Morgan McDonalds 5000m time at Soundrunning prediction contest

13:34

13:31

26:34

13.40 he is the Australian version of Matt Baxter

It will be in the upper 70s around race time tomorrow night so I would say probably closer to 13:40 than 13:20. The fact that he’s racing at all is a good sign as I don’t think Ritz would send him out there if he wasn’t ready to compete.

Faster than Teare ran tonight.

13.26

13:19 for the dub.

14:02

Big Morgan McDonald fan. He beat Grant Fisher in his day and would not debut unless he was ready.

13:17 to get on the board at Sound Running

13:17

I predicted 12:58 for Teare today so that’s how much my prediction is worth.

I think some commenters here are being a bit too pessimistic. Recall that Morgan was in a similar situation last summer: he sustained an injury over the winter and had to rebuild fitness slowly. He came into racing form too late to attempt to qualify for Worlds, but he was able to get in a few races at the end of the summer. Those three races were a 3:39 1500m, a 7:39 3000m, and a 13:19 5000m.

I think the phrase "talent never goes away" definitely applies to Morgan. He and his teammates all sounded fairly optimistic about his fitness on the most recent Coffee Club episode. If the race is being paced for the Worlds standard (and with guys like Tuntivate, Robinson, Muhamed, and Flanagan seemingly able/willing to chase it), I wouldn't be surprised to see Morgan too much further behind. A time between 13:10 and 13:20 is my guess.

13:29.74

He's a talent, if he's survived one month of Herr Ritz POW camp, I'm sure he'll be sub 13.15

First race of the season, coming off multiple injuries? 13:20 if all goes well

13:33

Bocce ball injury before leaving the hotel. DNS, out 7 months, Gus goes home devastated.

I love the coffee club guys but it’s hard to really get a good gauge on the OAC’s fitness based on the podcast bc they’re always so optimistic about their teammates fitnss.

that said, I do think Mcdonald is fit. 13:15

13:19