Recapping a beautiful night of USATF Championship racing
A big upset and a big finish from the favorite.
*Spoiler Alert if you haven’t watched last night’s 10k final go back and take a look/listen to my primer for the event before you move forward*
Ok now that that piece of house keeping is out of the way, let’s talk 10k final action. Going into last night I thought for sure Molly Huddle and Shadrick Kipchirchir would walk away with US titles but it wouldn’t be that easy for either of them.
Molly Huddle had to close in 4:38.39 only 66 days after Boston (apparently you have to run really well in your first race post Boston) which maybe proves that she should stay on the track instead of venturing further on the roads. Huddle had led the whole race but after mile 5 she had 9 runners on her tail… then the fireworks happened. Huddle dropped the hammer running 73,71,68 over the next 3 laps dropping everyone except for Marielle Hall. Huddle then upped the ante finishing with a 64 second last lap to cap off a master class of Championship racing. Hall held on for the longest but wasn’t able to match the closing speed of the American record holder, still a 2nd place finish should give her some confidence going forward as an ascending star. Rounding out the top 3 was Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce who was able to hold off Emily Sisson in what was the upset of the night… at least for a few minutes. I predicted in my USATF primer podcast a 1st place finish for huddle, a 2nd place finish for Hall and then Sisson rounding out the top 3 BUT I had also expected Gwen Jorgensen to have more of an impact on the race overall. I suspect that her being in the heat of marathon training may be having an impact on her speed given what she was able to at the Stanford invite earlier this year.
If the Woman’s 10k was a bit of a surprise in how it played out then the Men’s 10k was a astronomical upset. Going into the night I thought Shadrick Kipchirchir’s win was a given — we might as well have given him the title before the gun went off. Boy… was I wrong.
If you listened to my podcast you can hear the uncertainty in my voice when discussing Lopez Lomong’s chances. I love Lopez and he is by far one of my favorite runners — a US 1500 meter champion, a US olympian at 5000m — but I had no idea what he could do over 10k. Does he have the range of a Galen Rupp or Mo Farah? Is a 3:32 1500 meter runner able to train at that level for a 10k?
The answer is yes… yes he can and yes he did!
The race was your typical championship race. Over the first 5k the pace was pretty pedestrian but the pace did pick up a bit down the home stretch. After the pack dwindled to 6 then to 4 it finally came down to Kipchirchir and Lomong over the final 200 meters. Lomong stayed on Kipchirchir’s hip until the final 100 meters — then he used his incredible turnover to blow right past Shadrick and claim his 1st 10k title.
Lopepe is the first American in the modern era to claim a 1500m title and a 10k title. 10 years ago Lopez competed in his first USATF Championship by making both the 800 meter and 1500 meter final and now after a few years of rough results he has found his form… and I could not be any happier.
What did you think of last night’s final? What are you expecting to happen tonight? I would love to hear your opinion either in the comments or by tweeting me using #runwithjustin.
Happy Running,
-Justin
