U.S. Championships: Tough Luck 4th Place Finishers

Now for the men:

• 100m - 9.89 by Kenny Bednarek in 2021 (3rd was 9.86)
• 200m - 19.86 by Fred Kerley in 2023 (3rd was 19.85, and Noah Lyles wasn't even in the race!); note: Kerley also finished 4th in 19.90 in 2021
• 400m - 44.40 by Vernon Norwood in 2019, although his luck turned when Michael Norman won the Diamond League, which opened up a 4th spot for Team USA; Norwood also finished 4th in 44.47 last year
• 800m - 1:43.92 by James Robinson way back in 1984! This one deserves its own post. See below.
• 1500m - 3:31.78 by Vincent Ciattei last year in a race that saw 8 men break the former US championships record!

Looking ahead to this weekend: might we see someone run 1:42 and not make the 800m team?

/end of thread

About that men's 800m race at the 1984 Olympic Trials:

I highly recommend reading this excellent piece by Track & Field News writer Jeff Hollobaugh. Here's an excerpt:

The results, when the athletes saw them, were difficult to comprehend. Jones had won in an American Record 1:43.74. Gray, in second, produced the same clocking and thus tied Jones‘ new record. They had both skipped completely past the 1:44s in their leap from national class to world class. “When I looked up at the clock, I couldn’t believe the time,” recalls Gray. Third, in the closest of verdicts, went to unheralded Marshall. He and Robinson both clocked 1:43.92, just 1/100th of a second slower than Rick Wohlhuter’s American Record at the start of the race. Marshall had skipped over not only the 1:44s, but the 1:45s. “I thought the scoreboard was broken,” he says. Veteran Robinson could only have been stunned at the thought that the fastest race of his storied career didn’t put him on the Olympic team.

To that point in history, only 21 times had the 1:44 barrier been breached, and never by more than two men in one race. That four would do so at the U.S. Olympic Trials made the world sit up and take notice.

And here's the video!

Great add! Absolutely brutal for Lucas, especially with Conley just barely getting the qualifying standard in that race.

I nominate Hobbs Kessler for this year.

He’s definitely a candidate. Even if it’s not him, there’s a good chance there will be a tough luck finisher in the men’s 1500m this year and for the rest of this decade.

I don’t think 4th will be that close to 3rd this year.

With that said, George Kersh was edged out in both the 1992 & 1996 Olympic Trials

This doesn't even include some of the unluckiest 4th place finishes from last year in the hurdles. The fastest (wind legal) 4th place finishes of all time in the 110mH Cordell Tinch (in 13.03) and Nia Ali in the the 100mH (in 12.37). Tonea Marshall was also faster than the previous fastest wind-legal 4th place finish (in 12.38) and Keni Harrison was 6th in a time equal to the previous fastest wind-legal 4th place finish (in 12.39). Brutal team to make.

Agreed. Gail Devers’ 12.33 US record lasted nearly 13 years until 2013, and three women ran faster than that!

Kersh is a great addition, although his Olympic Trials 4th place finishes were in 1988 and 1992. His 1992 finish was particularly painful. He ran his 1:44.00 PB in that race yet finished a mere 0.03 behind 3rd. So not only did he barely miss out on making the team, he barely missed out on running sub-1:44. Ouch!

Kersh also finished 4th in 1993, making him a three-time tough luck finisher. Fortunately, he made the world championship team in 1991, the same year he won the NCAA championship indoors and out.

Perhaps the most notable fourth place finisher is Lisa Larsen (Weidenbach) Rainsberger who finished in the disappointing position on three occasions. The University of Michigan All-American swimmer and 1980 Olympic Trials qualifier in that sport turned to distance running during college and also became an All-American in Track & Field. In 1984 at the inaugural US marathon trials in Olympia, Washington she finished fourth. At the 1988 marathon trials in Pittsburgh, she finished fourth. She once again finished fourth four years later at the 1992 trials in Houston. Her last trials were at the Columbia, South Carolina event of 1996 where she finished nineteenth.

You can read of these races, as well as her wins at Boston and Chicago in her memoir released prior to Des Linden’s Boston Marathon win.

Rainsberger, Lisa. Thirty: The Last American Female Champion of The Boston Marathon. MemoryBeach, 2017.

McRunnin,

The 1992 US Olympic Trials 800m final was an incredible race and thrilling to witness inside Tad Gormley Stadium. Mark Everett and especially Jose Parilla lagged woefully behind yet made the team with huge moves. Thankfully there are videos to keep my memory fresh.

Wow, incredible race indeed! Thanks for sharing that video. Amazing to see Johnny Gray at age 32 taking his competitors to the “Gray Zone” with a 49.46 first lap! And what a fantastic close by Everett and Parrilla!

Watching that video makes me feel even more for Kersh. He was in second with the finish line in sight but got passed by Everett and then nipped at the line by Parrilla. Seeing the look on Kersh’s face afterwards is heartbreaking.

These 800m videos have me even more excited for this weekend!

Rainsberger is a great addition to the list too. Finishing fourth at three consecutive Olympic Trials must have been agonizing.

It’s interesting that her book is focused on her Boston Marathon win and her distinction as the last American woman to win that race (at the time the book was published). I’d be more interested in reading about how she came to peace with her Olympic Trials near misses. I suppose the focus of her book demonstrates the answer: celebrate your accomplishments rather than dwell on your disappointments.

Dick Quax called it the leather medal

I predict this wkend's 4th place finishers in the W & M steeple will clock very impressive 9:0X and 8:0X marks respectively.

Also, there's a slim but nonzero chance that Riley Chamberlain, should she advance to the 1500m final, nicks Addy Wiley's post-season collegiate record (3:59.17) yet fails to secure a spot to Tokyo.

this thread is a case study in why this Olympic model has to be scrapped. The sport has never been fundamentally about country vs country, but even if it was, there shouldn't be "even teams" with a set roster limit in each event. That's just patently unfair to not only the countries with the best runners, but the runners themselves.

Hate all you want, but I don't care about WC or Olympics, mainly because of this, and don't mind saying it constantly. It has to change. The sport will never be popular otherwise.

I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to know you’re one of the 10 best athletes in the world in your event, but you can’t go to the Olympics or world championships because your country happens to be strong in that event and you finished 4th at your national championships.

There are events in which the quality of the U.S. championship final is higher than that of the world championship final. Look at our female 100m hurdlers in 2016. We had the seven fastest women in the world that year, and we swept the medals at the Olympics. Our 6th place finisher at the U.S. championships, Keni Harrison, went on to break the world record two weeks later!

The flip side is we benefit in events where we’re not so strong. Would Molly Seidel have won a women’s marathon medal in the Tokyo Olympics if Kenya and Ethiopia each got to send more than three runners?

Also, remember that the spirit of the Olympics is to bring the world together to promote peace and understanding. That means giving athletes from more countries a chance to compete.