Fast Women: World record for Beatrice Chebet at Pre
Diribe Welteji, Keely Hodgkinson, Tsigie Gebreselama, and Peruth Chemutai also win in Eugene.
Issue 294
Beatrice Chebet focuses on racing and the fast time comes
Holding the Kenyan Olympic 10,000m Trials at the Prefontaine Classic was an unconventional but not unprecedented move by Athletics Kenya, and it resulted in Beatrice Chebet setting a world record of 28:54.14 and becoming the first woman to break 29:00 on the track.
(Kenyans Agnes Jebet Ngetich and Emmaculate Anyango Achol ran 28:46 and 28:57, respectively, on the roads earlier this year, in a mixed gender race. But because male pacers and higher stack super shoes are allowed on the roads, not to mention the different venue, it’s hard to compare the times. Ngetich was a DNS on Saturday in Eugene, and Achol finished sixth in 30:06.43.)
Under normal circumstances, Trials races don’t have pacers and wavelights set to world record pace, but Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay was also in the race, and she was targeting Letesenbet Gidey’s 29:01.03 world record from 2021. Tsegay followed pacers for the first couple of miles, but her final pacer dropped out less than 3800m in, and then it was just Gidey and the lights trying to keep the pace going.
The Kenyans in the race were mostly focused on earning one of the two guaranteed Olympic spots, but a convenient way for Chebet to do that was to follow Gidey and see how long she could last. Lilian Kasait Rengeruk and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi also latched on to the lead group and held on the longest, and it ultimately worked out well for them.
Tsegay led through halfway in 14:31.08, right around world record pace, and Rengeruk and Kipkemboi started to fall off the pace over the next lap. As the race went on, strain started to show on Tsegay’s face, while Chebet, tucked in behind her, looked like she was out for tempo run.
Chebet made her move with just over three laps to go, because Tsegay was starting to fall behind the pace lights. She ran her final 400m in 63.63 seconds and made breaking the world record look easy, shaving 6.89 seconds off Gidey’s time. Tsegay hung on to finish second in 29:05.92, which puts her third on the world all-time list. And though she essentially ended up being Chebet’s rabbit for 22 laps, Tsegay greeted Chebet warmly at the finish line and seemed genuinely happy for her.
At last year’s Pre Classic, in September, Tsegay set the 5,000m world record of 14:00.21 and Chebet finished second, so there’s some symmetry there. (Looking at the highlights from that race, I’m reminded that Nike dressed all of their athletes in the University of Oregon’s school colors at this meet last year. So I’m reminded to be thankful that they didn’t do that this year.)
Rengeruk held on to take third overall in 29:26.89 and secure the second Olympic spot. And Kipkemboi was right behind her in 29:27.59. Though she’s not guaranteed Olympic selection, hopefully her performance gave her a good shot. Imagine moving to seventh on the all-time list, becoming the third-fastest Kenyan ever to run the event and not making the team. And I have no idea if the chatter about needing to have a Nike athlete on the Kenyan marathon squad was true, but Chebet and Rengeruk are sponsored by Nike. So if that box really exists and it extends to other events, it has already been checked.
Uganda’s Sarah Chelangat set a national record, finishing ninth in 30:24.04.
It’s not easy to find fast 10,000m races in the U.S., but now the U.S. is home to the fastest 10,000m race ever. Ironically, there were no Americans in the race. It’s too bad, considering that only one Trials competitor, Weini Kelati, has the Olympic standard and Saturday’s conditions were great, with temperatures in the 50s. But given the pacing and the tough Olympic standard, plus Oregon’s unpredictable weather, it’s understandable. (Prefontaine Classic results | Brief 10,000m highlight video)
Don’t count Sifan Hassan out
Tsigie Gebreselama edged out Ejgayehu Taye to win the 5,000m, 14:18.76 to 14:18.92, and Ethiopians swept the top six spots. Birke Haylom, 18, who finished fifth in 14:23.71, set a world U20 record. Making Ethiopia’s Olympic squad in any distance event is going to be tough.
Sifan Hassan finished seventh in 14:34.38. Though she was way off her best, she ran 24 seconds faster than she did two weeks ago, and she said that she is in the midst of heavy training. Being from the Netherlands and being one of the world’s best, Hassan doesn’t have to peak for a Trials race or outdo anyone to make her country’s Olympic squad. That allows her to focus on peaking in August. And she also doesn’t need to decide too far in advance which events she will run at the Olympics. If she has any idea now, she’s not letting on.
Hassan, 31, said she will try to run fast in the 10,000m at the FBK Games, on July 7, and she will treat that as her Trials equivalent. And though her early season times are not earth shattering, I suspect that come August, she’ll be ready to go.
Weini Kelati continued her fantastic season, finishing ninth in 14:35.43, a 17.98-second PR. She moved to sixth on the U.S. all-time list, and went well under the Olympic standard of 14:52.00. Kelati said after the race that she’s not sure if she’ll run the 5,000m at the Trials, but she’s leaning toward just doing the 10,000m, because the 5,000m comes first.
Emily Infeld was the only other American in the race, and she finished 16th in 15:12.48. She said afterwards that she had to back off training recently for an Achilles issue, so the result was far from what she wanted. But she’s hoping her fitness will come around in time for the Trials, or that she can at least produce some good results later this season.
Infeld is still coached by Joe Bosshard, but she’s been training in Los Angeles with her husband. They just learned that they’ll be moving back to Portland, Oregon, for her husband’s job, but she said she’s hoping to delay that until September and avoid disrupting her season.
Welteji wins, Hull sets a record, and St. Pierre is better than ever
Pacesetter Jazz Shukla led the 1500m through 400m in 61.75 seconds, and Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji tucked right in behind them. The rest of the field, led by Elle St. Pierre, followed, but about 500m in, St. Pierre seemed to think better of going with Welteji and she backed off slightly and let a small gap form. Shukla hit 800m in 2:04.92 before dropping out, and Welteji was on her own for the last 700m. She held on well, running her last lap in 60.95 seconds and winning in 3:53.75, a small personal best.
Running on her college track, Australia’s Jess Hull stalked St. Pierre throughout, and with just over 200m to go, she went by, and then held St. Pierre off to finish second in an Oceanian record of 3:55.97. She took 1.32 seconds off of her personal best. Continuing her string of good races against Hull this year, St. Pierre finished close behind in 3:56.00.
There were pace lights set to Shelby Houlihan’s American record of 3:54.99, but St. Pierre said she decided early on to just focus on racing. In her first 1500m back after becoming a mom, she shaved 2.03 seconds off of her PR and moved to second on the U.S. all-time list.
Great Britain’s Laura Muir ran a solid season opener, finishing fourth in 3:56.35. And before I discuss the Americans, I want to mention Great Britain’s Georgia Bell, who lowered her 1500m PR by nearly three seconds, to 4:00.41, and secured her Olympic standard. Bell ran collegiately for Cal and pointed out on Instagram last week that in 2017, she raced Pac 12s at Hayward Field and ran a disappointing 2:10. And a few weeks later, she quit track forever, or so she thought.
For the first time ever, three Americans broke 4:00 in the same race, with St. Pierre third, Nikki Hiltz taking fifth in 3:59.64 and Emily Mackay right behind in 3:59.76. Sinclaire Johnson wasn’t far back, running 4:00.43 for ninth. Elise Cranny finished 13th (4:03.08) and Cory McGee took 14th (4:04.91).
I won’t be at all surprised if it takes a sub-4:00 race to make the U.S. Olympic team next month, or even if a sub-4:00 performance doesn’t make the team. There won’t be rabbits and pace lights at the Trials, and the athletes will have to run three rounds, but I can’t really imagine St. Pierre letting the pace lag, both because she’ll want to stay out of traffic and because she’s most vulnerable if the race comes down to a kick.
There’s no such thing as a sure bet heading into the Olympic Trials, but St. Pierre is certainly a safe one. She said that even though she ran a fast 5,000 eight days before Pre, she’s unlikely to double at the Trials. Her son, Ivan, watched her race from the stands, and she pointed out that this was his third trip to Hayward field, but his first since he was born. The last time they were there, she ran 4:04.94 at the 2022 World Championships, eight weeks into her pregnancy.
Cranny had some interesting comments after the race. She said she was hoping to go faster, but she had a couple of hiccups after running the Bryan Clay Invitational in April, so this was kind of like a second season opener for her. She said she’s fully healthy now and her training is starting to come around. She said she’ll run the 5,000m at the Trials, and she’s still figuring out if she’ll double in the 1500m or the 10,000m. Even if Cranny isn’t quite where she wants to be right now, 4:03 is still a really solid time for someone who can be competitive all the way up to the 10,000m.
The steeple provides a preview of battles to come
Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai, the reigning Olympic champion, and Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech had a great battle in the steeplechase. Chemutai didn’t take over the lead for good until the final barrier, but she won, 8:55.09 to 8:56.51, and set a national record.
Unfortunately the Americans in the race barely made it on the screen, but it sounds like Val Constien, the top U.S. finisher in a PR of 9:14.29, outkicked Courtney Wayment, who finished close behind in 9:14.48. Gabbi Jennings finished seventh in a PR of 9:18.03, Kaylee Mitchell finished eighth in a PR of 9:21.00, and Krissy Gear was 11th in 9:24.42.
I thought maybe this race would clear some things up about who the Trials favorites are, but the only thing that is clear to me right now is that this is going to be a really good race. It’s impressive that Constien is already in PR shape right around one year after having ACL surgery. Wayment improved her season’s best by 16 seconds, and made it clear that she’ll be a factor this season. And Jennings and Mitchell continue to improve.
Even though Gear was the last American finisher here, she was the only one who chose to open her season at Pre, so this was a bit of a rust buster for her. I hope it helps take off some of the pressure that comes with being the reigning U.S. champion, but I still expect her to be a major factor at the Trials, especially with the way she can close.
Constien had some interesting post-race comments, especially starting here. She said she thinks it’s going to take 9:09 to win the Trials and sub-9:15 to make the team. Also, related to her post–race comments, with all of the recent injuries, I keep thinking back to this interview Carrie Tollefson did with Shalaya Kipp, where Kipp said around the 11:45 mark that her research showed that during the water jump, runners deal with ground reaction forces up to seven times their body weight, compared to two to three times their body weight during normal running.
Keely Hodgkinson gets the early-season edge in the 800m
Traditionally, the world’s fastest 800m runners have run some pretty big positive splits en route to their fastest times. They get out hard and then hang on during the second lap. But Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain and Athing Mu have challenged convention in recent years, running more evenly-paced races and sometimes negative splitting.
The clash in strategies was on display during the Prefontaine Classic 800m, where Kenya’s Mary Moraa split 56.2 for 800m, and Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi and Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma were right behind her. Hodgkinson hung back a bit, probably splitting 57-point. (For some reason, her splits didn’t make it into the detailed results.) Hodgkinson didn’t catch the lead trio until just under 200m to go, but she made the pass with about 150m to go and won by 0.93 seconds, in a world-leading 1:55.78. Moraa was second in 1:56.71.
Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie moved up to take third in 1:57.45 and running her first 800m of the season, Nia Akins closed well to finish fourth in 1:57.98. Nakaayi took fifth in 1:58.18 and Duguma faded to eighth in 1:58.70. Sage Hurta-Klecker, the other American in the race, finished seventh in 1:58.48.
Mu was originally scheduled to be in this race as well, but her coach, Bobby Kersee, told Andrew Greif that she missed the race due to soreness in her left hamstring and her top priority right now is making sure she’s ready for the Olympic Trials.
Assuming she makes it to the Trials, Mu will be the favorite, but Akins is also looking tough to beat, and she was only 0.25 seconds off of her PR in her season opener. In a Citius Mag video released last week, Akins said she’s intentionally choosing tough races this season. “I felt like at Worlds, I was in over my head for the first time,” she said. “So this year I’m picking races that I know will be a challenge, where I’ll be in over my head a little bit, so when I get to the final at Trials and hopefully the final at the Olympics, it feels like Tuesday.”
Next up for Hodgkinson is the European Championships in two weeks, where she’ll defend her 800m title. (Full 800m replay)
Parker Valby sets up an NCAA double
I said two weeks ago that I would be surprised if Parker Valby doubled at NCAAs, so consider me mildly surprised. Given that she has a legitimate shot at making the Olympic team, I thought maybe she would stick to just one event at NCAAs. But it’s probably more about where her priorities lie. Florida is always in contention to do big things as a team, so it’s not surprising that she’d want to score as many points as possible in her final NCAA meet. And if she wants to have a shot at winning the Bowerman, doubling is likely to help her cause.
For the top athletes, the goal of the regional meets is to advance to the NCAA Championships without setting themselves back. And for the most part, that’s what they did over the weekend at the East Regional in Lexington, Kentucky, and the West Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
I followed four college track meets over the weekend, and at some point, all of them had their schedules disrupted by thunderstorms. In the East, Thursday night’s 10,000m race was delayed 4.5 hours and didn’t go off until 10:45 p.m., but that was no problem for Valby, who sat in the pack for 21 laps before taking off in the final mile, which she covered in 4:43. In pouring rain, she ran 32:43.91 and finished nearly 10 seconds ahead of Alabama’s Hilda Olemomoi. You can watch a replay of the race here.
Both runners doubled back in Saturday’s 5,000m. Valby won the first heat in a facility record of 15:19.76 and Olemomoi won the second heat in 15:19.57, breaking Valby’s record. Valby is the heavy favorite in both events heading into the finals in Eugene, and I will be impressed if Olemomoi or anyone else can challenge her.
Another favorite, Maia Ramsden of Harvard, won the East Regional 1500m in 4:05.65 (video here) and finished second in her 5,000m heat with a PR of 15:29.06. She doubled at NCAAs last year, but finished only 18th in the 5,000m after winning the 1500m. If she decides to double again this year, it will be interesting to see what she can do now that she’s another year stronger.
The top steeplechase contenders, Alabama’s Doris Lemngole (9:28.91) and Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich (9:35.33) each won their heat at the East Regional. And another favorite, LSU’s Michaela Rose, won her 800m heat in 1:59.05. Clemson’s Gladys Chepngetich became the third collegiate runner to break 2:00 this season, winning her heat in 1:59.81. In the West, Stanford’s Roisin Willis (2:01.04) and Juliette Whittaker (2:01.05) both won their heats and led the qualifiers. Arkansas’ Sanu Jallow, the other runner to break 2:00 this season, also won her heat, with a 2:03.75.
The NCAA Championships will take place June 5–8 in Eugene, Oregon, with the women competing on June 6 and 8. (East Regional results | West Regional results)
Emma Kelley stars at NCAA DIII Championships, Gracie Hyde shines in DII
I found myself getting sucked into the coverage of the NCAA DIII Track & Field Championships over the weekend, and a lot of that is thanks to the great work Noah Droddy and Stu Newstat have done through D3 Glory Days. They tell the stories well, so even if I haven’t been paying close attention all season, it’s easy to follow along.
Washington University’s Emma Kelley was one of the big stars of the meet. On one day, she won the 400m final (53.76), won the 800m roughly 40 minutes later (2:06.02), and split 54.06 to anchor her team to a dramatic 4x400m win. Kelley is headed to the University of Wisconsin next year.
In hot and humid conditions, St. Benedict’s Fiona Smith made her move with about two miles to go and won the 10,000m in 34:27.32, earning her sixth national title and fourth this year. Now a 16-time All-American, Smith will run for NC State next year. Vassar first-year Haley Schoenegge pulled off one of the bigger surprises of the meet, PRing by six seconds to dominate the 1500m final in 4:19.46.
And the 5,000m was the best of all. In her final DIII race, Smith was gunning for her fifth national title this year. One of her challengers was WPI’s Grace Hadley, who was a heavy favorite to win the 1500m, but the night before the Thursday prelims, she came down with food poisoning and was unable to run. Normally scratching from her first event would mean that she was out of the meet, but she got a medical waiver to run in Saturday’s 5,000m final, assuming she felt well enough.
In a tactical race, Smith was unable to shake relative unknown Faith Duncan of Ohio’s Wilmington College, and Duncan kicked to a win in 16:44.12. Her Instagram shows Duncan is a triathlete with an interesting college backstory. And Hadley recovered well enough from her food poisoning to kick by Smith late and take second. Smith ended up third, and Schoenegge, the emerging star, took fourth. The times were nothing special, but the racing was great. (DIII results)
At the DII Championships, Adams State’s Gracie Hyde, the heavy favorite in every event she contested, won the steeplechase (9:36.95) and the 1500m (4:16.80). Florence Uwajeneza of West Texas A&M won both the 10,000m (34:14.47) and the 5,000m (16:33.00). And the 800m had a very dramatic finish as Ursuline’s Alaysia Brooks went through 400m in 58.33 seconds and opened up a huge lead. She started to tie up at the end, but she was still leading when she fell on the homestretch and the entire field went by her. Tiffin’s Ines Macadam won the race in 2:08.85. (DII results)
Other News and Links
Sarah Lorge Butler reported that Katelyn Tuohy is unlikely to run the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials after dealing with a hamstring injury in the winter and spring. Her agent, Ray Flynn, told Runner’s World that she’s back to training now, but probably won’t be ready in time. Tuohy hasn’t raced since the NCAA Cross Country Championships last fall.
The day after she turned 80, Jan Holmquist ran 24:08 for 5K at the Great Bear Run in Needham, Massachusetts, and set a pending world record for the 80–84 age group. She ran every step of the race with her 15-year-old granddaughter, Story Bracker, and took about a minute off of the previous record. There’s a brief news segment on Holmquist’s record-setting run here.
Michelle Rohl, 58, qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 20K race walk, beating the 1:48:00 standard by 2 minutes, 37 seconds. Sixteen kilometers into the race, she tripped and cut her chin, but she got up and finished with room to spare. Her husband wrote that they believe she is the oldest woman ever to qualify. She competed in her first Olympic Trials 32 years ago, in 1992.
This is a good article about Emily Durgin, from the Portland Press Herald. She said she decided not to run the 10,000m at the Trials partially because the Olympic standard (30:40) is so tough, and a fifth-, sixth-, or seventh-place finish there wouldn’t mean much. Durgin will use Maine as her summer training base, but first she’ll try to defend her title at today’s Bolder Boulder 10K. (The pro women start at 1:15 p.m. ET and the race will stream live on YouTube. This is always a fun one to watch.)
Kate Grace talked to Runner’s World about coaching herself and her return to competition. “I still 100 percent believe I can compete with people in this country and the world,” she said. “But I have to be very good about listening to my body.”
It took a while—I don’t know why—but Tigist Assefa’s marathon world record of 2:11:53, from last year’s Berlin Marathon, has been ratified.
This is an interesting Parker Valby feature.
Great Britain’s Phoebe Gill, 17, who has recently made headlines for running 1:57 for 800m and 4:05 for 1500m, discussed her experience with REDs when she was 14 years old. She said she didn’t have an eating disorder, but her training volume increased and she stopped getting periods, she experienced fatigue, and her hair was falling out. Her parents and coach attended a Project RED-S talk, recognized what was going on, and then they worked to reverse the symptoms. I’m hoping that as people become better informed, we’ll see fewer young athletes experiencing REDs, as well as more catching it sooner.
Additional Results
Gill ran another fast 800m race, winning the British Milers Club SportCity Grand Prix in 1:58.08. She beat a quality field, including runner-up Ciara Mageean, who broke her own Irish record with a 1:58.51. (Results | Finish clip)
France’s Agathe Guillemot won the 1500m at Meeting Stanislas in Nancy, France, in 4:02.05. Dani Jones finished second in 4:02.37, after running 4:02.09 in Los Angeles one week earlier. South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso won the 800m in 1:59.63. (Results)
Holly MacGillivray of the University of British Columbia won the 1500m at the NAIA T&F Championships in 4:20.19, and her teammate Rachel Mortimer won the 800m in 2:05.55. (Results)
Ethiopia’s Gotytom Gebreslase won the Great Manchester Run 10K in 30:32. Betsy Saina finished fifth in 32:11. (Results)
Canada’s Malindi Elmore won the Ottawa 10K in 32:50. (Results)
Emma Kertesz won the Bayshore Marathon in 2:37:34. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
Rachel McArthur discussed winning her first national title on Women’s Running Stories. I wrote about McArthur recently, but it’s fun to also hear the story in her own words. And then she and her boyfriend, Cooper Teare, made a joint appearance on C Tolle Run. At the beginning Carrie Tollefson briefly mentioned the pile-up in the 1500m at the 2005 Prefontaine Classic; the photos provide a sense of how bad it was.
Grayson Murphy was on The Freetrail Podcast. If you’ve listened to her other interviews, much of the content will be review, but I always enjoy her hot takes.
USATF CEO Renee Washington doesn’t do a lot of podcasts, so it was interesting to hear from her on The Business Case for Women’s Sports, even if much of the content won’t be news to track fans. She did say USATF is working on helping defray the cost of childcare for pro T&F athletes, though.
Additional Episodes: Jess McClain on For the Long Run | Great Britain’s Georgia Bell discussed quitting the sport and then coming back better than ever on 5 Miles Easy | Rose Davies discussed lowering the Australian 5,000m record to 14:41.65 on For the Kudos
Whew, this was a long one. I am grateful to anyone who cares enough about running to make it this far, as well as those of you who help keep Fast Women going with your support on Venmo and Patreon. Have a great week!
Alison
Thanks for this wonderfully thorough newsletter! We missed watching Pre due to our kid’s high school graduation (10/10 worth missing the meet!) so it was great to get such a detailed recap. Have a great week!