1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:09,960 It is Monday, March 2nd. I almost didn't realize that it 2 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,200 was March and I had a little bit of a brain fart there. 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:16,280 What a weekend. We had a lead vehicle drive the 4 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:18,920 top women off course at a national championship with world 5 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:23,600 championship spots on the line. USATFS response was met with 6 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,120 quite a bit of backlash. So we're going to sort through 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:28,800 that mess and what could happen next. 8 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:33,400 We've got a teenager going 5 for five as a pro and winning a 9 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:35,840 national title. Out on Staten Island. 10 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:40,400 Nikki Hilts extended their winning streak at the US 11 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:43,840 Championship. We had an awesome blanket 3K 12 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:48,320 finish that crushed Nico Young by 100th of a second. 13 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:53,040 Then the next day after that, an epic conclusion to the men's 14 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:58,040 1500 and a bunch more races. A lot to get into. 15 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,360 I'm Chris Chavez. I'm previous here. 16 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,960 And this week in track and field on the City of Smack podcast, 17 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:06,360 we're going to dive into all of that. 18 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,800 And I guess like, I want to start probably with the USATF 19 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,800 half Marathon championships, which is now I think started to 20 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,240 seep into the mainstream news cycle. 21 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:25,400 I just tweeted out a screenshot of a New York Post headline and 22 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:30,040 then also on preet side of the world, the Daily Mail has like 23 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:33,920 picked it up as well. The headline on the New York 24 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,960 Post Instagram is US track star cost half marathon national 25 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:43,280 title, 20K prize after mistakenly let off course. 26 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,920 The Daily Mail had AI think a little bit more of an aggressive 27 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:48,720 one that I I don't know how accurate it is. 28 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,720 US track star cruelly denied national title after 29 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:56,200 accidentally being taken the wrong way by hapless officials. 30 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:01,560 dot dot dot before rival steals and wins the 20 K prize. 31 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:03,280 That's the part where it's like, all right, you took it. 32 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,960 You were on the right track. Oh, that's a Daily Mail headline 33 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:09,600 through and through. They are, you know, they are 34 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,760 the, the, the tabloids tabloids. So they, they make, they make, 35 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:16,440 they spin things to the furthest extreme. 36 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,280 And it sounds a bit crazy, but yes, it's all clickbait. 37 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:23,960 I will say whoever's on the daily Mails, like push 38 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:28,120 notifications team, they are masters because I get it, I 39 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:34,160 guess through Apple News And someone who Co starred in one 40 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:38,000 episode of a sitcom will pass away and they'll run with the 41 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:43,880 headline that says like sitcom star dies at 45. 42 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,360 And then you click on it and it's just sort of like you think 43 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:48,560 it's going to be like one of the leading characters of whatever 44 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:51,760 show that they mentioned. Instead it was someone who 45 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:56,840 appeared in like 1 episode as like a background character and 46 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,120 it sends your heart racing for like maybe 30 seconds and then 47 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,080 you're met with just total disappointment. 48 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:06,120 That's the Daily Mail. Indeed. 49 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,000 Well, that's the world we live in now of click bait YouTube 50 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,720 videos and and everything is is the same, isn't it these days? 51 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:14,160 But yeah. All right, so let's get into 52 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:16,840 just sort of what exactly happened at the USATF Half 53 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:20,280 Marathon Championship. So I actually took a bunch of 54 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:26,160 notes to try and get as many of the facts correct because there 55 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:31,040 has been just sort of a lot of people sounding off on just sort 56 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:35,120 of watching a quick clip or catching whatever the first 57 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:40,600 reports or headlines were. Honestly, I opened up threads 58 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,680 that, you know, I think it's a meta offshoot version of Twitter 59 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:49,560 for like 5 minutes after I got like a a notification on my 60 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:52,520 phone. And it is just like a cesspool 61 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,520 of terrible opinions and and hot takes. 62 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,960 Most of these people, I think, probably didn't even know that 63 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:04,280 this race was happening, but then got alerted to the one clip 64 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:09,120 or, or news thing and they just decided to pile on to the 65 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,000 outrage and this, you know, force an opinion just for the 66 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,760 sake of it. But we're here to kind of guide 67 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,320 you guys through what exactly happened and what could come 68 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:21,519 next. So first thing is the lead 69 00:04:21,519 --> 00:04:27,320 vehicle at around the 12 mile mark was in front of Jess 70 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:32,400 McClain, who had built about a 50m lead over Emma Grace Hurley 71 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,840 and Edna Kirgat was right behind. 72 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:41,280 At this point, it appeared that those three would be your top 73 00:04:41,280 --> 00:04:43,000 three. Jess McClain would have claimed 74 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:49,080 her second national title and the this top three would go on 75 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,800 to represent Team USA at the World Run Rd. 76 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,600 Running Championships Half Marathon later this year. 77 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:01,280 And as they were approaching A pedestrian bridge, this is 78 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:07,360 after, you know, 12 miles, the lead vehicle turned left at some 79 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:11,800 set of cones and off the official course, Jess McClain 80 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:15,360 followed instinctively as one does when you see a lead 81 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,000 vehicle. And Hurley and Kerr got also 82 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:22,400 went with her. Carrie Elwood, who was in fourth 83 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:24,840 place at the time, also started to go, but then I think was able 84 00:05:24,840 --> 00:05:27,640 to correct her mistake a bit quicker than the others. 85 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:32,640 And the rest of the pack continued straight on the 86 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:35,720 correct Rd. There's confusion as to because 87 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:40,640 that you do see another set of cones, and that's because you 88 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:44,120 got to remember that the USATF Half Marathon Championships are 89 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:49,360 being staged in conjunction with the Atlanta Public's Half 90 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:52,160 Marathon and then also the marathon. 91 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:57,160 And so there is a point in the course where the marathon will 92 00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:59,840 head off. And so this is this is what that 93 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:02,320 second set of cones was there for. 94 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:07,480 So then Jess McClain runs in the wrong direction before an 95 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:09,760 official catches on to the mistake. 96 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:14,000 The leaders have to turn back. But by that point it was too 97 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,360 late and it cost them well over 2 minutes. 98 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:22,760 And then from there, I think there was so much more confusion 99 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:26,800 at the finish because the people who had gathered there are 100 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:31,480 watching as Molly Bourne, who was fifth place at the time of 101 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:36,200 the wrong turn, stayed on the course and ended up taking the 102 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:42,880 victory in 6943, a personal best and her second US title in three 103 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:44,760 months. If you remember, she was the 104 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,040 winner at the California International Marathon out in 105 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,400 December. So yeah, it was. 106 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,520 And then Elwood who corrected that mistake in a ended a 107 00:06:56,520 --> 00:07:01,520 finishing second in 6947. Andy Rodenfeld's, who I believe 108 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,400 this was her half marathon debut, ended up in 3rd. 109 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:09,800 So those are the results. That's the top three that by the 110 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:13,800 book will end up going to represent Team USA at the half 111 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,200 marathon championships. But then you know, Jess McClain 112 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:24,320 finished 9th in 7127, Emma Grace Hurley was 12th and Edna Kerr 113 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:29,480 got was 13th. As Jess McClain was crossing the 114 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,440 finish line, you could see her on the broadcast saying 115 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:37,920 something like I'm pissed because it was chaotic and 116 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:43,840 pretty crazy. In the post race interview that 117 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,400 I saw on YouTube with Molly Bourne, she said something along 118 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:49,640 the lines of it I don't really feel like AUS champion. 119 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,480 And then in the piece that was put out by David Monti, she said 120 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:57,280 that she probably didn't feel like she was going to go to the 121 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:58,760 World Championships in Copenhagen. 122 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:05,520 So it was just an all around messy, messy situation and 123 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,400 Breed, I guess all hit pause there because those are just 124 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:10,120 sort of the facts as to what happened. 125 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:15,080 What was sort of your reaction watching this unfold live? 126 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:19,200 Because instantly we knew that USATF was going to have a mess 127 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,640 on its hands. Yeah, so I was, I was, I was 128 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:25,400 watching it live and I was like, something's gone wrong here when 129 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:28,760 Jess McClain suddenly sort of turned around. 130 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,160 But then we sort of lost pictures for a minute. 131 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:34,240 And it was because obviously the lead car had pulled off and that 132 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,200 was the one that had had the camera on it. 133 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,400 So we didn't actually see what happened. 134 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:44,000 And then suddenly the camera switched to Molly Bourne, and we 135 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:48,720 were like, what's going on? And and then we didn't really 136 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,320 get another shot of Jess McClain and Emma Grace early and Edna 137 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:56,200 Kagan, and we got Molly Bourne coming up to the finish line. 138 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:00,360 And I don't think even the commentators were fully like, at 139 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:02,680 that point in time, didn't fully know what had gone on. 140 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,720 But they sort of figured it out pretty quickly after that. 141 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:07,840 But it was, it was completely wild. 142 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:12,360 And yeah, as soon as that happened, we're in a place where 143 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:15,520 what is going to happen because this, this doesn't feel right. 144 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:20,400 And I suppose the bit that that people are stuck on is there 145 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:23,440 were three people clear. There were three spots for the 146 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:28,320 podium, 3 spots for the USATF half marathon championships. 147 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:35,080 And these three women because of this error, which really wasn't 148 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:36,680 their fault. You know, I know people say, oh, 149 00:09:36,680 --> 00:09:39,280 runners have to know the course. That's ridiculous. 150 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,200 But but it's ridiculous, right? This this course had, I think 30 151 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,640 turns in it. There was no, no way you, you, 152 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:47,840 you could be expected to know the course unless you'd run it 153 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:50,480 multiple times before. And then how are you supposed to 154 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,040 know that there hasn't been a slight change in the course or 155 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:57,160 there's been some reason why it isn't because they were opening 156 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:00,200 and closing roads when there were gaps in the race to let 157 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:02,120 Castry. So you know it. 158 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:06,560 It's not like it was, you know, it was necessarily always, 159 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,840 always the same and stuff. So I think you have to say, 160 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,400 look, you're going to follow. If you're the leader and you've 161 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:14,400 got you've had the lead car in front of you the whole race, 162 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:17,920 you're going to follow it unless it's really super clear that OK, 163 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:20,440 we're coming into the finishing straight where the where the 164 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:23,000 lead vehicle can't go and it and it's pulling off. 165 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:25,080 But I don't think that was it because it just turned into a 166 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:28,040 regular road and the finish line wasn't insight at that point. 167 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,040 I mean, it was pretty close to being insight, but they were 168 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:33,480 still what, a mile out. So, you know, there was 169 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:34,960 something that had obviously gone wrong. 170 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,480 And I think now we're in a place about like what happens? 171 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:41,480 How do we make good on this? Right? 172 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:47,880 I think maybe it's worth then going on to USATF statement and 173 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:51,160 the the Atlanta statement, which I'll I'll hand back over to you 174 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:53,520 Chris to, to tell us what what they then said. 175 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:56,000 Yeah. So just before I think the 176 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:00,640 action was slated to start on the track out in Staten Island. 177 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:03,520 Now you got to remember sort of like USATF staff is split this 178 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:06,040 weekend where it's like you got some people down in Atlanta for 179 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:08,840 the half marathon championships. And then all of a sudden before 180 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:11,360 everything is supposed to happen, you know, out at Ocean 181 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:14,880 Breeze on Staten Island, you got this other fire that you got to 182 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:18,400 put out. So real, real tough weekend for 183 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:20,400 USATF. So then a statement comes out 184 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:25,160 and I guess the the heart of it is that, yes, you know, Jess 185 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:31,720 McClain, Hurley, Kergot, they all filed appeals to try and I 186 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:33,720 don't do something about the results. 187 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:38,320 But those appeals were denied. And the statement by USATF notes 188 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:42,080 that the jury of appeals found that the event did not meet 189 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:45,760 USATF Rule 243 and that the course is not adequately marked 190 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:48,400 at the point of misdirection. This violation contributed to 191 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:50,640 the misdirection taken by the athletes within the top four at 192 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:53,840 the time of the of misdirection. However, the jury of appeals 193 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,640 finds no recourse within the USATF rule book to alter the 194 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,560 results order of finish. The results order of finish as 195 00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:05,600 posted is considered final, and so since this race was a 196 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:07,960 selection event for the 2026 World Road Running 197 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:12,600 Championships, that team is not actually officially selected 198 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:15,280 until May. So USATF is going to review the 199 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:21,040 events from Atlanta carefully. And then the last paragraph was 200 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:25,120 a bit rough because this one was sort of like lead vehicles are 201 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:27,880 provided and managed by the local organizing committee as as 202 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:32,320 per Rule 243.2 of the USATF competition rules. 203 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:34,920 Any questions pertaining to the course and the vehicle should be 204 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:36,800 directed to the local organizing community. 205 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:40,280 The Atlanta Track Club, which a lot of people in our comments 206 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:44,760 section, which has garnered more than 500 comments, didn't take 207 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:48,720 too kindly to USATF. You know, throw in some blame 208 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:52,960 over to the Atlanta Track Club because the Atlanta tracker does 209 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:57,240 do a good job for the most part, I think in staging these events 210 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:00,240 like this is it's a very expensive thing. 211 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:03,720 Sometimes these cities have spoken out about just not not 212 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:07,240 getting enough support from USATF to then come in and just 213 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:12,000 throw their, you know, name and national championship, you know, 214 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:16,120 on top of whatever already existing event that there is. 215 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:22,240 And, and you know, we everyone knows how good the 2020 marathon 216 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,520 trials were, but for the Atlanta Track Club, there have been some 217 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:28,480 issues in the past. I think it was last year or two 218 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:31,200 years ago, the marathon course was a little bit long. 219 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:37,840 And so there's like it, it is, this isn't necessarily like a 220 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:41,640 recurring pattern, but they did change the course for this year. 221 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:45,040 And that was a difference from like what it was last year. 222 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,480 So that was the USATF statement and then a couple hours later, 223 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:55,800 the Atlanta track of issues a statement on behalf of their 224 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:59,400 CEO, Rich Kanaa, who, you know, said that they were honored to 225 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:04,640 host the championships. But then he said as race 226 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:06,560 director, I take full responsibility for what 227 00:14:06,560 --> 00:14:08,080 occurred. Athletes should never have to 228 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,880 make a split second decision between following a race pace 229 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:12,960 vehicle or trusting the official course. 230 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:15,520 We're conducting a full review to determine exactly how and why 231 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:19,240 the vehicle left the course. The Atlanta Tracker will make 232 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:22,080 the best efforts to ensure the affected athletes, Jess, Emma, 233 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:26,800 Edna are made whole. And this kind of has put a 234 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:29,360 damper on just like what was supposed to be like a really 235 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:35,560 celebratory day for them. So the prize money at stake was 236 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:40,760 significant, $20,000 for first place, $12,000 for second place, 237 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:46,480 $7500 for 3rd place. One solution we could see 238 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:51,400 potentially is, you know, the Atlanta track club this and or 239 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:56,680 USATF whoever wants to pony up that money pays out that prize 240 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:05,120 money to McClain, Hurley and Kerr got and from there here it. 241 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:12,040 The problem necessarily is that there's a lot of legal loopholes 242 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:17,560 to jump through in order to make sure that these three are on the 243 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,520 team for the World Road Running Championships. 244 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:24,040 And this is due in part to the selection policy that USATF has 245 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:31,840 already put out. So I guess to breakdown how they 246 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:36,680 can clean up this mess, let's explain I guess a little bit as 247 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,360 to how the USATF selection criteria works, where first, 248 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:42,960 it's the top three finishers at the championships that get the 249 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:46,520 automatic spots. So because the results were 250 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:52,800 upheld, that top three is Molly Bourne, Carrie Ellwood, and 251 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:57,200 Annie Rodenfelds. If any of them decline, then the 252 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:01,120 spot gets offered down the finishing order, but only to the 253 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,880 athletes who finished in the top five. 254 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:07,560 I'm pulling up who was next after that. 255 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:12,040 So hypothetically, Molly Bourne, Carrie Ellwood, Annie Rodenfelds 256 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,800 could say something along the lines of like, hey, we don't 257 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:19,440 want to take our spots because we believe that, you know, the 258 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,720 three that went off course are the ones who deserve to go. 259 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:28,400 Molly Porn actually commented on the USATF post saying USATF 260 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,920 please do right by these women. So I think she's clearly on 261 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,000 board with with something along these lines. 262 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:36,760 So then it falls to Cassandra Parker and Anne Marie 263 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,320 Costarellis that is your four and five. 264 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:44,560 If they do the same exact thing and say hey, we don't want to go 265 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:49,640 give it to them, then great. OK, so now at that point the top 266 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:53,720 five, like we've scratched that sort of part of the selection 267 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:57,560 criteria and all these people have rejected their spots. 268 00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:01,120 Now the important thing to remember is that there is no 269 00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:05,920 take backs on once you say I am choosing not to go to the road 270 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:10,000 running championships in the half marathon, it USATF won't 271 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,319 come back and and offer you the spot. 272 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,520 Now the the remaining spots after that. 273 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:21,359 The top five from the USATF Half Marathon Championships are 274 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:25,040 filled by world ranking as of May 5th. 275 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:28,960 And do you have those pulled up in front of you pre I? 276 00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:33,160 Am literally pulling it up now but obviously the top 2 are 277 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:36,280 Wayneie Clottey and Taylor Rowe and now. 278 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:38,560 Hold there for a SEC. Yeah. 279 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:42,200 I think we're all in agreement. Wayne and Colati deserves to be 280 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:44,720 part of this team as the American record holder coming 281 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,480 off of a fantastic performance in Barcelona. 282 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:52,640 She I think has run at the road running championships in the 283 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:56,680 past. All around really strong 284 00:17:56,680 --> 00:17:59,160 athlete. Like I think before this weekend 285 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:03,640 it was presumed that Wayne would take the top spot like would be 286 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,400 the world ranking selected athlete. 287 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:12,240 So if when he says she'll take the spot, that's I think that's 288 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:16,000 OK personally in my book, 'cause then you now you fill the rest 289 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,080 of the team based off of world ranking. 290 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:28,840 So the problem is how high up is Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley 291 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:33,640 and Edna Kerr got right now? Because everyone before them in 292 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,880 the rankings will get that that offer and they'd have to decline 293 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:39,840 the spot. And like I said before, there's 294 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,320 no take backs. Am I am I correcting this Preet? 295 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:45,320 Well, yeah, I don't, I don't know about the no take backs, 296 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:48,760 but what I think it I think in terms of the policy, obviously 297 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,080 the policy says what it says is that they'll go down the ranking 298 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:55,280 list in terms of selection. The way World Athletics event 299 00:18:55,280 --> 00:19:00,920 selection works and USATF are actually notorious for this is 300 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,520 everyone is in right based on their their world ranking. 301 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,040 Now, I think with the, with the, with the half marathon, there is 302 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:12,240 no like ranking or anything because there is no qualifying 303 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,840 time. So it doesn't actually matter. 304 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:16,360 So I don't really know how they're going to do it. 305 00:19:16,360 --> 00:19:20,440 But normally what happens is that all the athletes are in and 306 00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:22,880 then the federation withdraws the people who aren't going to 307 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:25,480 compete. And normally USATF just leaves 308 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:27,920 everybody in until the last possible moment. 309 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:34,320 That's a general USATF policy now as it happens currently, as 310 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:36,600 of today, on the rankings that they're going to use, Emma Grace 311 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:40,080 Hurley is in fact third behind. So that solves 1. 312 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:43,040 You just need Taylor the road to say no, right? 313 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:47,680 Correct. And then Amanda Vestry, Natasha 314 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,600 Rogers, Fiona O'Keefe, and #7 is Jess McClain. 315 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:55,440 OK, so then those three in the middle also have to say no. 316 00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:00,400 Remind me again when road running championships is in? 317 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,800 It's in September and just the week, yeah, just the week off 318 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,240 the wall Ultimates, I think. And now think about it like 319 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:11,080 those three, I think would probably be getting getting 320 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:14,360 ready for a fall marathon I think at that point. 321 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,440 I mean, I I'm thinking Wayne and Taylor are probably going to 322 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:19,960 debut in the marathon in the fall as well. 323 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:23,760 Would be my suspension. But yeah, again, we, we don't 324 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,880 know the stage I suppose, but yes. 325 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:31,360 And Edna Kerrgat is not currently in the rankings 326 00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:34,680 because she's only done 2 road races in the past year. 327 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:39,600 She will, as a result of Sunday's race, now be in the 328 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,560 rankings. I haven't done the math as to 329 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:45,440 exactly where she will be on the on these rankings. 330 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:50,040 She will be somewhere. But thirteen place doesn't get 331 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,920 you really all that high. No, exactly. 332 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:56,840 She will not. She will not be very, very high 333 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,920 as a result because I think there's people because she ran 334 00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:02,640 whatever 7172 minutes something like that as well. 335 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,720 So the time wasn't particularly quick so it but I think her 336 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:11,040 other couple of results are pretty decent because it's 20K 337 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,160 and 10K road as well that's included in these rankings. 338 00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:16,520 So I think those are her other results. 339 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:18,480 So I think those are pretty decent. 340 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:20,360 So I don't know where she'll land up, but. 341 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:26,320 If it if her race calendar looks similar to what it was last 342 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,000 year, I don't believe she ran a track season in 2025. 343 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:34,320 S She's got plenty of time to go out and run more Rd. races later 344 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:39,040 this spring, so we could see her make a little bit of a jump in 345 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:43,800 the rankings if she just goes out and runs a couple more Rd. 346 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:45,920 races over the next couple months. 347 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,080 I think what I wanted to say is like people might be saying, but 348 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:52,240 why can't just USATF do whatever they like? 349 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:53,960 Why can't they just select these three people? 350 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:55,760 And why can't they just say Stevens Act? 351 00:21:56,120 --> 00:21:59,080 That's why, Why can't they just say these three people that 352 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:03,040 would have won? Now I, I think 1 is obviously 353 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:07,880 there is a policy and the policy is effectively designed to be, I 354 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:09,680 don't know whether it's the same in the US, but certainly in the 355 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,560 UK, for example, they try and word it effectively as a legal 356 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:14,720 document. So if someone wants to appeal 357 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,600 their selection and things like that, it's, it's clear enough 358 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,120 that someone, an arbitrator or a judge or whoever can make a 359 00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:24,960 decision based on it. And, and it, you kind of are 360 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,160 then following the rules. So it's as clear as possible 361 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,680 who's going to get selected. That's one, one thing. 362 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:33,920 The second thing is they were very fortunate, I suppose here 363 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:37,880 why it seems so egregious is because there were three women 364 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,320 who were miles clear right? Now, what would be the situation 365 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:45,440 if there'd been five women who'd been miles clear or only one 366 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,040 woman and then there'd been another like the rest were still 367 00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:50,080 with the other. Like, then what do you do? 368 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,160 Because you don't know in that last mile, or maybe there were 369 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,720 only 10 seconds back, right? If there were only 10 seconds 370 00:22:55,720 --> 00:23:00,080 ahead, then you know, the person who is in front could have blown 371 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:01,960 up over the last mile. You don't know. 372 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:08,200 So in any other circumstance, the reality is you can't do this 373 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:12,560 kind of thing because there would be no way of knowing what 374 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:14,960 would have happened in that last mile of the race, right? 375 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:19,680 And I think ultimately that is that is the issue here, that 376 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:24,880 actually in this particular circumstance, it was so clear 377 00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:27,400 that people are saying, oh, you should make sure that these 378 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,280 women are made whole. And I think it is, it is clear. 379 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:32,440 And that hopefully they're going to find a way to try and do 380 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:34,320 that. And I think it sounds like 381 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:37,520 they're going to get some money. I hope that their brands honour 382 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:39,880 their contract bonuses to the extent there are any for 383 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:45,200 podiuming at US Champs or for getting to a world road running 384 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,080 champs, etcetera. Regardless of whether it 385 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,400 happens, I really do hope that that gets honoured. 386 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,120 Obviously they won't get any time bonuses because they might 387 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:54,800 have missed out on a on a quick time. 388 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,000 So, so that's unfortunate. I'm not sure you can do much 389 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,400 about that. But you know that hopefully 390 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,040 there were ways to go some way to make them whole. 391 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,400 But it is it is a very difficult situation for for all involved. 392 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,960 And I think the other thing I wanted to say was that USATF 393 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,040 statement was clearly written by their lawyer. 394 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:19,320 And it, it felt like it, it lacked a little bit of, they 395 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:20,720 could have been a little bit of compassion in there. 396 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,320 They could have been at least an acknowledgement that these women 397 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,320 were hard done by, right? I and I, I felt like that wasn't 398 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,640 quite in there. They could have been a sort of a 399 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,640 human element to that that statement and and appreciate you 400 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:36,760 can't say too much because again, anything can be really 401 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:37,840 interested. Right. 402 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,880 Legally right? Yeah, I think that might well be 403 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:41,560 the reason why they didn't say anything. 404 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,920 But you would have liked to have seen something like that in the 405 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,400 statement just because, because you can see the Atlanta Track 406 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:49,720 club statement was a bit more along those lines. 407 00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,560 It was acknowledging that you know, these athletes need to be 408 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,640 made whole etcetera. And USATFI guess couldn't quite 409 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,760 say that, but I think they could at least say that it was an 410 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:03,720 unfortunate incident and athletes were sadly affected. 411 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:08,200 And we hope we can, you know, work to kind of deal with this 412 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,680 in the best way possible. They might be able to say 413 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,640 rectify it because they might not be able to make it right, 414 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,160 but at least they could say they're looking at doing 415 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:17,600 something in a more compassionate way. 416 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,400 It's the same reason why anytime a record gets broken and you 417 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,800 look at the USATF Instagram account, there's like a big 418 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:28,520 asterisk next to it because they need it to say like pending 419 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,200 ratification. Because if you just blankly say, 420 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:35,720 OK, you're the governing body, this is the record now and then 421 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,680 something God forbid happens in drug testing or starting blocks 422 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,680 or anything like that, then you could be subject to like, I 423 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,720 guess it could be brought up in a case where it's sort of like, 424 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,560 no, no, no, USA def said I broke the record. 425 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:51,200 If you wanted to cash in on a bonus or whatever might, might 426 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:53,520 be. So as annoying and as horrible 427 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,400 as that asterisk looks, because when I as a baseball fan, I see 428 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,320 an asterisk, I, I think negatively of it again, like 429 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:05,560 they just have to follow the rules to like the letter to the 430 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:07,920 letter of the law. And I think like that is just, 431 00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:12,840 you know, in the past that has made team selections a bit 432 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,320 easier when you just can, you know, hey, these are the rules. 433 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,080 This is what we should do. But, you know, for this one, 434 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:23,480 it's ended up, it ended up in a bit more, more of a mess to try 435 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:27,200 and clear up. But yeah, so that's, I mean, 436 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,200 that's what happened at the USATF half Marathon champs on 437 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,480 the women's side, men's side, they lucked out and it ended up 438 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,480 being a little bit clearer with Wesley Kiptu taking the win in 439 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,440 6115 to claim the national title. 440 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,800 Hilary bore right behind him in second and then Ahmed Mohammed 441 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:49,440 in 3rd. So Hoka, podium sweep to go 123. 442 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,760 Those three guys will take the spots for the world road running 443 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:55,920 championships, and then there's obviously the one spot that goes 444 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:57,560 off of the rankings. Who's in line for that one right 445 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,880 now? Let me have a look. 446 00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:05,560 Charles Hicks was fourth in his. I guess he wouldn't. 447 00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,520 Yes, and he wouldn't be eligible, so obviously Connor 448 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:11,920 Mantz is number one in the rankings. 449 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,840 Alex Mayer is currently #2. Hilary born #3. 450 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:22,600 Bearson Bass on #4. My in our group chat, I did joke 451 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,600 sort of that the, the solution to all this could be a run off. 452 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:31,720 We should, we should do a run off at the NYC half in a couple 453 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,200 weeks. Just bring, bring back the, you 454 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:40,120 know, the top three plus the, the, the, the, the people who 455 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:43,240 veered off course and make them run for three spots. 456 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:48,200 But no, I, I mean, it's a it's a, it's a silly, it's a joke and 457 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,120 a, and a silly idea because it was very clear that that was 458 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:52,400 going to be your top three on the day. 459 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,360 And I, and you brought up a great point that like, we're 460 00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:56,920 lucky that this is the extent of the mess. 461 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,640 And it wasn't like, oh, all right, there were four or five 462 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,640 people who veered off and then we wouldn't have known who would 463 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,280 have finished fourth or, or third. 464 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:11,040 Yeah. So there's a lot, a lot online 465 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,600 right now about what happened. Who's to blame. 466 00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,520 I think that the dumbest discourse that's having that's 467 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,360 out there is the whole know that if you're a pro, you should know 468 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:21,960 the course. Even Jess McClain, I think like 469 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,320 restraint yourself on threads because someone I think had 470 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,480 pointed that out. And it just doesn't make sense 471 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:32,080 with the complexity of this course being dropped into just a 472 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,120 random city that you don't know of. 473 00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:40,240 And then when you are running at this level, you're you're like, 474 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,640 it's sometimes it's hard to do even sort of math on like what 475 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:46,760 you're trying to split for the last K or mile or whatever it 476 00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:48,040 is. And now you think that you 477 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:51,640 should know to turn right on. What was the street called? 478 00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,720 I had it in front of me, Nelson St. and Ted Turner Drive. 479 00:28:55,720 --> 00:29:01,440 Like no way. And even if like you knew the 480 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:05,920 course and you saw that the lead vehicles were going off track, I 481 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,840 feel like it'd be such a weird move where you would just go 482 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,960 straight and the vehicles would peer peel off. 483 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:15,720 Yeah. You, you think that wherever 484 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:17,760 there was going to be something like that, where there was 485 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,640 flick, you'd have officials, race officials there sort of 486 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,000 directing people. That's normally what you see, 487 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:24,480 right. So there, there are sometimes 488 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,400 where, yes, the lead vehicle has to veer off because the road 489 00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:31,080 narrows or, or whatever it is, or there's a split between the 490 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:33,840 marathon course and the half marathon course or, or something 491 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:36,160 like that. And there you will always have 492 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,400 officials there, you will have signage. 493 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,440 I'm not sure. Like obviously we didn't really 494 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,520 get pictures on, on the feed as to how much signage there was. 495 00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:47,120 It didn't look like there was much signage on that course. 496 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,000 But I, I don't know, I don't want to unfairly, you know, but 497 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,360 it does sound like from the USATF statement that there 498 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:56,760 wasn't enough signage. Whatever signage there was was 499 00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,960 not sufficient at a point in the course where there was kind of a 500 00:29:59,960 --> 00:30:04,760 turn of that nature. So, yeah, I, I think that will 501 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,080 be a lesson to all Rd. courses to make sure they either have 502 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:10,560 officials or, or clearer signage. 503 00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:13,480 I think even signage is rough, right? 504 00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,600 Because actually, you know, if you're in the zone and you're 505 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:18,560 just running, you're just going to carry on running. 506 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,640 You're not, you're not often, you know, especially when you're 507 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:23,640 20 K into a half marathon, right? 508 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:27,080 Or 40K into a marathon. You're not going to be in the 509 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:30,720 headspace necessarily to process signs in front of you either. 510 00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:33,520 That's just not I don't, you know, you may not be. 511 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,080 Right And well, just think about like how sometimes, like if 512 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,280 you'd be in a race and for, I don't know, some traffic 513 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:43,440 accident that happens and all of a sudden the lead, you know, 514 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,720 bike gets a message from a walkie-talkie says no, actually, 515 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:48,560 we're going to have to move everyone because it's a safety 516 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:52,200 concern. Like and you like, you just 517 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:57,240 can't you always just defer to the race organizers and the lead 518 00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,800 vehicles. You can't it's a safety hazard 519 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,080 too to just kind of Oh no, actually like this is what the 520 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:04,840 map said on the, you know, day before the race, like I'm just 521 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:07,080 going to go off and do it. Like sometimes things happen. 522 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,800 And so that's sort of why I think like that whole argument. 523 00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:12,760 I was like, no, you know the course it should be on your 524 00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:18,600 professional so dumb. So yeah, that's that it it. 525 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:22,680 We don't have a solution to this thing quite yet. 526 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:28,200 Everyone seems to know what the right outcome is, which is, you 527 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:32,920 know, McClain, Kergot, Hurley are named to the team. 528 00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:38,320 It's just that we have to sort through the existing rule book 529 00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:44,000 and to to untangle all of the stuff that it takes to get to 530 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,960 that point. But yeah, that's where we're at. 531 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:51,120 So that was the USATF half marathon championships, which I 532 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,360 didn't necessarily anticipate was going to take up this much 533 00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:59,360 time on the podcast when we we, we didn't even preview it like 534 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:03,960 last week, but it ended up being the biggest story in a sport 535 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:09,240 over the last couple days. But that brings us now to the US 536 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:14,640 Indoor Championships, which took place out on Staten Island. 537 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:19,520 And last week we did an event by event preview of the track 538 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,160 events. And for the most part, I think 539 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:27,520 we're going to hit a lot of the same bigger like performances 540 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:29,320 that took place. We're not necessarily going to 541 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:33,440 touch on every single thing or else this ends up being a four 542 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,280 hour podcast. But let's start with the action 543 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:42,680 that took place on Saturday and the two biggest races, which is 544 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:49,280 I guess we'll start with the men's 3K, which race of the, 545 00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:51,240 some people would say race of the meet? 546 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:57,400 Definitely race of the day. And we knew going into this one 547 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:01,040 that it's unfair that we only get 2 spots for the World Indoor 548 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:04,480 Championships because there's three or four guys who are fully 549 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:09,000 capable of being metal threats. And we ended up getting a 550 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:13,520 blanket finish separated by just 4 hundredths of a second. 551 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,120 And what do you know, Cole Hacker found a way to get the 552 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,120 win just ahead of Yard and a Goose. 553 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:27,080 And then Nico Young was on the wrong side of heartbreak because 554 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:34,960 yeah, Cole won 739.25, last 200 meters was 26.36, including a 555 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,880 lot of it in lane 2 on that final turn. 556 00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:45,640 And then it was yard and a Goose 739.28, Nico Young 739.29. 557 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,800 Yeah, to miss the world indoor team, but .01 seconds is really, 558 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,800 really tough. But Preet, what stood out to you 559 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:59,600 about the execution here by Cole to pull this one off because he 560 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,040 was in 3rd at the bell and didn't flinch. 561 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,960 Found a way to found a way to kick it and get the win. 562 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,000 Well, it's the familiar Cole Hawker strategy now, right? 563 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,719 He sat at the front of the field, controlled the race for 564 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:17,280 the first, what, 8 laps? That was just, it's him. 565 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,480 He was there. He he knew what pace he wanted 566 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,040 to run and he did that. And yeah. 567 00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:29,520 And then he was in position at the bell to to make his move. 568 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:34,080 And Nico Young kind of had a yakab Inga Britson strategy. 569 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,840 He went right to the back. He spent the 1st He didn't. 570 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,040 He was in 14th place at 1400 meters. 571 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:45,560 So he was in dead last, I think at that point. 572 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:50,719 But yes, he was he basically moved up literally just after 2K 573 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,400 in second place and then went for it with 200 to go. 574 00:34:56,679 --> 00:35:03,400 And yeah, he I think if he had leaned better than Jared, we'd 575 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,120 be having a completely different conversation last. 576 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,040 Night or if he didn't surrender the inside lane as much. 577 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:12,200 And that yes, he did leave. He I mean, he was going for the 578 00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:15,560 win and obviously he knew Cole was coming on his outside. 579 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:19,440 He veered out to give Cole a space that left space for Jared 580 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:22,560 on the inside. I mean, yes, it was. 581 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:25,840 And, and, and maybe if he hadn't been going for the win and we go 582 00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,480 for the team, I think he maybe, maybe would be on that team. 583 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:31,960 Didn't Max say that on the podcast last week? 584 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,760 It was sort of just like, don't necessarily focus on racing coal 585 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:38,880 for the win. It could cost you focus on. 586 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:43,680 And this was super, super close like and Nico admitted, I think 587 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,640 in the post race interview afterwards, they like he didn't 588 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:48,360 realize he had another gear until it was way too late into 589 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:52,440 the race. But yeah, I understand it's AUS 590 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,560 championship and you want to come out on top, you know, with 591 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:58,840 the victory. But yeah, if you would have just 592 00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:04,760 raced for the top 2 and held, I guess the inside a bit more than 593 00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,560 you already would have been the one who had to have done a 594 00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:10,000 little bit extra work in that final stretch. 595 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,000 And yeah, we'll we'll come back to a couple different things 596 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:15,240 that were said on the preview pod. 597 00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:17,600 Some things materialize, other things did not and we got 598 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:19,440 completely wrong. But that was one. 599 00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,760 I think it's like we got to give Max some flowers there that he 600 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:24,960 did say, it's like you maybe you shouldn't raise Cole for the 601 00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:26,720 win. And instead. 602 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:30,760 But yeah, it was just way too close. 603 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:32,920 You're not thinking about that in that moment. 604 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:38,320 No, he's, I, I, I mean, I think that we, we got the race that we 605 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,560 wanted, right? That is the, that is the main 606 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,400 thing we got. We, we set out knowing that 607 00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:47,920 these were the three guys who we want to see going head to head. 608 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,560 They were the superstars in this race and they were the ones who 609 00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,400 delivered on that promise of giving us an awesome race. 610 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:59,200 So I think we should be thankful that that they showed up and 611 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:03,240 they raced. And yeah, I mean at that, at 612 00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:05,640 this point in the meet and obviously we'll come on to what 613 00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:07,920 happened next. But at this point in the in the 614 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:12,280 meet, I think we were of that kind of yeah, Cole's doing his 615 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:14,840 thing. He is the 5000 meter world 616 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,120 champion. He is, you know, the Olympic 617 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,800 1500m champion. He is the best middle distance 618 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,120 runner in the world right now. And that's how we're. 619 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:26,360 Feeling on Saturday? Yeah. 620 00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:30,920 This is just inevitable, right? And yeah, and it played out 621 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:34,160 exactly like that. And yeah, we, I mean, yeah, it's 622 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,760 just like fabulous rice. But then again, looking at 623 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:46,920 results point O3 margin of victory, not enough to be a lock 624 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:49,400 for gold. I would say like you're the 625 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:51,920 favorite if you're Cole Hawker heading to the World 626 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:56,080 Championships in the 3K, but not necessarily, you know, putting 627 00:37:56,080 --> 00:38:03,040 his odds at 90%. He's definitely fit and but it 628 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,080 just he's not unstoppable or untouchable. 629 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,080 And I think that that's what we saw in this race. 630 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:12,000 Like there's it all depends on how the, you know, 1st 3/4 of 631 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:15,960 the race is set up that will determine just where, how, how 632 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:19,200 much he'll win by. But point O 3 was really close. 633 00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,960 Yeah, exactly. I mean, I, I think though that 634 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,360 he was as in, I think that is the thing, right, though the 635 00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,560 best kickers are the ones who know how to time their effort, 636 00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:32,680 right. If, you know, if you're able to 637 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,400 time your effort bang on, then that is how you win races. 638 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:40,680 And that's how Nikki Hertz has been winning races. 639 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:45,520 You know, they didn't win by that much in, in the 1500 640 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,360 either, but it was completely in their control. 641 00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,640 And that's kind of how it felt with coal. 642 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:54,280 Even though it was a lot closer than, you know, at 3 hundredths, 643 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:58,680 it was very, very close. He was in, he was in control. 644 00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,480 It felt. And I think that's how we were 645 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,480 kind of, and maybe that's just our perception of it at the time 646 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,480 because of the way that he has been racing the rest of this 647 00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:12,400 indoor season. But yeah, I mean, I also wanted 648 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:14,960 to touch on some of the other people in this race who we maybe 649 00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,440 were expecting a little more from Sam Gilman. 650 00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:21,200 Unfortunately, he was almost going to win Wild indoors last 651 00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:27,680 year, unfortunately, 16th place last by almost over 5 seconds. 652 00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:30,840 So maybe he is not currently at his best. 653 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:35,240 Cooper tear. Where does he go from here? 654 00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:41,360 I don't really know, you know, and Ethan Strand, obviously he 655 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:45,840 showed so much promise and, you know, we expected quite a lot of 656 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:49,360 them after he won the the 2K and, and performed so well at 657 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:54,800 at, well, cross country. And yeah, he hasn't had as good 658 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:57,520 an indoor season as we thought he might have coming off the 659 00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:00,360 back of that. So yeah. 660 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:05,320 Yeah, In the end, Swoosh TC. No members of Team USAI believe, 661 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:08,920 Right, Because Parker Ball didn't compete. 662 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,840 Nico Young misses out. Ethan Strand doesn't make the 663 00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:14,360 team. Maggie Congdon didn't make the 664 00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:16,560 team. No Woody, no ABI Hammond. 665 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,880 Yeah. Yeah, no. 666 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:24,560 That's unfortunate. And yeah, your question of like, 667 00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:26,280 what does Cooper tear do from here? 668 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:31,240 I don't quite know either. I guess everyone's popular thing 669 00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:34,840 is when you're that tall and good at the 1500, what do we 670 00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:36,400 say? Move to the. 671 00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:42,480 Steeplechase, I think we might, we might be at that point now. 672 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,360 We might be at that point because yeah, he is not. 673 00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,120 He's not making teams in the 15 and he's not making teams in the 674 00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,120 five, so. It's just a really jam to all 675 00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,200 the. Three, all the three in this 676 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:54,240 case. So yeah. 677 00:40:55,360 --> 00:41:00,400 All right, so that was the men's 3K. 678 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:07,880 Similarly, the women's 3K also brought quite a bit of dramatics 679 00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:12,280 because we ended up having Emily Mackay stepping out of the 680 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:19,440 shadows to take the victory just ahead of Ellie Saint Pierre out 681 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:21,560 kicking her former training partner. 682 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,680 Big personal best, I think it was by 5 seconds, 830 point O1. 683 00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:33,480 But yeah, I guess like for how it played out, Saint Pierre 684 00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,880 pushed to the front at 1200. We kind of expected that last 2K 685 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:43,840 was pretty damn fast and Emily Mackay was briefly gapped, but 686 00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:47,520 as we've seen a couple times in some of her races this indoor 687 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:53,080 season, she just fights back. And she got to Ellie's shoulder 688 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:58,920 with 400 meters to go, closed really hard 29.9 seconds for her 689 00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:07,840 final 200, and managed to beat Ellie, her first US title, maybe 690 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:12,600 the best race she's had since making the Olympic team in the 691 00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,560 1500. And actually, yeah, best race 692 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:21,320 since the 2024 US Olympic trials, 1500 meter final. 693 00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:26,640 And it's been like, I guess like, the reason why this one 694 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:30,840 kind of came as a surprise is because Ellie has been on 695 00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:34,400 absolute fire since coming back from her second pregnancy. 696 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:39,320 She beat Emily McKay by 12 seconds at the New Balance 697 00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:43,800 Indoor Grand Prix. Emily McKay was seventh in the 698 00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:49,000 Wanamaker Mile at the Milrose Games and she just finds a way 699 00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:54,880 to peek at the championships. And so working with Pete Julian 700 00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:59,040 and the Union Athletic Club out in Boulder is starting to pay 701 00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:01,560 off. This is now her second trip to 702 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:04,920 the World Indoor Championships. The last time she went, it was 703 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:08,880 in the 1500, in 2024 and she came away with a bronze medal. 704 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:14,680 So yeah, big ups to Emily Mackay for this performance. 705 00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:21,640 For Ellie, she is still going to be a force, I think. 706 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:22,880 I wouldn't read too much into it. 707 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,880 She made the team that checks the big box and I think she'll 708 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,680 come back ferociously at the World Indoor Championships. 709 00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:31,920 She's still the world leader in this event, right? 710 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:34,800 Or no? Actually, I believe The 711 00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:38,720 Ethiopians are faster, right? I don't actually know. 712 00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:43,520 But yeah, it's, I mean, she's, she's still the world leader in 713 00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:49,120 the 1500s, but she's not running that race at World Indoors. 714 00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:52,760 But. She decided to skip the 1500 to, 715 00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:57,800 I guess, get back to her two kids back at home who were sick 716 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:03,480 and just start to rest up for the World Indoor Championships 717 00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:09,440 in Poland. So, yeah, I mean, I I just like 718 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,760 the way that Ellie runs these races and makes it aggressive 719 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:19,080 and fair for everyone. It's such a bold strategy 720 00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:22,000 sometimes, but it's paid off for her many, many times. 721 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:26,880 So that's what stood out to me. Do you, I guess, like the debate 722 00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:31,080 online has been this is seen as an upset. 723 00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:41,760 And I think it is like in a way, like if you just took Eli Saint 724 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:46,080 Pierre as like 9 months postpartum athlete, then sure. 725 00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:52,920 Like, it'd be hard not to say that this is an upset, but we're 726 00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:55,520 talking about an athlete that nine months postpartum just ran 727 00:44:55,520 --> 00:45:00,680 417 for the mile and reasserted herself at the top of the US, 728 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,280 you know, middle distance picture. 729 00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:08,120 So it's not just a mom that's nine months postpartum. 730 00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,440 This is Ellie Saint Pierre. And I, I think it is fair to 731 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:14,440 call this thing an upset because we spoke about it last week. 732 00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:16,560 She was a heavy favorite for this race. 733 00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:19,520 Yeah, I mean, we, we judge her by different standards. 734 00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:23,000 She's someone that's run whatever 820 and and this year 735 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,600 she's now she's the fourth fastest this year behind a 736 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:28,880 couple of Ethiopians and Bassacletti. 737 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:31,080 But you know, she's she's run very far. 738 00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:36,000 She won very impressively at New Balance. 739 00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:41,920 And yeah, she's you know, she's someone who, you know, we, we 740 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,840 expect to be in that mix, right? She's a world little champion at 741 00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:47,960 this distance. So yeah, you would expect her to 742 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:51,240 win this race. And yes, there are others who 743 00:45:51,240 --> 00:45:55,520 could challenge, but I, but I think we also learned right at 744 00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:59,840 the Olympic trials as an example, right where she came 745 00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:01,560 third. But that's because she made the 746 00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:03,800 race and she made sure she made the team. 747 00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:06,600 And to be fair, she did that. She got the job done here 748 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:11,960 because she took, she took it at 1200, as you said, and, and off 749 00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:14,440 she went and she got the rest of the field and there were just 750 00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,560 two of them left. So you know that that was job 751 00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:19,760 done at that point, right? The win would have been nice, 752 00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:23,600 but I don't think it mattered in the context of what she was 753 00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:28,800 there to do. This episode of the Sidious Mag 754 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:33,000 Podcast is presented by Ollie Pop Polly Throws taking over for 755 00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:35,400 this special ad read. So try. 756 00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:38,800 January may be over, but one of the best things to come out of 757 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:42,600 it was Lollipop's brand new Shirley Temple flavor. 758 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:46,320 Funny story, I was still under 21 when I started working with 759 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:49,040 Sidious, and when I was on the road with the team last year, 760 00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:51,920 I'd hit that awkward moment at dinner when everyone's ordering 761 00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:54,440 drinks and I still had a few months to wait. 762 00:46:54,880 --> 00:47:00,520 That was until Chris suggested I try a Shirley Temple, and golly, 763 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:04,560 I was hooked. Just ask the hotel staff in Fort 764 00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:06,960 Lauderdale. The bright pink color, the 765 00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,520 syrupy sweetness, the fizzy lemon lime finish. 766 00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:14,120 It absolutely shook me. Now, obviously, that led to a 767 00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:16,560 few laughs every time I ordered Shirley Temple at a bar or 768 00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:18,920 restaurant. But even now that I'm 21, I 769 00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,000 definitely haven't outgrown the craving. 770 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:23,680 And that's where Ollie Pop steps in. 771 00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:27,040 Ollipop Shirley Temple is a modern, grown up take on the 772 00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:30,040 classic, made with a bright blend of tart cherry, white 773 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:34,240 grape, lemon and lime, plus Ollipop's signature prebiotic 774 00:47:34,240 --> 00:47:36,320 formula. It's sweet without being 775 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,080 overpowering, refreshing without being boring, and way more 776 00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:41,960 interesting than the sugary original. 777 00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:46,280 Each can has just 4 to 5 grams of sugar, 50 calories, and all 778 00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:48,800 the fun of the drink without the sugar crash. 779 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,360 And honestly, we know runners appreciate tart cherry too. 780 00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:55,840 You can find Ollipop Shirley Temple at retailers nationwide 781 00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:58,760 right now. Or head to Drink ollipop.com, 782 00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:02,120 where Sidious Mag podcast listeners get 25% off with the 783 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,720 code Sidious 25. It's not just the runner's soda. 784 00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:08,120 A big throws guy like me loves it too. 785 00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:15,560 Ollipop Polly throws Approved. As I look through the other 786 00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:20,640 results, I think the other thing that sticks out to me is, was it 787 00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:23,200 Margot Appleton who was in 3rd place? 788 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:28,800 Margot Appleton finishes in 3rd in 841 time. 789 00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:33,120 Nothing extravagant but watch for her. 790 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:37,280 She's team New Balance Boston when we had her on the podcast 791 00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:40,960 like she spoke openly about her goals for the outdoor season are 792 00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:46,000 going to be to break 4 minutes in the 1500. 793 00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:50,480 She's mixed it up with some of the best Americans so far this 794 00:48:50,960 --> 00:48:54,280 indoor season. If you look past Nikki Hilton, 795 00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:56,960 the results of the Melrose Mile, I believe Margo was the next 796 00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:03,560 best American in that field. So there are some tiny signs now 797 00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:09,680 to buy some stock in Margo because if we've learned 798 00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:13,600 anything over the years of Mark Hoogan working as magic with 799 00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:18,040 1500 meter athletes, it's that very quickly we, you know, 800 00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:21,960 Margot could be the next, you know, three 55356 American 801 00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,840 woman. So I just thought, OK, there's a 802 00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:28,040 there's a good sign there as Margot took third. 803 00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:34,320 Elise Cranny, who we kind of threw into like the favorites 804 00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:37,960 bucket on the last episode, ends up finishing in 5th. 805 00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:42,400 I think it's just, you know, you got to give the coaching switch 806 00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:44,640 a little bit more time, right? Like it's not going to be 807 00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:50,240 instant home runs. And yes, her training group is 808 00:49:50,240 --> 00:49:54,280 doing amazing. Georgia Hunter Bell, 157 this 809 00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:58,320 past weekend. Kelly Hodgkinson, 51 seconds for 810 00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:01,960 the 400 PB. Great signs of the people around 811 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:03,960 you. And it's just going to take a 812 00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,680 little bit more time for her to continue to develop. 813 00:50:06,680 --> 00:50:09,800 What did you make of just sort of the other performances in 814 00:50:09,800 --> 00:50:12,200 this race? Yeah. 815 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,240 So, yeah, I mean, at least as you said, right, It's it's 816 00:50:15,240 --> 00:50:17,960 interesting. It's, you know, the transition 817 00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:23,800 is it hasn't quite taken yet, but but those things can take 818 00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:26,240 time. So I hope it works for her, 819 00:50:26,240 --> 00:50:29,080 right. And obviously she took this race 820 00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:32,000 out and that's maybe not the thing she should be doing 821 00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,040 anymore given the kind of training she's doing. 822 00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:39,280 But but yeah, it's, yeah, we'll be good to see if she can really 823 00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:41,520 make strides in the 1500, which is where our focus is going to 824 00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:43,880 be this year. I mean, I think looking further 825 00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:48,520 down, impressive clothes from Christina Aragon. 826 00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:52,440 She was like the third Christina Aragon and Sadie Sargent closed 827 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:56,680 very, very quickly in this race, sub 32 seconds for both of them. 828 00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:01,440 So they were the third and fourth fastest closes. 829 00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:05,080 Caitlin Tui. That's your. 830 00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:09,080 I know you. Were going to yeah, 16th place 831 00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:14,720 nine O 1. I mean, yeah, it's not the place 832 00:51:14,720 --> 00:51:17,600 that we would expect either of those athletes to be given how 833 00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:21,240 good they've been in the past and. 834 00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:24,240 It's it's the Cooper tier question that you posed, right? 835 00:51:24,240 --> 00:51:26,920 Like now what? Right, because I guess this has 836 00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:32,880 now been a year of just subpar results, to put it, you know, 837 00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:38,600 bluntly, Caitlin Tui did have one good outdoor 5K last year, I 838 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:42,600 think. But otherwise at these stages, 839 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:44,920 like just has not been able to get it to translate. 840 00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:47,640 And so in the same way you're like, what do you do if you're 841 00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:49,640 Cooper tier? In that similar vein, it's like, 842 00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:51,160 what do you do if you're Caitlin Tui right now? 843 00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:53,000 And we, we said this a while back. 844 00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:55,640 We, we, we said it might be time for a coaching switch. 845 00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:58,840 And like, with all due respect to, you know, how good Lori 846 00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:01,040 Hennis has been at developing talent. 847 00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:04,640 But it's OK, I think, and it's sometimes the good move to make 848 00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:07,160 a change. Yeah, I mean, I think I think 849 00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:10,880 this is a thing, right? If she is healthy, then, you 850 00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:14,840 know, it's it's a tough sign that she's not able to get even 851 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,760 close to what she was doing in the NCAA, right? 852 00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:21,800 She ran 835 in the NCAA. She's running 25 seconds slower 853 00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:24,760 than that. She's run, she ran 8:45 this 854 00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:28,880 season, but you know that that's 10 still 10 seconds off her, her 855 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,040 best. And you know she's run 432 for 856 00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:34,520 the mile, she's run like 9 seconds quicker. 857 00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:40,400 So it's not something's not working. 858 00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:42,840 And if she's not healthy, then then fair enough. 859 00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:46,160 But if she is healthy, then yeah, maybe a new training 860 00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:47,920 stimulus, maybe something different. 861 00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,680 And what we. Flagged in the past was that you 862 00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:54,040 don't really have all that many options as an Adidas athlete to 863 00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:57,720 move to a different group. But what we've sort of been able 864 00:52:57,720 --> 00:53:04,160 to see is someone that you can move to a group that is not tied 865 00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:06,760 to a brand. And we're thinking a Julie 866 00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:09,960 Benson move, right? Like I honestly think that'd be 867 00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:12,560 a great one for someone like Caitlin Tui. 868 00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:17,200 You have the likes of Heather and Nikki to train with if you 869 00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:20,080 chose to focus on the shorter stuff, which we've seen Caitlin 870 00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:24,360 have some success at 1500. But there isn't necessarily 871 00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:29,920 someone in that group who is the 5K side of things. 872 00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:33,640 So you're not occupying or you're not starting to rub 873 00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:36,080 shoulders in it with a group that already has three or four 874 00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:38,760 or 5K people. So you get to be that person in 875 00:53:38,760 --> 00:53:40,960 the group. So I don't know, just just 876 00:53:40,960 --> 00:53:43,320 pulling it out there. Pete Julian, I think is the 877 00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:47,440 other obvious option, right, given how well Emily Mackay did 878 00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:51,840 in this very same race and and he seems to be having a bit of 879 00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:53,960 success as well with some marathoners too. 880 00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:58,840 So yeah, I think all around maybe maybe that that's another 881 00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:02,080 another option there. All right, let's keep this thing 882 00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:04,320 going because we're only two races. 883 00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:06,000 We've only. Done 2 races, yeah. 884 00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:10,440 All right, Next up, let's go over to the 1500s because they 885 00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:16,160 go hand in hand with this. So let's start with the the 886 00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:19,120 women's one will be a little bit easier and and quicker to to get 887 00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:20,920 through. Nikki Hills extended their 888 00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:27,640 remarkable US title streak to 8, winning the 1500 and 411.34. 889 00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:33,040 So you were right Preet, it was not a four flat race, but before 890 00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:36,400 it you, you, you celebrate sort of being right on that. 891 00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:42,640 The caveat in Mac's point was that if Ellie was in this race, 892 00:54:42,720 --> 00:54:44,400 she would be the one to make it fast. 893 00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:47,480 And so Ellie was not in the race and it did end up going slow. 894 00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:54,800 But you were right, it was it was well suited to Nikki's 895 00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,760 racing style. The big move that happened in 896 00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:01,920 this one, and maybe we don't know yet, Lindsay Butler listens 897 00:55:01,920 --> 00:55:05,880 to the city's Mac podcast because Kyle essentially cried 898 00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:11,920 for someone to do something in this race, try something, go to 899 00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:15,480 the front, make that move. Emily Mackay tried it in this 900 00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:16,720 one. But it might have been a lot to 901 00:55:16,720 --> 00:55:21,000 ask your body 24 hours after, you know, the the 3K. 902 00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:25,040 So she faded. But Lindsay Butler, bold move, 903 00:55:25,240 --> 00:55:28,760 two laps to go, briefly looked like she was going to pull off 904 00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:30,360 this upset. And I was going to, We were 905 00:55:30,360 --> 00:55:32,920 going to look rough because we've never uttered Lindsay 906 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:38,880 Butler's name on this podcast. And it was Nikki who was just 907 00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:41,080 kind of stalking, staying out of trouble. 908 00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:45,080 There was some jostling happening in that backpack, but 909 00:55:45,080 --> 00:55:51,600 Nikki closed the final 459 and Lindsay Butler almost, almost 910 00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:53,520 pulled it off. And so did. 911 00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:56,600 But it was Sinclair and Gracie Morris who were also right 912 00:55:56,600 --> 00:56:00,200 there. And what ended up happening was 913 00:56:00,200 --> 00:56:05,080 I believe it was Sinclair who is let me see. 914 00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:06,800 I got to make sure I have these results. 915 00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:11,760 But the the, the inside opened up, which left enough room for 916 00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:17,000 Gracie Morris to take the second spot for the World 917 00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:18,600 Championships. It was Lindsay Butler who was 918 00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:21,080 trying to hold the spot. Sinclair Johnson ended up in 919 00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:25,200 fourth place. But yeah, so you're 1/2 are 920 00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:30,080 Nikki Hilts, Gracie Morris, That's your team for the World 921 00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:37,160 Championships in Poland. I mean, eight straight titles. 922 00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:43,840 The streak speaks for itself. Nikki is a medal contender at 923 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,880 these World Championships. They earned silver in the event 924 00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:50,560 back in 2024. That was a race that Gudolph 925 00:56:50,560 --> 00:56:53,440 won. Yeah, I think it was. 926 00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:58,120 It was good off, I think, yeah. No good off this time around. 927 00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,960 Good off's been missing. And I talked to coach Eric 928 00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:05,200 Jenkins and asked where she's been this in this this winter. 929 00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:11,560 But yeah, given Nikki's current form, I think it signals that 930 00:57:12,000 --> 00:57:15,440 there's the potential for another medal this time around. 931 00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:20,280 That's the way I view it, right? Like if if you zoom out Georgia 932 00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:23,400 Hunter Bell today, I think it came out she's committing to the 933 00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:26,560 1500 for the World Championships. 934 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:28,480 We'll see. Jess Hall. 935 00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:31,800 I'm I'm presuming Dorkas Ewoi will be named by the Kenyan 936 00:57:31,800 --> 00:57:35,960 team. So it's almost like a rerun of 937 00:57:36,280 --> 00:57:38,760 last year's world outdoor championships. 938 00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:42,200 But instead of faith to begun, throw in Georgia Hunter Bell 939 00:57:42,200 --> 00:57:46,840 there and you know when Nikki finished fifth in the world last 940 00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:51,520 year, you got the chance now to try and improve upon that come 941 00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:55,200 the indoor season. Yeah, he's, I mean, I, I think, 942 00:57:55,200 --> 00:57:58,000 yeah, Nikki, I think they, they've obviously been looking 943 00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:01,360 so good in terms of the way they won that Milrose Mile. 944 00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:05,400 You know, they, I think it, it, it has been hugely impressive 945 00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:09,200 from them and they know how to win races. 946 00:58:09,200 --> 00:58:14,640 And yes, we, we, we, you know, they won a Diamond League, you 947 00:58:14,640 --> 00:58:19,160 know, yes, it's time for them to to win a race at a global 948 00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:22,760 championship. And and this could be certainly 949 00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:24,760 could be a good opportunity for that. 950 00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:28,640 And yeah, it it really does obviously depend on on how the 951 00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:32,600 race plays out, But I don't see it, you know, with no faith 952 00:58:32,600 --> 00:58:34,560 could be a gone no good after the guy in the race. 953 00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:38,400 It it doesn't feel like it's going to be super duper quick. 954 00:58:38,400 --> 00:58:43,280 And as I said before, like, no one in that field has broken 955 00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:45,160 four this year. As I say, George Hunter Bell is 956 00:58:45,160 --> 00:58:48,080 the closest. Francis Agatha Guillermo is 957 00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:50,880 second. But you know, it's it's not 958 00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:53,920 really. Yeah. 959 00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:55,960 And then maybe Berkeley Harlem is the only other one. 960 00:58:55,960 --> 00:58:58,240 But as we know, her tactics are a little bit suspect. 961 00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:00,720 So. Yeah. 962 00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:05,400 Yeah. The Ethiopian team is like, it's 963 00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:07,840 been having such a funky indoor season. 964 00:59:07,840 --> 00:59:11,040 No one's really popped off in the absence of of good off and 965 00:59:11,040 --> 00:59:14,440 we talked about that last week. We'll just have to wait and see 966 00:59:14,440 --> 00:59:17,640 who they name to the team for the World Indoor Championships. 967 00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:22,880 Who do you think it's going to? Be I think it will be Highland 968 00:59:22,880 --> 00:59:29,680 and I suspect it could be Saran Berhay cause for any Hilu is the 969 00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:34,000 #2 Ethiopian, but she is going to be, I'm pretty certain she'll 970 00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:36,960 be doing the three K because she's the world leader in the 971 00:59:36,960 --> 00:59:40,040 3K. So I would, I would expect her 972 00:59:40,360 --> 00:59:46,160 to, to, to do the 3K. But yeah, I in fact, I think it 973 00:59:46,160 --> 00:59:49,600 was Hilu who won that 1500. Sorry, it wasn't good off, but 974 00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:53,360 because Goudaf was in the 3K Ellie beat Ellie beat Goudaf in 975 00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:58,520 the 3K and highly beat Nikki in that 15 in class K. 976 00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:04,360 But yeah, Gracie Morris is the obviously the other. 977 01:00:04,760 --> 01:00:08,080 You know, she's been having a breakout like she's she won 978 01:00:08,080 --> 01:00:12,840 fifth half. She won the 2K trial for for 979 01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:17,440 World Cross and. Yeah, she, yeah. 980 01:00:17,440 --> 01:00:20,640 And she's, she's come second here and, and she's, she's been 981 01:00:20,640 --> 01:00:24,400 pretty consistent. And yeah, I, I, I think you have 982 01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:26,480 to give her credit for, for that. 983 01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:30,280 You know, I, I kind of said she was, she was in, in that mix for 984 01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:32,400 this team. And I, I thought she'd, she'd be 985 01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:35,040 the second person. And she positioned herself 986 01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:37,400 perfectly. She kind of got it tactically 987 01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:40,520 right. And it's tough in races like 988 01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:44,680 this, I think, to get it right, as I'm sure we'll talk about 989 01:00:44,680 --> 01:00:46,240 when we come on to the men's race. 990 01:00:47,800 --> 01:00:50,760 It it, it, it is really hard to know because when it's this 991 01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:54,280 slope, so many more people, Lindsay Butler being the prime 992 01:00:54,280 --> 01:00:58,280 example of that are in the mix. And this is where I think I have 993 01:00:58,280 --> 01:01:02,920 to say Sinclair Johnson. I mean, surely you are 10 994 01:01:02,920 --> 01:01:07,760 seconds faster than Lindsay Butler on personal best, right? 995 01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:11,280 You should not be losing to Lindsay Butler. 996 01:01:11,560 --> 01:01:15,920 And this is where I think there has to be an element of at some 997 01:01:15,920 --> 01:01:19,920 point, yes, you're not going to, you might not win the race this 998 01:01:19,920 --> 01:01:22,440 way, but you might make the team this way, right? 999 01:01:22,680 --> 01:01:25,280 Is if you take this race out hard because she proved she 1000 01:01:25,280 --> 01:01:28,960 couldn't do that, like in that Hawaii merry mile, the way she 1001 01:01:28,960 --> 01:01:32,560 ran that with such confidence. She's clearly in really good 1002 01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:36,320 shape and I struggled to know what her best tactic is. 1003 01:01:36,320 --> 01:01:41,440 And maybe yes, if she takes it out hard, Nikki sits on her and 1004 01:01:41,440 --> 01:01:45,600 they out kick her at the end. But nonetheless, you probably 1005 01:01:45,600 --> 01:01:48,560 still make the team because you're just fast and everyone 1006 01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,560 else right. So I, I would have thought that 1007 01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:54,440 would have been worth the risk because when you let it slide to 1008 01:01:54,440 --> 01:01:59,000 a 411 race rather than a 402 race, which it could have been, 1009 01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:03,360 if you take it out a bit or 403, it just leave so many more 1010 01:02:03,360 --> 01:02:08,440 people in the mix. Yeah, for the people who were 1011 01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:11,000 wondering, I was like, who the heck is Lindsay Butler? 1012 01:02:11,720 --> 01:02:17,040 2022 NCAA 800 meter champion at Virginia Tech, Still based 1013 01:02:17,040 --> 01:02:20,960 there, still training under coach Ben Thomas, has put 1014 01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:25,880 together a good indoor season 2O2 for the 800 four, 26 for the 1015 01:02:25,880 --> 01:02:27,360 mile. But neither of those are times 1016 01:02:27,360 --> 01:02:31,280 that like necessarily would be like, Oh my gosh, like that is 1017 01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:35,280 going to finish third at the US Indoor championships. 1018 01:02:35,280 --> 01:02:38,240 In fact, like the mild time, like there's college kids 1019 01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:40,120 running much faster than that right now. 1020 01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:44,400 But yeah, this is her first ever US final. 1021 01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:49,440 And I think what she said in a post race interview was that 1022 01:02:49,440 --> 01:02:52,200 Coach Ben Thomas's instructions were just like, just be there at 1023 01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:56,880 1200 and give it a shot, which was honestly like what we were 1024 01:02:56,880 --> 01:02:59,040 hoping for. If someone else can, you know, 1025 01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:03,120 try and take the reins on this thing with 400 meters to go, you 1026 01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:06,160 at least give yourself a shot. And if anything, you learn from 1027 01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:09,360 it. And so I'm sure she learned 1028 01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:12,440 something from coming oh so close to her first ever Team USA 1029 01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:15,920 birth and her first ever real try for it. 1030 01:03:16,640 --> 01:03:19,840 And then the other thing you brought up, Gracie Morris, TCU 1031 01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:24,440 alum who never made an NCAA 1500 meter final. 1032 01:03:25,160 --> 01:03:27,680 It's been a great story to kind of follow over the last 12 1033 01:03:27,680 --> 01:03:30,480 months. Even this time last year, not 1034 01:03:30,480 --> 01:03:35,160 really on most people's radars, but she's dropped her 1500 meter 1035 01:03:35,160 --> 01:03:41,520 PB from four O 8 to 4 O 44-O2. The big win at 5th Ave. 1036 01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:44,760 Mile kind of put her on more people's radars. 1037 01:03:45,160 --> 01:03:50,040 And now she's headed to her her first Track World championship. 1038 01:03:50,040 --> 01:03:54,880 So we will be chatting with Gracie later this week. 1039 01:03:55,360 --> 01:03:57,760 She'll be a guest on the City of my podcast. 1040 01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:06,600 All right, let's go over now to the men's 1500, where chaos 1041 01:04:06,760 --> 01:04:12,400 ensued and we didn't see this result coming. 1042 01:04:13,520 --> 01:04:17,120 Former University of Washington team mates Nathan Green and Luke 1043 01:04:17,120 --> 01:04:21,400 Houser finished 12. We always said, actually, you 1044 01:04:21,400 --> 01:04:23,680 know, we barely spoke about them last week. 1045 01:04:23,680 --> 01:04:27,600 And we did say Nathan Green could be dangerous because the 1046 01:04:27,600 --> 01:04:31,560 only race I think he'd run was at 350 out at Washington. 1047 01:04:31,560 --> 01:04:37,160 But you don't necessarily know how much to read into a time on 1048 01:04:37,200 --> 01:04:40,920 the, you know, oversized track out in Seattle. 1049 01:04:42,520 --> 01:04:48,480 But yeah, they they managed to win this duel, which was so 1050 01:04:48,600 --> 01:04:52,520 bizarre. Nathan Green close the final 113 1051 01:04:52,520 --> 01:04:58,120 O 8 timed his kick perfectly. Luke Hauser, who is a two time 1052 01:04:58,120 --> 01:05:05,720 NCAA champion in the mile indoors has not really he didn't 1053 01:05:05,720 --> 01:05:08,400 run a 1500 I think before this. He ran like one mile and ran 1054 01:05:08,840 --> 01:05:12,800 352. I think it was at BU, So not 1055 01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:16,440 enough to really put him on people's radars. 1056 01:05:16,920 --> 01:05:22,640 And with 450 meters to go, Cole Hawker and Yard and a Goose were 1057 01:05:22,680 --> 01:05:25,480 1-2 in this race. And you're like, OK, there they 1058 01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:28,800 are. There is the Olympic medalist, 1059 01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:31,080 like they're going to kick this thing down. 1060 01:05:31,200 --> 01:05:34,680 But then for like very quickly it snaps. 1061 01:05:34,680 --> 01:05:37,440 And then the rest of the field just swallowed them up. 1062 01:05:37,920 --> 01:05:41,000 And when they got to the bell, they were 4th and 5th. 1063 01:05:41,840 --> 01:05:44,160 And I'm watching this whole thing unfold and I'm like, 1064 01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:50,480 Cole's got a ton of work to do with very little room left to 1065 01:05:51,000 --> 01:05:54,120 execute it. Like even giving that much of A 1066 01:05:54,120 --> 01:05:57,520 leg up to the likes of Vinciotti, who's put together a 1067 01:05:57,520 --> 01:06:02,040 strong season like, and then having to navigate towards the 1068 01:06:02,040 --> 01:06:04,200 outside like it was just too little, too late. 1069 01:06:04,640 --> 01:06:11,400 Both guys closed much faster than Nathan Greene and and Luke 1070 01:06:11,400 --> 01:06:15,520 Houser for that final lap, but just not enough and they faded 1071 01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:20,360 to 5th and 4th. So Cole was fifth, Yard was 1072 01:06:20,360 --> 01:06:25,320 fourth. Now, of course, the thing people 1073 01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:27,880 quickly point out is like, I guess that shows you just like 1074 01:06:27,880 --> 01:06:31,880 how much the 3K probably took a tax on their legs. 1075 01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:36,800 But I do think maybe some of the tactics there weren't perfect, 1076 01:06:37,240 --> 01:06:40,160 but also we got to give big ups to Nathan Green and and Luke 1077 01:06:40,160 --> 01:06:43,280 Houser for running a really smart race. 1078 01:06:43,840 --> 01:06:45,800 And this is the race that they went all in for. 1079 01:06:46,240 --> 01:06:52,440 But again, if track was a simple sport where the first two guys 1080 01:06:52,440 --> 01:06:55,200 across the finish line automatically qualify for the 1081 01:06:55,800 --> 01:06:59,400 World Indoor Championships, this would be much easier to explain. 1082 01:07:00,120 --> 01:07:06,120 But the caveat here is Nathan Green and Luke Houser have not 1083 01:07:06,120 --> 01:07:09,480 run the World Championship standard of 336 flat. 1084 01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:14,960 And luckily for them, they have a week to chase the time. 1085 01:07:15,400 --> 01:07:21,200 And we learned earlier today and I think I put it out on Twitter 1086 01:07:21,320 --> 01:07:27,560 that the plan right now is for Nathan Green and Luke Hauser to 1087 01:07:27,560 --> 01:07:32,240 go out to Philadelphia this weekend at Upenn and they're 1088 01:07:32,240 --> 01:07:37,400 going to run a 1500 Ben Allen of the Empire Elite Track Club who 1089 01:07:37,400 --> 01:07:42,520 paced the the two mile at the Miller Rose Games. 1090 01:07:42,760 --> 01:07:46,040 Fantastic pacer is going to try and get him to that standard. 1091 01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:52,200 Nathan Green's PB is 337.65 from this victory on Sunday. 1092 01:07:53,040 --> 01:07:56,680 His outdoor PB is 332 from 2 years ago I believe at the 1093 01:07:56,680 --> 01:08:00,840 trials. Hauser's indoor 15 PB is 335, 1094 01:08:00,840 --> 01:08:06,160 which was in route to a 351 mile and he has run 333 outdoors. 1095 01:08:06,600 --> 01:08:09,440 So they're going to try and give it one shot. 1096 01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:14,320 Now, of course, what happens if they don't hit the time? 1097 01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:18,760 Well, if they don't hit the time, then they got to rely on 1098 01:08:18,760 --> 01:08:23,160 their spot on the all time or the not the all time list, the 1099 01:08:23,160 --> 01:08:27,279 season list. And it this is where it gets a 1100 01:08:27,279 --> 01:08:29,399 little complicated. Both Preet and I are not ready 1101 01:08:29,399 --> 01:08:34,200 to make any harsh projections on whether or not they would be 1102 01:08:34,200 --> 01:08:39,920 comfortably in or not because you it it, you're going to have 1103 01:08:39,920 --> 01:08:44,840 to rely on some guys scratching from other countries like Sam 1104 01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:47,560 Ruth is in the quota ahead of them. 1105 01:08:47,560 --> 01:08:50,479 But it doesn't sound like he'll be running World indoors. 1106 01:08:50,760 --> 01:08:56,120 Samuel Chappie from or Chapel from the Netherlands. 1107 01:08:56,120 --> 01:08:59,680 He did run the 1500 at the Dutch National Championships past 1108 01:08:59,680 --> 01:09:02,200 weekend, but his better shot maybe in the 800. 1109 01:09:02,200 --> 01:09:05,520 So not entirely sure what event he's going to choose. 1110 01:09:05,920 --> 01:09:09,720 So you got to give it I think, a couple more days after this 1111 01:09:09,720 --> 01:09:13,560 weekend for the quota to sort itself out. 1112 01:09:15,720 --> 01:09:18,840 It will help if they run a little bit faster than they did 1113 01:09:18,840 --> 01:09:22,960 this past weekend. But at the same time, yeah, you 1114 01:09:22,960 --> 01:09:26,640 just got to go out there and try and run under 336 this weekend 1115 01:09:26,640 --> 01:09:30,240 out in Philadelphia. But yeah, Pre what did you make 1116 01:09:30,240 --> 01:09:34,920 of this one? Yeah, I mean, never, never write 1117 01:09:34,920 --> 01:09:38,319 off Andy Powell's guys, right? I mean, Luke obviously doesn't 1118 01:09:38,319 --> 01:09:42,319 train with Andy Powell anymore, but I mean, yeah, these guys, we 1119 01:09:42,319 --> 01:09:47,359 know from their NC delay exploits that they are a threat 1120 01:09:47,359 --> 01:09:50,160 in a slow race. Luke Houser obviously is a world 1121 01:09:50,160 --> 01:09:52,120 indoor medalist, right from last year. 1122 01:09:52,120 --> 01:09:59,480 So again, I failed to understand why when you have athletes of 1123 01:09:59,480 --> 01:10:04,520 the calibre of Yarod and Cole in this race, why are we running a 1124 01:10:04,520 --> 01:10:08,000 338 race? Like it just does not make any 1125 01:10:08,000 --> 01:10:10,080 sense to me. And look, I know Yarod has 1126 01:10:10,080 --> 01:10:15,600 stopped running, you know, his 330 from the front type races 1127 01:10:15,760 --> 01:10:19,200 because he now knows that many more people can hang with him. 1128 01:10:19,560 --> 01:10:24,040 But I think to be honest, you still got to say, well, you got 1129 01:10:24,040 --> 01:10:25,760 to take out some of these guys, right? 1130 01:10:26,480 --> 01:10:28,680 You got to make it quick enough to take out a few of them. 1131 01:10:28,680 --> 01:10:34,040 You can't just leave it to leave it to a kick when you've got 1132 01:10:34,040 --> 01:10:36,320 people who've got a kick like Nathan Green and Luke Hauser 1133 01:10:36,320 --> 01:10:38,360 have. And it just. 1134 01:10:38,960 --> 01:10:42,880 Yeah. And it it really does. 1135 01:10:43,080 --> 01:10:44,040 It does. It does. 1136 01:10:44,160 --> 01:10:47,240 I mean, it's tough, right? It is tough because because in 1137 01:10:47,240 --> 01:10:50,640 my view, like, it just shows that it's not that easy to do 1138 01:10:50,640 --> 01:10:52,480 the things that he sometimes does. 1139 01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:56,520 And we might say, look, Co Hawk is now able to to to be close to 1140 01:10:56,520 --> 01:10:57,960 that. But it. 1141 01:10:58,120 --> 01:11:02,080 Yeah, but the the aura isn't quite as strong as we perhaps 1142 01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:05,280 thought it might might now be. Yeah. 1143 01:11:05,320 --> 01:11:08,520 And so I guess like getting back to just sort of like where who's 1144 01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:10,480 going to this thing? There's a chance that right that 1145 01:11:10,480 --> 01:11:18,160 if if neither Luke Hauser nor Nathan Green get into the quota, 1146 01:11:19,000 --> 01:11:25,920 then it will go to Vince Yachty and Yarid, who was Next up after 1147 01:11:25,920 --> 01:11:29,480 that. And then Yard is on both teams, 1148 01:11:29,480 --> 01:11:37,360 the 15 and the 3K team. If he scratches from the 3K 1149 01:11:37,360 --> 01:11:39,440 which I don't know. If he I don't know if he has a 1150 01:11:39,440 --> 01:11:43,040 preference of going. He's expressed a preference of 1151 01:11:43,040 --> 01:11:46,080 doing the 15, so he wanted to do the 15 at Worlds, but I think he 1152 01:11:46,080 --> 01:11:50,120 obviously did both events at USA in case something like this 1153 01:11:50,120 --> 01:11:51,400 happened, right? So. 1154 01:11:52,560 --> 01:11:56,200 So then if he scratches the 15, the 3K, then Nico goes and then 1155 01:11:56,200 --> 01:11:58,720 he would just occupy the 15 spot. 1156 01:12:00,120 --> 01:12:03,240 Yeah. So we're yeah, again, we're 1157 01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:08,720 still months away from no, not months away, days away from 1158 01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:11,760 sorting through who exactly is on this team. 1159 01:12:13,000 --> 01:12:17,080 And then it it gets even more interesting again with the 800 1160 01:12:17,520 --> 01:12:21,040 as well. On the men's side, Cooper 1161 01:12:21,040 --> 01:12:26,440 Leckenhouse goes makes it five or five now as a pro in his 1162 01:12:26,440 --> 01:12:34,680 rookie season, Captures his first US title wins in 146.68. 1163 01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:38,880 Closed in 26.9. No yeah, 26.5. 1164 01:12:38,880 --> 01:12:43,760 Actually for his last lap, 26.9, the lap before that, he went to 1165 01:12:43,760 --> 01:12:46,560 the front at 400. So he's the cool part about him 1166 01:12:46,560 --> 01:12:48,880 is just he's trying a bunch of different things and, and, and 1167 01:12:49,120 --> 01:12:52,440 finding different ways to win. Like, he's not just the teenage 1168 01:12:52,440 --> 01:12:59,080 kid who you just rely on for your kick to get you on teams. 1169 01:12:59,080 --> 01:13:02,520 Now he knows he could sit back and then take command of a race 1170 01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:05,400 later on. So that reputation of just being 1171 01:13:05,400 --> 01:13:10,880 a kicker is starting to fade a little bit because he he also, I 1172 01:13:10,880 --> 01:13:15,320 guess like earlier this season, was just sitting behind a pacer 1173 01:13:15,720 --> 01:13:18,640 in the past and trying to hold that. 1174 01:13:18,640 --> 01:13:20,720 But this is the first time like he's actually had to make 1175 01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:23,400 decisions on his own and he passed every single test. 1176 01:13:23,400 --> 01:13:29,720 So 53.18 controlled and honest 1st 400. 1177 01:13:29,720 --> 01:13:34,000 And once he realized that the pace was lagging a little bit, 1178 01:13:34,520 --> 01:13:37,120 he was the one who decided to take the reins of it and to 1179 01:13:37,120 --> 01:13:38,880 control. He wins. 1180 01:13:39,360 --> 01:13:44,760 Sean Dolan finishes second, Isaiah Harris finishes 3rd, and 1181 01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:49,760 Sean Dolan does not have the world championship standard of 1182 01:13:49,800 --> 01:13:57,920 145.90. His his PB is actually, I just 1183 01:13:57,920 --> 01:14:04,520 had it in front of me. Sean Dolan's PB is 140. 1184 01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:10,560 Oh, his season's best is 147.16. His indoor PB is 146.90. 1185 01:14:10,560 --> 01:14:15,520 So he's going to need to take a whole second off of his indoor 1186 01:14:15,520 --> 01:14:19,280 personal best. He'll be paced by Luciano Fiore 1187 01:14:19,800 --> 01:14:26,480 in the 800. He has around 145.67 outdoors 1188 01:14:26,480 --> 01:14:28,600 last summer, so he's going to need to come pretty close to 1189 01:14:28,600 --> 01:14:31,040 that. If Sean Dolan is unable to do 1190 01:14:31,040 --> 01:14:34,560 that, then the spot will fall to 3rd place finisher Isaiah 1191 01:14:34,560 --> 01:14:38,760 Harris, who as we noted last week, is was the only other guy 1192 01:14:38,760 --> 01:14:42,080 coming into these championships who has run under the standards. 1193 01:14:42,080 --> 01:14:46,920 So again, we, we're going to have to wait a couple more days 1194 01:14:46,920 --> 01:14:51,240 to sort through the aftermath of the US indoor championships. 1195 01:14:51,240 --> 01:14:56,200 But five races in no losses. What's impressed you the most 1196 01:14:56,200 --> 01:15:00,040 about Cooper Luckenhouse, who now is going to take on the 1197 01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:04,200 world? We we've been saying his biggest 1198 01:15:04,200 --> 01:15:07,440 competition has been waiting out in Europe at this point. 1199 01:15:07,480 --> 01:15:12,280 And so he's going. Yeah, no, I mean, he's, it's 1200 01:15:12,280 --> 01:15:15,560 very impressive the way he's run the different races that he's 1201 01:15:15,560 --> 01:15:19,320 raced this indoor season and he's been able to deal, deal 1202 01:15:19,320 --> 01:15:21,440 with everything that that's come at him. 1203 01:15:21,440 --> 01:15:25,160 He's been, I mean, you know, he's he's able to navigate his 1204 01:15:25,160 --> 01:15:29,960 way through what was a slow first half of the race and 1205 01:15:30,640 --> 01:15:33,400 basically an even split through this race. 1206 01:15:33,400 --> 01:15:36,640 Really. So, yeah, it was, it was, it was 1207 01:15:36,640 --> 01:15:39,480 a good, you know, and and it was never in doubt, right? 1208 01:15:39,480 --> 01:15:43,240 That was that was a thing. There was no uncertainty that he 1209 01:15:43,240 --> 01:15:47,400 was going to win this race. And I was surprised again that, 1210 01:15:47,600 --> 01:15:52,520 you know, the likes of an Isaiah Harris, maybe he thought, well, 1211 01:15:52,600 --> 01:15:55,280 because no one else had the world champ standard, he could 1212 01:15:55,400 --> 01:15:58,560 kind of almost take this approach and he'd be on the team 1213 01:15:58,560 --> 01:16:00,000 by default. I don't know whether that was in 1214 01:16:00,000 --> 01:16:02,640 his thinking, but that doesn't feel like the right way to to go 1215 01:16:02,640 --> 01:16:04,360 into a race. And I'm pretty sure he, he 1216 01:16:04,360 --> 01:16:05,320 wouldn't have been thinking that. 1217 01:16:05,320 --> 01:16:11,000 So I, I, I don't then understand why they let it go so slow, 1218 01:16:11,280 --> 01:16:13,480 because Cooper is confident in his kick. 1219 01:16:13,480 --> 01:16:19,600 He's got an insane kick in an 800 and he's quite happy running 1220 01:16:19,600 --> 01:16:24,040 and winning one 46147 races no problem. 1221 01:16:25,160 --> 01:16:29,040 And yeah, I think I think these are the guys who have run much 1222 01:16:29,040 --> 01:16:33,880 faster outdoors, just not really not really featuring it seemed. 1223 01:16:33,880 --> 01:16:38,280 And Sean Dolan, Congrats to Mack and Kyle predicting that a 1224 01:16:38,280 --> 01:16:41,680 random guy from New Jersey would who would sneak onto the team. 1225 01:16:42,040 --> 01:16:44,160 Well, maybe Sean Dolan's our guy. 1226 01:16:44,160 --> 01:16:49,920 Obviously he is one of the guys who took the four by 800 meter 1227 01:16:49,920 --> 01:16:56,560 world record a few weeks ago, but other than that, you know he 1228 01:16:56,560 --> 01:17:02,440 is a 147. He's run 4800 meter races and 1229 01:17:02,640 --> 01:17:07,000 run 147 point each time. So this this season, so he's. 1230 01:17:07,200 --> 01:17:09,440 Going to need a good one on Saturday. 1231 01:17:09,440 --> 01:17:11,840 He's going to need a really good one because yeah, there there is 1232 01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:14,520 no, you have to hit the standard. 1233 01:17:14,760 --> 01:17:17,280 There is literally the, the field is full. 1234 01:17:17,640 --> 01:17:21,760 There's literally 30 guys who are going to get in based on the 1235 01:17:21,840 --> 01:17:24,320 entry standard. No one's getting in if they 1236 01:17:24,320 --> 01:17:29,160 haven't run that standard. So that is his only path to 1237 01:17:29,160 --> 01:17:32,880 making it too well indoors. Not a daily worker. 1238 01:17:33,880 --> 01:17:40,320 No, but we were close. And then over on the women's 1239 01:17:40,320 --> 01:17:46,320 side, we had Addie Wiley absolutely flipping the script 1240 01:17:46,400 --> 01:17:50,000 on her previous US Championship experiences. 1241 01:17:50,640 --> 01:17:56,080 Just constantly, you know, choking I would say at the US 1242 01:17:56,080 --> 01:18:01,880 Championship stage this time around, executed it cleanly and 1243 01:18:02,120 --> 01:18:06,000 ran an indoor PB of 159.43 to win. 1244 01:18:06,560 --> 01:18:10,640 Stayed pretty up close toward the front of the race in the top 1245 01:18:10,640 --> 01:18:14,880 three, made her move at the bell, took the lead and then 1246 01:18:15,240 --> 01:18:17,280 comfortably held it all the way to the finish line. 1247 01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:23,040 Then you had Brooks Beast star Valerie Tobias, who was the 1248 01:18:23,320 --> 01:18:29,160 runner up in 2025, come back and finished second yet again in 1249 01:18:29,160 --> 01:18:34,960 159.77. There were, if we look, I kind 1250 01:18:34,960 --> 01:18:37,360 of assessed just sort of like the top 800m runners. 1251 01:18:37,760 --> 01:18:40,200 Someone like Rosheen Willis skipped the meet entirely. 1252 01:18:40,640 --> 01:18:46,800 Sage, her De Clecker was bounced in the first round and it was 1253 01:18:47,240 --> 01:18:50,600 wide open from there, so Addie Wiley took it. 1254 01:18:50,920 --> 01:18:53,360 Valerie Tobias seized upon the opportunity. 1255 01:18:53,760 --> 01:18:59,000 Not a crazy fast final, but that's your team. 1256 01:18:59,000 --> 01:19:02,760 Megan Hunter ends up in 3rd. I thought we would get a little 1257 01:19:02,760 --> 01:19:05,880 bit more from her. Maggie Condon 4th in APB of 1258 01:19:05,880 --> 01:19:10,480 2O1O3, Heather McLean opted for the 800 ends of 5th and then it 1259 01:19:10,480 --> 01:19:15,920 was Olivia Baker in 6th pre. You had thoughts on how these 1260 01:19:15,920 --> 01:19:17,880 eight hundreds were drawn up for the weekend? 1261 01:19:18,680 --> 01:19:20,640 Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the issue 1262 01:19:20,640 --> 01:19:23,720 was right that the heats here, they had, what was it? 1263 01:19:23,880 --> 01:19:29,800 They had four heats and it was winner +2 fastest. 1264 01:19:30,160 --> 01:19:34,960 And we've moved away from that in outdoor World Championships 1265 01:19:34,960 --> 01:19:38,360 and things because it puts so much pressure on the seeding, 1266 01:19:38,480 --> 01:19:41,280 right in a six person heat, right. 1267 01:19:41,280 --> 01:19:44,600 If, and I think Addie Wiley and Sage attacker were in the same 1268 01:19:44,600 --> 01:19:49,720 heat as an example, right? And then it was just happens 1269 01:19:49,720 --> 01:19:51,720 dance that, that wasn't the quickest heat. 1270 01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:59,160 And so sage doesn't get through. And I, I think that it's, it 1271 01:19:59,160 --> 01:20:01,760 really puts, it puts way too much pressure on the seeding 1272 01:20:01,760 --> 01:20:04,800 because there's just only a few people and it's an indoor 800, 1273 01:20:04,960 --> 01:20:07,560 which can be unpredictable at the best of times. 1274 01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:11,120 I, I do think that they would have been better off doing 3 1275 01:20:11,120 --> 01:20:15,200 heats of eight people, which you can do indoors. 1276 01:20:15,200 --> 01:20:17,080 It's still not too crowded. It was 7 or 8 because they 1277 01:20:17,080 --> 01:20:19,960 didn't have that many people in the field anyway and just done 1278 01:20:20,320 --> 01:20:22,680 top two in each heat go to the final. 1279 01:20:23,280 --> 01:20:26,400 And I think that just takes the pressure a little bit off. 1280 01:20:27,120 --> 01:20:31,520 Getting the seeding exactly right because I think that it's 1281 01:20:31,520 --> 01:20:34,880 so hard and you, you know, you get that silly thing of unfair 1282 01:20:34,880 --> 01:20:37,600 advantage for later heats. But it's not even that because 1283 01:20:37,880 --> 01:20:39,920 someone wants to make it fast. They probably can. 1284 01:20:39,920 --> 01:20:43,560 But again, it's just tough, right, in an indoor 800 in a 1285 01:20:43,560 --> 01:20:47,000 championship race where you want to conserve energy and in the 1286 01:20:47,000 --> 01:20:49,680 rounds and it just it just doesn't it wasn't really all 1287 01:20:49,680 --> 01:20:52,040 that conducive to to getting it right. 1288 01:20:52,600 --> 01:20:55,760 And I do think that I think they could have done that in both the 1289 01:20:55,760 --> 01:21:00,840 men's and the women's 800 is kind of tip to have it with 1290 01:21:01,040 --> 01:21:03,920 three heats and top 2GO go through to the final because I 1291 01:21:03,920 --> 01:21:06,640 think it's just, yeah, it doesn't really work like this. 1292 01:21:06,640 --> 01:21:09,800 And because they didn't have enough athletes to have three 1293 01:21:09,800 --> 01:21:13,720 rounds, it just didn't didn't really make it, didn't really 1294 01:21:13,720 --> 01:21:16,480 work its way through in the right way so. 1295 01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:21,400 It's heat and then final right at you at the World Indoor 1296 01:21:21,400 --> 01:21:22,560 Championships. Yes. 1297 01:21:22,560 --> 01:21:24,360 So I think it's only going to be two round. 1298 01:21:25,640 --> 01:21:28,120 Will it be two rounds? I think so, yeah. 1299 01:21:28,120 --> 01:21:29,840 There's because there's like 30 people. 1300 01:21:29,840 --> 01:21:31,320 So no, I think there'll be 3 rounds. 1301 01:21:31,840 --> 01:21:32,680 What? Wow. 1302 01:21:32,840 --> 01:21:34,000 Yeah, 3 rounds, one each day. Oh. 1303 01:21:34,600 --> 01:21:36,880 My gosh, yeah. All right, that's a little 1304 01:21:36,880 --> 01:21:39,960 different. Did you see the other thing that 1305 01:21:40,040 --> 01:21:43,640 has been catching flak? Not at, well, less so at the US 1306 01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:46,600 championships, no one really complained all that much because 1307 01:21:47,000 --> 01:21:49,400 our women's 400 field was really weak this year. 1308 01:21:50,400 --> 01:21:53,480 But in other national championships, like there are 1309 01:21:53,480 --> 01:21:57,360 top stars complaining about the fact that the World Athletics 1310 01:21:57,480 --> 01:22:00,800 change for the 400 is you have two separate finals. 1311 01:22:00,800 --> 01:22:03,800 We we discussed this a couple weeks ago about how it's it's 1312 01:22:03,800 --> 01:22:07,480 reverting to the NCAA format. So there's a couple Europeans 1313 01:22:07,480 --> 01:22:13,800 are learning this and how first heat can go and then it's up to 1314 01:22:13,800 --> 01:22:16,720 the second heat to knock off that top time. 1315 01:22:17,480 --> 01:22:21,320 But also, you set yourself up for a very just disappointing 1316 01:22:21,440 --> 01:22:24,120 race where you're like, oh, if nothing really comes of that, 1317 01:22:24,120 --> 01:22:27,320 then like no one really got to celebrate the first heat. 1318 01:22:27,320 --> 01:22:31,280 And so I think it was Natty B from Poland, right? 1319 01:22:31,480 --> 01:22:33,200 Natalia. Natalia. 1320 01:22:33,200 --> 01:22:37,240 The quiche guy, Yeah. Yeah, she she was complaining 1321 01:22:37,240 --> 01:22:41,080 about it. And then our boy Laurent Muli 1322 01:22:41,440 --> 01:22:42,280 Femka bowls. Coach. 1323 01:22:42,280 --> 01:22:44,160 He's on a crusade, isn't he? He's on. 1324 01:22:44,160 --> 01:22:46,600 He's tagging World Athletics and any sort of complaint that he 1325 01:22:46,600 --> 01:22:54,840 sees online about the two final 400, and he's not for it as well 1326 01:22:55,360 --> 01:22:58,680 because, yeah, I mean, someone like Lika Clover could end up in 1327 01:22:58,760 --> 01:23:01,840 a situation like that at the world Indoor championships 1328 01:23:01,840 --> 01:23:04,360 potentially. Yeah, I mean, I think. 3 1329 01:23:04,360 --> 01:23:08,520 athletes each or two. I think it's, so it's 4 athletes 1330 01:23:08,520 --> 01:23:11,040 in each final. So there'll be 8, it'll be an 8 1331 01:23:11,040 --> 01:23:15,480 athlete final. And yeah, so they will, they 1332 01:23:15,480 --> 01:23:18,480 will then have, yeah, obviously they, they're not using the 1333 01:23:18,480 --> 01:23:23,160 inside 2 lanes, but I think A6 athlete final is better. 1334 01:23:23,160 --> 01:23:26,600 I mean, yes, it's not perfect because the athletes on the 2 1335 01:23:26,600 --> 01:23:30,360 inside lanes don't, it isn't great for them, but at least all 1336 01:23:30,360 --> 01:23:31,680 the athletes are in the same race. 1337 01:23:31,680 --> 01:23:35,800 So you can actually see who the winners are. 1338 01:23:35,800 --> 01:23:38,280 You can have. And because it's not, you're not 1339 01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:39,440 running the whole thing in lanes. 1340 01:23:39,440 --> 01:23:42,160 That's the other problem, right? I think there is an impact of 1341 01:23:42,640 --> 01:23:45,240 the athletes have an impact on each other depending on who's in 1342 01:23:45,240 --> 01:23:49,440 your race, when you cut in, when you get when you if you need to 1343 01:23:49,440 --> 01:23:53,120 go around people to get to the front like that has a huge 1344 01:23:53,120 --> 01:23:56,680 impact on your race. So to then compare those two, 1345 01:23:56,680 --> 01:23:58,600 it's not comparing apples with apples. 1346 01:23:58,600 --> 01:24:03,320 And that's the bit I think that people find really difficult is 1347 01:24:03,320 --> 01:24:06,960 that it's not, you know, you, you can just just because 1348 01:24:07,200 --> 01:24:10,680 someone happens to go out a bit hard and block you, you can't 1349 01:24:10,680 --> 01:24:14,800 run your best race. And then that prevents you from 1350 01:24:14,800 --> 01:24:17,760 winning, getting the fastest time because in the other heat 1351 01:24:17,760 --> 01:24:18,960 there wasn't someone who did that. 1352 01:24:20,920 --> 01:24:23,680 Yeah, the way it sorted out in the US Championships was it was 1353 01:24:23,680 --> 01:24:29,120 like Bailey Lear wins the first heat in 51.60 and then in the 1354 01:24:29,120 --> 01:24:34,680 second heat Rosie Effion goes 51.53, so she's crowned the US 1355 01:24:34,680 --> 01:24:37,520 champion. Paris Pupils, who was in second 1356 01:24:37,520 --> 01:24:42,200 place in the second heat, ran a personal best of 5165. 1357 01:24:42,200 --> 01:24:45,080 So although she was in the same heat as the winner, it was not 1358 01:24:45,080 --> 01:24:49,040 faster than what Bailey Lear ran in that first heat. 1359 01:24:49,040 --> 01:24:53,800 And so Paris Peoples is not on the team for the 400. 1360 01:24:54,600 --> 01:24:58,240 Yeah, and Keely Hodgkinson in a 1400 would have won this US 1361 01:24:58,320 --> 01:25:03,040 championships had she been in it because she ran 5149, which is I 1362 01:25:03,040 --> 01:25:07,320 think well, it just speaks to the the the strength of this 1363 01:25:07,320 --> 01:25:11,120 field when we know how strong US 400 women's 400 meter running 1364 01:25:11,120 --> 01:25:16,160 normally is. And this was just not, not the 1365 01:25:16,160 --> 01:25:17,920 best field that that could have been out there. 1366 01:25:18,200 --> 01:25:20,840 Yeah, the other field that I think we were trying to harp on 1367 01:25:20,840 --> 01:25:23,840 last week that was like, this isn't the best, like we we 1368 01:25:23,840 --> 01:25:27,040 should have better athletes in this one was the women 60. 1369 01:25:27,120 --> 01:25:30,920 As expected, Jason Sears ends up taking the win in seven point O 1370 01:25:30,920 --> 01:25:32,600 4. But then you had two high 1371 01:25:32,600 --> 01:25:35,200 schoolers. I mean, Congrats to them. 1372 01:25:35,320 --> 01:25:38,600 Phenomenal performance. But it comes at a national 1373 01:25:38,600 --> 01:25:41,600 championship stage. And so Mia Maxwell, Mariah 1374 01:25:41,600 --> 01:25:46,440 Maxwell, me and Maxwell ties the high school record in 7.13, 1375 01:25:46,440 --> 01:25:49,800 finishes second and now has secured a spot to the World 1376 01:25:49,800 --> 01:25:51,720 Indoor Championships. What is it? 1377 01:25:51,800 --> 01:25:53,400 I guess, like, what's the perception been of this? 1378 01:25:53,400 --> 01:25:56,040 I guess like across the pond and just from outside, people just 1379 01:25:56,040 --> 01:25:57,720 sort of like they got high school. 1380 01:25:57,760 --> 01:26:00,400 I guess Cooper Lightning has a different story because he's 1381 01:26:00,400 --> 01:26:04,400 like a signed pro. I, I mean, I, I'm not sure I I 1382 01:26:04,400 --> 01:26:07,480 haven't really seen any reaction to this outside of the USI must 1383 01:26:07,480 --> 01:26:09,640 admit on specifically on, on this. 1384 01:26:09,640 --> 01:26:12,920 But I think if she does rock up to the wild indoors, I think 1385 01:26:12,920 --> 01:26:16,560 that will garner a bit of interest because, yeah, I mean, 1386 01:26:16,840 --> 01:26:19,680 compared to the people that I suppose the US could have been 1387 01:26:19,680 --> 01:26:22,240 sending, it's a bit of a surprise, but it's a really cool 1388 01:26:22,240 --> 01:26:25,840 story, right? So I, I, I do like the fact that 1389 01:26:25,840 --> 01:26:27,640 it's happening and it it's really funny. 1390 01:26:27,640 --> 01:26:32,720 Like if you've seen the the TV series grown ish right where 1391 01:26:32,720 --> 01:26:36,280 you've got those two twins. I've never seen the show. 1392 01:26:36,320 --> 01:26:40,040 So, so it's, it's a spinoff of Blackish, but it's, it's the 1393 01:26:41,320 --> 01:26:44,480 it's they just go to college. Two of them, they're twins. 1394 01:26:44,480 --> 01:26:47,280 They're track stars. Like one of them makes the 1 1395 01:26:47,280 --> 01:26:48,800 twin makes the Olympics, the other one doesn't. 1396 01:26:48,800 --> 01:26:51,240 There's all this stuff that goes on, but it's really cool. 1397 01:26:51,240 --> 01:26:55,520 And it just reminded me of that whole like that whole storyline 1398 01:26:55,520 --> 01:26:59,800 in, in the show. But yeah, it's yeah, it's, but 1399 01:26:59,800 --> 01:27:03,440 it's pretty cool that at least one of them I hope will will get 1400 01:27:03,440 --> 01:27:05,680 to go to wild indoors. That'd be pretty cool. 1401 01:27:06,120 --> 01:27:11,880 Yeah, and for Twins to run point O1 apart, pretty, very, very 1402 01:27:11,880 --> 01:27:15,480 cool. So, yeah, so Chase is here as 1403 01:27:15,760 --> 01:27:20,600 Mia Maxwell as the top two there, and then Mariah was 1404 01:27:20,600 --> 01:27:22,920 third. All right, that brings us over 1405 01:27:22,920 --> 01:27:27,680 to the men's 60, which was the last event of the meet and 1406 01:27:27,680 --> 01:27:31,000 mostly due in part to the fact that Olympic 100m champion Noah 1407 01:27:31,000 --> 01:27:39,400 Lyles was in it and he did the whole attempt at AWWE sort of 1408 01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:45,480 walk in with the belt and stuff. We already talked enough about 1409 01:27:45,480 --> 01:27:48,080 your sort of our initial feelings about the belt. 1410 01:27:48,080 --> 01:27:51,480 And so it got played up a bit in the end. 1411 01:27:51,480 --> 01:27:54,000 You got to remind yourselves, I guess, like the real title here 1412 01:27:54,000 --> 01:27:57,880 on the line is the US National Championships. 1413 01:27:58,960 --> 01:28:03,440 And I did, I guess like from after our last recording, I was 1414 01:28:03,480 --> 01:28:06,720 I just kept thinking about it. I was like, and this is probably 1415 01:28:07,000 --> 01:28:10,320 mission accomplished by Noah. It's like, oh, you at least the 1416 01:28:10,320 --> 01:28:13,320 tie, the belt stayed top of mind, but it was mostly just 1417 01:28:13,320 --> 01:28:17,120 sort of like, is he doing this mostly because he's not running 1418 01:28:17,160 --> 01:28:19,360 world indoors? And this is just sort of another 1419 01:28:19,360 --> 01:28:23,040 different way of steering the attention towards this made-up 1420 01:28:23,040 --> 01:28:25,920 belt and stuff. That's the part that I think I 1421 01:28:26,000 --> 01:28:29,000 ultimately was like, oh, OK, I got it now it's like you're not 1422 01:28:29,000 --> 01:28:31,400 running world indoors. So that's another way to 1423 01:28:32,160 --> 01:28:34,040 commandeer the the the attention. 1424 01:28:34,040 --> 01:28:38,520 But yeah, after the heats, I was like, I'm feeling good about 1425 01:28:38,520 --> 01:28:40,280 Jordan Anthony. And then I was feeling even 1426 01:28:40,280 --> 01:28:43,520 better about Trayvon Brummel because those two guys had good 1427 01:28:43,520 --> 01:28:45,840 runs, you know, earlier in the day. 1428 01:28:45,840 --> 01:28:48,840 And then they come back in the final and Jordan Anthony won his 1429 01:28:48,840 --> 01:28:53,280 first US title and 6.49. Trayvon Brummel finishes second. 1430 01:28:53,280 --> 01:29:00,920 And then Noah Lyles was third. I guess Jordan Anthony gets the 1431 01:29:01,120 --> 01:29:05,440 championship belt from that. Noah Lyles then like handed over 1432 01:29:05,520 --> 01:29:12,200 afterwards. And yeah, Jordan Anthony is 1433 01:29:12,200 --> 01:29:14,640 going to be at World Indoors. He'll probably I he's a 1434 01:29:14,640 --> 01:29:18,200 favorite, right? Who else would be from Europe? 1435 01:29:18,680 --> 01:29:22,200 Anyone. Yeah, I, I don't think there's 1436 01:29:22,200 --> 01:29:25,040 anyone else running, running 64, to be honest. 1437 01:29:25,040 --> 01:29:32,880 Let's see in the men's men's 60, there is Akeem Blake possibly, 1438 01:29:32,880 --> 01:29:36,080 but no, not really. I, I assume counsellor Ajayi is 1439 01:29:36,080 --> 01:29:40,040 in the NCA, so he's not going to Shane Thompson around 646 1440 01:29:40,040 --> 01:29:42,440 outdoors. But again, I don't really know. 1441 01:29:42,440 --> 01:29:47,680 So yeah, I I would probably say it is Jordan Anthony is a is a 1442 01:29:47,680 --> 01:29:50,200 pretty strong favorite along with with Trayvon Pramel. 1443 01:29:51,120 --> 01:29:54,560 Again, I think the one thing we keep reiterating to folks and I 1444 01:29:54,560 --> 01:29:57,640 think it started to be a bit more clear after this past 1445 01:29:57,640 --> 01:30:00,640 weekend is that Jordan Anthony will be a problem come outdoor 1446 01:30:00,640 --> 01:30:02,680 season. He's setting setting himself up 1447 01:30:02,760 --> 01:30:06,040 nicely. And the story with Trey, 10 1448 01:30:06,040 --> 01:30:09,000 years after his gold medal, he's got another shot at another 1449 01:30:09,000 --> 01:30:13,000 medal at these championships. Just very cool for to see that 1450 01:30:13,000 --> 01:30:17,280 kind of longevity in the short sprints in the 60 and 100. 1451 01:30:18,480 --> 01:30:22,760 Trey's also just one of the nicest guys to to root for. 1452 01:30:22,760 --> 01:30:24,760 I looked it up the other day because he would come he came up 1453 01:30:24,760 --> 01:30:30,280 in our Instagram comment section around the Louis Hinchcliffe 1454 01:30:30,760 --> 01:30:35,840 news that which Tees it up perfectly for us to talk about a 1455 01:30:35,840 --> 01:30:39,120 little bit. So for context, Louis 1456 01:30:39,120 --> 01:30:45,840 Hinchcliffe, the 2024 NCAA 100m champion British sprinter who 1457 01:30:45,840 --> 01:30:50,240 ended up being part of the Olympic bronze medal, winning 1458 01:30:50,440 --> 01:30:56,720 four by one team in Paris. He turned pro last year or after 1459 01:30:56,720 --> 01:31:00,920 the Olympics in 2024. So all of 2025 he was 1460 01:31:00,920 --> 01:31:03,360 technically a professional runner but battled a bunch of 1461 01:31:03,360 --> 01:31:05,640 injuries, didn't really compete a whole lot. 1462 01:31:07,000 --> 01:31:11,560 And then towards the end of last week, the Houston Chronicle 1463 01:31:11,560 --> 01:31:15,040 reported and broke the news that, oh, he's going back to 1464 01:31:15,880 --> 01:31:20,960 Houston to compete in the NCAA and this he had an ASICS 1465 01:31:20,960 --> 01:31:23,840 contract. But I guess it got reviewed by 1466 01:31:24,240 --> 01:31:28,080 the NCAA and the NIL clearing house, all that kind of stuff. 1467 01:31:28,120 --> 01:31:31,080 And they determined that, you know, there was probably a way 1468 01:31:31,080 --> 01:31:37,040 to adjust things to make it more of Anil deal more than anything. 1469 01:31:37,040 --> 01:31:41,800 I'm sure nowadays like NIL versus pro contracts don't look 1470 01:31:42,320 --> 01:31:45,960 all that different. I'm sure I'll have an agent or 1471 01:31:45,960 --> 01:31:48,600 two text me after this and be like, actually here's the the 1472 01:31:48,720 --> 01:31:52,840 key difference. But yeah, so he's able to 1473 01:31:52,840 --> 01:31:54,320 compete. He competed at the Big 12 1474 01:31:54,320 --> 01:31:56,840 championships. He ended up second, I think in 1475 01:31:56,840 --> 01:31:59,360 his heat. I don't know how he did he did 1476 01:31:59,360 --> 01:32:01,120 he? Is he the Big 12 champion or no? 1477 01:32:01,520 --> 01:32:05,920 I have no idea. But he's back in school. 1478 01:32:05,920 --> 01:32:08,680 And part of the reason why he wanted to do this was because he 1479 01:32:09,920 --> 01:32:12,400 wanted to be coached by Carl Lewis again. 1480 01:32:12,400 --> 01:32:16,640 So he spent 2025 being coached by Richard Kilty, the former 1481 01:32:16,720 --> 01:32:21,280 British sprinter. And after getting injured and 1482 01:32:21,280 --> 01:32:22,840 things not working out, he wanted to go back. 1483 01:32:22,840 --> 01:32:25,680 But Carl Lewis is like, I don't coach professionals. 1484 01:32:25,680 --> 01:32:30,480 I only coach people who compete for the University of Houston. 1485 01:32:30,480 --> 01:32:35,520 And so he luckily had eligibility left, and now he's 1486 01:32:35,520 --> 01:32:37,880 got two years, I think, of eligibility. 1487 01:32:38,200 --> 01:32:46,040 So it led to a lot of discussion online as to just sort of like, 1488 01:32:46,040 --> 01:32:48,800 this is kind of crazy that people can go about and just do 1489 01:32:48,800 --> 01:32:52,000 this just like, oh, reverse. We'd seen a little bit of this 1490 01:32:52,000 --> 01:32:57,040 in college basketball, which was these athletes who'd competed in 1491 01:32:57,800 --> 01:33:01,680 professional European leagues, even I think the G League as 1492 01:33:01,680 --> 01:33:06,120 well. We're going back and finding 1493 01:33:06,120 --> 01:33:11,160 ways to play in the NCAA. And I kept reading those 1494 01:33:11,160 --> 01:33:12,440 headlines. I'm like, just wait until this 1495 01:33:12,440 --> 01:33:14,640 happens in track. Like it's bound to happen. 1496 01:33:15,000 --> 01:33:17,840 And this is, I think the first instance of it. 1497 01:33:19,440 --> 01:33:22,480 I I thought I saw someone also highlight like, oh, this also 1498 01:33:22,480 --> 01:33:25,640 kind of happened at the division two level, but no one really 1499 01:33:25,640 --> 01:33:29,160 paid much attention to it. The crazy part is it that if we 1500 01:33:29,160 --> 01:33:34,600 go back a couple weeks, that MO body right But Batty the the 1501 01:33:34,600 --> 01:33:38,560 Division Three guy who accepted $6000 to just help go towards 1502 01:33:38,560 --> 01:33:39,760 his college. Tuition GoFundMe. 1503 01:33:39,760 --> 01:33:42,080 That was literally a GoFundMe. So it was like people from the 1504 01:33:42,080 --> 01:33:44,440 community came together to support him so that he could 1505 01:33:44,640 --> 01:33:48,520 stay in college and, and he was. Deemed they they they like 1506 01:33:48,760 --> 01:33:51,800 totally revoked his NCA eligibility and then you've got 1507 01:33:51,800 --> 01:33:57,720 someone who made money on a contract and now can go back to 1508 01:33:57,720 --> 01:33:58,800 school. I presume. 1509 01:33:58,800 --> 01:34:00,800 It was definitely more than $6000. 1510 01:34:01,160 --> 01:34:05,720 And yeah, so it's like, there's that was the part that I think 1511 01:34:05,720 --> 01:34:08,760 like people hung onto. But the comments section on our 1512 01:34:08,760 --> 01:34:11,400 Instagram post was very funny because he had a bunch of pros 1513 01:34:11,400 --> 01:34:13,560 being like, oh, I Trayvon Brummel was one of them. 1514 01:34:13,560 --> 01:34:17,960 He was like, I got at Baylor track, like make the call 1515 01:34:18,600 --> 01:34:21,280 because he turned pro super young. 1516 01:34:21,280 --> 01:34:24,920 And if this is the standard, then we got a bunch of people 1517 01:34:24,920 --> 01:34:27,440 who are ready to go back to school and and win some NCAA 1518 01:34:27,440 --> 01:34:30,120 titles. Can you imagine Noah Lyles? 1519 01:34:30,120 --> 01:34:32,520 He never went to college so. He'd have four years of 1520 01:34:32,520 --> 01:34:35,680 eligibility. But no, Yeah. 1521 01:34:35,680 --> 01:34:38,520 And and this is where I think, you know, I've, I've kind of 1522 01:34:38,520 --> 01:34:42,840 talked about it this before, like the whole NCAA kind of 1523 01:34:43,240 --> 01:34:46,480 records and everything is just, it just becomes a bit of a farce 1524 01:34:46,480 --> 01:34:48,720 at this point, right? Well, the drug testing 1525 01:34:49,000 --> 01:34:50,440 especially. Well, the drug testing, we'll 1526 01:34:50,440 --> 01:34:52,320 come on to that. That's the whole separate thing 1527 01:34:52,320 --> 01:34:55,440 that we need to talk about. But but the but the whole, the 1528 01:34:55,440 --> 01:34:58,760 whole thing just becomes a bit of a farce when, you know, if 1529 01:34:58,760 --> 01:35:02,520 you're saying, OK, let's make these rules to say, OK, you 1530 01:35:02,520 --> 01:35:05,040 can't be a professional athlete. You can only be an amateur 1531 01:35:05,040 --> 01:35:07,360 athlete effectively. You can't be paid for 1532 01:35:07,360 --> 01:35:09,840 performances. But then you somehow find all 1533 01:35:09,840 --> 01:35:12,760 these loopholes to let people get paid in weird ways. 1534 01:35:12,760 --> 01:35:16,640 And I can understand like either just remove the rules because 1535 01:35:16,640 --> 01:35:19,360 it's just silly. The the rules make no sense now. 1536 01:35:19,360 --> 01:35:24,720 And they've evolved as a result of various lawsuits and various 1537 01:35:24,720 --> 01:35:27,120 other things as well. So they tried to start with a 1538 01:35:27,120 --> 01:35:30,000 cohesive set of rules. And obviously because of people 1539 01:35:30,000 --> 01:35:33,720 kind of over the years chipping away with different lawsuits and 1540 01:35:33,720 --> 01:35:37,080 different different other things that have happened or different 1541 01:35:37,120 --> 01:35:41,680 desires to make money in different ways, it's just kind 1542 01:35:41,680 --> 01:35:44,840 of evolved into a bit of a mess. The rules just make no sense to 1543 01:35:44,840 --> 01:35:47,920 anybody now other than people within the NCAA. 1544 01:35:47,920 --> 01:35:50,760 And even then, there's no logical kind of basis for them. 1545 01:35:50,760 --> 01:35:53,840 So it just seems silly either just get rid of the rules and 1546 01:35:53,840 --> 01:35:55,120 let people do whatever they like. 1547 01:35:55,480 --> 01:35:58,800 Or which is what we do in the UK, for example, like you can be 1548 01:35:58,800 --> 01:36:00,680 a professional athlete, but you also can compete for your 1549 01:36:00,680 --> 01:36:07,680 university or you know, or you say and make these rules really, 1550 01:36:07,680 --> 01:36:09,640 really clear. And I think the issue, other 1551 01:36:09,640 --> 01:36:11,920 issue we have in track is obviously the rules are not 1552 01:36:11,920 --> 01:36:14,520 designed specifically for track. And that's the other part of the 1553 01:36:14,520 --> 01:36:17,000 problem. But when you're then making 1554 01:36:17,000 --> 01:36:20,480 these ridiculous decisions like excluding AD 3 runner for using 1555 01:36:20,480 --> 01:36:24,440 a GoFundMe, like that's when it's like really egregious 1556 01:36:24,440 --> 01:36:28,120 because then you're just like crapping on people who don't 1557 01:36:28,120 --> 01:36:31,680 deserve to be crapped on. And like, whilst when it's 1558 01:36:31,680 --> 01:36:35,720 someone who you really want. And you know, I love Louis so 1559 01:36:35,920 --> 01:36:38,520 and I really want him to go back to Carl Lewis and succeed as an 1560 01:36:38,520 --> 01:36:40,560 athlete. So I have no problem with that. 1561 01:36:40,720 --> 01:36:45,040 But I just think it then it's just really silly that the rules 1562 01:36:45,040 --> 01:36:50,520 are working in this way that you know, it isn't, it isn't right, 1563 01:36:50,520 --> 01:36:53,840 it doesn't feel fair and it's just, it just makes it a 1564 01:36:53,840 --> 01:36:59,960 complete fuss. Yeah, so it's been, it's been a 1565 01:36:59,960 --> 01:37:05,480 tough, tough week to be a rule book because as from USATF to 1566 01:37:05,480 --> 01:37:09,040 the NCAA, there's just a ton of people who go by the book. 1567 01:37:09,040 --> 01:37:12,160 And sometimes it's like, I guess common sense doesn't necessarily 1568 01:37:12,160 --> 01:37:14,360 always prevail. Are we going to talk about the 1569 01:37:14,360 --> 01:37:16,640 drug testing? In the NCAA, yeah. 1570 01:37:16,640 --> 01:37:20,480 I mean, I haven't necessarily had the full chance to dive deep 1571 01:37:20,480 --> 01:37:24,880 into this, but Let's Run put out its investigation into the Iowa 1572 01:37:24,880 --> 01:37:30,480 State doping scandal, which was rumoured a couple months back 1573 01:37:30,560 --> 01:37:35,520 after these suspensions were taking place and team members 1574 01:37:35,520 --> 01:37:39,560 were suspended, but they didn't necessarily name who it was. 1575 01:37:39,560 --> 01:37:42,640 But if you look at results, you could kind of piece together who 1576 01:37:42,640 --> 01:37:47,680 hadn't competed after a certain point and all signs pointed 1577 01:37:47,680 --> 01:37:54,160 towards some sort of wrongdoing or team violation rules by 1578 01:37:54,680 --> 01:37:59,600 violation of team rules by it was Seth Clevenger who had a 1579 01:37:59,600 --> 01:38:03,080 breakout performance at the Nutty Comb cross country race. 1580 01:38:03,080 --> 01:38:07,400 And all signs were pointing toward this guy being a key 1581 01:38:07,400 --> 01:38:09,960 member of the top 7 for Iowa State. 1582 01:38:10,360 --> 01:38:13,080 And then he doesn't compete the rest of the season. 1583 01:38:13,920 --> 01:38:17,960 Iowa State ends up finishing seven no third at the NCA cross 1584 01:38:17,960 --> 01:38:21,800 country championships, utilizing the same top guys that they used 1585 01:38:21,800 --> 01:38:28,280 at their first race in Missouri. And then from there, the story 1586 01:38:28,280 --> 01:38:30,920 kind of just nothing developed from it. 1587 01:38:31,200 --> 01:38:36,720 And then a couple months ago, we started to see results from Seth 1588 01:38:36,720 --> 01:38:42,040 Clevenger once again, but this time now representing Rowan 1589 01:38:42,080 --> 01:38:45,200 University. I believe it is in New Jersey 1590 01:38:46,040 --> 01:38:51,000 Division Three school transferred and he's crashing it 1591 01:38:51,000 --> 01:38:56,920 at the Division Three level and is in a position now I think 1592 01:38:56,920 --> 01:39:02,520 where he could win some national titles at Division Three indoor 1593 01:39:02,520 --> 01:39:04,960 championships, which I believe are going to take place in 1594 01:39:04,960 --> 01:39:11,320 Alabama in a couple weeks. And I think even Rowan has like 1595 01:39:11,320 --> 01:39:15,040 a chance at doing well in the team standings. 1596 01:39:15,920 --> 01:39:22,240 So then let's run has been, you know, kind of snooping around on 1597 01:39:22,240 --> 01:39:27,240 this thing and reached out to former team mates of clevengers 1598 01:39:27,320 --> 01:39:31,960 at Iowa State. They didn't name them because 1599 01:39:32,040 --> 01:39:36,800 the athletes I think feared retribution or I think probably 1600 01:39:36,800 --> 01:39:38,840 could speak a little bit more freely if their names weren't 1601 01:39:38,840 --> 01:39:42,360 attached to it. And several of them I think said 1602 01:39:42,360 --> 01:39:49,360 that they believe that Clevenger was on performance enhancing 1603 01:39:49,360 --> 01:39:59,520 drugs at Iowa State or last year was there was 1 athlete who was 1604 01:40:00,680 --> 01:40:03,720 logged into Clevenger's e-mail and was able to. 1605 01:40:04,280 --> 01:40:09,680 See orders to for banned substances. 1606 01:40:09,680 --> 01:40:13,600 And when we say banned substances, I guess like EPO is 1607 01:40:13,640 --> 01:40:17,160 one of the things that I think has been mentioned throughout 1608 01:40:17,160 --> 01:40:24,280 the story and like I guess there was containers of it in his 1609 01:40:24,280 --> 01:40:27,560 fridge or something like that labeled as like human EPO. 1610 01:40:28,000 --> 01:40:36,080 The other thing was peptides, which in the bro science culture 1611 01:40:36,360 --> 01:40:41,400 have taken off, but they are definitely on the banned list. 1612 01:40:42,040 --> 01:40:46,800 And he had, I think tried to turn on one of his teammates to 1613 01:40:47,160 --> 01:40:50,640 these peptides. And it got to the point, I think 1614 01:40:50,640 --> 01:40:55,080 where even he admitted to taking peptides to the Iowa State 1615 01:40:55,080 --> 01:40:58,400 coaching staff. But and this is probably what 1616 01:40:58,400 --> 01:41:03,080 led to the ultimate, you know, team rules violation that got 1617 01:41:03,080 --> 01:41:09,040 him suspended, but there has never been a positive test 1618 01:41:09,600 --> 01:41:18,360 reported by Clevenger. And you would think, oh, why 1619 01:41:18,360 --> 01:41:21,200 can't you Sada make an announcement about this or the 1620 01:41:21,320 --> 01:41:24,640 AIU? And that's ultimately because 1621 01:41:24,800 --> 01:41:30,120 the NCAA and what this whole investigation by Jonathan Gault, 1622 01:41:30,120 --> 01:41:35,400 I think highlighted is that the NCAA is just like out of the 1623 01:41:35,400 --> 01:41:38,400 world anti doping agency. And you saw his jurisdiction. 1624 01:41:38,880 --> 01:41:41,480 There was literally someone from USADA, I think who told them 1625 01:41:41,480 --> 01:41:44,080 that they looked into this case, but they just can't do anything 1626 01:41:44,080 --> 01:41:47,880 about it. And therein lies the problem 1627 01:41:47,880 --> 01:41:52,280 with just sort of the NCAA's anti doping policy. 1628 01:41:52,760 --> 01:41:58,040 And this isn't the first instance where there have been 1629 01:41:58,040 --> 01:42:02,800 questions raised about why. Why can't the NCAA get its act 1630 01:42:02,800 --> 01:42:07,160 together with anti doping? Yeah. 1631 01:42:07,160 --> 01:42:10,880 I mean, look, I think the, the craziest part of this to me was 1632 01:42:11,200 --> 01:42:14,160 yes, NCAA is not a signatory to the water code. 1633 01:42:15,080 --> 01:42:19,960 The other part that came out was that he, Seth Clevenger let his 1634 01:42:20,080 --> 01:42:25,080 USATF membership lapse in 2023. And so that also meant that he 1635 01:42:25,080 --> 01:42:29,200 was outside of if he'd still been a member of USATF, then he 1636 01:42:29,200 --> 01:42:32,000 is becomes under the jurisdiction of USADA 1637 01:42:32,000 --> 01:42:35,400 apparently. But again, that also wasn't the 1638 01:42:35,400 --> 01:42:38,040 case. So they they weren't able to to 1639 01:42:38,400 --> 01:42:43,160 come off from that way. So that that's one issue, but I 1640 01:42:43,160 --> 01:42:45,800 think it also then tells you, look, you know, you've got 1641 01:42:45,800 --> 01:42:48,120 athletes. Now, obviously we know, for 1642 01:42:48,120 --> 01:42:52,240 example, from the Gabby Thomas story and and others that, you 1643 01:42:52,240 --> 01:42:56,680 know, if you are a top athlete in the NCAA and Seth Clevenger 1644 01:42:56,680 --> 01:43:00,360 was not at that point in time a top athlete in the NCAA, then 1645 01:43:00,360 --> 01:43:02,840 you may be put into the testing pool, especially if you're 1646 01:43:02,840 --> 01:43:08,080 likely to be competing at USA and and looking to sort of make 1647 01:43:08,160 --> 01:43:09,560 a make a splash on the global stage. 1648 01:43:09,560 --> 01:43:13,480 So they do then add those athletes into the test, into 1649 01:43:13,480 --> 01:43:17,080 testing pools. But obviously that's not going 1650 01:43:17,080 --> 01:43:19,280 to be everyone. And you often see some NCAA 1651 01:43:19,280 --> 01:43:22,800 athletes having breakout performances, and obviously 1652 01:43:22,800 --> 01:43:24,560 there isn't as much drug testing. 1653 01:43:24,720 --> 01:43:26,720 And then obviously, there's no publicity around it. 1654 01:43:26,720 --> 01:43:29,200 There's no announcements. And the other thing that's wild 1655 01:43:29,200 --> 01:43:31,240 about this story is that he was then able to go to Rowan 1656 01:43:31,240 --> 01:43:37,200 University and there appeared to be no consequences of the fact 1657 01:43:37,200 --> 01:43:40,040 that he was potentially suspended for this particular 1658 01:43:40,040 --> 01:43:42,760 violation from his previous team. 1659 01:43:43,080 --> 01:43:45,480 And that doesn't seem to have it in any way carried over or 1660 01:43:45,480 --> 01:43:48,720 influenced what happens next. And, you know, we we had that 1661 01:43:48,720 --> 01:43:52,080 scandal a little while ago about the Kenyan athlete to a band 1662 01:43:52,080 --> 01:43:53,440 coming and competing in the NCAA. 1663 01:43:53,440 --> 01:43:57,160 And no one had bothered to check that they were actually banned 1664 01:43:58,320 --> 01:44:00,920 and stuff as well. So I think there's a lot of 1665 01:44:01,400 --> 01:44:04,440 stuff there where you've got to think is there? 1666 01:44:05,960 --> 01:44:12,800 It just it, it just risks making the NCAA look, you know, like 1667 01:44:13,000 --> 01:44:14,840 it's it's operating outside the rules. 1668 01:44:14,840 --> 01:44:17,760 And these athletes are not, you know, competing clean. 1669 01:44:17,760 --> 01:44:20,840 You know, when you get these amazing performances, would you 1670 01:44:20,840 --> 01:44:23,320 be suspicious of them? And you don't want to be and you 1671 01:44:23,320 --> 01:44:25,280 probably shouldn't be for the vast majority of them. 1672 01:44:25,400 --> 01:44:28,200 But at the same time, like when there's no drug testing, it's 1673 01:44:28,200 --> 01:44:31,960 just not it's not perfect. And I appreciate again a part of 1674 01:44:31,960 --> 01:44:34,680 that is because in some of the other revenue generating sports, 1675 01:44:35,760 --> 01:44:38,440 they don't want to risk the financial like if some football 1676 01:44:38,440 --> 01:44:41,680 players taking steroids or something like which we. 1677 01:44:41,720 --> 01:44:44,760 We then go on to see at the NFL level, it's like, so these guys 1678 01:44:44,760 --> 01:44:48,200 will test positive for something and then get four games, whereas 1679 01:44:48,200 --> 01:44:50,960 in track it's four years. Yes, exactly. 1680 01:44:50,960 --> 01:44:52,480 So. And I think that's again, 1681 01:44:52,480 --> 01:44:55,640 probably a part of where it comes from, but it is rather 1682 01:44:55,640 --> 01:44:58,520 unfortunate because particularly because there's no clear 1683 01:44:58,520 --> 01:45:03,480 division between professional track and NCAA track or amateur 1684 01:45:03,480 --> 01:45:07,080 track. It's just all one, you know all 1685 01:45:07,080 --> 01:45:09,400 one thing, right? You can be lining up in Rd. 1686 01:45:09,400 --> 01:45:13,960 races and whatever against top stars like that is just how it 1687 01:45:13,960 --> 01:45:16,440 works. So yeah. 1688 01:45:17,240 --> 01:45:21,840 To your point, there are there is a big population of these 1689 01:45:21,840 --> 01:45:26,640 anti doping crusaders that are on Twitter and will or just 1690 01:45:26,640 --> 01:45:29,640 like, yeah, I guess like crusaders is maybe the wrong 1691 01:45:29,640 --> 01:45:32,280 word for them, but they're just sort of like the biggest 1692 01:45:32,280 --> 01:45:35,360 skeptics of like any sort of performance. 1693 01:45:35,400 --> 01:45:39,920 And I'm like, you are just miserable curmudgeons who can't 1694 01:45:40,480 --> 01:45:42,880 enjoy sport. Because if your first instincts, 1695 01:45:42,880 --> 01:45:45,880 no matter who it is, no matter what country it is, no matter 1696 01:45:46,160 --> 01:45:49,320 who the performance is by, is to just immediately like point a 1697 01:45:49,320 --> 01:45:51,960 finger and say doping, then it's like what the hell are you doing 1698 01:45:51,960 --> 01:45:57,120 watching track in the 1st place? But to their point, like they 1699 01:45:57,120 --> 01:46:00,840 watch all these NCAA performances and it's a point on 1700 01:46:00,840 --> 01:46:02,880 their side for sure that it's like, oh, there's no drug 1701 01:46:02,880 --> 01:46:04,280 testing there. So they of course they're going 1702 01:46:04,280 --> 01:46:07,600 to be popping off with these amazing performances there. 1703 01:46:07,920 --> 01:46:14,040 And we see this issue at play at even meets like BU where it's 1704 01:46:14,040 --> 01:46:19,360 like these records are being set by sometimes college athletes, 1705 01:46:19,360 --> 01:46:21,400 definitely professional athletes, but there's no 1706 01:46:22,000 --> 01:46:25,640 infrastructure in place for the NCAA or even Boston University 1707 01:46:25,640 --> 01:46:30,000 to have drug testing there. This is where it comes into play 1708 01:46:30,000 --> 01:46:33,800 to have a really good agent who will set that stuff up. 1709 01:46:34,120 --> 01:46:37,680 So in the case that like, oh, you ran a really fast time at BU 1710 01:46:37,680 --> 01:46:40,120 and you hit a qualifying mark or you broke this record, like 1711 01:46:40,120 --> 01:46:42,600 afterwards you have to go and get drug tested. 1712 01:46:42,600 --> 01:46:44,480 And we set it up. We contacted someone from you 1713 01:46:44,480 --> 01:46:48,200 sod and all that stuff like it's not going to the NCAA will never 1714 01:46:48,520 --> 01:46:52,120 set that up for you. And to the other point of just 1715 01:46:52,120 --> 01:46:55,720 sort of like the non transparency that there is 1716 01:46:55,720 --> 01:46:57,960 behind this thing, it's like we're seeing it. 1717 01:46:58,240 --> 01:47:02,480 We saw it at play a little bit back in December when it was 1718 01:47:02,480 --> 01:47:10,760 highlighted I think by Emily Venters and the 10K NCAA final 1719 01:47:10,760 --> 01:47:16,840 from 2023, where if you look at the results of that race in the 1720 01:47:17,560 --> 01:47:22,600 NCAA rule book or records book, whatever it is, you'll notice 1721 01:47:22,600 --> 01:47:25,960 that. Who was it? 1722 01:47:25,960 --> 01:47:29,760 It was, Oh, I'm blanking on this name right now. 1723 01:47:30,240 --> 01:47:36,320 I just had it before from West, it was from Utah Valley. 1724 01:47:38,640 --> 01:47:42,560 I'll get it in a SEC. Bear with me. 1725 01:47:42,840 --> 01:47:50,680 I want to get it right. Who was it? 1726 01:47:50,680 --> 01:47:51,400 Who was it? Who was it? 1727 01:47:51,400 --> 01:47:53,880 Was it Evelyn Kemboy? That's what it is. 1728 01:47:54,720 --> 01:47:58,960 So Evelyn Kemboy won the national title at the NCA 1729 01:48:00,000 --> 01:48:02,760 Championships in 2023. But if you look at the record 1730 01:48:02,760 --> 01:48:07,200 books now, she's not listed in the results and it just says, 1731 01:48:07,200 --> 01:48:10,840 like, title vacated and no reason is given. 1732 01:48:11,640 --> 01:48:14,520 And that only leads people to speculate the worst things, 1733 01:48:14,520 --> 01:48:17,960 especially given that it's a international Kenyan athlete, 1734 01:48:17,960 --> 01:48:20,880 right? But if rumors are swirling that 1735 01:48:20,880 --> 01:48:24,040 this athlete tested positive for a banned substance, whether 1736 01:48:24,040 --> 01:48:29,520 it's, you know, something as meaningless or small as what do 1737 01:48:29,520 --> 01:48:31,640 we see? Like there's a swimmer, I 1738 01:48:31,640 --> 01:48:34,280 remember this came up a couple years ago, tested positive for 1739 01:48:34,280 --> 01:48:36,120 caffeine. If it's something as small as 1740 01:48:36,120 --> 01:48:40,960 that or as nefarious as EPO, like you're just leading people 1741 01:48:40,960 --> 01:48:44,240 to speculate because you're you don't have any sort of policy 1742 01:48:44,240 --> 01:48:47,920 that's upfront about like, hey, here's what what was the reason 1743 01:48:47,920 --> 01:48:52,840 behind this athlete getting DQ D could have been academic 1744 01:48:52,840 --> 01:48:55,480 eligibility or whatever, but none of that. 1745 01:48:56,640 --> 01:49:01,800 So this is a sort of, again, more holes in the NCAA anti 1746 01:49:01,800 --> 01:49:08,240 doping saga that's out there. So as of right now, Seth 1747 01:49:08,240 --> 01:49:10,800 Clevenger's eligible to compete still. 1748 01:49:10,800 --> 01:49:14,400 I, I guess I haven't seen any sort of fallout from this 1749 01:49:14,440 --> 01:49:17,000 article that came out. And I think part of the reasons 1750 01:49:17,000 --> 01:49:19,840 why is like there's no smoking gun quite yet. 1751 01:49:20,080 --> 01:49:23,360 There's screenshots of emails and all this kind of stuff. 1752 01:49:23,360 --> 01:49:30,520 Like it looks really bad for for him, but I I guess like there's 1753 01:49:30,520 --> 01:49:34,000 nothing again by the book that you could pin him on. 1754 01:49:35,280 --> 01:49:40,960 So yeah, crazy, crazy situation. Yeah. 1755 01:49:41,640 --> 01:49:44,800 All right, I think that does it for this week in track and view. 1756 01:49:44,800 --> 01:49:46,280 We touched on so many different things. 1757 01:49:46,280 --> 01:49:49,520 But I guess the the big lesson here is like there are rule 1758 01:49:49,520 --> 01:49:52,880 books in play for good reasons and bad reasons. 1759 01:49:52,880 --> 01:49:59,400 And yeah, it's sometimes hard to, I don't know, like, not 1760 01:49:59,400 --> 01:50:06,240 necessarily like bend the rules, but find reasons for logic to 1761 01:50:06,240 --> 01:50:07,360 prevail. So. 1762 01:50:07,800 --> 01:50:12,880 Yeah, So a couple of other bits just quickly from USA's field 1763 01:50:12,880 --> 01:50:14,640 events. Most interesting thing was 1764 01:50:14,640 --> 01:50:17,720 Cordell Tinch came fifth in the high jump, but there's only one 1765 01:50:17,720 --> 01:50:21,800 other guy qualified. So he and he said he will go to 1766 01:50:23,280 --> 01:50:25,320 well indoors in the sorry in the long jump. 1767 01:50:27,120 --> 01:50:29,640 So he will go, he will go in the long. 1768 01:50:29,760 --> 01:50:33,560 He's 5th in the world this year. He could medal. 1769 01:50:33,600 --> 01:50:35,720 Zoom the duck. Oh, but is he doing the? 1770 01:50:35,760 --> 01:50:38,080 No, he's doing the double. No, he's just doing long jump. 1771 01:50:38,080 --> 01:50:40,320 He's just doing the long jump. Not 60 adults, which is pretty 1772 01:50:40,320 --> 01:50:44,640 awesome. No Joe Kovacs, sadly he missed 1773 01:50:44,640 --> 01:50:48,600 out on the team, but Jordan Guy, Roger Steen and Josh Altunde 1774 01:50:48,680 --> 01:50:50,920 will be our team. Chase Jackson through an 1775 01:50:50,920 --> 01:50:53,960 American indoor American record of 2044. 1776 01:50:54,320 --> 01:50:57,960 The shot put, we had our first new woman's high jump champion 1777 01:50:57,960 --> 01:51:02,680 since 2016 in charity Huff Nagel, who beat Vashi Cunningham 1778 01:51:03,560 --> 01:51:05,640 and a Hall also jump 193 in that competition. 1779 01:51:05,640 --> 01:51:08,280 So that's pretty cool, a good competition. 1780 01:51:08,520 --> 01:51:11,840 And then Jasmine Moore, double, double dot triple jump, long 1781 01:51:11,840 --> 01:51:16,200 jump champion and will be accompanied in the long jump by 1782 01:51:16,200 --> 01:51:20,760 by Monet Nichols. So a few a few things from from 1783 01:51:20,760 --> 01:51:22,640 the field events there. I don't think we're sending 1784 01:51:22,640 --> 01:51:26,840 anyone in the men's high jump, unfortunately, to World indoors. 1785 01:51:27,600 --> 01:51:30,480 I guess the we did that whole lead up about the belt, but what 1786 01:51:30,480 --> 01:51:32,920 did you make of the whole? They were talking about it in 1787 01:51:32,920 --> 01:51:35,760 the mix and I saw a couple social clips, but I didn't 1788 01:51:35,760 --> 01:51:38,600 really turn my sound on because I was like, I don't, I don't 1789 01:51:38,600 --> 01:51:41,920 want. To know, I mean to be fair, like 1790 01:51:41,920 --> 01:51:45,680 it was on, it was on TVI was wondering whether Noah would 1791 01:51:45,680 --> 01:51:47,160 give him the belt. Noah gave him the belt. 1792 01:51:47,160 --> 01:51:48,240 He gave him the belt. Yeah, he. 1793 01:51:48,440 --> 01:51:51,320 Gave him the belt, which I'd be interested to know what would 1794 01:51:51,320 --> 01:51:52,720 have happened had it been Trayvon who won. 1795 01:51:52,720 --> 01:51:56,520 But yeah, Noah gave him the belt and he was quite good. 1796 01:51:56,520 --> 01:51:59,480 Like, his interviews afterwards were actually quite good. 1797 01:52:00,520 --> 01:52:02,720 And yeah, I know we think the whole thing's a bit cringe. 1798 01:52:02,760 --> 01:52:05,360 And I don't really know how exciting people are about the 1799 01:52:05,360 --> 01:52:07,760 whole thing. But again, you've got to give 1800 01:52:07,760 --> 01:52:09,720 Noah some credit for trying to do something. 1801 01:52:09,720 --> 01:52:12,600 But yeah, I mean, someone has got to tell him at some point 1802 01:52:12,600 --> 01:52:14,800 that it does come across a little bit cringe. 1803 01:52:15,960 --> 01:52:19,080 So, you know, and but, you know, I applaud the effort. 1804 01:52:19,080 --> 01:52:23,000 And as I say, if you can find the right things to do, I think, 1805 01:52:23,160 --> 01:52:26,760 you know, things that that draw attention are never bad, right? 1806 01:52:26,760 --> 01:52:30,920 So if he can do something cool, but you know, maybe he needs to 1807 01:52:31,440 --> 01:52:37,320 follow a lead car off the off the track in his next race and 1808 01:52:37,320 --> 01:52:38,880 that will that will make headlines. 1809 01:52:38,880 --> 01:52:41,920 I don't know but. In the New York Post, in the 1810 01:52:41,920 --> 01:52:43,120 Daily Mail. I don't think anyone was, 1811 01:52:43,240 --> 01:52:44,840 really. Neither of those outlets were 1812 01:52:44,840 --> 01:52:47,760 covering the pure athletics belt training hands whatsoever. 1813 01:52:48,160 --> 01:52:51,040 Sadly not. I guess I saw the belt. 1814 01:52:52,000 --> 01:52:56,200 Where's the women's belt? There was no women's belt, No, 1815 01:52:56,480 --> 01:52:59,560 no, but, but I imagine that would come from Dennis 1816 01:52:59,560 --> 01:53:01,680 Mitchell's group, so maybe they've got their own internal 1817 01:53:01,680 --> 01:53:03,680 belt, who knows? They're like, we don't need a 1818 01:53:03,680 --> 01:53:05,280 melt. We'll just take the national 1819 01:53:05,280 --> 01:53:07,200 titles. All right? 1820 01:53:07,280 --> 01:53:09,960 Yeah, Tokyo Marathon also happened. 1821 01:53:10,680 --> 01:53:14,200 Indeed it did, and. Bridget cause guy for the win 1822 01:53:14,200 --> 01:53:21,720 214 We also had four guys go sub two O 4 the Ethiopian guy today 1823 01:53:21,720 --> 01:53:23,560 say. To Kaylee. 1824 01:53:23,560 --> 01:53:24,880 Yes, Kaylee. Defending champion. 1825 01:53:24,880 --> 01:53:28,880 Back-to-back Cam Levins with a solid performance too. 1826 01:53:28,880 --> 01:53:31,440 Casey Klinger, 208. Yep. 1827 01:53:31,440 --> 01:53:36,120 So yeah, Casey Klinger, 208 and yeah, I mean, good to see Cam 1828 01:53:36,120 --> 01:53:39,800 Levins actually kind of get back to like 206 because I think it 1829 01:53:39,800 --> 01:53:41,120 was the second fastest performance. 1830 01:53:41,560 --> 01:53:44,600 And, you know, ever since he ran that 205, we've been hoping he 1831 01:53:44,600 --> 01:53:48,600 could kind of back that up. And and I think it's been not, 1832 01:53:48,960 --> 01:53:50,640 you know, slightly rough for a couple of years. 1833 01:53:50,640 --> 01:53:52,800 So it's really good to see him do that. 1834 01:53:52,800 --> 01:53:56,640 Ilyas Awani, World Championship bronze medalist with A20425I 1835 01:53:56,640 --> 01:53:58,400 thought was was quite impressive. 1836 01:53:58,400 --> 01:54:02,680 Fastest marathon by an NCAA athlete He knocks off Alex 1837 01:54:02,680 --> 01:54:05,840 Masai. Alex Masai got that title back 1838 01:54:05,840 --> 01:54:09,520 in October at the Chicago Marathon, and now it belongs to 1839 01:54:09,720 --> 01:54:11,400 Awani. Yeah. 1840 01:54:11,600 --> 01:54:16,080 And then yeah, Solomon Braga improves his PB very slightly to 1841 01:54:16,080 --> 01:54:19,360 20459 but. Wow, I didn't even notice that 1842 01:54:19,360 --> 01:54:22,160 result because it's buried into 7th place. 1843 01:54:22,160 --> 01:54:25,320 Like if you look at this like Casey Klinger IN20843 and that's 1844 01:54:25,320 --> 01:54:28,400 24th place. Yeah, yeah. 1845 01:54:28,880 --> 01:54:31,640 I mean, there was the guy who went off at the Japanese guy who 1846 01:54:31,640 --> 01:54:36,800 went off at 201 pace and, you know, for 30K and then obviously 1847 01:54:36,800 --> 01:54:42,800 faded to to 2:11. But you know, yeah, it was it 1848 01:54:42,800 --> 01:54:48,040 was a very, I mean, look, the ultimately the race was good in 1849 01:54:48,040 --> 01:54:50,520 the sense that we got a Sprint finish over the last 800 meters 1850 01:54:50,520 --> 01:54:53,280 between at least the top three guys, top four guys. 1851 01:54:53,720 --> 01:54:54,960 So that was that was really. Good. 1852 01:54:55,120 --> 01:54:57,680 Any of the women's race. No. 1853 01:54:57,680 --> 01:55:00,240 And that's always a struggle in Tokyo actually, to be honest, I 1854 01:55:00,240 --> 01:55:02,800 found like they're broadcast, it's always a bit bit tough to 1855 01:55:03,080 --> 01:55:06,520 to see much of the women's race. You do get the top Japanese 1856 01:55:06,520 --> 01:55:08,720 athlete and then the front of the women's race. 1857 01:55:08,720 --> 01:55:12,520 But because Bridget, Bridget Koskai was kind of there more or 1858 01:55:12,520 --> 01:55:15,840 less by yourself again, there was a really good Sprint finish 1859 01:55:15,840 --> 01:55:19,960 for 3rd and 4th between how he faces Chicago Marathon champion 1860 01:55:19,960 --> 01:55:23,360 and Tsutuma Kebede, who was last year's Tokyo champion. 1861 01:55:23,360 --> 01:55:24,720 So. Photo finish. 1862 01:55:26,120 --> 01:55:29,760 Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I mean, as I say, it's 1863 01:55:29,760 --> 01:55:33,040 another major in the books. But I think the most impressive 1864 01:55:33,040 --> 01:55:34,480 result from that is Bridget Koskai. 1865 01:55:34,480 --> 01:55:38,080 I think she is fully back. Obviously she performed pretty 1866 01:55:38,080 --> 01:55:42,120 well in Sydney and gave Stefan a bit of a run for her money 1867 01:55:42,240 --> 01:55:45,520 there. And it's been a journey to to 1868 01:55:45,520 --> 01:55:47,720 get healthy again. You know, she's had had a rough 1869 01:55:47,720 --> 01:55:53,080 few years, I think more or less since the Tokyo Olympics when 1870 01:55:53,080 --> 01:55:55,160 she won that was it silver medal there. 1871 01:55:56,600 --> 01:55:59,400 And yeah, she's she's had a rough few years. 1872 01:55:59,400 --> 01:56:03,120 And I think it's it's good to see her healthy and and firing 1873 01:56:03,120 --> 01:56:05,400 all cylinders. This is her second fastest time 1874 01:56:05,400 --> 01:56:09,320 since the when she broke the marathon world record in 2019. 1875 01:56:09,320 --> 01:56:11,080 So trending in the right direction. 1876 01:56:11,080 --> 01:56:14,000 I'm trying to pull it up right now to see if this would be the 1877 01:56:14,000 --> 01:56:17,520 Bahrainian national record. I presume so I. 1878 01:56:18,600 --> 01:56:22,080 See if it will be by some significant margin, but I I 1879 01:56:22,080 --> 01:56:24,000 don't yeah, I don't really know how that works when you're 1880 01:56:24,000 --> 01:56:26,080 transferring allegiance, right. Well, it would. 1881 01:56:26,280 --> 01:56:30,440 She had to sit out two years, I think from the last time that 1882 01:56:30,440 --> 01:56:34,080 she competed internationally, which for her, she was named to 1883 01:56:34,080 --> 01:56:37,880 the Olympic team in 2024 but didn't end up going because who 1884 01:56:37,880 --> 01:56:39,440 replaced her on that team? Was it Sharon? 1885 01:56:39,440 --> 01:56:41,080 I think it's Sharon Lochetti. Sharon did. 1886 01:56:41,080 --> 01:56:45,000 Yeah, Yeah. But OK, before this, the 1887 01:56:45,000 --> 01:56:48,600 Bahrainian marathon record was 220. 1888 01:56:48,600 --> 01:56:52,240 Now Cosguy's time doesn't count quite yet, I think for this 1889 01:56:52,240 --> 01:56:54,080 list. And I don't even think that 1890 01:56:54,760 --> 01:56:57,360 she's publicly said that she's making this switch. 1891 01:56:57,360 --> 01:56:59,840 I think it was just leaked out a couple weeks ago. 1892 01:57:01,480 --> 01:57:08,240 But you know, she's written 214 and is I guess like, yeah, just 1893 01:57:08,240 --> 01:57:12,800 trending in the right direction between her how he she beat 1894 01:57:12,800 --> 01:57:17,800 Howie face it, who put together a 2214 perform two Yeah, 214. 1895 01:57:17,800 --> 01:57:19,840 Performance last year. Chicago, right? 1896 01:57:19,960 --> 01:57:23,400 Yeah, yeah. And so Koska is making a 1897 01:57:23,400 --> 01:57:28,080 resurgence to being back to the best marathoner in the world in 1898 01:57:28,080 --> 01:57:32,080 the absence of Ruth Chip. And get it, We'll have to wait 1899 01:57:32,080 --> 01:57:34,440 and see. She's not entered in London. 1900 01:57:35,280 --> 01:57:39,040 So do we just go many months now without seeing her back in 1901 01:57:39,040 --> 01:57:40,480 action? Like is it really going to be 1902 01:57:40,480 --> 01:57:45,520 until the fall or will she go back to Sydney to defend title? 1903 01:57:45,520 --> 01:57:48,400 I just don't know. But if she's running 214 right 1904 01:57:48,400 --> 01:57:52,400 now, it's so hard to now. Oh, OK, go for the marathon 1905 01:57:52,400 --> 01:57:55,640 world record because it's still 5 minutes faster than this. 1906 01:57:56,240 --> 01:57:59,880 So I guess like, it's just hard to think of like, what will make 1907 01:57:59,880 --> 01:58:03,040 for unless she just makes a last minute entry to London, But 1908 01:58:03,040 --> 01:58:04,920 that's you can't do that a month after this. 1909 01:58:04,920 --> 01:58:07,880 So I just don't know, like, what's next? 1910 01:58:07,880 --> 01:58:11,280 That's exciting if you're a Bridget Coskeye fan. 1911 01:58:11,640 --> 01:58:13,880 Just like hoping that she improves in Chicago this fall. 1912 01:58:14,400 --> 01:58:16,200 Yeah, I don't know. It's, it's a tough one, right? 1913 01:58:16,200 --> 01:58:18,840 And that is that is the challenge with the marathon in 1914 01:58:18,840 --> 01:58:21,200 general, right, That when someone has a breakout 1915 01:58:21,200 --> 01:58:23,000 performance, we don't necessarily then get to see them 1916 01:58:23,000 --> 01:58:26,920 head to head against the people we might want to see them up 1917 01:58:26,920 --> 01:58:28,720 against. But I mean, you know, this I, I 1918 01:58:28,720 --> 01:58:32,320 think, as we said last week was, you know, there were people, you 1919 01:58:32,320 --> 01:58:35,040 know, there were three marathon major champions from last year 1920 01:58:35,040 --> 01:58:37,280 in this race, and she beat all of them. 1921 01:58:38,200 --> 01:58:41,760 So she's been in a decent field here and, and done it pretty 1922 01:58:41,760 --> 01:58:44,360 handily. And, you know, she was with the 1923 01:58:44,360 --> 01:58:46,320 pack. She put most of that on in the 1924 01:58:46,320 --> 01:58:50,360 last what, 1012 K It was, it was mighty impressive the way she 1925 01:58:50,360 --> 01:58:55,560 she she did that. So yeah, Yeah, she's definitely. 1926 01:58:56,240 --> 01:58:59,800 Fully back. All right, What's coming up this 1927 01:58:59,800 --> 01:59:02,880 weekend? You got ESTAF Berlin indoor 1928 01:59:02,960 --> 01:59:04,480 meet. I think that's the last of the 1929 01:59:04,480 --> 01:59:08,000 European track meets before this qualifying window closes. 1930 01:59:08,000 --> 01:59:11,600 Then obviously there's going to be the meet out in Philadelphia 1931 01:59:11,600 --> 01:59:15,080 on Saturday if you're looking for or itching for something 1932 01:59:15,080 --> 01:59:18,640 else to watch. I think the USATF 25K 1933 01:59:18,640 --> 01:59:22,720 championships is or 15K whatever Gate River is out in 1934 01:59:22,720 --> 01:59:25,000 Jacksonville, that's this weekend. 1935 01:59:25,200 --> 01:59:29,040 LA Marathon is on Sunday. I think both defending champions 1936 01:59:29,040 --> 01:59:32,840 are back, including Matt Rickman, who people forget about 1937 01:59:32,840 --> 01:59:38,400 like what last year popped off that 2O7 performance and then I 1938 01:59:38,400 --> 01:59:42,320 guess got injured and and didn't run a fall marathon. 1939 01:59:42,320 --> 01:59:45,560 But he's back in action. So we'll see how he fares this 1940 01:59:45,560 --> 01:59:49,720 time around. But yeah, we've reached a solid 1941 01:59:49,720 --> 01:59:51,760 tipping point in American Marathon and we're like 20 1942 01:59:51,760 --> 01:59:54,560 eights are starting to be a bit more regular. 1943 01:59:54,560 --> 01:59:56,560 So the bar has been raised and people are meeting it. 1944 01:59:56,560 --> 02:00:02,480 And if you're a former BYU cross country runner, you. 1945 02:00:02,800 --> 02:00:04,120 Go. Go out of the marathon. 1946 02:00:04,240 --> 02:00:05,360 Go. Out of it in America, maybe. 1947 02:00:05,480 --> 02:00:09,720 Maybe in Japan? Yeah, but yeah, I think we 1948 02:00:09,720 --> 02:00:11,880 touched on a lot this episode pre. 1949 02:00:12,360 --> 02:00:17,000 One last thing. What Manola Corrales 17. 1950 02:00:17,160 --> 02:00:21,840 That's worth out to mention. Second highest pole vaulter of 1951 02:00:21,840 --> 02:00:24,200 all time. So you know, this was hugely 1952 02:00:24,200 --> 02:00:25,920 impressive. Did it in front of a home home 1953 02:00:25,920 --> 02:00:29,080 crowd at the Greek Indoor Championships. 1954 02:00:29,240 --> 02:00:31,480 Obviously the only unfortunate thing was that normally all the 1955 02:00:31,480 --> 02:00:33,760 guys are there on the circuit together to celebrate and 1956 02:00:33,760 --> 02:00:36,920 obviously there wasn't anyone else there from the pole vault 1957 02:00:37,000 --> 02:00:39,880 crowd. But it was still he was miles 1958 02:00:39,880 --> 02:00:42,880 over that bar. And I think the big thing here 1959 02:00:42,880 --> 02:00:47,280 and obviously he you know, his PB, he jumped from 6:08 to 6:17. 1960 02:00:47,280 --> 02:00:49,840 You know, he put the bar, he didn't do it 1 centimetre at a 1961 02:00:49,840 --> 02:00:52,680 time, but I think, you know, it made sense because he wanted to 1962 02:00:52,680 --> 02:00:55,680 show that he is the second best volunteer of all time. 1963 02:00:56,040 --> 02:00:59,280 And that's why he put the bar up there and and he got it. 1964 02:00:59,560 --> 02:01:03,120 And I think that now gives you the confidence like Mondo 1965 02:01:04,320 --> 02:01:06,440 doesn't always jump a world record, right? 1966 02:01:06,440 --> 02:01:10,040 And if he, you know, he's The thing is he always still wins 1967 02:01:10,040 --> 02:01:12,600 with like a 610, right? That's that's the thing. 1968 02:01:12,600 --> 02:01:16,400 So if Manolo is pushing him, he has to jump a 610, A 615. 1969 02:01:16,760 --> 02:01:23,880 Now if he has to jump A-617-A620 to win a competition a like last 1970 02:01:23,880 --> 02:01:26,560 year, the impact that that was having when he was having to 1971 02:01:26,560 --> 02:01:29,040 jump a 610 was maybe he was struggling then to jump a world 1972 02:01:29,040 --> 02:01:33,200 record because he was being pushed whilst, and he still 1973 02:01:33,200 --> 02:01:34,640 obviously managed it multiple times. 1974 02:01:34,640 --> 02:01:40,840 But I think he now there's maybe a genuine jeopardy that if he 1975 02:01:40,840 --> 02:01:45,160 has even a marginally off day, he could lose. 1976 02:01:46,360 --> 02:01:50,640 And so, you know, I think he'll still probably win 9 times out 1977 02:01:50,640 --> 02:01:53,000 of 10, but it makes it a little bit more interesting and I 1978 02:01:53,000 --> 02:01:54,400 think, yeah, exactly, it's good for the sport. 1979 02:01:54,400 --> 02:01:59,720 It's something we want to see. And yeah, I, it was, I mean, I, 1980 02:01:59,720 --> 02:02:02,200 I love the guy. He's such a fun guy as well. 1981 02:02:02,200 --> 02:02:05,640 And he's really cool. And yeah, it's so it's, it's 1982 02:02:05,640 --> 02:02:10,080 just nice to see that that kind of storyline come, come to. 1983 02:02:10,080 --> 02:02:11,600 Fruition. If you haven't watched the 1984 02:02:11,600 --> 02:02:13,680 video, you have to because it was done in front of a home 1985 02:02:13,680 --> 02:02:15,720 crowd and like everyone went berserk. 1986 02:02:16,680 --> 02:02:18,520 And absolutely wild. So it was absolutely brilliant. 1987 02:02:18,520 --> 02:02:22,120 And I should also shout out Zach Bradford, who became the 36th 1988 02:02:22,120 --> 02:02:25,200 member of the six meter club at the US Champs this weekend. 1989 02:02:25,200 --> 02:02:27,400 That was 1 field event. I forgot to mention that. 1990 02:02:27,400 --> 02:02:29,840 Congrats to him as well. So he's going to world indoors 1991 02:02:30,320 --> 02:02:32,360 broken 6 meters. So yeah. 1992 02:02:32,560 --> 02:02:35,800 Quick, how many members of the Six foot club can you name off 1993 02:02:35,800 --> 02:02:36,840 the top of your head? Go. 1994 02:02:36,840 --> 02:02:40,720 I'm kidding. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give that a 1995 02:02:40,720 --> 02:02:43,640 try. I know you were probably also 1996 02:02:43,640 --> 02:02:45,840 looking at the clock and you're like, we've been going for two 1997 02:02:45,840 --> 02:02:49,200 hours now. But breaking news, the USA Track 1998 02:02:49,200 --> 02:02:51,120 and Field has issued an additional statement regarding 1999 02:02:51,120 --> 02:02:53,560 the half marathon championships. You want me to read it for you? 2000 02:02:54,320 --> 02:02:56,440 These do, yeah. USA Track and Field continues to 2001 02:02:56,440 --> 02:02:59,040 carefully review the incident that occurred at the USATF Half 2002 02:02:59,040 --> 02:03:01,120 Marathon Championships and resulted in the misdirection of 2003 02:03:01,120 --> 02:03:02,440 three athletes. We understand this is a 2004 02:03:02,440 --> 02:03:04,280 difficult and frustrating time for athletes. 2005 02:03:04,280 --> 02:03:06,680 This matter is a top priority for our staff and volunteer 2006 02:03:06,680 --> 02:03:08,320 committees. We are working to provide 2007 02:03:08,320 --> 02:03:10,880 updates as quickly as we can as we explore options that not only 2008 02:03:10,880 --> 02:03:13,920 in line with USATF rules and policies, but also provide fair 2009 02:03:13,920 --> 02:03:15,440 outcomes for all the athletes impacted. 2010 02:03:15,440 --> 02:03:17,000 Thank you for your patience and understanding. 2011 02:03:17,000 --> 02:03:20,560 So it's basically just like, stop tagging us in all these 2012 02:03:20,560 --> 02:03:23,280 posts that are so angry right now. 2013 02:03:24,040 --> 02:03:26,080 But also it's because they're probably receiving a lot of 2014 02:03:26,080 --> 02:03:28,640 media requests and stuff from now that it's blown up. 2015 02:03:28,640 --> 02:03:31,800 And it ended up in tabloids like the New York Post and the Daily 2016 02:03:31,800 --> 02:03:34,200 Mail. I'm sure like the Jay Holder's 2017 02:03:34,200 --> 02:03:37,640 inbox is just nothing but requests for comments on this 2018 02:03:37,640 --> 02:03:39,920 thing. And this is this is just the 2019 02:03:40,200 --> 02:03:40,800 the. Blast. 2020 02:03:40,800 --> 02:03:43,080 That's like, hey everyone. That feels like a statement 2021 02:03:43,080 --> 02:03:45,160 written by Jay Holder rather than by the lawyers, which I 2022 02:03:45,200 --> 02:03:46,920 think is good. I think that was that's the 2023 02:03:46,960 --> 02:03:50,640 other like that's the that I think that felt like a bit more 2024 02:03:50,640 --> 02:03:53,560 of a human statement and I think that's kind of what we wanted. 2025 02:03:53,960 --> 02:03:56,400 We're hopeful with the first statement that there was a bit 2026 02:03:56,400 --> 02:03:59,920 more of that in there, but I'm, I'm glad that they've now now 2027 02:03:59,920 --> 02:04:03,600 done that. All right, well, let's sign off 2028 02:04:03,600 --> 02:04:07,000 before there's another development in this story that 2029 02:04:07,000 --> 02:04:09,280 does it for this week in track and field up and Chris Chavez 2030 02:04:09,280 --> 02:04:12,000 with Preet Majithia. We will see you guys again next 2031 02:04:12,000 --> 02:04:14,680 week. All right, that's a wrap on 2032 02:04:14,680 --> 02:04:16,960 today's episode. Thanks for listening, for the 2033 02:04:16,960 --> 02:04:19,920 time, the curiosity, and for making this show part of your 2034 02:04:19,920 --> 02:04:23,040 routine or your run. Big thanks to our producer 2035 02:04:23,040 --> 02:04:25,880 Jasmine Fair and to everyone behind the scenes who helps make 2036 02:04:25,880 --> 02:04:29,080 the Citius Mag Podcast happen. If you enjoyed today's episode, 2037 02:04:29,080 --> 02:04:31,960 a quick five star review on Apple Podcast or Spotify helps 2038 02:04:31,960 --> 02:04:35,160 people find this show and we read every single one. 2039 02:04:35,280 --> 02:04:38,400 You can find muchmoretrackandfieldcoverage@citiusmag.com 2040 02:04:38,400 --> 02:04:40,760 and you can follow along across all of Citius Mag social 2041 02:04:40,760 --> 02:04:42,280 channels. We'll see you next time. 2042 02:04:42,480 --> 02:04:43,560 Thanks again for listening.