Huddle and Rowbury fight to the finish at the 2014 U.S. Championships

While on paper it would appear easy to predict which women will make Team USA in the 5000m, but the placement of this event makes it incredibly tricky.

Molly Huddle and Shannon Rowbury have stellar qualifying marks (14:42, the American Record, and 14:48, respectively), but are entered in other events in addition to the 5K. Huddle will be trying to make her first 10K team Thursday night, as she mentioned her focus will be more over the longer event this season after winning the NYC Half Marathon. So if this is true, will Huddle make it to the starting line on Sunday afternoon?

Then there’s Rowbury, the second-fastest American over 1500m right now and could potentially medal in the event in Beijing. In 2013, she finished fourth in the 1500m at the U.S. Championships when then-Florida athlete Cory McGee finished a surprising third and nabbed the final qualifying spot. Rowbury then went to her “back-up” race, the 5K. She finished third behind Jenny Simpson and Huddle, cementing herself on Team USA. But that may not be an option at this year’s championships. The schedule is different, with the 5K (10:20pm) and 1500m (2:40pm) finals falling on the same day. In 2013, they were a day apart with the 1500m first.

So will Rowbury race both? Several of us FloTrack peeps happen to think she’s got the strength to complete the difficult double, having just run 2:00 in the 800m and 4:07 in the 1500m only 10 minutes apart at the Portland Track Festival. But the sad truth of our sport is that last minute scratches are common, and this may be an issue with this event this coming weekend.



Gabe Grunewald is the other top seed declared in the 1500/5K double, and Shalane Flanagan and Emily Infeld are doubling in the 10K/5K.

So who will be the fastest AND have fresh legs in the group? Katie Mackey, Nicole Tully and 2014 third-place finisher Marielle Hall will look to take spots from those doubling (or not doubling?) and make their first appearances in USA uniforms.

Mackey was a surprise late scratch on Tuesday evening from the 1500m after she ran 4:03 at the Pre Classic. Her 15:16 makes her the seventh-fastest in the field, and she's got the wheels to hang with the best closers. Tully has been on a roll in 2015, running 15:05 at Payton Jordan and 4:31 for the mile at the Adrian Martinez Classic with a devastating kick to win. Her 5K time marked her first 3.1 race contested on a track, meaning it can only get better from here? Hall has been having a solid spring campaign, as well. The 2014 NCAA 5K Champion finished behind Tully at Payton Jordan running a new PB of 15:09. Though she only ran 15:23 and finished ninth at the Pre Classic, that race saw six East Africans break 15:00. For Hall to hold on and be the lone American finish shows she’s a fighter. She surprised last year at NCAAs, can she use a bit of that Hayward Magic to make her first team?

UPDATE 6/24/15: On Tuesday evening USATF announced that the start time for the women's 5K would be changed from 12:39 p.m to 10:20 a.m..