WTW: Sha’Carri Is Back, Madness at Arcadia, and the Women’s Steeplechase Is Dirty, Very Dirty
The Week That Was in Running, April 3-9, 2023
By Robert Johnson
April 12, 2023
Each week, we try to make the sport more fun to follow by putting the prior week’s action in perspective for you. Past editions of our Week That Was weekly recap can be found here. Got a tip, question or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum.
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Fast Times and Records at Arcadia Yet Again
We’ve been amazed by the fast 3200-meter high school times at the Arcadia Invitational for more than a decade now.
In 2012, the messageboard was impressed that 16 boys broke 9:00. By 2017, the number was up to 27.
This year, with super spikes, 44 boys broke 9:00, including two in the third section. Leading the way was sub-4 miler and Oregon commit Simeon Birnbaum of South Dakota, who won in a meet record time of 8:34.10.
Birnbaum broke 4:00 in the mile as a junior last June
To put it in perspective, in the entire 1990s, just 17 American high schoolers broke 9:00 for the full 2-mile. Yes, I’m well aware that Arcadia is 3200 meters and not a full 2 miles. A sub-9:00 2-mile is equal to 8:56.86 in the 3200. 34 boys broke that in Arcadia this year. So twice as many boys as the entire 1990s.
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In the girls’ race, nine different girls broke 10:00 (including West Virginia’s Irene Riggs, who won in a meet record 9:52.66) as 9th place was 9:59.49. A 9:59.49 3200 is equal to roughly 10:03 in the 2-mile. Never in US history have nine HS girls ever broken 10:03 in a year, let alone in a single race.
Sophomore Sadie Engelhardt, who successfully defended her mile crown at Arcadia in 4:36.26, has also broken 10:03 this year (she’s the US outdoor leader for 3200m at 9:51.49) and junior Ellie Shea ran 9:49.72 for 2-mile indoors, meaning 11 women have gone under 10:03 or its 3200 equivalent so far this year, easily the most ever.
Take a look at the # of sub-10:03 2-miles achieved in the US since 2003 at the high school level (stats via TFN).
| 2003 | 0 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2008 | 2 |
| 2009 | 0 |
| 2010 | 3 |
| 2011 | 2 |
| 2012 | 0 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | 3 |
| 2015 | 4 |
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2017 | 3 |
| 2018 | 6 |
| 2019 | 6 |
| 2020 | 3 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 8 |
| 2023 | 11 |
More:
- NINE girls under 10:00 at Arcadia!
- Aaron Sahlman breaks the NFHS rules by pacing a boys 3200m at Arcadia
- Arcadia 8:34 3200 times are marked as unofficial marks on athletic.net
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Sha’Carri Opens at 10.57w!!!
Sha’Carri was pleased with her performance in Florida
On Saturday, the mercurial Sha’Carri Richardson opened up her individual 2023 campaign in sensational form at the Miramar Invitational in Florida, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting. Richardson started the day by running 10.75 (+2.8) in the prelims of the 100. That time converts to a 10.90 at sea level in still conditions according to Jonas Mureika‘s conversion calculator. In the final, she was even better, running 10.57 (+4.1). That windy 10.57 is the fourth-fastest women’s 100 ever recorded under any conditions and converts to a 10.77 in still conditions. What do I make of it?
1. Richardson is WAY ahead of where she was last year. Last year, Richardson didn’t open her season until May 21, and when she did, she wasn’t good at all, only running 11.37 (-1.5) and 11.27 (-0.1). The best of those times only equated to a 11.25 in still conditions. Yes, the weather wasn’t good in her opener last year and a week later at Pre, she ran 10.92 (+0.7), which is equal to a 10.96 in still conditions. But 10.77 is nearly .20 better than that and it’s six weeks earlier. Her best mark of the 2022 season — a 10.85 (+1.3) at Randalls Island in her last race before USAs — equated to just 10.93. Richardson is way ahead of that form in her first race of 2023.
2. Can she peak when it matters most? If Richardson can just maintain her current fitness, she has a great shot to earn her first global medal as 10.77 would have medalled in every global women’s 100 final in history — save for the 2021 Olympic final where it took a 10.76 to place third (and that was run into a -0.6 wind so that 10.76 equated to a 10.72 in still conditions).
No human has ever run under 10.80 wind-legal and finished 4th in a race. Besides the 2021 Olympics, there was one other race where there was a wind-legal sub-10.80 for 3rd. At the 2022 Monaco DL, Marie Josée Ta Lou ran 10.72 (+0.4) for third, which equates to a 10.74 in still conditions.
More: LRC Sha’Carri Richardson Runs 10.57 (+4.1) at 2023 Miramar Invitational, #4 100m Ever All-Conditions
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Sha’Carri Richardson wasn’t the only one running fast last weekend in the sprints. In LA, Rai Benjamin PR’d in the open 400 at 44.21.
Last year, Benjamin was able to win a silver medal at Worlds with a very injured hamstring. Fully healthy in 2023 and with a new hurdle pattern, can he win his first elusive gold in 2023? If he does, Paris 2024 is going to be sensational. A different man — each an all-time great – will have won each of the last three global titles (Karsten Warholm in 2021, Alison dos Santos — who is out with injury right now and may miss the year — in 2022 and Benjamin in 2023).
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Steeple World Champ Norah Jeruto Gets Popped
2022 women’s steeple world champ Norah Jeruto was provisionally suspended last week for a biological passport violation.
Three thoughts:
- Her agent told LetsRun.com that he thought the anomaly in her passport profile occurred way back in 2020. If true, that’s ridiculous. Why let her rack up win after win (she was undefeated in the steeple in both 2021 and 2022)?
- It’s depressing how many female global champions on the track from 2012-2022 have subsequently been suspended for a whereabouts violation or doping. Let’s see here: The following Olympic champions were popped at some point: Natalya Antyukh (400H – 2012), Mariya Savinova (800 – 2012), Yuliya Zaripova (steeplechase – 2012), Asli Cakir Alptekin (1500 – 2012), Brianna McNeal (100H – 2106, she’s been suspended two different times and had the gall to blame “white European men” for her plight), Jemima Sumgong (marathon – 2016), Ruth Jebet (steeplechase – 2016). The following world champs besides Jeruto have been popped as well: Salwa Eid Naser (400 – 2019), Maryna Arzamasova (800 -2015). That’s 10 athletes in all.
- While the women’s steeplechase all-time list is full of questionable times (like much of women’s athletics records), I think the women’s steeple WR should be in the 8:40s.
Take a look at everyone who has run under 8:55 in the women’s steeple. Three of the four of them have major question marks surrounding them.
Women’s steeplechase all-time top 10
1. 8:44.32 Beatrice Chepkoech, Kenya 2018
After Jeruto’s bust came out, American steeple star Emma Coburn wrote on Instagram: “Friendly reminder: if a performance (or a year of performances) look too good to be true…It is” and “Remember when she ran 9:01 in the PRELIM? Lol.”
2. 8:52.78 Ruth Jebet, Bahrain 2016 — Banned four years for EPO
3. 8:53.02 Norah Jeruto, Kazakhstan 2022 — Provisionally suspended for ABP violation
4. 8:54.61 Werkuha Getachew, Ethiopia 2022 – Some believe she may be DSD. We’ll see if she competes in 2023.
And in 2018, Coburn publicly admitted she had doubts about the validity of Chepkoech’s 8:44.32 WR. That being said, the women’s steeple WR should clearly be in the 8:40s. If a woman can run under 14:10 in the 5000, then an 8:40 time would be expected.
And I’m not the only one who thinks that. Emma Coburn does as well. In 2018, she said, “I think it’s important to look at history and look at what happened with Ruth and I do think a woman can run 8:45, but I don’t think a woman can run 8:45 when for a whole season she runs 9 minutes and then runs 8:45. I don’t think that’s really possible. I think 9 minutes is still the holy grail of women’s steeplechase and I think that’s a time — that right under 9 minutes athletes can run clean, so hopefully there’s enough of us to get near that.”
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Speaking of Beatrice Chepkoech, she raced on the roads last week, winning the Port-Gentil 10km in Gabon in 32:13. Four-time Olympic champ Mo Farah also was in Gabon running a tune-up before he runs London next weekend but he ran only 30:41, meaning he was way closer to Chepkoech in the results (1:32) than he was to the men’s winner, 59:09 half marathoner Vincent Kipkemoi of Kenya (28:11 – 2:30 ahead).
More: LRC Steeplechase World Champ Norah Jeruto Suspended for Biological Passport Violation, But Even Her Agent Wants To Know Why She Wasn’t Suspended Sooner
*MB:World Steeple Champ Norah Jeruto Busted for ABP Violation
2018: Emma Coburn Expresses Doubt That Beatrice Chepkoech’s World Record is Clean
*MB: Mo Farah is DONE
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