UW frosh & American Nathan Green just got 5th at World U20s. Why didn't Hobbs Kessler run World Juniors?

Just unfortunate that USAs seniors and juniors meets were at the same time. He couldn’t do both. Also curious whether his contract had a preference—I’m assuming they’d prefer to have him make the senior USA final but not make the team than make the team and win in Cali.

I imagine his contract would have prevented him from running juniors or at least would have had significant financial incentives to run seniors.

Kessler is a pro now. Pros have higher aspirations than junior championships medals. It would be embarrassing if he did that.

Plus he wouldn't have medalled. There's no way he was Aprop tonight.

This pro/amateur distinction doesn't exist in most of the world and he wouldn't be the only "pro athlete" at u20 world champs.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen was already a pro when he finished 2nd in the 1500m and 3rd in the 5000m at the world U20 champs in 2018

By the way, I will never understand why you americans prioritize a cross country season instead of a world junior champ. I'm thinking about Will Sumner(who is running only in the relays), Flatt(who tried the senior national team), the Young twins, Colin Sahlman and Natalie Cook, you Americans can compete even in the middle distance with the kenyans, but who cares when you can be a top 20 in XC. I will never understand that, a world junior medal or good placement to me is a lot more valuable.

And yes, I know USATF U20 and senior champs were on the same days, and that's absolutely no sense

Another name is Parker Wolfe, come on, he has 7:52 in 3K, he could medal in Cali and I doubt he will be a medalist at the NCAA XC Champs

And we will never understand the opposite.

I don’t think so. Even Jakob Ingebrigtsen couldn’t win world juniors in 2018 and he was a 3:31 runner. That’s a huge achievement.

It's simple. Scholarships are tied to running cross country for middle distance and long distance runners. No cross country, no scholarship. Cross country also prepares the way for a successful track season. Wheating never did anything once he graduated and dropped xc. Plus, it has been a long season for high school and college runners, stretching back to last September. Tough to run world juniors at that point.

Their excuse is that they would be awful in NCAA XC. Guys like Flatt, that couldn’t break 17:00 in XC, don’t run in D-1.

Sumner and Flatt have been racing hard since what, January? I think that has more to do with it than the upcoming XC season.

The 7th place finisher Henz will be an incoming freshman at Harvard by the way. Wonder if he can contribute this XC season?

It is even worse for the distance guys who have been racing since Sept. By the end of June, it is time for a break.

In an ideal world, people would run under 20. Practically it doesn't line up for most kids. Looking back it is easy to say sumner and Flatt should have built there seasons around u20. But back in Sept, who thought they were running sub 147?

U20's are just not that visible OR interesting for most Americans, period. Its not my fault for bringing this up. Just look at the 800-3K line ups for the U.S. as an example. Plus, this is in Colombia? Not exactly, a hot spot venue, I don't think?

As far as Kessler, I can speak to that , I guess..the plan was to get him Q'ed for U.S. Nats, then try and make it as far as he could in that meet. If it then went as it did, sort of re-tool, with a solid block of training and then run a small schedule over in Europe. That was always the plan. I don't know, I consider myself and Track nut ....fanatic, and I do not even look at or care about U20's, maybe I should, but I never really did.

Normally I agree with you on everything Track, but not on this one. Look at all the age cheats in East Africa who used this meet as a springboard to fame and fortune. It is the main reason for age cheating.