Fast Women: World Indoor wins for Sekgodiso, Tsegay, and Hailu
Brynn Brown's journey to sustainable success
Issue 342
After a five-year wait, World Indoors takes place in Nanjing
I remember being at the USATF office in January 2020, when staff there received word that that year’s World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled to take place in Nanjing, China, had been postponed by a year due to Covid. It feels like a lifetime ago, and most Americans had no idea what was coming. This past weekend, World Indoors finally took place in Nanjing.
Ethiopians Freweyni Hailu and Gudaf Tsegay went in as the favorites and came away with wins in the 3,000m and 1500m, respectively, while South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso pulled off a minor upset to win a wild 800m final.
The U.S. women had mixed fortunes with Shelby Houlihan winning a silver medal in the 3,000m and Whittni Morgan finishing close behind her. Sinclaire Johnson and Heather MacLean finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 1500m, both saying that their legs felt flat from the beginning. Nia Akins had some bad luck in the 800m semifinals and neither she nor Val Tobias advanced out of the semis.
Freweyni Hailu repeats as world champion, Shelby Houlihan gets her first global medal
Last year, Freweyni Hailu won the 1500m at World Indoors in Glasgow, this year, she won the 3,000m. The race was tactical, and it came down to the last 400m. Hailu, 24, covered the last 400m in 59.07 seconds and the last 200m in a blazing 28.70 seconds and won the race in 8:37.21.
In her first global championship back following her four-year doping ban, Shelby Houlihan earned silver, nipping Australia’s Jess Hull at the line, 8:38.26 to 8:38.28. Whittni Morgan also ran an excellent race, finishing fourth in 8:39.18, just out of the medals.
“I feel very happy that I won the race,” Hailu told reporters. “I was sick at home just before coming to Nanjing, so I stayed at the back to conserve myself before making my push. I'm healthy now, and I came here to win… I don't know how I will celebrate—my happiness is beyond me."
Any time someone returns from a doping ban as severe as Houlihan’s was, I don’t have the same level of enthusiasm that I previously had for their accomplishments. But no matter how I, or anyone else, feels about it, Houlihan winning silver in the 3,000m is a big moment in her career. She missed four years of competition due to her ban, and there was always the chance that she wouldn’t be able to approach her previous level upon her return.
But in one season, she has shown that she will absolutely be a factor on the U.S. and world scene. And on Saturday, she won her first global medal. The indoor championships aren’t as competitive as the outdoor championships, but this was a big step for her.
Houlihan is pacing the TEN next week—like a little running community service—and I’m sure she’ll do a good job. On the sponsorship side of things, it will be interesting to see if having a world championship medal will lead any shoe companies or other brands to bite, in spite of her history. (3,000m replay | Results)
Gudaf Tsegay leaves nothing to chance
Gudaf Tsegay went into the 1500m final at World Indoors with a seed time five seconds faster than anyone else’s and she came out with a similar margin of victory. She won gold with a championship record of 3:54.86 while Diribe Welteji, also of Ethiopia, took silver (3:59.30) and Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell bounced back from the disappointment of finishing outside the medals at the European Indoor Championships to earn bronze (3:59.84).
Some championship races start off slowly, but not the middle distance finals in Nanjing. Tsegay hit 400m in 60.50 and 800m in 2:03.44. She got progressively slower, but she hung on well. Everyone let her go after the first lap, but those who stayed closest were in the medal hunt at the end. Obviously one has to have the fitness to back that up, but we are seeing more and more that it’s hard for anyone to let the leaders go and still stay in the race. (Hunter Bell did a good job, though, of bridging a two-second gap up to Weltiji and Australia’s Georgia Griffith mid race.)
Griffith finished fourth in an Oceanian record of 4:00.80 and Susan Ejore, of Kenya and Dark Sky Distance, took fifth in 4:03.89. (1500m replay | Results)
Prudence Sekgodiso wins an eventful 800m
While in the 1500m, the athletes who went out hard were rewarded, that strategy backfired for some in the 800m final. From the gun, Ethiopia’s Nigist Getachew looked like she was running a 100m race. Once she made her way to the lead, she settled in a bit, but she hit 100m in 12.91 seconds, 200m in 26.62, and 400m in 55.88. Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma, the pre-race favorite and defending champion, went with her, as did South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso.
With one lap remaining, the quick start caught up to Duguma, who ultimately finished sixth in 2:04.76. It was Sekgodiso, 23, who had the best combination of pacing and fitness, and she won comfortably in a national record of 1:58.40. Getachew, also 23, was running her first indoor meet ever and though she, too, paid for her quick start, she was able to hang on well enough to earn silver in 1:59.63.
And it’s fun to go back and watch Portugal’s Patricia Silva, 25, who used a completely different strategy. She was in last place heading down the backstretch for the final time, but she closed better than anyone and earned bronze in a national record of 1:59.80. When Silva was a toddler, her father, Rui Silva, won the 1500m at World Indoors in 2001. (800m replay | Results)
A missed opportunity for Nia Akins
After looking so smooth in the first round of the 800m at World Indoors, Nia Akins ran one of the best races of the 800m semifinals, but unfortunately she did not advance to the final. Success in championship racing indoors requires a mixture of fitness, strategy, and luck, and the latter was not on Akins’ side on Saturday. Seventeen seconds into her semi, a chain reaction caused her to fall.
She got back up quickly, remained calm, and gradually worked her way up to the pack over the next two laps. Plenty of runners have fallen and then gotten back in a race—I immediately thought of Heather (Dorniden) Kampf’s famous 600m—but doing it while racing a world class 800m field is impressive. It didn’t hurt that the race was tactical, so the pace was a bit slower up front during those two laps. But still.
Once Akins caught the leaders, she only had about 100m to regroup a bit before the kicking began. She crossed the finish line fourth, in 2:04.38, just 0.18 seconds away from earning a spot in the final, despite her fall. It seemed like there was a good chance that Akins would be able to petition her way into the final, but the protest USATF filed on her behalf was denied. She ran two excellent races, but her meet was over.
Since last summer, Akins has changed coaches, sponsors, and moved across the country. Between that and dealing with panic attacks, her road to this meet clearly wasn’t easy. It was impressive that she made it to China at all, and she has a lot to be proud of. (Post-race interview with Akins)
Val Tobias got herself out of some tough spots in the 800m prelims and advanced to the semifinals. But in the semis, she finished fifth, and only three advanced. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it was an invaluable learning experience, and what a fantastic breakout season she has had.
Brynn Brown’s journey to sustainable success
As a junior at Guyer High School in Denton, Texas, Brynn Brown became the fastest U.S. high school girl ever to cover 3200 meters outdoors. It was the spring of 2020, so there were no races happening due to the pandemic. Her time trial, led by male pacers, was unofficial. But the 9:39 she ran still ranks as one of the fastest performances ever.
Brown’s athletic accomplishments made her a top college recruit, but she had a lot to learn about pursuing her goals in a sustainable manner. Fortunately, since she arrived at the University of North Carolina in the summer of 2021, her coaches have emphasized putting her health first. The process has been slow, frustrating at times, and full of ups and downs. But Brown, now a 21-year-old college senior, has come out the other side a wiser, healthier, and faster runner.
Brown started out as a soccer player but transitioned to running by her sophomore year of high school. Running came naturally to her, and it was something she had found on her own, unlike soccer, which felt more like her parents’ choice than her own.
Though she has great relationships with both of her parents now, Brown said that growing up, her athletic pursuits became a way to receive validation from them, as they were going through a tough time in their relationship. She believes it was out of love, but her father put a lot of pressure on her to perform in soccer, and she ended up playing with a lot of fear. She noticed some of her teammates dealt with similar pressure.
Brown felt less of that pressure when she switched to running, and it didn’t take her long to become one of the best runners in the country. As a sophomore, she qualified for the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, where she finished 18th, and Nike Cross Nationals, where she finished 50th.
Not satisfied with her middle-of-the-pack finishes, Brown looked around at those meets and saw that some of the girls in front of her were training more intensely than she was and eating less. She concluded that if she wanted to be one of the top runners, she needed to do the same. That sent her down a dangerous road of undereating and overtraining.
Brown’s times dropped, but she also struggled with injuries. She got her period once, when she was 15, but when she told her pediatrician she wasn’t getting regular periods, he mistakenly told her that was normal because she was really active.
“I wonder what my career would have looked like if I did go through puberty a little bit earlier and had a more sustainable high school career,” she told Fast Women. “I wish someone would have said something, so I’m glad that people are speaking up now.”
Brown felt a shift after Mary Cain shared her experience of being pressured to lose weight while she was with the Nike Oregon Project, and as more athletes began to tell their stories. Brown also had a strength and conditioning coach in high school who helped plant the seed that she was going to need to take a different approach if she wanted to reach her potential in the sport.
High school running in the U.S. has only gotten more professional since Brown graduated. Her success predated the trend of high school athletes being offered name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. (Texas still doesn’t allow them for high school students.) And while an NIL deal would have allowed her to race out of state more often, she said that there are probably some positives to not having dealt with that added layer of pressure.
“I think given the headspace I was in, it may have exacerbated some of the poor habits that I had, thinking I needed to run really fast to maintain that deal at that age,” she said. “I think as long as you’re in the right headspace and you’re just making competing fun—which is probably the most important thing at that age—then you’re good.”
During her senior track season, Brown developed a navicular stress fracture and two metatarsal stress fractures in her foot; she graduated from high school with a cast on her leg. Prior to arriving at UNC, she got a bone scan that revealed she was dealing with osteopenia (lower-than-normal bone density). Once she was on campus, her coach at the time, Dylan Sorensen, asked her if she was getting regular periods, and she admitted she was not.
The coaches and support team prioritized Brown’s health and took a holistic approach to helping her. She began seeing a dietitian and sports psychologist regularly, and she had hormone panels done. In the beginning, she says, she had one foot in recovery and one foot out, but she appreciated that her coaches were patient with her and they had a plan. “I definitely think it saved my career,” she said.
Brown won her first college race, but Pre Nationals, where she finished 39th, and the NCAA Cross Country Championships, where she took 65th, were a bit of a rude awakening, as she began to understand just how deep the NCAA was.
Her coaches urged her to trust the process and emphasized that the goal was to leave college running her best, rather than getting fast quickly and later plateauing or burning out. At times, she worried that she had peaked in high school and sacrificed having a long, healthy career. But seeing other athletes, including Allie Ostrander and Elise Cranny, share their experiences was encouraging.
Brown had flashes of success in her first two years at UNC, but she also dealt with a lot of frustration. Heading into her junior year, Chris Miltenberg became her coach, which she was excited about. Brown was hoping to have a breakthrough year.
The summer leading in, at age 20, she began getting regular periods for the first time. On one hand, that was good news, because that was the goal. And she knew it was important not to fight the changes, and that they would pay off down the line. On the other hand, it was hard. Her body was changing, running felt different, and she developed several soft tissue injuries. “It definitely kind of sucked at first,” she said. “I felt like I was going through puberty at 20, which was rough, but I think I’m starting to get to the other side.”
Brown missed most of her junior year due to injury, but it ended up being a year of personal growth. She learned she could be happy even when she wasn’t able to chase her running goals. Since childhood, much of Brown’s identity was wrapped up in her athletic and academic success. And last year, especially, she focused on learning to enjoy the journey, rather than being so outcome oriented. Outside of running, Brown has long wanted to become a doctor. She’s majoring in neuroscience and psychology, refers to herself as a “big nerd,” and plans to attend medical school.
Brown made a healthy return to racing last fall and helped UNC come within six points of winning an ACC cross country title. Then she earned All-America honors for the first time, with a 38th-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the deepest collegiate distance race of the year. Brown’s indoor season started off well as she ran a mile personal best of 4:33.64, but soon after, she developed influenza A, which derailed her season.
She didn’t have the race she wanted at the NCAA Indoor Championships, where she helped UNC to a ninth-place finish in the distance medley relay, but she was thrilled to watch her teammates Makayla Paige and Ethan Strand win NCAA titles, and the UNC men’s DMR finish second.
Watching Paige, especially, brought her to tears. “I’ve gotten to see the behind the scenes and how hard they’ve worked and the failures along the way,” she said. “Their success is really motivating for me, because I know the system works. My journey might be a little different from theirs, but I still have one more year, so I’m excited to see where I can go.”
Brown feels like she has a lot of untapped potential, so after she uses her redshirt year, she hopes to take at least one year off from school to pursue professional running. “I’d like to just keep seeing how good I can get,” she said. “If it stops being fun, I’ll stop. But I’m having a lot of fun right now.”
One of the things that is contributing to her recent enjoyment of the sport is her involvement in a free youth running program called Run Your City. Brown is the president of the Chapel Hill chapter, and each week, she and 20 other UNC student-athletes coach 100 or more kids through a practice.
“Honestly, it’s been the most grounding thing ever,” she said. “I think it’s so easy to get caught up in the times everyone’s running, and why I’m not where I want to be. But at the end of the day, running is just such a cool sport and it should be enjoyed. And the kids are just so awesome, I’ve never seen someone so excited to run a lap around the track.”
(Thanks to the A & N Track Talk podcast for making me aware of Brown’s story.)
Other News and Links
Molly Seidel is no longer sponsored by Puma. She discussed that and much more in this week’s episode of the Fast People podcast, which I put out a little early, so you can get all the details now.
Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry was elected as the next president of the International Olympic Committee last week, becoming the first woman and African to lead the organization. She’ll take over at the end of June. And this is especially relevant to track & field because Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, was running. His loss means he will remain in that role. Rose Eveleth, of Tested podcast fame, speculated in their newsletter that Coventry might be more sympathetic toward intersex athletes than Coe has been, but it’s too soon to say.
Going forward, the Prefontaine Classic 800m will be named the Mutola 800m, in honor of Mozambique’s Maria Mutola, who attended high school three miles from Hayward Field.
I loved reading about Augustana’s Bryn Greenwaldt, who won an NCAA DII title in swimming and earned All-America honors in the high jump at the NCAA DII Indoor Track & Field Championships on the same weekend.
There was talk leading up to NCAA Indoor Championships that TCU’s Tabitha Ngao was removed from the 800m field because she has been provisionally suspended due to a doping violation. Jonathan Gault reports that the rumors were true. (LetsRun link) Her suspension is reportedly due to whereabouts failures, which would mean that she has not tested positive for anything, just that she missed too many tests. She is apparently appealing.
Elly Henes shared that just when training was starting to go well, she got another pneumothorax. Because it wasn’t as bad as the first one, the required intervention wasn’t as invasive. I hope she can catch a break soon.
Jordan (Hasay) Hogan shared that she is pregnant with her first child, who is due on August 6, her late mother’s birthday.
Emily Mackay and Allie Ostrander both announced that they are newly engaged to their longtime partners last week.
TrailblazHers Run Co’s discrimination lawsuit against the Boston Athletic Association and the City of Newton, Massachusetts, will be allowed to proceed. A judge dismissed a claim that the defendants conspired to target the group, but allowed claims that TrailblazHers and those cheering with them were treated differently because of their race to stand.
BYU’s Meghan Hunter confirmed that she was dealing with an injury during the indoor season but said she will be ready for outdoors.
People have pointed out to me that Des Linden’s UltraSignup page indicates that she is registered to run the USATF 50 Mile Road Championships, which will be hosted by Tunnel Hill, in Vienna, Illinois, on November 8.
Gerald Phiri, who coaches some of the country’s best high school sprinters at Florida’s Montverde Academy, has been provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit.
Endless Mileage plants a tree in its Fast Forest for every U.S. woman who breaks 4:30 in the mile. And thanks to Ben Blankenship for pointing out that despite the fact that it’s only March, more U.S. women than ever have broken 4:30 for the first time this year. The athletes who have earned their trees this year are Riley Chamberlain, Abbe Goldstein, Kaylee Mitchell, Sinclaire Johnson, Gracie Morris, Grace Hartman, Mia Barnett, Maggi Congdon, Alex Carlson, Grace Boone, Angelina Ellis, Sadie Sargent, and Jane Hedengren. You can find the all-time list here.
Additional Results
In some parts of the country, it’s warm enough for outdoor track meets to be taking place. (In other parts, it’s not quite warm enough, but they’re happening anyway.) Clemson’s Judy Kosgei established herself as the early NCAA leader in the 800m, running 2:01.39 to win the 800m at UCF’s Black and Gold Invitational. It’s going to be a fast season. (Results)
Paris Olympic triathlon bronze medalist Beth Potter won the UK’s Pulford 10K in 31:18. Verity Ockenden was second (31:35), and recent Columbia graduate Phoebe Anderson took third (32:17). (Results)
Amy Davis-Green of the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project won Chicago’s Shamrock Shuffle 8K in 25:31. Claire Green of the Peninsula Distance Club took second in 25:56. (Results)
Canada’s Anne-Marie Comeau won Trials of Miles’ Project 13.1, at New York’s Rockland Lake State Park, running 1:11:53 (chip time 1:11:46). Maddie Offstein took second in a deep race, running 1:12:06 (1:11:58 chip). (Results)
Podcast Highlights
I enjoyed hearing from Elise Cranny on the Ali on the Run Show, and if you’ve ever wondered how professional athletes handle grooming to wear the uniforms that they do, jump to the 62:00 mark. Cranny said laser hair removal was a game changer for her.
Parker Valby was also on Ali on the Run, and I thought host Ali Feller did a nice job of bringing out her personality. Valby said the Boston winter was rough for her so she spent some time training in Florida. She didn’t rule out doing Grand Slam Track and said she’s in the market for a puppy. And her withdrawal from the Ten did not come up.
I was hoping for a newsier update, but Emily Sisson was on the Runner’s Diary podcast. She discussed her fueling challenges in past marathons and mentioned she doesn’t currently have a drink sponsor, so I guess she’s no longer with UCAN. She also said she’s trying to find more races in Europe, so it will be fun to see where she pops up. (She comes on at the 40:15 mark.)
Taylor Roe was on I’ll Have Another and The Running Effect. On the latter, she discussed getting hit by a car in New York City after the USATF 5K Championships last November. Jump to the 34:00 mark to hear that part.
Additional Episodes: Sage Hurta-Klecker on Unexpected Curves | Val Tobias on Keeping Track—I enjoyed hearing about her internship at Brooks | Erika Kemp discussed some of her favorite workouts on The Rambling Runner Podcast
The Ten will take place on Saturday in San Juan Capistrano, California. The top seeds are Lemlem Hailu of Ethiopia, Elise Cranny, and Weini Kelati. The fastest women’s 10,000 heat is scheduled for 11:55 p.m. ET, and the meet will stream on FloTrack. The schedule and entrants are available here.
Thanks to all of the readers who have helped keep this newsletter going in this mostly sponsor-less month. Your Patreon and Venmo contributions add up and make a big difference. I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
Love the story about Bryn Greenwaldt. Thank you for bringing it more sunlight! Also, 5 stars to the Fast People Podcast. These are such great interviews. And I’m so pleased that Sarah asks questions that no other podcaster would probably dare to go. Keep up the good work everyone.