Bernard Lagat’s mouth twisted the way one’s mouth twists when tears are nigh, and he lay on the Hayward Field track he’d just torched for the final time a big, messy puddle of triumph. He surged ahead and ran a 52-second final lap to win the race in a 13:35.50.
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American record holder Kara Winger finished third to make her second Olympic team, and fourth-place finisher Brittany Borman, who achieved the Olympic standard at another meet, will also go to Rio. Noah Lyles and Michael Norman, recent high school graduates committed to Florida and USC, respectively, have found themselves in a position to make the Olympic team at just 18-years-old.
“Just trying to see how it does on the curve, and all that”, she said, as she moved ahead in her quest for the 200-400 double at the Rio Games. “I do not believe that I am old because if you believe you’re old, you’re going to run like an old man”.
“At the Prefontaine Classic I was sick, so I did not finish the race and was really ashamed by it”, he said. “That didn’t sound right to me”. Rupp already has qualified for the USA team in the 10,000 and the marathon, and he has said he expects to run both.
Turns out, Lagat has plenty of gas in the tank.
Lagat, running what could go down as one of the best performances ever in by a runner older than 40, eventually passed Chelimo and Mead to take the win, but in a race in which a third-place finish is as good as a first, Mead was a victor.
“We will see how we adjust training around Rio and handle it at that time”.
Gatlin, who won the men’s 100-meter championship on July 3, won the men’s 200 meters by clocking the fastest time in the world in 2016 at 19.75 (+1.6).
“If a guy can have the guts to go out there and do what he does at his age, I can go out there and do what I need to do, especially from Lane 8”, Gatlin said.
Merritt finished second in 19.79 on Saturday and plans to compete in both the 200 and 400 meters at the Olympics. And like Merritt, she is an expert at pacing herself through the rounds in multiple races.
“I was so devastated I wasn’t even thinking about the 5k”, Mead said. Being able to use the nerves as positive energy.
“Leave the stadium – because there’s so much love in the stadium the past couple of days – take that love with you and give it to somebody you’ve never loved before”.
“My daughter tells me, ‘daddy, I want you to make [the Olympics] so I can watch gymnastics, ‘” Lagat said at the press conference.
Favourite David Oliver did not start the final after injuring his hamstring in the semi-finals. Reigning Olympic champion and world recordholder Aries Merritt, who had kidney transplant surgery last September, finished fourth, .01 behind. Going are OR track/football star Devon Allen, Ronnie Ash and Jeff Porter.
“I was feeling composed, because my coach told me, ‘Do not react too early, because if you are going to kick with 400 meters to go, you might miss it.’ All I had to do was concentrate, be patient, and wait until there was 100 meters to go”.
The triple jump meanwhile was won by Georgia’s Keturah Orji with a leap of 14.32m.
The former Kenyan, who became a citizen of the United States in 2004, has won two Olympic medals over 1500m – bronze in 2000, silver in 2004 – and is also the second fastest in history over that distance. “It’s not the week I wanted here”. Chris Benard finished third and will join Claye and Taylor in Rio.
OTHER RESULTS: Barbara Nwaba held an 11-point lead over Kendell Williams after the first day of heptahlon.
The Olympic veterans put on a show on Saturday in Eugene.
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A polarizing figure in the track world, Gatlin’s run to redemption continues to gain steam in 2016.
