Women’s 800: Phoebe Wright Gets The Win, Ajee Wilson’s Winning Streak Comes To An End And Gabrielle Anderson PR’s

In the women’s 800, 2012 US Trials 5th placer Phoebe Wright won in 2:00.85 over Canada’s Melissa Bishop (2:01.16) and World Junior champion Ajee Wilson (2:01.24).

2012 Olympic semi-finalist Geena Gall was 4th (2:01.33) as 1500 runner Gabrielle Anderson stepped down in distance with a 2:01.38 for 5th.

Results and quick takes:

800 Metres - Women Race 1                                     

    1 Wright , Phoebe                  USA    2:00.85                   
    2 Bishop , Melissa                 CAN    2:01.16                   
    3 Wilson , Ajee                    USA    2:01.24                   
    4 Gall , Geena                     USA    2:01.33                   
    5 Anderson , Gabrielle             USA    2:01.38                   
    6 Thomas , LaTavia                 USA    2:02.10                   
    7 Kesselring , Anne                GER    2:02.12                   
    8 Wallace , Lea                    USA    2:02.26                   
    9 Price , Chanelle                 USA    2:02.31
      Leblanc , Annie                  CAN        DNF

Post-Race Thought #1: Ajee Wilson’s undefeated streak comes to an end (she had 6 straight wins going into this race). That was the biggest disappointment for her as she said she wasn’t worried about the time, but came to this race wanting to win.

Post-Race Thought #2: In our pre-race preview we said it was ridiculous that Wilson was in this race and not the “A” race tomorrow against Mary Cain as Wilson is World Junior champion and has a faster PR than Cain as well. We suspected that it might have something to do with Wilson being sponsored by adidas while Cain is attached to Nike payed Alberto Salazar and this is the Nike Prefontaine Classic. However, based on her responses we’ve given this a lot more thought than Wilson as she said, “I don’t know what was up. I kind of just wait for my coach and my agent to tell me what I’m running in. I just go and race and I’m not that much involved in that … It’s not really that big of a deal to me. Either one is going to go fast.”

Post-Race Thought #3: Gabrielle Anderson definitely boosts her odds for a World Championship team bid this year with a big 800 PR of 2:01.38, breaking her previous best of 2:02.83.