Preview of Women’s 10,000 Meter Race at 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

Olympians Flanagan, Hastings, Uhl and Goucher To Battle For Three Spots; Jordan Hasay Hoping To Miraculously Spoil the Party

by LetsRun.com
June 17, 2013

The US women’s 10,000 team for the 2013 Moscow World Track and Field Championshisp will be determined Thursday night when the women’s 10,000 finals is run at the 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

Heading into the race, only four women have the ‘A’ standard of 31:45 –Shalane Flanagan, Amy Hastings, Lisa Uhl – or ‘B’ standard of 32:05.00 – Kara Goucher. The US team will send three to Moscow and can send two ‘A’s and one ‘B.’ Unlike the Olympics, the US doesn’t have to send three ‘A’s or just one ‘B’. Given the fact that the race is likely to be run in 80 degree temperatures, it seems highly unlikely anyone without the standard will get it Thursday night.

USATF is allowing athletes to chase the standard if they finish in the top 4 so it’s possible someone without the ‘B’ currently could go to Moscow, particularly since Goucher and Flanagan are marathoners so who knows if they’ll actually run the 10,000 in Moscow. More on that later.

So who makes it to Moscow?

Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher and Amy Hastings are our choices. Here’s why.

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With an Olympic 10,000 medal to her name from 2008 and the top 10,000 time from 2013, there is little reason to doubt Shalane Flanagan. Yes, this is her first race since finishing fourth at the 2013 Boston marathon but we don’t think she’d show up unless she was fit and ready.

The same can be said of her training partner Kara Goucher, who also races for the first time since finishing sixth at Boston. Goucher doesn’t have an Olympic medal on her CV but she did win a world championship medal in the past. She also has the second best 10,000 time in the US on the year and is re-motivated after battling back from injury over the winter when her training was less than ideal.

Goucher and Flanagan are a cut above everyone else in the race in past accomplishments.

So we are left to choose between Hastings and Uhl for the third spot. Both were on the 2012 Olympic team last year, but in choosing between them this year, we think it’s an easy choice:

Hastings.

Uhl and Hastings Were Happy Last Year at the Trials

Hastings Comes In After A PB

Hastings comes into USAs in the form of her life. When she ran 15:44 for 5000 at Stanford in April, things didn’t look good. The she improved to a 15:17.35 at Oxy in April and then she ran a 15:09.59 pb last week in a mixed gender track race in Massachusetts.

Contrast that to Uhl. Since leaving Shalane and Kara and coach Jerry Schumacher after last year to return to Iowa to live and train, Uhl hasn’t shown great form. She ran a 15:29 5000 at the end of March at Stanford (in the race Hastings ran 15:44) and then a 32:41 at Stanford again at the end of April, nothing close to her 14:55/31:12 pbs.

So recent form clearly is pointing in Hastings direction. Plus last year, Hastings was the winner of the 2012 US Olympic Trials in a race where Uhl was just fourth.

Uhl will the have the Iowa crowd backing her but other than that Hastings is your pick here for spot #3. And let’s not forget that Hasting’s won USAs last year over Flanagan, so if Flanagan isn’t 100% ready, that could happen again.

What about Jordan Hasay?

Jordan Hasay will have to master the heat to do well in Des Moines *More 2013 Payton Jordan Photos

Many of you reading this undoubtedly are fans of Jordan Hasay. The former teen star just finished up her career at Oregon with a third place showing at NCAAs in the 5000, after surprisingly not making the 10,000 final.

In Eugene, Hasay admitted one advantage of not qualifying for the 10,000 at NCAAs is she’s fresher here for the 10,000. That is some of the good news. More good news is the fact that she did run a 32:06.64 at Payton Jordan– just off the B standard of 32:05.00. Even more key for Hasay is that Goucher and Flanagan are both marathoners. There is some chance they don’t run Moscow even if they do qualify, so it’s possible Hasay goes even if she finishes fourth of fifth in Iowa, although not very likely as both Goucher and Flanagan have said they intend to race the 10,000 in Moscow.

The bad news for Hasay, however, is that it’s going to be hot in Iowa. In Austin, she was done in by mid 80 degree temps and 70+% humidity (it was 83 degrees with 71% humidity 25 minutes after Hasay’s race finished). It’s not going to be quite that hot in Iowa, but it will be close – it might be 80 with 65-73% humidity.

Given the conditions, there is very little chance that Hasay or the two other people within 10 seconds of the ‘B’ standard in Tara Erdmann, who was sixth at last year’s Olympic Trials and Iowa State’s Meaghan Nelson (only 16th at NCAAs in Eugene) get the ‘B’ on Thursday night.

Athletes can only chase the ‘B’ standard after USAs if they are top 4 at USAs. So for Hasay to make it Moscow, she has to suddenly become a decent hot weather runner, beat Uhl and get fourth, then find a women’s 10,000 somewhere else where she can run under 32:05.00 or better, and then hope that someone in the top three gets hurt and decides not to race in Moscow. Not a likely scenario at all.

Quick Take #1: Might another medal be on the table for Flanagan or Goucher at Worlds? This certainly is a good year for them to hope so.

The Kenyan women aren’t deep. No Kenyan female has run faster than 31:37 this year and only three broke 31:00 last year. Of those three, two of them are out this year. 2011 double world champ Vivian Cheruiyot is out due to pregnancy. 2012 Olympic silver medallist Sally Kipyego is injured.

After Tirunesh Dibaba wins another gold, someone has to win the silver and bronze. We doubt 5000 star Meseret Defar would be interested in trying so it looks like medals are up for the taking.

QT #2: We said the Kenyan women aren’t deep but in reality we should say the entire world of women’s 10,000 running isn’t deep. There are only four actively competing women who in 2012 or 2013 have run within 30-seconds of Tirunesh Dibaba‘s 30:20 winning time from London last year:

Florence Kiplagat – KEN –  30:24
Belaynesh Oljira – ETH -30:26
Worknesh Kidane – ETH – 30:39
Shitaye Eshete – BRN – 30:47

QT #3: It will be interesting to see whether Hasay is running in the Oregon singlet, meaning she hasn’t found a pro sponsor yet.

US Runners With 10,000 ‘A’ Qualifiers For Moscow (31:45.00) – dating to January 1, 2012 (We’ve scratched out people not running)

  1. 31:04.85               Shalane Flanagan                 Stan Inv     Stanford CA         29 Mar 2013
  2. 31:10.69               Amy Hastings                       OG           London                     3 Aug 2012
  3. 31:12.68               Janet Bawcom                       OG           London                     3 Aug 2012
  4. 31:12.80               Lisa Uhl                           OG           London                     3 Aug 2012
  5. Neely Spence for finishing top 15 at World XC.

US Runners With 10,000 ‘B’ Qualifiers For Moscow (32:05.00)

  1. 31:46.64               Kara Goucher                           Stan Inv     Stanford CA               29 Mar 2013
  2. 31:49.23               Deena Kastor                           Jordan       Stanford CA               29 Apr 2012
  3. 31:59.21               Natosha Rogers                      Eugene OR                 22 Jun 2012
  4. 32:00.94               Kim Conley                            Jordan       Stanford CA               29 Apr 2012
  5. 32:03.07               Alisha Williams                      Jordan       Stanford CA               29 Apr 2012

Full List of 2013 US Entrants

Women 10,000m – Women
Name Affiliation Mark Status Declaration
Shalane Flanagan Nike / Oregon TC Elite 31:04.85 qualified declared
Amy Hastings Brooks 31:10.69 qualified declared
Lisa Uhl Nike 31:12.80 qualified declared
Kara Goucher Nike 31:46.64 qualified declared
Jordan Hasay 32:06.64 qualified declared
Tara Erdmann Nike 32:09.15 qualified declared
Meaghan Nelson Iowa State University 32:14.27 qualified declared
Rebecca Donaghue 32:36.05 qualified declared
Danielle Stack Iowa State University 32:51.28 qualified declared
Megan Goethals University of Washington 32:52.78 qualified declared
Karaleigh Foster Oiselle 32:57.33 qualified declared
Natasha LaBeaud 32:57.78 qualified declared
Juliet Bottorff Duke University 32:58.00 qualified declared
Katie Kellner Cornell University 32:58.73 qualified declared
Kaitlin Gregg New Balance Silicon Valley 33:01.03 qualified declared
Emily Sisson 33:02.88 qualified declared
Jennifer Bergman 33:04.58 qualified declared
Gina Valgoi 33:07.80 qualified declared
Meghan Peyton Saucony / Team USA Minnesota 33:11.48 qualified declared
Tia Kool Adidas/TeamRogue 33:15.38 qualified declared
Sarah Sumpter University of California, Davis 33:18.51 qualified declared
McKenzie Melander Team USA Minnesota 33:18.89 qualified declared
Allison Mendez Adidas/TeamRogue 33:32.05 provisional pending
Emma Bates 33:37.13 provisional pending
Elaina Balouris College of William and Mary 33:43.27 provisional pending
Kim Conley New Balance / SRA Elite 32:00.94 qualified scratched
Laura Thweatt Boulder Track Club 32:15.51 qualified scratched
Neely Spence Hansons-Brooks Distance Project 32:16.51 qualified scratched
Karlee Coffey Bowerman Athletic Club 33:26.57 provisional scratched
Lauren Kleppin Nike Team Run LA 32:49.92 qualified
Rachel Patterson 33:21.42 provisional

 

*MoreMen’s 10,000m Preview: Rupp, Ritz, True and Derrick Set to Battle

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