New Balance Boston Womens 800m Time Trial - Very Fast

Yeah no offense but you just suck at the mile. I'd be running like 3:50/4:10ish with that 3k/800 combo haha. Just like with the 800, you just get to halfway about as fast as you can manage with just a couple gears left, then the race starts.

You may be right about the Rio team or those 2011 & 2012 teams.

However, the reference to possibly being the best US women's 1500 team ever has to do with their placings in the finals.

Example, in 2019 @ Doha, US women went 4 (Houlihan), 8 (Simpson) and 12 (Hiltz) = 24 points.

Believe the team in Eugene next week can better that.

For track historians, has a US women's 1500 team ever placed all three in the finals and had a total team score under 24?

Maybe we have different meanings of “best team” but I don’t see how in any universe a team of McGee, ESP, and Johnson is better than a team of basically prime Simpson, Rowbury, and Uceny.

The takeaways are nothing but positive.

How did Roisin Willis do? I know Whittaker is an amazing athlete and better on paper at this very moment. But I think Willis has the opportunity to run 1:55 or 1:56 in her lifetime especially if she can run in Europe one summer and run at the same places her mother did. That kind of time would be tough to beat at any level. Would not surprise me to see her run sub-2 in a more relaxed environment within the next 18 months. She might even have that ability right now. She will be 20ish by the 2024 games and 24ish by the 2028 Games. Very promising athlete, good head on her shoulders and great love for her sports.

forgive me if i'm misunderstanding, but this appeared to be a NB Boston professional woman's group time trial. Roisin is not a NB sponsored athlete nor is she part of the NB Boston group... so she wasn't there? She ran recently at the U20 USAs finishing behind a superb performance/ HS girl national record run by Whittaker.

Hot take: McLean is more talented than ESP

2011 in Daegu: Simpson 1st, Uceny 9th, but Rowbury didn't make the finals.

2012 in London : Rowbury 4th, Uceny DNF and Simpson didn't make the finals.

2016 in Rio: Simpson 3rd, Rowbury 4th but Martinez didn't make the finals.

Maybe the overarching careers of these runners make them all-time US greats. However, the above-named squads they were on cannot match the 2019 team due to their 3rd runner issues.

Using this xc-style criteria, here is the gold standard that Sinclaire, Cory & Elle are chasing:

2009 in Berlin: Rowbury 3rd, Christin Wurth-Thomas 5th and Anna Willard 6th = 14 points.

Back to the time trial: MacLean has gone from a small-school college star to a top-notch professional in, like, no time. She was really impressive in that tt video. With a 4:02/1500 pr from the Trials last year, Heather should have at least a few opportunities to get under 4 later this summer.

It’s fair to say they might have a better total score than any US team has had, but I wouldn’t equate that to being the best team the US has sent to a championships. Maybe it’s semantics.
Anyway, I like your premise — I’d be curious what the results are for other distances and for men. What US distance squad has the lowest score in the modern era for a final with three people in it?

I agree that Mcclean is more talented than ESP, I remember seeing her at ZooMass and thinking she should have a long career.

You might be right, but I'm wait until after Worlds to see who does better.

Oh...wait...

Obvious first thought was the 2017 Worlds where Coburn-Frerichs went 1-2. . . but the 3rd steepler didn't make finals.

Second obvious choice was the 1964 Olympics men's 5k where Schul and Dellinger went 1-3 . . . but again, no 3rd runner.

The only other race that comes to mind is the 1972 Olympics men's marathon with Shorter winning, Moore 4th and Bachelor 9th = 14 points = tied with the 2009 women's 1500 team.

Actually, this little research question will be put to bed rather quickly when the US women's 800 team takes to the track next week.

I'd say that would be if they want to have the best ever team result (beating the 2009 score). Which isn't a great metric as that depends on competition. Not all world champ final fields are as good as the other - eg compare the 2011 final vs the 2019 final. You could take 1st through 6th in the 2019 final, drop them in 800 to go in 2011 and say their worst position would likely be silver (at a push bronze). 2022 will likely be one of the more competitive ones.

The women's 1500 is very deep right now. If all 3 US women make the final, that is very impressive. There are 12 final spots. Assuming Sifan runs the 5/10, that leaves 4 sub 4 Ethiopians, Faith Kipyegon and Winny Chebet, two sub 4 Aussies, Muir rounding back into form with a 1:57+1:58 and cruising at British champs. That right there is 9 sub 4 athletes where the slowest PB is Linden Hall at 3:59. Plus Nanyondo, Sabbatini, Tracey, have all gone sub 4:03 this year and a raft of others sub 4:04.

Before someone says "Can't go just on times" - im not. Kipyegon, Hassan, Tseguy, Muir, were all monsters pre super spikes who have only gotten better relative to their peers since they came in. Hall is having her best placings in her career, Stafford (though not racing), still broke Canadian records pre dragonflies and pre Nike.

ESP can beat McLean and McLean still have more natural talent. ESP is better trained - McLean was more raw when she got to Coogan

I doubt Maclean is clean

2015 worlds W10000