Fast Women: Elle St. Pierre, world champion
Nikki Hiltz and Emily Mackay earn 1500m silver and bronze.
Issue 281
Elle St. Pierre pulls off an upset at World Indoors
March has become a good month for Elle St. Pierre. In March of 2022, she won a silver medal in the 3,000m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships. In March of 2023, she gave birth to her son, Ivan. And 364 days later, she won her first global title, earning gold in the 3,000m at World Indoors in Glasgow, Scotland. St. Pierre is the first American woman to win the World Indoor 3,000m title. “I was just hoping for a medal, so to come away with a win is really exciting,” she told Virgin Media Sport after the race.
When St. Pierre won her silver medal, it was in a sit-and-kick race, with the pace picking up only over the last three laps. (You can watch highlights of the 2022 race here; St. Pierre’s time was 8:42.04.)
This time out, medaling required running one of the fastest times ever. In fact, Australia’s Jess Hull ran 8:24.39, which makes her the eighth-fastest woman of all time, yet she finished out of the medals, in fourth.
In Saturday’s race, the pace was solid from the beginning. Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech led through 1K in 2:48.83, then Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, the pre-race favorite, took over. Tsegay ramped up the pace slightly and hit 2K in 5:35.78. The quick pace meant that the lead pack was gradually dwindling, and in the final kilometer, it became clear that Tsegay, Hull, Chepkoech, and St. Pierre would be duking it out for the medals.
With a lap to go, Tsegay continued to lead. St. Pierre was in third, but over the next 50 meters, she moved around Chepkoech and into second. St. Pierre made a move to pass Tsegay coming off the final turn and went by her in the homestretch, winning in 8:20.87. Tsegay finished second (8:21.13), and Chepkoech set a Kenyan record in third (8:22.68).
St. Pierre took 4.18 seconds off the American record Alicia Monson set last year, broke the championship record, and became the third-fastest woman of all time in this event, behind only world record holder Genzebe Dibaba (8:16.60) and Tsegay (8:16.69).
“I was just waiting for it to get really, really bad and it never quite did,” St. Pierre told reporters after the race. “I just hung on to the pace and I was like, ‘Okay, okay, I think I can do a few more laps at this pace, as long as it doesn’t pick up too much.’ And next thing I knew, there was 400 to go and I was like, ‘Okay, I can run a fast 400,’ and so I just hung on. I believed in myself, because I’m a miler, so I knew if I put myself in a good position, I’d be able to outkick some people in the last lap, and that’s exactly what I did.”
World Indoors doesn’t attract the depth that an outdoor championship does, but an American woman winning a global championship with one of the fastest times ever is a really big deal. As is beating Tsegay. She’s a two-time world champion outdoors, having won the 5,000m in 2022 and the 10,000m in 2023. And she holds the world record in the 5,000m (14:00.21). Like St. Pierre, Tsegay is also a miler, so she’s not that easy to outkick. She has run 1:57.52 for 800m, and she holds the world indoor 1500m record (3:53.09).
Everyone has off days, and Tsegay said after the race that this was one of hers. Through an interpreter, she said, “I’m not feeling good today because as a woman, something happened.” She did not expand on that, so we’re left to read between the lines.
St. Pierre was an excellent runner before having a baby, but she has come back at a new level. “I think having a baby has only made me stronger,” she said after the race. Watching St. Pierre’s success on Saturday made me wonder if it will encourage more young athletes to not wait to have children. At the same time, anyone who has had a child, or has paid attention to others having children, knows how much experiences and circumstances vary. (3,000m highlights | Detailed results | My favorite post-race interview St. Pierre did)
Freweyni Hailu wins 1500m gold, and Nikki Hiltz and Emily Mackay earn their first global medals
Based on the times coming into the meet, an Ethiopian sweep in the 1500m seemed a likely outcome. Freweyni Hailu had run 3:55.28 this season, Diribe Welteji had run 3:55.47, and Birke Haylom had run 3:58.43. No one else had come very close to those times. But that’s why they run the race.
The pace was erratic early on in the final, and with two laps to go, everyone in the 12-athlete field was still in it. That’s when Emily Mackay, who had been boxed in, in about sixth place, made a bold move into the lead. It was so bold that the other American in the field, Nikki Hiltz, thought that Mackay had miscounted the laps. But knowing that her strength was better than her speed, Mackay said that she wanted to catch the field off guard, and she did.
She covered the penultimate lap in 30.28 seconds, and led by about half a second with one lap to go. Hailu, who is just 23 years old, caught Mackay on the backstretch and took the win in 4:01.46. Hiltz caught Mackay on the homestretch and earned silver in 4:02.32, and Mackay hung on to win bronze in 4:02.69. Welteji finished back in fifth (4:03.82) and Haylom had an off day, finishing ninth in 4:06.27.
Hailu’s win was no surprise, but Hiltz and Mackay going 2–3 was. They watched the men’s 1500m, where U.S.-based New Zealander Geordie Beamish won, and Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler of the U.S. went 2–3, from the call room. “Emily and I were like, ‘Alright, our turn,’” Hiltz said.
They were both inspired by Elle St. Pierre’s 3,000m win the previous evening as well. “Watching all of my USA teammates get their medals, and especially Elle last night, I was like, ‘Anything is possible. Anything can happen,’” Hiltz said.
On their way to Glasgow, Hiltz was thinking maybe they could sneak in for a bronze medal, but their teammates’ strong performances had them thinking a little bigger. On Sunday morning, Hiltz woke up with a sore throat, so they spent most of the day sleeping. “It feels like the morning right now,” they said after their evening race.
When asked about the courage it took to make such a big move with two laps to go, Mackay said it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and she was feeling really good. “I was just honestly having so much fun,” she said. “I was just so exhilarated to be out there, the energy was electric.”
This was a particularly big moment for Mackay, who was running in her first major championship. And her trajectory has been incredible. In 2021, she had personal bests of 4:17.37 for 1500m and 2:08.53 for 800m, and now she’s a global medalist. One thing that I’ve loved about Mackay’s racing style over the last 1.5 years that she’s been a professional runner is the fact that if a race isn’t going the way she wants it to go, she’ll make it go differently (like the time she broke 4:00 for the first time by striking out on her own). This time out, her tactics paid off. (1500m replay | Detailed results)
Other notes from World Indoors
The splits in the 800m final were all over the place. I imagine a number of people will look at Tsige Duguma’s winning time of 2:01.90 and think they could have won that race. But because no one wanted to lead, everyone in the race rode the same pace roller coaster. Duguma’s fastest 200m split of the race, a 27.91, was her last one. Scotland’s Jemma Reekie, who was hoping to take the win in front of the home crowd, finished second in 2:02.72, and Benin’s Noélie Yarigo (third, 2:03.15) was absolutely thrilled to win her first medal in a global championship at age 38. Duguma, 23, of Ethiopia, is a newcomer on the scene, and it will be fun to see what she can do going forward. In the semis, she ran a PR of 1:58.35.
The two Americans in the 800m, Allie Wilson and Addy Wiley, were eliminated in the first round. Wilson had two of the eventual medalists in her heat and finished fourth in 2:01.66. And Wiley took third in her heat in 2:02.69.
Josette Andrews finished 11th in the 3,000m in 8:41.93.
Living in the Greater Boston area, I think of New Balance Boston as the home team, and between Elle St. Pierre’s gold medal and Emily Mackay’s bronze, they had a fantastic weekend.
Another athlete with Boston ties is New Zealand’s Maia Ramsden, who is a Harvard student. She impressively qualified for the 1500m final by setting a national record of 4:06.51. And she nearly matched it in the final, where she finished 10th in 4:06.88. I loved the interview she did after the prelims; she said that she spent that morning finishing and then submitting her senior thesis. Now Ramsden will head back to Boston to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships, where the running events begin on Friday. Fortunately, NCAAs is basically a home meet for her. She’s scheduled to run the mile and the 3,000m and will face plenty of strong competition.
There were so many other wonderful non-distance moments at this event. I don’t have the space to go into all of them, but you can see all of the results here, and World Athletics has a bunch of informative recaps here.
Breakthrough win for Sutume Asefa Kebede in Tokyo, and a nice bounce back for Betsy Saina
Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede ran 2:15:55, the fastest time ever in Japan, and shaved 2:17 off her personal best in winning Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon. Defending champion Rosemary Wanjiru of Kenya ran faster this year but finished second in 2:16:28. And world marathon champion Amane Beriso Shankule of Ethiopia took third in 2:16:58.
Seven women, including Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and Betsy Saina, remained in the lead pack, surrounded by many men, through 15K. But by 20K, it was down to four: Kebede, Wanjiru, Shankule, and Hassan. Hassan, one of the pre-race favorites, was hanging off the back of the lead pack, but still there.
The coverage of the women’s race in Tokyo is never good, which makes the race less fun to follow. When we got a shot of the women’s race around 28K, Hassan had dropped off the lead pack. In an Instagram post, she said that she missed her bottle at 25K and turned back to get it. After that, she was unable to close the gap to the first group. She ended up fourth in 2:18:05.
The lead trio remained intact through 35K, but sometime before 40K, which the broadcast missed because the men were finishing, Shankule dropped back. Just after 40K, Wanjiru grabbed her bottle at an aid station and Kebede did not, opening a gap. At first, it looked like a gap that Wanjiru would be able to close, but then it kept growing.
After dropping back from the lead pack somewhere between 15K and 20K, Saina slowed but continued to run a solid pace. She went through halfway in 1:08:44, well ahead of American record (2:18:29) pace. She slowed more dramatically between 20 and 25K, but her 25K split, 1:21:43, was still 19 seconds ahead of record pace. By 30K, her average pace had slowed enough that it looked like the record wouldn’t be in the cards. But a personal best certainly was.
Saina finished fifth, matching her Tokyo finish from last year, but she improved her time, and her personal best, by 2:23, running 2:19:17. That time makes her the third-fastest American behind only Emily Sisson (2:18:29) and Keira D’Amato (2:19:12).
It was an impressive rebound after a tough race at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials four weeks earlier, where she dropped out in the 22nd mile. Most of the top contenders at the Trials probably felt like their races didn’t reflect their fitness, and Saina is the first one to get back out there and produce a breakthrough performance.
Her run in Tokyo makes me wonder how fast the other top Trials competitors could run in good conditions, and how fast Saina could have run in a more evenly-paced race. Maybe she ran as fast as she was going to go, and she hung on admirably, but her 5K splits slowed at the end. She ran 16:18, 16;10, 16:13, 16:24, 16:38, 16:24, 16:48, 17:02, and 16:42 pace over the final 2.195K.
Mongolia’s Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh finished eighth in 2:26:32, taking 2:01 off her personal best. She set a national record and qualified for the Olympic Games by surpassing the Olympic standard (2:26:50). Canada’s Andrea Seccafien was making her marathon debut, hoping to go after the Olympic standard, but she dropped out of the race somewhere between 25K and 30K.
In age-group competition, Japan’s Mariko Yugeta, 65, ran 3:01:09. If this is up to date, she took 6:42 off the world 65–69 age-group record. Fourth in the same age group was 1984 Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson, 66, who ran 3:38:37 and became a World Marathon Majors six-star finisher.
Switzerland’s Manuela Schär won the wheelchair race in 1:40:10. Great Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper took second (1:40:28), and Susannah Scaroni was third (1:41:35). (Searchable results)
Rachel Smith wins the USATF 15K title
Rachel Smith earned her first postpartum win at the USATF 15K Championships on Saturday morning in Jacksonville, Florida. Smith, who had her daughter 10 months ago, looked like she might be out of contention in the middle of the race, but she closed well to take the win in 48:26, finishing four seconds ahead of runner-up Keira D’Amato.
Five women separated themselves from the rest of the field shortly after the race began: Smith, D’Amato, Emma Grace Hurley, Emily Durgin, and Annie Frisbie. Around 5K, Durgin and D’Amato began to pull away from the pack. At 10K, which they hit in 32:15, the duo led Smith by 13 seconds, with Frisbie another 20 seconds back.
And shortly after 10K, D’Amato began to pull away from Durgin. But as she began to climb the Hart Bridge—known as the Green Monster—late in the race, the lead men, who started five minutes behind the women, began to close on D’Amato. And the gap back to Durgin and Smith was shrinking as well.
With just over a mile to go, near the top of the bridge, Teshome Mekonen, the eventual men’s winner, passed D’Amato. Smith passed Durgin to take over second, and with a mile to go, Smith was only five seconds behind D’Amato.
D’Amato put up a good fight when Smith caught her, and the two ran together for about half a mile, until Smith pulled away. D’Amato told the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union that she developed a side stitch on the downhill, which prevented her from kicking the way she would have liked. Smith covered the final downhill mile in 4:42. Durgin took third in 48:44, Frisbie was fourth (49:28), and Hurley rounded out the top five (49:52). Smith and Hurley were the only two runners in the top five who weren’t coming off of running the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials four weeks earlier.
After the race, Smith told USATF.tv that when she ran this race five years earlier, she hit the hill on the Hart Bridge and blew up. So she made it her goal to have good momentum on the bridge this time out. As she approached the hill, she repeated her family members’ names in her head, over and over.
Smith told News4Jax that this race was for her dad and mom. In an Ali on the Run Show episode released earlier in the week, Smith had many wonderful things to say about her father, whose cancer hasn’t been responding to treatment. She said that while she definitely still has big running goals and she’s a very competitive person, her top priorities right now are her daughter and spending time with her father. “I [run] because I love it,” she told host Ali Feller. “I want to see how good I can be at it while keeping my life values, first and foremost, at the center.”
My first instinct was to think that Smith winning this race was a pretty big upset, because she traditionally hasn’t been as strong at the longer distances. Her half marathon PR is 1:12:36, and she ran more than three minutes slower at this race five years ago. But I think this is the race where her ability at the longer distances started to catch up to what she can do in the 10,000m and shorter distances.
Next up for both Smith and D’Amato is the TEN, a 10,000m track race on March 16 in San Juan Capistrano, California. (Results | Broadcast replay, which doesn’t show a lot of the race)
Other News and Links
After the 800m heats at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, Allie Wilson announced that she has signed with Nike. And although she hasn’t announced anything yet, her teammate, Emma Grace Hurley, ran the USATF 15K Championships in an Asics uniform. It appears that their decisions to move to the Heartland Track Club are paying off.
Charlotte Purdue and Calli Hauger-Thackery were named to Great Britain’s Olympic marathon squad. This is a sweet honor for Purdue, who was controversially left off the team for the 2021 Games, despite having one of the fastest times. And it’s pretty cool that Thackery, who has run only one marathon, earned her Olympic spot running around New York’s Rockland Lake State Park at the low-key Bakline McKirdy Micro Marathon.
Sarah Lorge Butler wrote about whether the Olympic Marathon Trials will continue to exist in the future. (Runner’s World) Jason Siegel of Greater Orlando Sports told Lorge Butler that he would love to host another Trials in Orlando, but race director Jon Hughes said he would never want to host again. “I love my team too much,” he said. “I don’t think I could do that to them again.” One obvious solution for 2028 would be to hold the Trials in Los Angeles, where the Olympic Games will take place. But that would require finding a group willing to take on the project, including the massive financial burden. In the latest issue of Road Race Management, Amy Begley, wearing her USATF hat, was quoted as saying, “The (Olympic Marathon Trials) model does need to be tweaked a bit so it is more affordable…We’re going to work hard on this.”
Erin Strout covered some similar themes in this piece, where many of the big names in the sport weighed in with their thoughts on the Trials. (Update: This link was wrong in the email I sent out, but it’s now fixed.)
It was interesting to hear Kate Grace say in this update that she is going to be more self-coached going forward, and I’m hoping she’ll go into more detail soon.
Former University of Colorado runner Hannah Miniutti recently announced that despite having eligibility remaining, she is done with collegiate competition. The CU program has come under fire for its overemphasis on body composition, among other things. An investigation conducted last year found that the women’s team had a particularly unhealthy environment. “I have been in a challenging spot with running for a couple years now and found it to be the cause of far more harm than good for me both physically and mentally,” Miniutti wrote. “It has been hard to let go, but I know it’s the best call for me and my health.”
I missed her earlier announcement, but Ann Marie Pierce, who finished 82nd at the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:43:04, is pregnant with her third child, who is due in October. She said she suspected she was pregnant leading up to the race, but she chose not to confirm it until she got home from Orlando.
In addition to being the reigning USATF Outdoor 800m champion, Nia Akins is also a musician. She released a new song, To the Moon, last week.
Sabrina Little’s book, The Examined Run, was published last week, and you can read an excerpt here.
Additional Results
Romania’s Joan Chelimo Melly won France’s Harmonie Mutuelle Semi de Paris, a half marathon, in 1:06:58. (Results)
Kenya’s Mary Ngugi won Italy’s RomaOstia Half Marathon in 1:07:38. (Results)
Taylor Werner won the two-mile at the Trials of Miles meet at the Armory in 9:32.56. Her Puma Elite teammate, Kenya’s Dorcas Ewoi, took second in 9:37.41. (Results)
Because I’m running out of time and space, I’m skipping the podcast section this week. But I really enjoyed Joan Benoit Samuelson on Hurdle, Fiona O’Keeffe on Dying to Ask: Road to Paris, Josette Andrews on I’ll Have Another, Melody Fairchild on Love Where You Live: Boulder County, and Alysia Montaño on Journey Together
Upcoming
I couldn’t be more excited for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, which start on Thursday at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston. New Balance has kindly moved the first three days of their high school national meet to the Reggie Lewis Center, several miles away, to accommodate the NCAA meet. The final day of New Balance Nationals Indoor, on Sunday, will be back at their own facility.
You can get information about NCAA indoors here. Based on this, it looks like it’s possible to watch the entire meet via ESPN+, which is a $10.99 subscription. But you should check that before subscribing. And if you’re not that committed, most of the finals are likely to be posted on YouTube shortly after they happen.
It was tougher than ever to qualify for this year’s championship. The cutoff times were 2:02.86 (800m), 4:33.04 (mile), 8:54.12 (3,000m), 15:33.98 (5,000m), and 10:52.06 (distance medley relay). The live results will be here.
Massive thanks to Amy Roberts, who has been photographing World Indoors for Fast Women for the past three days. I appreciate the long hours (and the travel) she put in to get such great shots. Click on her name to see more of them.
I couldn’t be more grateful to all of you who help keep this newsletter going via their contributions via Venmo and Patreon. Especially in this less-sponsored year, Fast Women truly would not be possible without you.
Have a great week!
Alison
See you Sunday. Perhaps I can buy you and Sarah a coffee. Least I can do for all your amazing work!