6 Takeaways From Women’s Meet – Jenny S Kicks Too Early, Mary Cain Shatters Her Own Record But Wants More, Kim Conley Dominates And Don’t Forget Chanelle Price

by LetsRun.com
February 8, 2014

Boston, MA – The 2014 New Balance Grand Prix certainly did not disappoint. A national television audience and packed house saw some great action. We’re assuming that you saw it or know what happened. If not, 2014 New Balance Grand Prix results can be found here.

A full mid-d and distance meet recap by David Monti can be found here. A full meet recap including field/sprint action by the IAAF can be found here. We wrote a recap of the the men’s 4 x 800 world record being broken here.

Below we give you 6 takeaways from the the rest of the women’s mid-d and distance action – the women’s 1k, 2 mile and 2k.

Mary Cain World Junior 1000m Record in Boston Mary Cain World Junior 1,000m Record In Boston

Women’s 1k: Mary Cain Shatters Her Own World Junior Mark

This race went out hard with Jen Toomey‘s 2:34.19 American record the target. Treniere Moser was right on the rabbit (60.0), (1:31.6). She’d pay for that later in the race and sometimes training partner Mary Cain, who stayed a little behind Moser early, moved up for the win as Moser paid for the aggressive start by fading late. More details from RRW here. Analysis and post-race reaction below.

1,000 Metres – Women’s Results
1 Cain , Mary USA 2:35.80 WJR
2 Price , Chanelle USA 2:36.63
3 Brown , Sarah USA 2:36.90
4 Beckwith-Ludlow , Molly USA 2:37.19
5 Moser , Treniere USA 2:37.88
6 Bishop , Melissa CAN 2:39.77
7 Lagat , Viola KEN 2:40.72
8 Kampf , Heather USA 2:40.90
9 Edao , Dureti ETH 2:48.13
10 Wilson , Ajee USA 2:48.88
Theisen Eaton , Brianne CAN DNF

1) Despite the fact that she smashed her former World Junior record of 2:39.25 by 3.45 seconds, Mary Cain said she thought she could have run faster, particularly if she had pushed from 400 out and not 200 out.

“I felt very good today,” said Cain afterwards. “I actually think I could have gone faster. With 400 to go, I was told, ‘If you feel good, make your move then.’ And I probably didn’t really make my until the last 200, so I think if I had made an all out  effort from 400, I think I could have maybe gotten it (Jen Toomey‘s American record of 2:34.19) or been closer like  in the 2:34s – so I felt pretty good.”

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The pace did drag considerably from 600 to 800 as the 600 split was 1:31.6 and the 800 split was 2:04.1.

2) Chanelle Price’s breakthrough 2014 campaign continues.

The media attention certainly is on teen phenom Mary Cain – so much so that even LetsRun.com didn’t get a chance to catch up with former teen phenom Chanelle Price after the race. But we don’t want her fine runner-up showing to go unnoticed here.

Coming into the year, Price had a 2:42.71 1k PR. She ran 2:40.03 in January and now 2:36.63. She also ran a 2:01.91 indoor 800 PR in between those two thousands.

3) This race was very fast historically as fifth placer Treniere Moser still moved up to #8 all-time in US history.  

US Top 10 All-Time 1k
(Bold = run tonight in Boston)

1. 2:34.19 Jen Toomey
2. 2:35.29 Regina Jacobs (*convicted drug cheat)
3. 2:35.80 Mary Cain
4. 2:36.63 Chanelle Price
5. 2:36.90 Sarah Brown
6. 2:37.19 Molly Beckwith-Ludlow
7. 2:37.6  Mary Slaney (*convicted drug cheat)
8. 2:37.88 Treniere Moser
9. 2:37.9 Joetta Clark
10. 2:38.44 Morgan Uceny

Moser was disappointed with the result but not the effort. She purposely is working on being more aggressive in races and her early running was an indication of that. Moser also talks about Dibaba’s 3:55 and how 1,500m running is at another level now.

4) Teen Ajee’ Wilson struggled.

The Worlds finalist at 800 was dead last in this one.

Jenny Simpson Kicks a Lap Early Jenny Simpson Kicks A Lap Early

Women’s 2 Mile: Jenny Simpson Kicks Too Early As Sally Kipyego Wins

This one was a great one to watch. Sally Kipyego opened a gap on the field. Jordan Hasay in second opened a gap on Jenny Simpson. Then Simpson started storming back as Hasay faded a lot. Simpson was gaining on Kipyego and the crowd started going nuts. Simpson flew by Kipyego with 300m to go and then slowly most of the people began to realize what Simpson hadn’t. She was kicking a lap too soon. Simpson crossed the line and stopped. Only to realize after Kipyego went by she had one more lap.

Two Miles – Women’s Results
1 Kipyego , Sally Jepkosgei KEN 9:21.04
2 Simpson , Jennifer USA 9:26.19
3 Hasay , Jordan USA 9:36.00
4 Gebreslase , Gotytom ETH 9:49.08
5 Rowbury , Shannon USA 9:52.16
6 Anderson , Gabrielle USA 9:55.21
Browning , Charlotte GBR DNF
Charnigo , Stephanie USA DNF

The champ talks:

5) Jenny Simpson kicked a lap too early and still nearly broke an American record. Wow.

Simpson only ended up less than 3 seconds off drug cheat Regina Jacobs‘ American record of 9:23.38 as Olympic and World 10,000 silver medalist Sally Kipyego got a much-deserved win in her first track race since September of 2012.

This race was entertaining to say the least and certainly reminded us of the Lopez Lomong race at Stanford from a few years ago.

Afterwards, Simpson was very funny and handled the situation perfectly. She called herself an “idiot” and didn’t hide from the fact that she miscounted the laps.

Jordan Hasay on her race:

Women’s 2k:
6) Kim Conley’s domination continues.

Two weeks ago at the New Balance Games in New York, Conley won the women’s mile in 4:24 by nearly 5 seconds. Tonight, the race was 400 meters longer and her victory got bigger as well, as she won by 6.1 seconds.

Conley told us afterwards that she was dreaming of the 5:34.52 American record by Mary Slaney, but that she struggles running alone up front. As a result, she was pleased with her performance.

Want more insight? Our men’s analysis is here: 6 Thoughts On The Men’s Action: Is Ryan Hill The US’s New #1? Nick Willis Might Be In Form Of His Life, Galen Rupp Thinks He’s Fine or watch more of our post-race videos as we need to get to sleep.

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