Diamond League Herculis (Monaco) 2013Jul 19, 2013 by Jimmy Stevenson
American Women show 1,500m Dominance at Monaco
American Women show 1,500m Dominance at Monaco
2013 is the Year of the Snake, or maybe it should renamed the "Year of the 1,500m American Women." I don’t know if that would go over well on the Chinese calendar, but nonetheless after Monaco earlier today, the American track fan has been hit with the realization of how fast the US women really are in the metric mile.
Four of the top five at Monaco were Americans.
Since 1999 there has only been one other year (2009) when four women broke 4:02 in the 1,500m.
2009
3:59.38 Anna Willard
3:59.90 Jenny Barringer (now Simpson)
3:59.98 Christin Wurth-Thomas
4:00.81 Shannon Rowbury
That year was also a pretty incredible year. Of those four women, three of them ran the 1,500m at World Championships in Berlin. Rowbury captured the bronze, Wurth-Thomas was 5th place and Willard got 6th. Simpson, the only one who didn’t run the 1,500m at Worlds, instead ran the 3,000m Steeplechase and set the American Record (9:12.50) while placing 5th.
There is one main difference between 2009 and 2013.
Simpson, no longer focusing on the steeplechase, is the only one of the four women that just broke 4:02 who will be competing in the 1,500m at World Championships in Moscow, Russia.
Brenda Martinez will be running the 800m, Shannon Rowbury the 5,000m and Gabe Anderson will not be competing, as she did not qualify for Worlds. Wow. Four American women under 4:02.00 and only one of them is running that event in Moscow.
Thankfully Martinez and Rowbury will be bringing their talents to other events, but on paper one might be wondering, . . . Is the United States sending their best team?
The 1,500m team and their season’s best time
Treniere Moser 4:02.85 Pre Classic June 1
Mary Cain 4:04.62 Oxy High Performance May 17
Cory McGee 4:06.67 Heusden July 13
Shannon rowbury has the two best Olympic finishes ever by an American woman in the 1,500m with her 7th place finish in Beijing and 6th place finish in London.
Compare that experience to a 17-year-old who is having the most amazing year of her short life and a collegiate who had to deal with the long grind of college outdoor track season in addition to having to chase the standard in order to even get on the team.
Moser on the other hand is very experienced. Maybe today was just an off race for her, and she will bounce right back for Worlds. Or perhaps since she has been running so well ever since she set a indoor 3,000m personal record at Washington could this be the time where she fizzles out? Again, it is difficult to come to that conclusion after one bad race.
Sure, these women’s best times this season might not be as fast as the four from Monaco, but they still have Worlds to bust out what they got. Could this be the year that six or seven American women break 4:02.00 in the 1,500m? If so then I think the Chinese calendar will definitely have to be changed to read . . .
“2013 – The year of 1,500m American Women.”
“2013 – The year of 1,500m American Women.”