Andrew Wheating Wins 1,500 at 2012 Harry Jerome Track Classic
By LetsRun.com
June 10, 2012
Some big name stars were up North on Sunday to compete at the 2012 Harry Jerome Track Classic in Canada.
The big race from a LetsRun.com perspective was the men's 1500 where Andrew Wheating took a big step forward by getting the win in 3:35.89. Last week, Wheating was dead last in the mile at the Pre Classic in 3:56.77 and today's performance will undoubtedly raise his confidence for the upcoming US Olympic Trials as it equates to 3:53.2 in the mile.
Wheating was third entereing the final 200 but with about 100 meters to go he rollled up on leader Garrett Heath, who was looking for the Olympic 'A' of 3:35.50 as he'd run 3:36.24 at Occidental, and ended up holding off a fast charging Jordan McNamara who was coming up on the inside. McNamara ended up the runner-up in 3:36.03 as Heath was third in 3:36.43. Unofficially, we had Wheating's last 400 in about 55.8-56 flat.
2011 world championship bronze medallist Matt Centrowitz, who is on the comeback trail from a minor knee injury, also took a step forward in the race as he finished fourth in 3:37.22. Last week at Pre, he ran 3:57.44 in the 'B' heat and today's run is equivalent to something like 3:55.2 for the mile.
Race results and video appear below. Blow that we recap some of the other action.
QT #1: These results will only help bolster the confidence of Wheating / Centrowitz. As for Centro, some might be discouraged by a 4th place showing before the US Trials but Centro is the exact opposite of a head-case. He's clutch and doesn't over think stuff.
QT#2: Alan Webb should be pleased by Garrett Heath's failure to get the 'A' as we assume this means he might go to the American Milers Club series of meets now which is where Webb will go for the 'A'.
QT #3: McNamara has good closing speed. If he can get the 'A', he could be darkhorse pick to really ruin the year of one of the US's big names in the 1,500 like Centro, Wheating, Manzano.
Men 1500 Meter Run NTL |
Watch more video of 2012 NTL - Harry Jerome International Track Classic on flotrack.org |
Other Action:
In the women's 1,500, former Michigan runner Nicole Sifutentes got the win but she and Americans Gabriele Anderson and Brenda Martinez all came up short in achieving what they reallly wanted - run as fast as Tirunesh Dibaba did for her final 1,500 of a 5,000 in New York last night the Olympic 'A' of 4:06.00 (sorry for the snarky humor but we have looked at our google analytics and no one is clicking on that article and
it's annoying us that people are ignoring a truly great achievement).
Top 3 Women's 1,500
1 Sifuentes, Nicole 86 Canada 4:06.34 4:06.90
2 Anderson, Gabriele 86 United States 4:06.46 4:07.04
3 Martinez, Brenda 87 United States 4:06.96 4:07.70
In her last race second to last race (Anderson also ran 4:06 at Pre), Anderson beat 2011 world #1 Morgan Uceny and ran 4:06 at Occidental so this is her second straight 4:06.
Someone who did get the coveted 'A' for the first time was 22-year old Canadian Jessica Smith who ran 1:59.86 in the women's 800- just under the 1:59.90 standard - and beat US Olympian Alice Schmidt (1:59.93) in the process.
You can check out the full results below. There definitely some other events worth checking out as guys like Ashton Eaton competed and did well (45.87 in 400).
|
|
|