USA Track and Field Outdoor Nationals: Day Three
Huddle wins! (Photo courtesy of Painani.org)
It was another exciting day at the USA Outdoor Nationals!
As with yesterday, about half the fans left at the conclusion of the sprints and deprived themselves of seeing the most exciting race of the day.
It was the women again, this time in the 5,000 meters, who had the crowd on it’s feet with a fast, exciting, and close race. Molly Huddle led the race from the beginning and tried to shake all contenders, especially Shannon Rowbury and Marielle Hall, by accelerating through the miles and closing with a final 4:34 1600 meters.
The only person on Huddle’s heels by the final 200 was Shannon Rowbury, who shouldered past and started driving for the win. Huddle would have none of it and dug deep to pass a weaving Rowbury and take the win by 0.25 seconds.
Huddle’s final time was a quite fast 15:01.56.
Bernard Legat continues to defy age (He’s 39.) by winning the men’s 5000 by running patiently with the pack and then exploding with a 54.76 final lap that no one else could touch. The winning time for his 7th consecutive championship was 13:31.41.
Other notes about the day:
In an attempt to make the times “wind legal” several of the sprints were run in the opposite direction (i.e., clockwise instead of counter-clockwise), which was something I personally have never seen before.
Local competitors:
Stockton’s Eric Sloan finished 10th in the triple jump, with a distance of 16.05 meters.
Lauren Wallace, of Davis, ran 2:04.93 for the 800 meters, but did not advance out of the second round.
CSUS alum Lea Wallace returned to the 1500 meters, but dropped from the race on the back stretch of lap 2.
Results:
Complete results for the day can be found here.