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Men’s 10k

The men’s 10k promised to be a spectacle of epic proportions.  With so many great names in the race there were many unanswered questions that I was looking forward to finding out the answer to.  Can Bekele really still find a way to continue his stellar winning streak at the distance despite his absence from recent competition?  Could Rupp really hang with Farah as the superstar has claimed?  And could Farah bury the competition in the final lap just one last time?  Would Teg be able to come close to replicating his 4^th place finish from just a few years ago?  

The race began swiftly enough with the field stringing out over the first lap as Ibrahim Jeilan took the field through in 65.8 seconds.  From there the pace slowed significantly as the runners backed off to 74 second pace.  Rupp was sitting nicely on the inside, Tegenkamp and Bauhs a few steps behind him.  Farah meanwhile tucked in at the very back of the pack content to watch as the pace shifted throughout the course of the race. 

For anyone that purchased the universal sports package, this is where the race got frustrating.  The cameras cut away to women’s long jump for what seemed like a century.  Even the announcers were fed up, begging their director to cut back to the loaded 10k.  They managed to toss out a 2k split of 5:37, but other than that we were left to grab at straws and try to peak at the pack as they passed by out of focus in the background.  If the announcers were upset, at the least they didn’t wake up at 5:30 AM.

As the race unfolded the Kenyan and Ethiopian teams began to alternate pushing the pace.  By the time the field was down to 12 (hard to say quite when this happened from the broadcast) Farah still sat patiently at the back as Tadese, Sihine and Kirui took their turns at the lead. 

After 5k, Bekele having already lost contact before walking off the track, the race seemed set for Farah to win as he sat confidently in the back.  At 6800 meters he took off as he saw that the leaders were ready to really start digging.  Shortly after, Rupp (who glanced over at the stands to possibly check if it was ok) moved right up with him as the two sat in 4^th and 6^th respectively.  Tegenkamp and Bauhs were nowhere to be seen and both the commentators and the broadcast offered little explanation.

Just as things were really starting to get rolling, it cuts away to the women’s discus.  By the time the focus returned to the track, Farah was still sitting pretty as Rupp began to lose a bit of rhythm running up on the heels of the pack.  With 2 laps to go 8 men were still left in the field.  Coming off of the turn, Farah takes the lead and the pack begins to fall apart, Rupp the casualty of his training partner’s brutal move.  As Rupp laps Tegenkamp still trying to hold on it looks as if the veteran runner might have leaned over to offer words of encouragement. 

By the next bend it was a three man race with Farah, Merga and Jeilan all still wondering just how it would end.  Farah hit a 60.8 for his penultimate lap before opening up a ten meter gap on the turn.  The race appeared to be over at first, but his comfortable lead wasn’t enough to Shake Jeilan.  The Ethiopian matched Farah stride for stride down the back stretch, pulling him in a meter at a time.  By the curve, one wondered if he could continue to close the gap-how could he possibly find another gear?  Into the stretch he was now just a few steps back.  Farah meanwhile pushed and pushed, now having to sense that the runner he had managed to drop just 400 meters ago was pouring it on now.  With just a precious few meters left in the race, Jeilan completed his move and overtook the once undefeated Brit.  He closed somewhere south of 53 seconds to do so, though no matter the winner both efforts were truly spectacular and made up for missing most of the race.  Rupp finished strong for 7^th place, not quite the medal hope that we US fans would have liked while Tegenkamp and Bauhs came in over a minute later in 10^th and 14^th respectively. 

Men’s 800

I wasn’t quite so bold as to wake up at 4AM to watch the 800, but it went about as well as one could have hoped for the US.  In the first heat, Khadevis Robinson ran the 10^th fastest time of the day which was good enough to be close, but not to advance to the final.  Nick Symmonds meanwhile kept hope alive as he came across the line abreast with Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia in 1:45.73 in the second heat.  Favorite Rushida of Kenya meanwhile ran a blistering 1:44.2 to win the final heat as he moves on to the championship round. 

Women’s 1500m

With the top 6 advancing from each heat, the 1500 women were for the most part content to sit and kick for their shot at the top.  Afterall, why exhaust yourself chasing a time when you could roll the dice on the easy gamble of being in the top half of the heat?

In heat 1, the pace went out crawling as Shannon Rowbury sat nicely up in 2^nd and 3^rd place on the outside of lane 1.  As the race unfolded, not much changed as Rowbury continued to run unhindered waiting to see when someone would make a move.  At the final lap, Rowbury found herself getting tossed around a bit as she surrendered the perfect position she had held so nicely only to get tossed back into the inside of the pack. 

Coming down the final straight it looked like it might be all over for Rowbury, but the number of women fighting for the spots proved to be disastrous for Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand as she tumbled down to the ground, giving Rowbury her opportunity.  Shannon crossed the line in 6^th place, just .02 seconds from not grabbing an auto spot and having to wait and see how the rest of the field would perform. 

Heat 2 saw a fantastic race from America’s Jenny Barringer Simpson.  Barringer wasted no time getting to the front and flirted with the lead a bit before committing to taking the runners around behind her.  The runners passed through the opening 400 in 69.75, again content to test their kicks against the field.  Barringer continued to run out front, happy to have a clear path ahead of her as she avoided any entanglements behind.  At the bell, Kibiwot of Kenya stated her intentions, as did Natalia Rodriguez before eventual winner Karakaya opened up her stride.  Jenny meanwhile found a comfortable position on the inside and stayed completely in her own comfort zone as she cruised in for an effortless fifth place finish.

The third heat had a pretty easy task ahead of them.  All they really had to do was run a bit faster than 4:12 and the entire field would be essentially in.  The race played out almost to a tee as 11 of the 12 runners advanced to the final.  American favorite Morgan Uceny sat towards the back at the early stages of the race as the field came through in 69.25.  As the pace began to drop to ensure that no one would be sitting on the sidelines, Uceny moved up swiftly on the backstretch as she slid easily into 3^rd position.  From here, the runners continued to keep up the honest pace as they tried to avoid one any mishaps that might take them out of what must promised to be an easy ticket to the final.  Uceny came off the last turn in 2^nd, looking back confident in her chances but weary of how many runners might still be in contention.  She held herself together quite nicely though and advanced worry free as she shut it down the last 15 meters to finish in 3^rd.