Week in Review: Tsegay returns women's 5,000-meter world record to Ethiopia
Her time of 14:00.21 in Pre Classic slashes nearly five seconds from Kipyegon's mark
After 100 long days, the world record in the women’s 5,000 meters is back where it belongs, in the hands of an Ethiopian runner.
That is how I suspect a lot of Ethiopian track and field fans felt on Sunday after Gudaf Tsegay had run 14 minutes 0.21 seconds in winning the event in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
Tsegay’s time slashed nearly five seconds off the world record of 14:05.20 that Faith Kipyegon of Kenya had run in the Meeting de Paris Diamond League meet on June 9. It also came 22 days after defending champion Tsegay had finished a disappointing 13th in the women’s 5,000 in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary after fading badly on the final lap and two weeks after Ethiopian countrywoman Letesenbet Gidey’s world-record attempt had fallen short in the ISTAF meet in Berlin when she ran 14:08.79.
Ethiopian and Kenyan runners have combined to win 31 of a possible 45 medals in the women’s 5,000 meters since the event was first contested in the World Championships in Goteborg, Sweden in 1995. And they have won 16 of a possible 21 medals since the event became part of the Olympic track and field program in the Games of Atlanta in1996.
However, Ethiopia has been the dominant country when it comes to the nationality of the runners who have held the world record in the women’s 5,000, as Meseret Defar, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Gidey had combined to hold the world record for nearly 17 consecutive years before Kipyegon, the greatest female 1,500 runner in history, broke Gidey’s 5,000 record of 14:06.62 after speeding away from her in the home straightaway of the meet in Paris.
Check out my detailed reports from the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon last weekend: Saturday, Sunday.
The 26-year-old Tsegay had led Ethiopia to a 1-2-3 finish in the women’s 10,000 on the opening night of the World Championships on August 19 after Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands had fallen to the track with about 25 meters left in the race after she drifted to her right and made contact with the fast-closing Tsegay.
The Ethiopian said in a World Athletics post on Tuesday that pain on the bottom of one of her feet after that race prevented her from being able to walk properly for a few days. And though she led the final of the 5,000 through the 3,600- and 4,000-meter marks, and was only two tenths of a second behind eventual gold medalist Kipyegon with a lap to go, the strong kick for which she is known was nowhere to be found.
“I was so mad,’ Tsegay said in the World Athletics post. “Training had gone so well and I really wanted to bring two medals back to my country, back to my people, so it was really disappointing. But life and sport are like this; sometimes you fall down, sometimes you win.”
With an average pace of 2:49 per kilometer translating to a time of 14:05 for 5,000 meters, Sinclaire Johnson paced the field through the first kilometer of the Pre Classic in 2:48.08 and fellow American Elise Cranny led at two kilometers in 5:37.24.
Birke Haylom of Ethiopia, a training partner of Tsegay, led the race through 3,000 meters in 8:26.03 before Tsegay came through the four-kilometer mark in 11:16.89.
Tsegay still had World cross country champion Beatrice Chebet for company at that point in the race, but she began to open up on a lead on her with 900 meters left and she was on her own for the final two laps of the race in which Chebet would finish second in 14:05.92, the third-fastest time in history.
Although Tesgay never launched into a big kick like Kipyegon had done during the last lap of her record run, she did pick up the pace over the last two laps and when she came through the bell lap in about 12:55, it was obvious something special was happening and she had a chance at becoming the first woman in history to break 14 minutes.
Although she fell just short of doing that, she was ecstatic after running her final kilometer in 2:43.32 and seeing her time on the infield display board. A supporter of hers ran onto the track and briefly lifted her up into his arms and she then gave Johnson and Cranny a kiss on their cheeks to thank them for their help with the pacing.
After her disappointment in Budapest, she said in quotes on the meet website that she was ‘very hungry in my mind” to set a world record and was “very happy” to have done so.
Raising the bar: Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia was not the only athlete to set a world record in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday.
Mondo Duplantis of Sweden added a centimeter to his world record in the men’s pole vault when he cleared 6.23 meters (20 feet 5¼ inches) on his first attempt at that height and only his fourth jump of the competition.
It was the seventh world record for the 23-year-old Duplantis, who has raised the mark a centimeter at a time since his first world-record clearance of 6.17 (20-2¾) in 2020. In addition, it was his second world mark at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field as he had cleared 6.21 (20-4½) in winning the World title last year.
He was very efficient on Sunday as he easily cleared 5.62 (18-5¼) and 5.82 (19-1) on his first attempts before making 6.02 (19-9) on his initial try, although he grazed the bar as he cleared it.
With no one else left in the competition, he had the bar raised to 6.23. And though he again grazed the bar enough to leave it quivering on the pegs on the standards, it wasn’t enough to dislodge it and he bounded out of the pit in a celebration that first saw him end up in the arms of 2017 and ’19 World champion Sam Kendricks of the U.S. before he exchanged hugs with various family members and friends in the stands.
“I don’t remember the jump,” Duplantis said when Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports asked him to describe his latest world record. “I’m dead serious. It’s like it happened just a few minutes ago, and honestly, I barely remember. I just knew that it was going to be really close and I stayed on a little bit smaller pole than I thought might be necessary to make it so I knew when I was over the bar just not to panic because I knew I was gonna have to kind of squeeze over a little bit.”
Dynamic double: Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway did not set any world records in the Prefontaine Classic, which served as this year’s Diamond League Final. But he might have turned in the greatest two-day middle-distance double in history as he won the men’s mile in 3:43.73 on Saturday and took the 3,000 meters in 7:23.63 on Sunday.
His margin of victories were not large, as he defeated Yared Nuguse of the U.S. by .24 seconds in the mile and edged second-place Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia by a hundredth of a second in the 3,000. However, both of his times were the third fastest in history in their respective events.
In the mile, only Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and Noah Ngeny of Kenya, who ran 3:43.13 and 3:43.40, respectively, in the Golden Gala meet in Rome in 1999, have run faster than Ingebrigtsen.
In the 3,000, he trails only Daniel Komen of Kenya, who ran 7:20.67 in Rieti, Italy in 1996, and El Guerrouj, who clocked 7:23.09 in the Memorial van Damme meet in Brussels in ’99.
Nuguse and Kejelcha posted the fourth-fastest times in history in their respective events and the mile race saw a record 11 men break 3:50 and the fourth- through 13-place finishers set the best-ever marks for their respective places.
Ingebrigtsen, who turned 23 on Tuesday and is scheduled to be married on Saturday, has had a phenomenal season that has seen him run 3:27.14 in the 1,500 meters, a world record of 4:43.13 in the 2,000, a world best of 7:54.10 for two miles, and win silver and gold medals in the 1,500 and 5,000, respectively, in last month’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. But in a post-meet interview with Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports, he shook his head when asked about being in a special window of his career.
“I’m just getting started,” he said. “There’s not a window there. But at the same time, in what you’re saying, there’s some sense in that. You can’t take anything for granted and there’s no guarantees that I’m here next year, and especially not in this type of shape. But of course, I believe that I can still improve and run faster in the future. But I gonna race as much as possible when I have the chance. And I’m gonna take those opportunities to try to win.”
When Johnson asked him about the Olympic Games in Paris next summer, the defending Olympic champion in the 1,500 said they were very important to him before adding that he is looking forward to every competition.
“I’m not here to save myself for the bigger events,” he said. “I’m going to be here in every race and every championship… and I’m going to try to win as much as possible and that’s why I’m here… for me, it’s all about the competition.”
Photo finishes: Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia has been involved in two incredibly tight finishes in extremely-fast distance races this season.
First, he and Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda were credited with identical times of 12:41.73 in finishing first and second in the men’s 5,000 meters in the Bislett Games Diamond League meet in Oslo on June 15.
Then, he and Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway were virtually inseparable as they crossed the finish line at the end of the 3,000 in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday before the finish photo determined that Ingebrigtsen had run 7:23.67 to finish a hundredth of a second in front of Kejelcha.
With those marks, the 26-year-old Keljelcha ranks fourth on the all-time performer list in the 3,000 and is tied for sixth — with Kiplimo — in the 5,000.
Ethiopia has such a rich history in the 5,000 that Kejelcha only ranks fourth on that nation’s all-time list in the event.
Going out with a bang: Winfred Mutile Yavi of Bahrain and Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya capped a superb year in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase by finishing first and second in the Prefontaine Classic with times of 8:50.66 and 8:51.67, respectively, on Saturday.
Their clockings were the second- and third-fastest in history behind Chepkoech’s world record of 8:44.32 that she set in 2018. In addition, 19-year-old Kenyan Faith Cherotich finished third in 8:59.65 to become the 11th woman in history to break nine minutes in the event and the fourth woman to have done so this year.
Paced by the 23-year-old Yavi and the 32-year-old Chepkoech, there were six sub-9:00 clockings this season, which tied last year for the most ever. In addition, there were 16 sub-9:05 efforts, which topped the previous high of 14 from last year.
All told, seven of the 20 fastest female steeplechasers in history set their personal bests this year.
Knocking on the door: Shericka Jackson fell well short of the world record in the women’s 200 meters in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday when she ran 21.57 seconds while posting a runaway victory in the final event of the two-day meet. But the 29-year-old Jamaican put on a particularly impressive display of dominance in the 200 in the final three and a half weeks of the her season.
First, she won her second consecutive World title with a 21.41 clocking in Budapest that was the second fastest in history and gave her a margin of victory of four tenths of a second over silver medalist Gabby Thomas of the U.S.
Then she ran 21.82 to win the Weltklasse Diamond League meet in Zurich by .43 seconds and 21.48 to win the Memorial van Damme Diamond League meet in Brussels by a whopping .83 seconds.
The 21.48 clocking in Brussels was the third fastest in history and led some people to predict that the world record of 21.34 set by Florence Griffith-Joyner of the U.S. in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, was going to fall in the Prefontaine Classic. But while Jackson ran another superb race in Eugene while winning the race by more than half a second and recording the eight-fastest time in history, she lacked the zip over the final 50 meters that she had in Budapest and Brussels.
Nonetheless, her performance on Sunday followed a victory in the 100 on Saturday in which she ran 10.70 while World champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. placed fourth in 10.80. Jackson was undefeated in eight 200-meter finals this season, ran under 22 seconds in seven of them, and her average winning time of 21.74 would be tied for 13th on the all-time performer list.
Welcome back: It was nice to see the old version of Athing Mu back in action in the women’s 800 meters in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday.
It might sound strange to use the word “old” in reference to an athlete who is only 21 years of age, but it had been an unusual season for the defending Olympic and 2022 World champion.
First, she did not open her season until June 24 when she won the 800 in 1:58.73 in the New York City Grand Prix at Randall’s Island.
Then she ran a personal best of 4:03.44 to finish second in 1,500 in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene on July 8.
At that point, everything seemed to indicate she would focus her energy on defending her title in the 800 when the World Athletics Championships were held in Budapest, Hungary from August 19-27. But on August 2, her coach, Bobby Kersee, told the Los Angeles Times that a decision had not yet been made about whether Mu would run in Budapest or bypass the meet to focus on preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris next summer.
Mu ended up running in Budapest, but she finished third in 1:56.61 after being outkicked by Mary Moraa of Kenya (1:56.03) and Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain (1:56.34) in the home straightaway.
She ran behind Hodgkinson for the first 700 meters of the race on Sunday before winning a classic homestretch duel in which she drew even with her British rival with 80 meters to go, inched ahead of her for the next 50-60 meters, and then added a little more daylight between them in the final strides of the contest.
The end result was a 1:54.97 clocking that lowered the North American record of 1:55.04 that Mu had set in the Pre Classic in 2021 and solidified her hold on eighth on the all-time performer list.
The 21-year-old Hodgkinson ran 1:55.19 to lower her British record of 1:55.77 that she had set in June. In addition, she moved into a three-way tie for 10th on the all-time performer list.
In a post-race interview with Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports, Mu admitted that the past 12 months had been a time of transition and adjustments — that included training with a new coach and living in the Los Angeles area after previously residing in Texas.
What I found most telling was when she said she had been able to enjoy life and rejuvenate in the time following the World Championships and that had enabled her to enter the Pre Classic with a “clean mind” and “ready to go.”
She then added that she had been able to “take back the whole entire me and really believe in what I do… and where I want to be in the sport and where I want to take it from here.”
Dynamic duo: Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela, regarded as the greatest women’s performers in history in the 1,500 meters and triple jump, respectively, concluded their outdoor track and field season in impressive fashion in the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday.
The 29-year Kipyegon, who had lowered the world record in the 1,500 to 3:49.11 in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League meet in Florence, Italy on June 2, won the Pre Classic by more than three seconds with a 3:50.72 clocking that was the third best of her career and the fifth fastest in history.
It also marked a record seventh time that the two-time Olympic and three-time World champion has run under 3:53 in the event. Seven other women have each accomplished that feat one time.
The 27-year-old Rojas bounded 15.35 (50-4½) to win the triple jump by more than 30 centimeters (12 inches) and her performance marked a record eighth time in her career in which she has jumped 15.35 or further in a meet outdoors.
Two other women — Inessa Kravets of Ukraine in 1996 and Francoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon in 2008 — have each accomplished that feat once.
Rojas, the defending Olympic and four-time defending World champion, has also jumped 50 feet (15.24) or further in a record 10 meets. Russian Tatyana Lebedeva, the World champion in 2001 and ’03, has the second most 50-foot meets at four.
On a roll: Hansle Parchment pf Jamaica closed his season with a rush in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles as he posted four of his five fastest times of the year during his final four meets.
The topper came in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday when he ran a personal best — and yearly world-leading time — of 12.93 seconds to finish well in front of Americans Grant Holloway (13.06) in second place and Daniel Roberts (13.07) in third.
Holloway had won his third consecutive World title in Budapest last month when his season best of 12.97 left him well clear of second-place Parchment in 13.07 and third-place Roberts in 13.09. But Olympic champion Parchment defeated him soundly in two meets since then as he also ran 12.96 — to the third-place Holloway’s 13.12 — in a Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China on Sept. 2.
The 33-year-old Parchment then ran 13.13 to win the Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica meet in Zagreb, Croatia on Sept. 10 before Sunday’s race in which he ran down Holloway during the second half of the contest while moving into a tie for 13th on the all-time world performer list with Renaldo Nehemiah of the U.S., who had run history’s first sub-13 clocking when he timed 12.93 in the 1981 Weltklasse meet in Zurich.
Holloway, 25, typically uses a great start to put his opponents in a hole early in a race, but Parchment was close enough to him after the first five flights of hurdles on Sunday that he was able to overtake the Olympic silver medalist during the second half of the race.
“The start wasn’t perfect, I was really thinking a lot about getting a better start to really be a bit more competitive,” Parchment said in quotes of the meet website. “I think I still put it together mostly. Got the [personal record], got the win, so I’m very happy about that.”
When asked about his rivalry with Holloway, Parchment said that “we try to push each other every time we go there. He has a massive, ridiculous start. I try to learn from that every time I see him run. He looks up to me as well because I’ve been competing for many years before he started. So I think it’s a good rivalry and really helps us to make the event more competitive.”
On a roll II: Like Hansle Parchment of Jamaica in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles on Sunday, Christian Coleman of the U.S. defeated the recently crowned World champion in winning the men’s 100 in the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday.
Coleman had been disappointed with his fifth-place finish in the 100 in the World Championships after he was overtaken by the top four finishers in the final 30 meters of the race. But he got off to one of typically quick starts in the Pre Classic and World champion Noah Lyles of the U.S. never made a serious run at catching him, despite finishing only two hundredths of a second behind him.
Coleman’s time of 9.83 seconds matched the season best — and yearly co-world-leading performance — that he had run in a Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China two weeks earlier. It also could have been a tad quicker had he leaned at the finish instead of raising his arms in celebration in the last stride of the race.
Lyles, who had run a personal best of 9.83 in winning the World title in a race in which Coleman clocked 9.92, ran 9.85 in Eugene, the same time as third-place Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya. Kishane Thompson of Jamaica finished fourth in 9.87 after running 9.85 while finishing second to Coleman in Xiamen.
“I felt like I was ready to run [under 9.80]. Coleman told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports after the race. “I feel like I rushed it a little bit. But everything I’ve been telling myself in my mind, like to stay patient in my drive phase… I was able to relax and come out with the win.”
Unique season: Danielle Williams of Jamaica surprised a lot of track and field prognosticators, as well as herself, when she won her second World title — and first since 2015 — in the women’s 100-meter hurdles in Budapest last month.
Yet she might have done something even more unique on Sunday when she concluded her season with a fourth-place time of 12.47 in a race in which world-record-holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, and Keni Harrison of the U.S. placed first, second, and third with times of 12.33, 12.38, and 12.44, respectively.
With a season best of 12.43, the 31-year-old’s time is currently tied for 28th on the yearly world performance list, the lowest any World champion’s season best has been since the global-title meet began in 1983.
The second-lowest ranking for a World champion came in 2015 when Williams’ season best of 12.57 ranked 23rd on the yearly performance list.
Perhaps not surprisingly, her season bests of 12.57 in 2015 and 12.43 this year came in the finals of the World Championships, where the high-pressure atmosphere can cause some hurdlers to make mistakes and perform at less than their best.
Record numbers: When Rai Benjamin of the U.S. clocked a yearly world-leading time of 46.39 seconds to defeat Karsten Warholm of Norway (46.53) for the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles title in the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday, it increased the number of sub-47 clockings this season to an all-time high of seven.
In addition, the number of performances under 47.50 rose to a record 18 when Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands and Alison dos Santos of Brazil placed third and fourth in times of 47.31 and 47.44, respectively.
The previous annual highs for sub-47 and sub-47.50 clockings had been five and 17, respectively, with both totals coming in 2021.
Big finish: When Joe Kovacs won the men’s shot put in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday, he not only handed fellow American Ryan Crouser his first loss of the season, he also got off the second-best put of his career at the end of a season in which he had struggled by his standards.
Although two-time World champion Kovacs had finished second behind Crouser in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon last year, he had rarely been beaten by any other putters. Yet he entered the Prefontaine meet with only two victories in 13 meets during the outdoor season, and he had finished third or lower in eight of those competitions.
His first-round put of 22.70 (74-5¾) gave him the early lead in the Prefontaine meet, but Crouser moved into first place in the second round with a 22.91 (75-2) effort.
That led the competition until the fourth round when the 34-year-old Kovacs unleashed a 22.93 (75-2¾) put that Crouser could not match for the remainder of the competition.
Afterward, the bronze medalist from Budapest said he was glad to have had a strong finish to a season that was his first as a father, of twins no less.
“This whole season’s been tough,” he said in quotes on the meet website. “First time being a dad, especially with twins, it was a crazy year and I’m glad to finish strong. The whole year I feel like I’ve been foul-tipping and missing everything, and I’m glad to come today and finally get behind the ball and make it go a little farther. I think there’s more there but it’s a great way to go into the off-season.”
Historical season: Although Ryan Crouser suffered his first loss of the season to fellow American Joe Kovacs in the men’s shot put in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday, two of his six efforts measured 75 feet (22.86) or further.
Those two puts gave him 11 puts of 75 feet or more during the season, topping his previous best of 10 from 2021, when he won his second consecutive Olympic title.
The Prefontaine meet was Crouser’s first competition since he had uncorked the No. 2 put in history — at 23.51 (77-1¾) — in winning his second consecutive title in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary on August 19.
The 30-year-old Crouser had produced that effort while being treated for a pair of blood clots in his lower left leg, but he had not competed since while being cautious of his condition. Nonetheless, he was happy with his effort on Sunday.
“I was overall really happy today with my performance,” he said in quotes on the meet website. “Coming in, 22.90 would get second, I never would have guessed that. Hats off to Joe, he threw really well, especially considering he’s been traveling and stuff. Really impressive today by Joe but happy with my consistency and really solid series today. Left it all out there for the last meet of the year.”
Prolific season: When Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the U.S. won the women’s discus with a throw of 68.66 (225-3) in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday, it was a career-high ninth meet of the season in which she has exceeded 68 meters (223-1) in the event.
The last woman to have had that many 68-meter meets in a season was Ilke Wyludda of Germany, who also had nine such competitions in 1991.
Back in the groove: Andre De Grasse capped a fine comeback year in the men’s 200 meters when he won the event in a season best of 19.76 seconds in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday.
The 28-year-old De Grasse, who had run a Canadian record of 19.62 in winning the Olympic title in 2021, had been hampered by a toe injury and two cases of COVID-19 last year, and he had not run particularly well for much of this season until he won the Canadian title in 20.01 on July 30.
He then finished sixth in the World Championships with a time of 20.14 before running 20.25 to place fifth in the Weltklasse Diamond League meet in Zurich on August 31 and 19.89 to place third in the Memorial van Damme Diamond League meet in Brussels on Sept. 8.
Then came Sunday’s race in which he sped past the American duo of Kenny Bednarek (19.95) and Erriyon Knighton (19.97) in the last 50 meters of the race.
His time was the fourth fastest of his career, with the first three clockings coming in 2021.
“It’s been a challenging season, but I gotta finish strong, give it my best I got, and try to come away with something I can learn going into next year,” De Grasse said in quotes on the meet website. “Next year is a big year, obviously with the Olympics, so I wanted to try to just give it all to try to see where I’m at going into next season.”
Nice recovery: After finishing a disappointing fourth in the men’s 10,000 meters in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in early July and withdrawing from the 5,000 in the same meet due to a stress reaction, Grant Fisher finished the season with three high-quality races, capped by a North American record of 7:25.47 to place third in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Fisher, who placed fourth in the 10,000 and sixth in the 5,000 in the World Championships last year, began his late-season surge when he ran 12:54.49 to finish third in the 5,000 in the Weltklasse Diamond League meet in Zurich on August 31.
He then set a meet record of 7:33.32 in the 3,000 in the Palio Citta della Querica meet in Rovereto, Italy six days later before his 7:25.47 performance in the Pre Classic cut just over three seconds off the North American outdoor record of 7:28.48 he had set last year.
Given how late it was in the season, Fisher told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson that he wasn’t sure how he was going to feel during the race. But he said he felt pretty good.
“The pacers did a great job, and then the guys in the field did a great job of keeping it going,” he said. “They extended me a little bit… two thirds of the way through the race, but I found a little gas at the end.”
With his latest performance, Fisher now holds North American outdoor records in the 3,000, 5,000 (12:46.96), and 10,000 (26:33.84), and ranks eighth, 16th, and seventh, respectively, in those events on the all-time performer lists.
Coming back to earth: Cordell Tinch was one of the great surprise stories of the year as the American went from being out of track and field for nearly three years to posting bests of 12.96 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles, 8.16 (26-9¼) in the long jump, and 2.21 (7-3) in the high jump while competing for NCAA Division II program Pittsburg State University in Kansas.
However, his performances in the hurdles slowed significantly after he finished second in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in early July.
Tinch, who began the season with a best of 13.63 in the high hurdles that he ran as a freshman at the University of Kansas in 2019, had run a then-yearly world-leading time of 12.96 in the Arkansas Grand Prix on June 23 before clocking 13.07, 13.04, and 13.08 in the heats, semifinals, and final of the national championships.
However, he narrowly advanced to the semifinals of the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary with a fourth-place time of 13.49 in his heat before running 13.31 to finish a non-qualifying fourth in the second of three semifinals.
That was followed by a seventh-place time of 13.38 in a Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China on Sept. 2 and he again finished seventh in the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday, although his time of 13.21 was a big improvement from the previous meet.
“I’m just excited to be back in the sport and actually get to train for a season and not just get off the couch and go,” Tinch told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports in an interview that also included U.S. high hurdlers Grant Holloway, Daniel Roberts, and Freddie Crittenden. “So I’m excited to see what next year has for me, because it’s an exciting time with a great group of guys like these.”
Shifting on the fly: World Athletics announced in a statement last Friday that the 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships will be not held in Medulin and Pula in Croatia on February 10 because it believed preparations for hosting the meet had not advanced sufficiently.
In the five-sentence statement, World Athletics wrote that it was “in advanced negotiations with an alternative host in Europe with a view to staging the event in March 2024.”
The statement added that the new host will be announced before the end of September.