsruhe, Germany last Saturday.
The fourth-place finisher in the 100 in the World Championships last year, Asher-Smith ran 7.04 in the final to defeat a high-quality field that included Poland’s Ewa Swoboda (7.09) in second place and defending World indoor champion Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland (7.11) in third.
Swoboda got off to her typical fast start, but the 27-year-old Asher-Smith was not far behind her after the first 25 meters and she had pulled even with the Pole by 40 meters before drawing away from her over the final third of the race. Kambundji appeared to run the final 20 meters faster that anyone in the field, but she came from too far back to threaten Asher-Smith, who had run a then-personal best of 7.07 in her qualifying heat.
The previous British record of 7.06 was set by Asha Philip in 2017.
Leaders of the pack: Defending World indoor champion Lemlem Hailu and up-and-coming teenager Abdisa Fayisa paced strong performances by Ethiopian runners in the women’s and men’s 3,000 meters, respectively, in the meet in Karlsruhe.
The 21-year-old Hailu won the women’s race in a yearly world-leading time of 8:37.56 after pacesetter Vera Hoffmann of Luxembourg brought the field through the first kilometer in 2:54.51 and Ethiopian teammate Mizan Alem led through two kilometers in 5:53.11.
Hailu was never far off the lead and she ran her final 200 in 29.93 seconds in a race in which the top five finishers were from Ethiopia.
Werkwuha Getachew, the silver medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the World Championships last year, finished second in a personal best of 8:37.98. Dawit Seyaum, the bronze medalist in the 5,000 in the World Championships, finished third in 8:39.20.
The 17-year-old Fayisa had caught many people’s attention last September when he ran 7:39.63 to finish third in the 3,000 in a meet in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and he showed that performance was not a fluke when he ran 7:40.35 to win the race in Karlshule.
After pacesetter Kukas Abele took the field through 1,000 meters in 2:31.67, fellow German Mohamed Abdilaahi led at 2,000 meters in 5:08.25.
Fayisa was in third place entering the backstretch of the final 200-meter lap of the race before moving into second entering the final turn and overtaking first-place Robin Hendrix of Belgium with 15 meters left in the contest.
Hendrix finished second in a personal best of 7:40.53, followed by Ethiopian Adisu Girma at 7:41.53.
Summit meeting: Her winning mark was not that noteworthy, but defending World indoor champion Auriol Dongmo of Portugal defeated a strong field to win the women’s shot put in Karlsruhe.
The 32-year-old Dongmo was in fifth place in the eight-competitor field after the first three rounds, but she took the lead with a fourth-round effort of 18.90 meters (62 feet ¼ inch) and followed that with a fifth-round put of 18.89 (61-11¾) that would have been good enough to win the competition as well.
Canadian Sarah Mitton, fifth in the World outdoor championships last year, finished second at 18.88 (61-11 ½), followed by Jamaican Danniel Thomas-Dodd at 18.77 (61-7).
Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, bronze medalist in both the World indoor and outdoor championships finished fourth at 18.76 (61-6¾), with World outdoor champion Chase Ealey of the U.S. sixth at 18.61 (61-0¾).
The silver medalist in the World indoor championships only had one fair put, which came in the second round and temporarily moved her into third place.
First sub-7 of year: Aleia Hobbs of the U.S. opened her season in impressive fashion in the Razorback Invitational at Randal Tyson Indoor Center last Saturday as her 6.98-second clocking in the open women’s 60 meters was the first performance under 7 seconds in the world this year and moved her into a tie for ninth on the all-time performer list with Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (2014) and Elaine Thompson (2017).
Hobbs, who ran a then-personal best of 7.05 in her qualifying heat earlier in the day, moved to third on the all-time U.S. list behind Gail Devers and Marion Jones, who had run their top marks of 6.95 in 1993 and ’98, respectively.
The sixth-place finisher in the 100 in the World Championships last year, Hobbs came out of the starting blocks quicker than anyone in the six-sprinter field and then used her superior top-end speed to power away from everyone.
Her 4.11-second split at 30 meters gave her a lead of seven-hundredths of a second over World indoor silver medalist Mikiah Brisco, and she nearly tripled her advantage by the finish line as Brisco placed second in 7.18.
Down to the wire: Abby Steiner and Shamier Little staged an exciting duel in the women’s 400 meters in the Razorback Invitational on Saturday before Steiner emerged with a 50.59 to 50.64 victory.
The times were the two fastest in the world this year, and Steiner’s performance moved her to eighth on the all-time U.S. performer list.
Steiner, fifth in the 200 in the World Championships last year, had a lead of nearly three tenths of a second over Little when she completed the first lap of the 200-meter oval in 23.24. But Little, the fourth-place finisher in the 400 hurdles in the World Championships, began to eat into Steiner’s lead as they raced down the backstretch for the second time.
She appeared to have a chance at taking the lead coming off the final turn, but Steiner held her off by maintaining her form through the finish line.
Steiner’s time was more than a second faster than the 51.70 personal best she had run in winning the Rod McGravy Memorial on the 300-meter oval at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Kentucky, two weeks earlier.
Little, for her part, had run what was then a yearly world-leading time of 1:24.65 in the 600 in defeating the collegiate-record effort (1:25.16) of Britton Wilson of Arkansas in the Arkansas Invitational the previous night.
Another notable 400: Christopher Bailey’s stock continued to rise in the Razorback Invitational on Saturday as he ran a yearly world-leading time of 45.09 seconds in winning the men’s 400 meters
Bailey, a senior who transferred to Arkansas from Tennessee, displayed superb patience in the race as he was in fourth place after the first lap of his four-runner heat. But he stayed composed during the second lap and moved into the lead coming out of the first turn when race leader Justin Robinson of Arizona State left the inside part of lane one open.
Bailey then powered away to a time that broke the school record of 45.29 set by Terry Gatson in 2005 and was faster than his 45.25 outdoor best from 2021. He also finished nearly 1.4 seconds ahead of second-place Ryan Willie of Florida (46.47), who placed fifth in the NCAA Championships last year.
“It was amazing. It was enjoyable,” Bailey said in a post-race interview on the University of Arkansas track and field site. “Today was not how I expected it to go. But luckily . . . . letting the race play out. . . . is what got me through. To see that opportunity, I was like, I gotta take it. And once I got it, I was like, I gotta hold on.”
Bailey, who also ran a 45.03-second third leg on an Arkansas team that finished fourth in the 1,600 relay in 3:04.42, now has the fastest time in the world in two events this year.
He ran a world-leading 1:15.18 in the 600 meters on Jan. 13 to win the Arkansas Invitational and move to sixth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Personal best rampage: Kyle Garland of the University of Georgia set personal bests in six of seven events in winning the men’s indoor heptathlon during the first two days of the three-day Texas Tech Invitational and Multis meet.
The Bulldog junior racked up a yearly world-leading total of 6,415 points to move into a tie for eighth on the all-time world performer list – third amongst Americans – and into second on the all-time collegiate list behind the 6,499-point total that was a world record when Oregon’s Ashton Eaton set it in 2010.
Garland, the collegiate record-holder in the decathlon with 8,720 points, began the meet by running 6.86 seconds in the 60-meter dash. He followed that performance by spanning 7.56 (24-9¾) in the long jump, putting the shot 16.26 (53-4¼) and clearing 2.19 (7-2¼) in the high jump for a first-day total of 3,732 points.
He started the second day with his fifth consecutive personal best when he ran 7.84 in the 60-meter hurdles before his first-ever clearance of 5.00 (16-4¾) in the pole vault. His string of career bests ended in the 1,000-meter run, but his 2:51.40 clocking left him with a margin of victory of more than 300 points over Leo Neugebauer of Germany, who totaled 6,097.
Another world-leading mark: Micah Williams of the University of Oregon had an up and down meet in the Texas Tech Invitational and Multis competition.
Sophomore Williams won the final of the men’s 60 in a yearly world-leading time of 6.49 seconds on Friday after running 6.54 in a qualifying heat earlier in the day. However, the fourth-place finisher in the 100 in last year’s USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships pulled up in a heat of the 200 on Saturday that included Matthew Boling of Georgia.
Boling won the race in 20.42, but Williams pulled up about 50 meters into it. I have not seen any reports on the severity of the injury.
HYP highlight: Sondre Guttormsen set a Norwegian national indoor record in the men’s pole vault in the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet on Saturday when he cleared 5.84 meters (19-1¾) in the competition at Gordon Indoor Track in Allston, Massachusetts.
It was the highest vault in the world this year and moved the defending NCAA champion and Princeton senior to seventh on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Guttormsen cleared the height cleanly on his second attempt, and did not attempt another height.
After passing the first 11 heights of the competition, Guttormsen cleared 5.45 (17-10¾) on his second attempt, 5.65 (18-6½) on his first, and 5.76 (18-10¾) on his second.
His clearance at 5.84 broke the previous Norwegian indoor record of 5.83 (19-1½) that Pal Haugen Lillefosse set last year.
Guttormsen and Lillefosse are co-holders of the Norwegian outdoor record at 5.86 (19-2¾).
To the third-place finisher go the spoils: Alicia Monson moved to eighth on the all-time U.S. performer list when she ran 4:23.55 to win the women’s mile in the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge at the Nike Track & Field Center at the Armory in New York City on Saturday.
However, third-place finisher Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State University might have received more attention for her third-place finish than Monson did for her victory.
That’s because the immensely popular – and New York native – Tuohy set a pair of collegiate records during the race.
Her first came when she passed through the 1,500-meter mark in 4:06.49 and the second occurred when the Wolfpack sophomore crossed the finish line in 4:24.26.
Pacesetter Kali Long led the field for the first three laps around the 200-meter track and the 24-year-old Monson led the rest of the race after Long dropped out.
When Monson passed through 1,500 meters in 4:06.38, Tuohy was about a tenth of a second back of her and Whittni Morgan was a close third. However, Morgan passed Tuohy in the final 100 meters of the race to place second in 4:23.99 and move to ninth on the all-time U.S. list.
Not that Tuohy, who had a phenomenal prep career at North Rockland High in Thiells, New York, seemed disappointed.
“She ended up getting me in the end, but it was a fast time and I closed pretty well so I’m pretty happy with it,” Tuohy said in an interview with FloTrack. “I’m back home. My family’s here, so it’s a good day.”
Depth galore: The four-minute mile might not be what it once was, but eight members of the University of Washington men’s team nonetheless put on an impressive display of running in the UW Invitational at Dempsey Indoor Center last Friday night.
That’s when each of them ran under four minutes in the mile in the same race. Furthermore, six of them broke 3:56, with five Huskies running under 3:54, led by sophomore Joe Waskom, whose winning time was 3:51.90.
Senior Brian Fay finished second in 3:52.03, followed by freshman teammate Nathan Green, who ran 3:52.76 to cut more than six seconds off his previous best.
For the sake of clarity, fifth-place Sam Ellis (3:53.84) was running unattached because he does not have any collegiate eligibility remaining for indoor track. But he will be running for Washington during the outdoor season.
Because the track at Dempsey Indoor Center is 307 meters per lap, and not the standard 200 meters in length, the turns are not as tight as shorter tracks and performances run there generally are not considered for inclusion on all-time collegiate indoor lists kept by organizations such as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Nonetheless, World Athletics views the times from Friday’s meet as being eligible for all-time national lists. Therefore, Fay now ranks sixth on Ireland’s all-time performer list.
“I think this is reflective not only of our teamwork, but just how invested everyone is on this team,” Fay said in an article in the Seattle Times. “It’s not just a couple of guys that are dead set on being the greatest. It’s the whole team that wants to be better than anything that’s ever been done before. I think Friday night was a testament to that.”
According to the same article, Washington had never had more than two runners break four minutes in the mile in one race and it is believed to be the first collegiate team to have more than four runners break 3:56 in the same race.
Two liners: Trey Cunningham of the U.S. won the men’s 60-meter high hurdles in 7.60 seconds in the Razorback Invitational on Saturday. Cunningham was the silver medalist in the 110 highs in the World Championships last year. . . . . Christian Coleman of the U.S. opened his season with a runaway victory in the men’s 200 on the first day of the Razorback Invitational on Friday. The 2019 World 100 champion clocked 20.64 in the 200 and ran 6.71 in a qualifying heat of the men’s 60 on Saturday, but did not run in the final. . . . . Jeremiah Davis of Florida State won the men’s long jump in the Razorback Invitational with a yearly world-leading mark of 8.21 (26-11¼). The runner-up in last year’s NCAA Championships reached that distance in the first round and also on his third attempt. . . . . The University of Arkansas’s women’s 1,600 relay team ran 3:26.40 to win the Razorback Invitational on Saturday. It was the fifth fastest indoor time in collegiate history and was doubly impressive because the Arkansas quartet did not include 50.05 400 performer Britton Wilson. . . . . Malaika Mihambo of Germany, the defending Olympic and two-time defending World champion in the women’s long jump, opened her season with a victory in the ISTAF indoor meet in Dusseldorf. Her best of 6.83 (22-5) gave her a comfortable margin of victory over second-place Jazmin Sawyers of Great Britain (6.50, 21-4). . . . . Haven Hailu of Ethiopia won the Osaka Women’s Marathon in Japan on Sunday. The 2022 Rotterdam Marathon champion ran 2 hours 21 minutes 13 seconds to finish almost a minute ahead of countrywoman Meseret Gola (2:22:12).