Molly Seidel, Sara Hall and Emma Bates named to US marathon team for the World Track and Field Championships

Have you been paying attention to women's distance running in the US? They're light years ahead of the men in terms of global competitiveness. Sara making the team just shows how good she is. D'Amato is 37. Hall is 38. You can run well at the distance into your late 30s/early 40s.

Our most popular three. Molly has proven herself under tough conditions with hills and heat. This will be her first test on a mostly flat course. She should do well. As far as Emma Bates. Someone posed a question previously if large calves are beneficial or advantageous. We get to see how the muscular calves of Bates will do on a flat course. My guess is muscular calves aren't advantageous on flat courses but could be beneficial on hilly courses for maintaining a good pace uphill. Emma should do well because the race is in July. And Idaho is mostly arid and hot throughout the year. Conditions she's trained in before. But Sarah Hall will struggle the most because of the warm temperatures in July. In the past Sarah has done well in ideal conditions. But the warm weather in Chicago seemed to take a toll on her. And if the race in Oregon has warm temperatures. I think Sarah will struggle.

Yes everyone better than you at anything is doping... even the mailman....

nikeman wrote:

Announced today. Based on past performances

Actually based on the subset of Americans who happened to choose a fall marathon this year.

But you can't really argue much with this group. Only a few people who could have maybe been selected didn't run a fall marathon but are types of people who have a reasonable shot at making the 10k team. But it would have been nice to know this criteria before the races were decided. Chicago was very weak internationally (since they only pay out top 5) so it was much easier to be top 10 there since that basically means a top 4 or 5 American who luckily decided to run Chicago. Meanwhile being top 10 at New York or Boston meant having to beat some good international athletes who didn't drop out of the race since they were still in the prize money. And then there's the fact that Chicago is flat and a faster course than New York and even Boston minus a tail wind. If Kellyn Taylor had known the criteria maybe she would have run Chicago instead of New York, and since she ran 2:26 flat or so at New York I think she could have been 2:25 or maybe even 2:24 high at Chicago and had the opportunity to take the last spot instead of Sara Hall.

And then on the men's side there were quite a few people who could have made it who didn't choose to race or didn't choose to race their best race. But you can't argue with Rupp running 2:06, and then Bennie running a 2:11 and placing well at Boston, and Kibet crushing to get 4th at New York in 2:11... Those are very solid performances. Tough for Martin Hehir to not be apart of this conversation, but I also do feel he needed to prove himself one more time. A 2:08:59 in the time trial race is impressive, but it was over a year ago and a lot of people were right there with him less than a minute back. So a fall marathon would have been nice to distinguish himself some more.

NERunner03533 wrote:

Have you been paying attention to women's distance running in the US? They're light years ahead of the men in terms of global competitiveness. Sara making the team just shows how good she is. D'Amato is 37. Hall is 38. You can run well at the distance into your late 30s/early 40s.

Slow your roll on the 'light years ahead of the men'. Yes women are placing a little higher, but they're equally far away from winning anything, this is because of the lack of depth in women's sports. The world records for men's half marathon and marathon are 57:30 and 2:01:30, top US men are around 60:00 and Rupp at 2:06, so about 2:30 per half marathon behind the fastest guy in the world. Women have now run 62:52 and 2:14, our top women are running 58:00 and 2:21 or so (only 2:24 last year). Molly Seidel's bronze looked great, but remember Rupp just got one in 2016. For Molly Seidel to get hers it sure helped that only 3 kenyans and ethiopians are in the race and half of them dropped out. Top Americans at Boston NYC and Chicago this year for Men and women were all about the same, each getting 2nd at Chicago, Kibet getting 4th at NYC and Molly Seidel also 4th, and then Boston was Rojas getting 6th and Bennie for men getting 7th. I wouldn't call these women's results 'light years ahead of the men'

Love Sara, but she'll drop out or run over 2:30

Bates did ok on the flat Chicago course

Kobbs Hessler wrote:

Love Sara, but she'll drop out or run over 2:30

Yup, not going to be London conditions for this race. Finishing order in Eugene will be:

Seidel, Bates, Hall

What does Idaho have to do with anything? Bates has been in Colorado for over a year now.

Slow your roll. Women's depth is stronger in the Open category than men in the US (30% vs 27%, 2020 Running USA stats). Also, the US women had 6 ranked in the top 100 World Rankings in 2021 (vs only 1 US man), along with 18 women under the 2020 Olympic standard vs only 11 men. The stats support there are more US women who could potentially medal on the world stage than US men.

Tricky007 wrote:

Molly will be the only one in the top 5.

Top 5 would be great for her.

If Sara Hall isn't too far off her 2020 form, she has a chance at T5 although I admit she generally tends to choke. But 2nd at London 2020 and her marathon project run but show she was in world-class shape. I also think the marathon at the championship level has taught us not to count anyone out. Bates might get there by the time the race rolls around -- Seidel certainly did.

birdbeard wrote:

Tricky007 wrote:

Molly will be the only one in the top 5.

Top 5 would be great for her.

If Sara Hall isn't too far off her 2020 form, she has a chance at T5 although I admit she generally tends to choke. But 2nd at London 2020 and her marathon project run but show she was in world-class shape. I also think the marathon at the championship level has taught us not to count anyone out. Bates might get there by the time the race rolls around -- Seidel certainly did.

Warm + humid in Eugene in mid-July means a repeat of Chicago '21 for Hall, except with a deeper field of Africans that probably means more finishers in front of her.

Pretty decent odds Molly will be injured again by then. And that if Sara didn't put it all into practice Sara could beat Molly.

I'm surprised to see no mention of Emily Sisson here. Yes, (I believe) her last marathon was the 2020 Olympic Trails nearly two years ago. But I think she is definitely the most talented American woman marathoner in the sport. She came up one second short of the American record in the half (Valencia, December 2020), and obliterated the field (including Sara Hall and Emma Bates) in the Olympic Trials 10k. She's a mega talent.

Again, I am not familiar how the US does this if there are no trials. But it seems a bit strange that they didn't wait until people had a chance to run a marathon this spring, or at least a half marathon which could be a better indication of what one could do in July in Eugene than results from last fall.

Glad to see so many Nike athletes represented on the team.

Top decision

DBRuns wrote:

I'm surprised to see no mention of Emily Sisson here. Yes, (I believe) her last marathon was the 2020 Olympic Trails nearly two years ago. But I think she is definitely the most talented American woman marathoner in the sport. She came up one second short of the American record in the half (Valencia, December 2020), and obliterated the field (including Sara Hall and Emma Bates) in the Olympic Trials 10k. She's a mega talent.

Nobody questions her talent or marathon potential. Had she not gotten injured she would have raced Seidel, Frisbie, Thweat, Taylor and had a chance to earn a spot. Sisson just needs to be healthy and great results will follow.

"Why not wait for spring marathons"

Then you have athletes pushing themselves to peak for a fastest possible time in an April marathon with just 3 months max to rally for what will be a hot and humid race in Eugene. It's very hard to double back in that short a time frame and succeed in bad conditions. Just ask Cam Levins - wins the Prague marathon and gets standard, then totally blows up in Tokyo and comes what, 70th or something?

USATF should have announced criteria earlier, but I don't have an issue with the criteria itself. It ensures 3 quality marathoners get an uninterrupted build for a best possible performance.

Re Eugene weather, what are you morons talking about? Have you even been to Eugene in the summer? It's not humid in Eugene, and the average high in July is 82F. Sure, there is a chance there could be a heat spell (like last year's Oly track trials), but that was historic and record-breaking and not the norm. Plus the race will almost certainly be run in the morning (7am?) so weather is not likely to be a major factor.

Running Cult Member wrote:

Warm + humid in Eugene in mid-July means a repeat of Chicago '21 for Hall, except with a deeper field of Africans that probably means more finishers in front of her.

another perspective wrote:

"Why not wait for spring marathons"

Then you have athletes pushing themselves to peak for a fastest possible time in an April marathon with just 3 months max to rally for what will be a hot and humid race in Eugene. It's very hard to double back in that short a time frame and succeed in bad conditions. Just ask Cam Levins - wins the Prague marathon and gets standard, then totally blows up in Tokyo and comes what, 70th or something?