Fast Women: Faith Kipyegon does it again
NCAA T&F Championships produce five first-time winners in the distance events.
Issue 241, sponsored by New Balance
Faith Kipyegon sets the 5,000m world record one week after 1500m record
Faith Kipyegon entered the 5,000m at Friday’s Paris Diamond League meet to test out the distance. Her tentative plan is to move up to the 5,000m and longer distances after next year’s Paris Olympic Games, and she hadn’t raced the distance in eight years. It would be an understatement to say it went well. One week after running 3:49.11 and breaking the 1500m world record, Kipyegon also broke the 5,000m world record, winning in 14:05.20.
Letesenbet Gidey, who set the previous record of 14:06.62 in 2020, was also in the race, and inadvertently ended up serving as a fourth rabbit. Kipyegon took the lead with 700m to go, but she didn’t really take off until about 150m to go, when she blasted away from Gidey, who finished second in 14:07.94, the third-fastest 5,000m ever. (Side note: This was Gidey’s first race back after collapsing at the World Cross Country Championships, and it’s great to see her running well.) You can watch highlights from the race here.
Kipyegon expressed her shock and delight after setting the record, and I can’t say I was as surprised. She showed a week ago that she was in the shape of her life, and she told World Athletics that since switching to coach Patrick Sang in 2019, she has done much more strength-based work. Kipyegon’s 5,000m PR, from 2015, was 14:31.95, and she ran 3:59.32 for 1500m that year. Now she’s 10 seconds faster in the 1500m and shoe technology has made a huge leap. And though it wasn’t her goal, Gidey set Kipyegon up perfectly.
As of now, Kipyegon’s best event is still the 1500m—she’s more dominant there. But she showed on Friday that she has options. The race was a fast one all around, as six women ran 14:23 or faster. Alicia Monson was the top American, running 14:34.88 for eighth. Monson wasn’t thrilled with her performance, but she said it’s a sign of progress that she’s disappointed with one of her fastest times ever. (Results)
The second mind-blowing performance of the evening came from Keely Hodgkinson. In her season opener, she ran 1:55.77 to win the 800m. She broke her own British record, set at the 2021 Olympic Games, by 0.11 seconds. Hodgkinson’s first 400m was nothing remarkable, as she split 57.7. But she ran the second 400m nearly as quickly and dominated the race as a result. If this is her starting point, it’s going to be exciting to see where she can go this season. Ajee’ Wilson ran a strong race to take second in a season best of 1:58.16. (Race highlights)
Thanks to New Balance for sponsoring Fast Women
New Balance Nationals Outdoor take place starting on Thursday at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. If you’re nearby, the meet is worth checking out, and if not, there’s a free livestream. The meet schedule is here, and the entries include Sadie Engelhardt and Sophia Gorriaran, among many others. And after watching Kara Goucher do an Instagram live with them last week, I’m interested to see how the Cuthbertson (NC) High School relay teams fare.
And I need to correct something I said last week—the FuelCell SuperComp Trainer v2 isn’t available just yet, but you can pre-order the shoe at Running Warehouse and look for it to be available at NewBalance.com very soon. I’ll be doing another New Balance shoe giveaway on Instagram this week, so look for that as well, if you’d like to win a free pair of shoes.
Plenty of drama at the NCAA Track & Field Championships
The headlines leading into the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Austin, Texas, centered on Arkansas’ Britton Wilson and NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy going after tough doubles. Wilson hoped to win the 400m and 400m hurdle finals, which were only about 25 minutes apart. And Tuohy hoped to win the 1500m/5,000m double. Villanova’s Sheila Reid pulled it off in 2011, but that was back when the finals were on different days. Tuohy planned to run her two finals less than two hours apart.
Both knew their goals were ambitious, and the NCAA is more competitive than it has ever been, but it would have been hard to predict that neither would win any titles in Austin. Wilson ran well in the 400m final, finishing second in 49.64, but Rhasidat Adeleke of Texas ran even better, taking the win on her home track in a meet record of 49.20, not far off the 49.13 collegiate record Wilson ran last month. And Wilson didn’t look like herself in the 400m hurdles, where she finished seventh in 55.92, behind a surprise win from Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland. Wilson later told Runner’s World that she has been dealing with pain in her left shin.
Meanwhile Tuohy had a rough outing in the 1500m, fading to seventh place, and then she ended up scratching from the 5,000m final. It didn’t work out for either one of them this time out, but they still had fantastic years, and their futures are bright. This is a far more dramatic example, but it reminds me of the time Jenny (Barringer) Simpson finished 163rd at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships after taking fourth in the steeplechase at the World Championships three months earlier. It was a low point, but it took nothing away from her future and only made her stronger.
I can’t imagine the pressure athletes like Wilson and Tuohy are facing as they try to win titles while also sorting out their futures. Wilson, who is already highly competitive internationally, has confirmed that she’ll now sign a pro contract. Though Tuohy has been less specific about the timing, I can’t imagine she’ll be far behind. Here’s to going after big goals, even though they won’t always work out.There’s a thread with links to videos of all of the NCAA finals here, or you can find them on the NCAA Championships YouTube channel, and results are here.
Julien Alfred scores 22.5 points to help Texas win the team title
One athlete whose double did work out was Texas’ Julien Alfred. On her 22nd birthday, she won individual titles in the 100m (10.72 seconds, 2.3 m/s wind) and 200m (21.73 seconds, 2.5 m/s wind) in addition to helping her team win the 4 x 100m relay in 41.60 seconds. You can read more about the biggest non-distance stories from the meet here.
Inspired by teammate, Maia Ramsden pulls off the upset
In one of the bigger surprises of the meet, Harvard’s Maia Ramsden won the 1500m in 4:08.60. NC State’s Tuohy took the race out hard, which seemed to be her best shot at a win. Tuohy opened up a lead mid-race, but Oregon’s Izzy Thornton-Bott closed it up and was right behind her at the bell. With 200m to go, four more runners had caught them, and it was anyone’s race.
Ramsden, who has lived all over but represents New Zealand, started off more conservatively. With one lap to go, she was a distant fifth, but had more in the tank than anyone else and pulled out a 63.27 to earn the win. Ramsden entered the meet with a PR of 4:11.73, but she lowered it to 4:09.81 in the semis and again in the final.
She said after the race that she was inspired by watching her teammate Graham Blanks finish second in the men’s 5,000m the night before. Thornton-Bott took second (4:09.21) and Virginia’s Margot Appleton finished third (4:09.30).
Michaela Rose earns her first NCAA title
LSU’s Michaela Rose is in the midst of a breakout season, and she kept it going in the 800m final, winning her first NCAA title in 1:59.83. It’s going to be fun to see what Rose can do when she has people to chase at the USATF Championships next month. Oklahoma State’s Gabija Galvydyte (2:00.47) and BYU’s Claire Seymour (2:00.55) had strong races to finish second and third.
Indoor champion Roisin Willis of Stanford finished fourth in 2:00.91 and said her race didn’t reflect her current fitness. I appreciated how candid she was about some of her recent struggles after the race. And it was already such a great story that BYU’s Meghan Hunter qualified for NCAAs after breaking her neck in a car accident in 2019. The fairytale continued as she ran a huge PR of 2:01.53 to make the final, where she finished eighth and earned first team All-America honors.
Everlyn Kemboi finishes out her NCAA career with her first national title
It’s tough running long distance races in June in Texas, so it was no surprise that the 10,000m final started off conservatively. But when Utah Valley’s Everlyn Kemboi made her move, it wasn’t even close. Kemboi started pushing the pace with around 1K to go, but she really took off with two laps remaining, and she won by eight seconds, in 32:39.08. Utah’s Emily Venters took second (32:47.70) and defending champion Mercy Chelangat of Alabama finished third (32:49.62).
Kemboi, who is from Kenya, has quite the story (told first by the Deseret News). She says she was removed from the team at the University of Arizona because she was scared of getting sick while racing during the pandemic, because she had seen what Covid had done to her father. That left Kemboi with only one month to find a new school, or she’d be at risk of being sent home. And that’s how she landed at Utah Valley.
Though she has collegiate eligibility remaining, Kemboi won’t use it. She hasn't been home in five years, and she’s homesick, so she’s headed back to Kenya. She graduated last month and wants to pursue professional running.
Olivia Markezich pulls out a big last lap
California Baptist’s Greta Karinauskaite entered the NCAA steeplechase final as the top seed, so it was no surprise to see her try to run away from the field, just as she had done at the regional meet two weeks earlier. But Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich went with her. And though Karinauskaite opened up gaps from time to time, they never appeared to be insurmountable for Markezich, who is known for closing well.
Markezich used a 73.83-second final lap, compared to Karinauskaite’s 81.01, to win the race, 9:25.03 to 9:30.85. Markezich’s time was a 10-second PR. She’ll now run USAs before returning to Notre Dame for another year.
Parker Valby wins despite injury
One of the biggest developments in the 5,000m final came when Katelyn Tuohy didn’t show up for the race. If this meet taught us anything, no one was a shoo-in to win, but she was a heavy favorite. Tuohy’s absence opened up the door, and Florida's Parker Valby seized the opportunity.
Valby began to pull away from the field around halfway into the race. While the chase pack remained within striking distance for a couple laps, Valby ran a quick final 1K and no one could get close. She won the race in 15:30.57 and the 1–2 finishers in the 10K, Everlyn Kemboi and Emily Venters, went 2–3 here, in 15:39.57 and 15:42.40, respectively.
Much of the commentary during the race focused on the fact that Valby has been injured since the end of the cross country season and hasn’t been able to run much. It’s been the same story for much of her collegiate career, and I hope that her new coaches, and Florida’s support staff, can help her figure out the root cause. Running on an injury rarely pays in the long term, even if there's pressure to do so to score team points.
Ali Feller announces her breast cancer diagnosis
On Tuesday, Ali on the Run Show host Ali Feller announced that she has bilateral breast cancer—invasive ductal carcinoma. I highly recommend listening to the emotional podcast episode she put out the same day, detailing how she became aware of her diagnosis.
Through her podcast, Feller, 38, has done what so few companies, organizations, and outlets have been able to do over the years: She has helped tell professional runners’ stories in a way that’s relatable to the thousands of runners who race behind them. And along the way, she has become a running celebrity herself. (When I saw former NYRR CEO Mary Wittenberg at this year’s Boston Marathon, it was amusing hearing her describe the experience of walking down the sidewalk with Feller and constantly being stopped by fans.)
Fast Women editor Sarah Lorge Butler wrote a nice piece about Feller for Runner’s World, and the quotes from Keira D’Amato are so touching.
And on a personal note, Ali is one of the first people I turn to when I have questions about this odd business of being a mostly solo creator attempting to make a living through running-related things. And she is always an incredible help. Though what we do and who we are is very different, she was one of the first people to prove it is possible to make a living this way, which has always been encouraging to me. I know it can be stressful to be a one-person show when you can’t do your job at full capacity. If you’re moved to support her and you have the financial means, I recommend signing up to support her work via Patreon.
Correction: In last week’s newsletter, I repeatedly wrote “4 x 100 mile record” when what I meant was 100 x 1 mile. I knew exactly what I meant every time I wrote it, but unfortunately I wasn’t writing what I meant. I apologize for any confusion that caused, I corrected it in the online version, and I think my fingers just aren’t used to typing 100 x anything when it comes to relay races.
Other News
Amy Yoder Begley is one of the few female head coaches of a professional running team in the U.S., but last week, the Atlanta Track Club announced that they’ll be replacing Yoder Begley, and her husband Andrew Begley, at the end of the season. The team has had a good deal of success under the guidance of the pair and the only explanation the announcement offered is that CEO Rich Kenah has decided the club will go in a different direction.
I’m hearing that it will be awhile before USATF announces the marathon squad for this summer’s World Championships, but details are leaking out. Keira D’Amato had said in the past that she wanted to run Worlds this summer, and she confirmed in this video that she has accepted her spot on the team. And according to the conversation at the 23:00 mark of this podcast episode, Lindsay Flanagan is on the team, too.
Additional Results
Grayson Murphy won the Mountain Classic race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, three days after she won bronze in the vertical uphill race. Murphy won her first world title in 2019 but was unable to compete at the event last year due to injury. I’m running out of space to write much more about this event, but World Athletics has recaps from days one, two, and three, iRunFar has extensive coverage, and the results are here.
Due to wildfire smoke coming from Canada, New York Road Runners urged runners not to run on Wednesday, which was Global Running Day. It’s a stark reminder that we really need to take care of our planet if we want to continue enjoying our sport. There was some uncertainty about whether the New York Mini 10K would even take place, but the smoke cleared in time for the Saturday race. It looked like it would be a close race between Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, but at the six-mile mark, Teferi took off, quickly gapping Obiri and winning, 30:12 to 30:19. It was good to see Teferi erase Asmae Leghzaoui’s event record of 30:29 from 2002, because Leghzaoui tested positive for EPO the following year. Though the course isn’t record-eligible because it’s a little too downhill, Teferi’s time is a U.S. all-comers best—the fastest 10K run on a certified course in the U.S. (all conditions). (Thanks to record-keeper Andy Carr for confirming this.) Mexico’s Laura Galván outkicked Emily Sisson to take third, 31:14 to 31:16. Keira D’Amato rounded out the top five (31:23), and I was really impressed with Kellyn Taylor finishing eighth in 32:15 just five months after having a baby. (Results)
Also at the Paris Diamond League meet, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened her season with a flat 400m (no hurdles). You can watch the full race here. It’s an event she rarely runs, but she ran a 47.91 4 x 400m relay leg at the World Championships, so the potential is there. McLaughlin-Levrone went out very aggressively, not far off Marita Koch’s world record pace, splitting 22.66 seconds for 200m. Her 100m splits were 11.59, 11.07, 12.28, and 14.77. McLaughlin-Levrone tied up at the end, and Marileidy Paulino passed her to win in 49.12. McLaughlin-Levrone held on for second in 49.71, a personal best. “Season opener, new PB, plan executed, more to come,” she wrote in an Instagram story, making her race execution sound like part of a bigger plan, so it will be interesting to see where things go from here. She has already said she’ll run the flat 400m at USAs next month.
Weini Kelati ran 14:53.41 to finish fourth at the On Track Nights: FAST5000 in Paris, shaving a couple seconds off her PR and dipping under the world championships standard of 14:57.00. Nikki Hiltz won the mile in 4:22.07. (Results)
South Africa’s Gerda Steyn won the Comrades Marathon for the second time, running a course record of 5:44:54. (Results)
There’s very little high level outdoor track in Massachusetts these days, so it was great to see the Adrian Martinez Classic return for the first time since 2019 over the weekend. Emily Mackay impressed in the 800m, running 2:00.17 in the pouring rain and taking more than four seconds off her outdoor PR. Annie Rodenfels won the 1500m, held before the rain, in 4:10.36. And Bethany Hasz won a rainy 5,000m in 15:22.22. I’ve posted some photos of this event on Instagram and I’ll post more in the coming days. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
PattiSue Plumer was one of the big stars of the sport when I started running in the 1990s, but until I listened to part one of her story on Starting Line 1928 last week, I didn’t know much of it. It’s a great story, and she tells it well. And after listening to her talk about making her first Olympic team in 1988, I had to look for the video. It’s fun to see how track was covered 35 years ago, and you’ll see that pro women having babies is nothing new.
I thought Sage Hurta-Klecker was great on I’ll Have Another and I appreciated hearing her thoughts on the CU investigation.
Colleen Quigley spoke frankly about her experience in the sport on C Tolle Run and she said the project she’s working on with Katie Camarena, to help aspiring pro runners, will launch shortly before USAs.
Additional Episodes: Des Linden and Kara Goucher discussed the state of the sport on Nobody Asked Us | Camille Herron on Women of Distance | Nell Rojas on Hurdle | Julia Griffey on Lactic Acid | Anna Rohrer on RunChats with @RonRunsNYC
This was such a busy week in the running world that it was a struggle to attempt to fit what I could in here! But that’s a good problem to have. Thanks to New Balance for sponsoring Fast Women this week, and thank you, also, to everyone who helps keep this newsletter going with your support on Patreon and Venmo. I hope you all have a great week!
Alison
Such an AMAZING and thorough article stuffed so full of details that I had to read through it twice.
NOTE: I received my well-constructed, super soft, stretchy, light, long-sleeve FAST WOMEN t-shirt. 5 star rave to all!