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Your Guide to Sound Running's The Track Meet + Kip Keino Classic & The USATF Multi-Events Championship

We’ve got some top-tier track and field action happening in Fayetteville, San Juan Capistrano, Nairobi and Eugene. Here's what to watch for.

May 06, 2022

This is the CITIUS MAG Newsletter by Chris Chavez. If you’ve been forwarded this email or stumbled upon a link online, you can sign up and subscribe here:

After a weekend at the Penn Relays, I packed my things into another bag and then flew down to Washington, D.C., where I got the opportunity to speak with Team USA athletes ahead of their White House visit on Wednesday. So, unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to write out a full recap of my favorite races from last weekend.

Earlier this week, I published a podcast episode with Wadeline Jonathas, who represented the United States in the 400m at last year’s Tokyo Olympics and finished fourth at the 2019 World Championships. It’s possibly my favorite conversation that I’ve published on the podcast feed this year so if you’re looking for some inspiration from a story of resilience that includes being homeless in high school, walking onto a Division III track team (where she won nine individual national titles) to eventually becoming a Division I champion and an Olympian by 23 years old, give it a listen.

Looking ahead to this weekend, we’ve got some top-tier track and field action happening in Fayetteville, San Juan Capistrano, Nairobi and Eugene. Thanks to David Melly and Paul Snyder for helping out with this weekend’s guide.

Here’s a quick rundown of the meets and how to watch:

Onto the events that I’m excited about…

USATF Multi-Events Championship

Mini Preview

Team USA’s squad for the World Championships will grow after this weekend as the top three men’s and women’s finishers – with the World Athletics qualifying standards – will secure their spots.

On the men’s side, Garrett Scantling is going for his fourth U.S. title. Last summer, he finished fourth in the decathlon at the Tokyo Olympics. Earlier this year, he won the U.S. indoor title in the heptathlon but then withdrew from the second day of competition at the World Indoor Championships due to food poisoning. This will be his outdoor season opener. Fellow U.S. Olympians Steven Bastien (6th at the Olympics) and Zach Ziemek (10th at the Olympics) were only separated by 14 points at last year’s Olympics Trials. TikTok fan favorite and former Division III standout Jack Flood was a guest on the D3 Glory Days Podcast ahead of this weekend’s competition and is another name to watch.

On the women’s side, U.S. Olympic Trials champion Annie Kunz shared that she will not defend her title as she recovers from a 50% tear in her plantar fascia. Kendell Williams could be among the favorites to take the crown as she is coming off a bronze medal in the pentathlon and a fifth-place showing at the Tokyo Olympics in the heptathlon. She already has a bye to the World Championships as the World Athletics Combined Events Tour champion in 2021. Erica Bougard has not missed a U.S. national team since 2012. The most recent of her five last U.S. titles came in 2019 before she took fourth at the World Championships in Doha.

I’m particularly excited to see how well Florida’s Anna Hall does. The collegian scored 6412 points at the Texas Relays, which would’ve been a good enough point total for fourth at last year’s Olympic Trials. There’s also a bit of a shot at redemption for Taliyah Brooks (a former Razorback) who was in second place after Day 1 of the U.S. Olympic Trials but was forced to withdraw on the second day after collapsing due to the hot conditions.

Sound Running’s The Track Meet

Women’s 1500m, 9:22 pm ET

The heavy favorite in this race is Canadian Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, the Tokyo 5th-placer in this event who’s coming off a phenomenal indoor season. This will be her first race following her much-publicized departure from Bowerman Track Club, but if she’s anywhere near the fitness she showed indoors a few months ago this should be an easy rust-buster for her. If the pace falters, look to Helen Schlachtenhaufen, Sinclaire Johnson, or Sage Hurta (fresh off her first sub-2:00 800m) to unleash a big kick. Schlachtenhaufen and Union Athletic Club’s Shannon Osika are developing quite the rivalry, often finishing close together with both of their PBs coming from the Stockholm Diamond League last summer. Osika has a head-to-head record of 6-2 against Schlachtenhaufen outdoors.

Men’s 1500m, 9:30 pm ET

Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse may be looking to reclaim his short-lived NCAA 1500m record from Eliud Kipsang, who ran 3:33.74 three weeks ago at Raleigh Relays. He’ll have a trio of OTC Elite runners for company in Jake Heyward, Will Paulson, and Vince Ciattei, all of whom have PBs between 3:32 and 3:34, but it’s entirely possible that the Irish duo of Paul Robinson and Andrew Coscoran, fresh off a solid 4xmile effort at Penn Relays, steal the show as Coscoran did at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.

There are also a pair of University of Washington runners entered with no seed time (Brian Fay and Kieran Lumb) who are clearly poised to run fast, so Nuguse may not even be the top collegiate finisher. Fay turned heads indoors when he split a 3:52 1600m anchor leg of the Husky DMR in February, and he’s coming off PBs of 13:16.52 in the 5k and 28:22.31 in the 10k earlier this season.

Women’s 5000m, 10:20pm ET

The fastest seed in this race is Allie Buchalski of the Brooks Beasts, but the runners who’ve been on fire recently are BYU’s Courtney Wayment (fresh off a Penn Relays DMR win), Elly Henes (15:03 indoor personal best in February), and Brit Hanna Klein (Payton Jordan 1500m winner). Jenny Simpson (née Barringer)’s NCAA outdoor record of 15:07.64 has never seemed particularly safe since it was set in 2009, but it’s proven remarkably resilient to attempts from the likes of Abbey Cooper (née D’Agostino), Emily Sisson, and Whittni Morgan (née Orton). However, this looks like it could be the race for Wayment to give it another crack. The world standard of 15:10 means there will be a lot of women in this race chasing a pace around 72 seconds per 400, and racers like Natosha Rogers and Buchalski will likely keep the tempo honest after the rabbits drop. My guess is that Simpson’s all-conditions NCAA record of 15:01.70 indoors will probably survive but based on recent results, Wayment looks like the woman to give the outdoor record another scare.

Men’s 5000m, 10:40pm PST

At first, it seemed like the biggest storylines from this race would be a possible NCAA record attempt by Mike Smith’s NAU squad and a friendly wager between the Sit and Kickers and the Tinmen… but then a little-known Norwegian named Jakob Ingebrigtsen was added to the field. All eyes will be on the Olympic gold medalist and his PB of 12:48.45 after a training stint at “medium altitude” in Flagstaff, but it’s likely that he’ll be going for a safe win rather than a super-fast time.

Pacer Olli Hoare indicated on his podcast that he would be taking the field through 3-4k in 13:10 pace, so even with a big kick the winning time looks to be closer to 13:00 than 12:40 unless someone in the field does something truly crazy or Hoare completely ignores his rabbit marching orders.

Behind Jakob, the NAU trio of Abdihamid Nur, Nico Young, and Drew Bosley will be chasing Henry Rono’s formidable 44-year-old NCAA record of 13:08.4. (For some added context, Rono’s mark wasn’t just the collegiate record. It was the world record – set during an 81-day span during which he ran the world record in the 3000m, the 3000m steeplechase, and the 10000m as well.)

Another collegian to watch is NC State’s Ian Shanklin, who will likely be aiming for the U.S. championship standard of 13:20.00. The youngsters will have plenty of help from a veteran field that includes Hassan Mead, Edward Cheserek, Conner Mantz, and recent BAA 5k champ Charles Philibert-Thiboutot. If I were Mike Smith, I’d tell my boys to key off of OAC’s Joe Klecker, who’s proven to be a reliable commodity and an honest racer in these types of events.

Kip Keino Classic 🇰🇪

Battle of the Best | Men’s 100m

When the best sprinters in the world go head-to-head, the fans win. We’re in for a treat as Olympic 100m gold medalist Marcell Jacobs and Olympic 100m silver medalist Fred Kerley will get their first rematch since Tokyo in Nairobi this weekend and then again at the Prefontaine Classic (May 28) and Rome Diamond League (June 5). Jacobs leads the all-time head-to-head series 2–0 against Kerley and boasts a faster personal best, 9.80 to 9.84. They both had the best 100m race of their lives at the Tokyo Olympics so can they go a little faster when aided by 5,000+ feet of altitude. U.S. Olympic Trials champion Trayvon Bromell and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala finished with the top two times of 2021 when they ran 9.76 and 9.77 at this meet last September. I think Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati should enjoy his final moments atop the 2022 world 100m list as his 9.90 from the Texas Relays has stood for six weeks.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce vs. Christine Mboma | Women’s 100m

This is the first 100m clash between a pair of Olympic silver medalists in Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Namibia’s Christine Mboma. Just two weeks away from celebrating her 19th birthday, Mboma has personal bests of 10.97 (run at altitude in Botswana last weekend) for 100m, 21.78 for 200m and 49.22 (run at altitude in Namibia). Fraser-Pryce opened up her 2022 campaign with a 22.79 for 200m in Kingston and then vocalized that she thinks she can dip into the 10.5s this season.

The only head-to-head race between these two stars came in the 200m final in Tokyo, where Mboma took silver and Fraser-Pryce finished 4th.

Sha’Carri Richardson was initially announced as one of the headliners for this race but has withdrawn. She has yet to race in 2022.

Poland Hammer Time | Men’s and Women’s Hammer Throw

As Big Throws Guys™, we’re always glad to see Poland’s Anita Włodarczyk in action after she became the first woman in track and field to win an individual at three consecutive Olympic Games with her gold in Tokyo. This is just one stop on her way to a potential fifth world championship title. She missed the 2019 World Championships in Doha due to her recovery from knee surgery. On the men’s side, her compatriots Wojciech Nowicki (Olympic gold) and Paweł Fajdek (Olympic bronze) will face off for the first time since this meet last September. These fellas have faced off 106 times in the last 13 years.

Champions In Action | Men’s and Women’s Steeplechase

Conseslus Kipruto, the 2016 Olympic champion, has not finished a steeplechase race since the 2019 World Championships. In addition to injuries, he was also charged with ‘defilement’ in Kenyan court back in November 2019, before being released on bail. He was not named to the 2021 Olympic team. We’ll see if he’s still got it as he goes up against Olympic bronze medalist Benjamin Kigen and Olympic finalist Abraham Kibiwot (who was second to Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali at this meet last year.) 19-year-old Amos Serem is in the field as well and could be the rising star to watch after winning the 2021 World Junior Championships.

The women’s race is headlined by Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda, running her first steeplechase race of the year. She’s going up against Norah Jeruto Tanui, who won their last two head-to-head races after being left off the Kenyan Olympic team. Jeruto, who is now representing Kazakhstan, clocked a 8:53.65 to win the Pre Classic, and then won the Zurich Diamond League title.

That’s it from me today. As always, thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, learned something new, or have any questions or commentary on anything featured in this issue, feel free to hit my inbox by replying or writing to [email protected]

Chris Chavez |Twitter |Instagram |Strava