The American 800 Stars Go 3 for 3, The Men’s 800 Final Is Set, and Abdihamud Nur Goes Pro & Beats The World Leader

By LetsRun.com
July 21, 2022

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EUGENE, Ore. – The 7th day of the 2022 World Athletics Championships was highlighted by two historically fast 200m finals. You can read about Shericka Jackson’s 21.45 win here, as well as Noah Lyles 19.31 American record win here. Below we recap the mid-d and distance action from today which included the men’s 800 semis, women’s 800 prelims and men’s 5000 prelims.

Men’s 800 Semis: The Final Is Set 

The men’s 800 semis are a notoriously brutal round of competition as the field is narrowed down from 24 to 8, with only the top two in each of the three semis guaranteed a spot in the final and then the next two best times. Today’s semis for the most part didn’t show any huge shocks as the cream rose to the top.

In heat 1, the qualifying spots went to the runners with the top two seasonal bests on the year Wyclife Kinyamal (1:43.54 sb, 2nd in 1:45.49) and Peter Bol (1:44.00 sb, time qualifier in 1:45.58) with Olympic champ Emmanuel Korir, who had only run 1:45.85 on the year, also advancing as he won the heat with a 1:45.48 sb.

In heat two, only two guys qualified and those qualifying had the first and third best seasonal best times as Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati (1:43.69 sb) looked sensational over the final 200 as he closed in 26.12 to go from 7th to 1st to win in 1:45:44 with France’s Gabriel Tual, an Olympic finalist last year at age 23, getting second in 1:45.53. #2 seed Moad Zahafi (1:43.69 sb), the NCAA champ for Texas Tech, was eliminated after finishing 5th in 1:46.35.

In the third heat, the 1st (Marco Arop 1:43.61 sb), third (Emmanuel Wanyonyi 1:44.01 sb) and fourth seeds (Slimane Moula 1:44.19) all advanced with France’s Benjamin Robert (1:43.75 sb FTW in Paris) being the highest-seeded casualty.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Women’s 800 1st Round: Athing Mu looks good, all three Americans advance

A day after the US men failed to get any of their four entrants into the 800-meter semifinals, the American women went three for three with Olympic champ Athing Mu, World Indoor champ Ajee’ Wilson, and Olympic bronze medalist Raevyn Rogers all qualifying automatically for Friday’s semifinals.

Mu breezed through, leading heat 3 wire to wire before picking up the win in 2:01.30, but Wilson and Rogers had a slightly bumpier path. Wilson, who led heat 4 for the first 600, slid back into third on the turn but still grabbed one of the top three auto spots into the semis after finishing third in 2:01.02 (4th was 2:01.25) as France’s Renelle Lamote got the heat win in 2:00.71. Wilson admitted after the race she wanted to win the race but fell asleep a bit. 

Rogers had the toughest go of it. She was bumped twice during the race, halting her momentum, and was never higher than fifth between 200 and 700. Only 5th entering the home straight, Rogers, as is her custom, closed very strongly and wound up winning heat 5 in 2:01.36.

2018 world junior champ Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia put up the fastest time of the day in heat 1. The 20-year-old 1:58/3:59 runner front-ran the heat before winning in 1:58.83. Other heat winners Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson (2:00.88 in heat 2) and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule 2:00.06 in heat 6 after being smart enough to stay off the ridiculous early pace set by Kenya’s Mary Moraa (26.80 first 200) who was second in 2:00.42. *All 6 heat results are here

Post-race interview with Olympic champ Athing Mu

Men’s 5000 Prelims: Grant Fisher and Abdihamid Nur advance as Nicholas Kimeli survives a major scare

For the most part, all of the big names advanced to the LOADED men’s 5000 final on Sunday today but that doesn’t mean the two preliminary heats weren’t without drama.

The people in heat 1 drew the short end of the stick as the heat featured 5 guys who had broken 13:00 this year and only the top 5 were guaranteed a spot in the final (it was top 5 and 5 fastest times). With the heat going out slow (6:56 first half), it was certain to produce some fireworks late and that’s what happened.

The top 7 guys in the heat all ran 13:24 — led by Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo, who won the heat comfortably in 13:24.24 thanks to a 55.70 last 400 (27.08 final 200). The gap between 2nd and 6th however was very tight — just 0.12. The next four auto qualifying spots went to American Grant Fisher (13:24.44), Olympic 10,000 champ Selemon Barega (13:24.44), Olympic 5,000 champ Joshua Cheptegei (13:24.47) and NCAA star Abdirhamid Nur of NAU/USA (13:24.46).

Yes that’s right, Nur, who revealed today that he’s gone pro and signed with Nike, beat 2022 world leader Nichola Kimeli of Kenya (6th 13:24.56), who was 4th at the Olympics last year and who ran 12:46.33 in Rome this year as well as Ethiopia’s Telahun Haile Bekele, the Oslo Diamond League winner who was 4th at Worlds in 2019. Bekele was apparently subbed onto the team in place of Berihu Aregawi, the guy who DESTROYED the field at Pre.

The guys in heat 2 had it easy. All they had to was finish in the top 10 and break 13:24.56 and they’d be into the final. In the end, 9 of them – and all of the expected medal contenders – did exactly that but American Woody Kincaid was not one of them. After leading some early, Kincaid was taken out from behind by Japan’s Hyuga Endo around 2k and lost 3-4 seconds. He caught back up but lost contact with the lead pack however between 3 and 4k and ended up 11th in 13:25.02. He still did have a massive last lap that nearly got him into the final. Entering the bell, he was 11th, some 7.84 seconds out of 9th (the top 9 would qualify), but his last lap was easily the fastest of anyone in the heat (54.63).

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In the end, the world leader Kimeli sneaked into the final but Bekele was eliminated.  *Results

Quick Take: Unless Aregawi was hurt or begged out of the 5000, it was an absolute joke he was left off the 5000 

Yes, we know Aregawi wasn’t great in the 10,000 (7th) but the guy has been AMAZING in the 5000 as of late. Since finishing 4th in the Olympic 10,000 last year, here’s what he’s done in the 5000.

Sept. 8 – Won DL final in 12:58.65.
Nov. 6 – Won road 5k in 12:52.
December 31 – Won road 5k in 12:49 (world record).
May 28 – Won Pre by 15+ seconds in 12:50.05

Quick Take: No one was happier to make the final today than Germany’s Sam Parsons

Parsons’ top finish in an NCAA final during his career at NC State was 15th in the 10k as a senior in 2017. Now he is guaranteed to finish at least that high in the 5,000 World final on Sunday, and he was in a state of bliss after earning the penultimate time qualifier to Sunday’s final.

“I’m the happiest guy in Hayward right now,” Parsons said. “Not too happy I won’t be able to go to the Wild Duck the next two nights after that, I certainly was banking on that. But final on Sunday, I think that’s a little bit better.”

Parsons said he is in the final year of his deal with adidas and is not sure if he’ll be renewed or not after the year. But for him to make it this far after missing the Olympics last year and going out in the rounds in Doha in 2019 was a major success.

Quick Take: What impact will the weather have on the final?

The forecast for Sunday’s final isn’t good for fast running. At 6 p.m. (and the final is scheduled for 6:05), the forecast is predicting 87 degrees, 63 dewpoint, humidity 47%. Good luck running super fast in that.

On the one hand, one might think that would make the final more tactical which seems great for Jakob Ingebrigtsen. On the other hand, he’s from Norway where it’s rarely hot and he’s bigger than most of the other runners and bigger runners sometimes have trouble dissipating heat. So is Jakob a good hot weather runner? We asked him.

It’s supposed to be 90 degrees in Eugene on Sunday. The men’s 5,000 final will be run at 6:05 p.m. PT. But Jakob Ingebrigtsen isn’t worried.

“Hot weather is just happy weather!” pic.twitter.com/rh1ZbVu8Bt

— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) July 22, 2022

Quick Take: Grant Fisher is hoping for a fast 5k final

Despite the forecast, Fisher hopes the final on Sunday is a fast one as he feels that race suits him more than a slow kicker’s race.

“I feel like I’m good at kicking off a fast pace,” Fisher said. “When it goes slower, it’s a little more of a crapshoot.”

He also revealed he went on a run with Jake Wightman the day before Wightman stunningly won the 1500 final at Worlds and had no idea such a success was coming.

Quick Take: Woody Kincaid has been cursed in 2022

Kincaid went down just before the 2k mark of the race and said the toughest part wasn’t the injuries suffered in the fall itself – his shoulder was quite discolored after the fact – but losing contact with the group as it was hard to work his way back on his own. Kincaid still closed quickly (54.60) but he was not able to attach to the lead pack by the bell and wound up run out of it at the end.

It’s been a tough year for Kincaid as he DNF’d the US 10,000 final with a stitch and now missed out on the Worlds final by .46 due to a fall.

“That’s part of running, man,” Kincaid said. “I’ve been doing this for six years and you’re going to have a race where nothing goes right and you’re going to have races where you can’t believe it all lines up at the right time…unfortunately two of those times, [the bad] races happened to me in the same year.”

Post-race interview with Abdihamid Nur

Nur knows there is a ton of talent around him at Worlds but said he can’t afford to worry about that when he steps on the line as he needs to focus on doing his job and qualifying no matter what.

Heat 1

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