Weekend Preview: Tuohy Goes For Sub-15, Nuguse Opens Up, Lyles v Knighton at 150
By Jonathan GaultIf you don’t have any plans this weekend, how about a three-course meal of track & field?
By now, I presume you’ve read all about Friday’s Diamond League opener in Doha (12-2 pm ET), where we will get to see Sha’Carri Richardson vs Dina Asher-Smith vs Shericka Jackson in the 100, Fred Kerley vs Michael Norman in the 200, and an absolutely stacked men’s 3000 headlined by Olympic champs Selemon Barega and Soufiane El Bakkali, world champ Timothy Cheruiyot, and indoor world record holder Lamecha Girma.
LRC Opening Day Is Here! 2023 Diamond League Season Begins Friday in Doha
But there are also two big-time track meets happening stateside on Saturday: the Atlanta City Games (adidas’ street meet, which has moved from Boston to Atlanta) and Sound Running’s Track Fest, the distance meet held at Mt. SAC in California. Both should be fun events (a ticket to Track Fest includes free food and a mid-meet concert) and feature some of the biggest stars in US track & field.
The Atlanta City Games does include a road mile with Sam Prakel and Hobbs Kessler, but the main action is on the straightaway with two mouthwatering sprint matchups. The men’s 110 hurdles features a battle between last year’s World Championship gold and silver medalists in Grant Holloway and Trey Cunningham. But the crown jewel is the men’s 150, which includes Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, who just ran a wind-aided 9.78 last week in Botswana.
In the nightcap, Track Fest will feature a number of America’s best distance athletes including Yared Nuguse in the 800, Matthew Centrowitz, Woody Kincaid, and Abdihamid Nur in the 1500, Cooper Teare in the 5,000, and a stacked women’s 5,000 featuring Josette Andrews, Emily Infeld, and Katelyn Tuohy, who could become the first US collegian to break 15:00.
Both meets are being streamed (the Atlanta City Games are free, Track Fest costs $5.99) and the main events don’t overlap, so anyone who wants to watch both shouldn’t have an issue.
Here’s what you need to know about both meets.
adidas Atlanta City Games
Where: Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta, Georgia
When: Saturday, May 6. Broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m. ET.
How to watch: This meet will be streamed live, for free, around the world on adidas’ YouTube channel.
Men’s mile (6:15 p.m. ET): Hobbs Kessler gets a big test in Sam Prakel
Hobbs Kessler and Sam Prakel both earned road mile victories in April, Kessler winning the B.A.A. Mile on April 15 and Prakel taking the US road title against a stronger field in Des Moines on April 25. Prakel, who is in the form of his life right now after winning the 1500/3000 double at USA Indoors, crushed Kessler in their last meeting indoors on February 4 in Boston, beating him by more than 10 seconds in the mile. Kessler should be closer Saturday, but how much closer?
Women’s 100 hurdles (prelims 7:05 p.m. ET, final 9:05 p.m. ET): WR holder against stiff competition
This race features world record holder/world champ Tobi Amusan, former world record holder Keni Harrison, and US multi-event star Anna Hall. But the winner may end up being Tia Jones, the 2018 world junior champ who went pro as a senior in HS (January 2019) and is doing well now. She was 2nd at the Diamond League final last year and picked up in 2023 where she left off, crushing a quality field by running 12.44 in wet conditions at Drake last weekend.
Men’s 110 hurdles (prelims 7:23 p.m. ET, final 9:15 p.m. ET): Gold vs silver
When I interviewed Trey Cunningham back in March about why top high hurdlers rarely seem to dodge each other, he gave me two reasons. First, the hurdles is a rhythm event — once you get in a groove, you want to keep it going, and you do that by continuing to race. Second, well, I’ll let Cunningham explain:
“We don’t really have another event we can go hide in. There’s no 200 hurdle. There’s no 150 hurdle. We got what we got, that’s it. And no one’s going to go run the 400 hurdles because it hurts too bad.”
That’s why you can get a matchup like the one we’ll see in Atlanta on Saturday: the world silver medalist (Cunningham) against the world champ (Holloway). The two men raced three times after Worlds in 2022, with Holloway taking two of the three, and have already raced once this year, with Holloway winning easily in the 60 hurdles in Boston in February. This will be the second outdoor race of the year for each man; Holloway, who ran a world-leading 13.03 in his opener in Gainesville on April 15, will be favored to take the win.
Men’s 150 (8:55 p.m. ET): WHAT A RACE — Lyles vs Knighton vs Omanyala
When a company like adidas stages a meet like this, there are benefits and drawbacks. The benefit is that adidas sponsors a lot of star athletes, and a large number of them are in Atlanta this weekend. The drawback is that you won’t see that many other athletes from other brands — athletes with other sponsors aren’t going out of their way to run a street meet that doubles as a four-hour adidas ad.
Photo by Phil Bond
Another benefit? adidas can, if it so chooses, make some tremendous head-to-head matchups. We’re getting one in the men’s 110 hurdles and an even better one in the men’s 150 between Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, and Ferdinand Omanyala.
Lyles and Knighton, you may remember, have a bit of a backstory. Knighton broke Lyles’ US high school record in the 200 in 2021, then smashed the world U20 record with his 19.49 last spring. But Lyles shot Knighton down at USAs, leading to a somewhat testy post-race interview when the two met with Lewis Johnson a few minutes later. Lyles, of course, had the last laugh at Worlds, running 19.31 to win gold and break Michael Johnson‘s longstanding American record. Has anything changed in 2023? Or is Lyles, who is pursuing the 100/200 double this year, still the man to beat?
Both men are among the most talented sprinters this country has ever produced, so anytime the two are on the track together, it’s a treat for track nuts. Throw in Omanyala, who ran a windy 9.78 last week in Botswana, and you’ve got a terrific race.
As for who will win? MJ himself broke it down on Twitter on May 2 and I can’t put it any better. “Erriyon struggles sometimes on the curve. No curve here. Noah sometimes leaves it late in the 200. Can’t do that over 150. Could come down to the wire! 150 long way for Omanyala but interested to see how he does.”
Who wins the men's 150 in Atlanta?
-
%
Sound Running’s On Track Fest
Where: Hilmer Lodge Stadium, Walnut, California
When: Saturday, May 6. Broadcast begins at 8:30 p.m. ET; main program begins at 10:20 p.m. ET.
How to watch: This meet will be streamed live on pay-per-view by Tracklandia for $5.99.
Women’s steeple (10:20 p.m. ET): Wayment leads the way
Can Courtney Wayment turn the Big Two of US women’s steepling into a Big Three? Last year, Wayment actually beat Courtney Frerichs in two of their three head-to-head matchups at USAs and Monaco (though Frerichs was 6th at Worlds and Wayment only 12th). Wayment’s pb of 9:09 is more than 10 seconds better than the rest of this field, and she already has the Worlds standard of 9:23.00, so this will be about opening her steeple season with a win ahead of bigger things to come.
Men’s steeple (10:35 p.m. ET): Bor opens up
Three-time defending US steeple champ has been crushing it on the roads this year, winning the US 15k title and setting the American record at 10 miles. But Bor said on the LetsRun Track Talk Podcast last month that he plans to stay in the steeple through the 2024 Olympics, and he will get his 2023 steeple campaign underway on Saturday at Track Fest. Fellow Olympian Benard Keter is also entered, as is On Athletics Club’s Geordie Beamish, who debuted in the steeple with an 8:42 win at Mt. SAC last month.
Men’s 800 (11:02 p.m. ET): The Goose is loose
Yared Nuguse hasn’t raced since his 3:33 1500 win in Madrid in February, and he hasn’t raced an 800 since 2019 — his sophomore year at Notre Dame. Nuguse ran 1:48.29 in that race (a win at the Stanford Invite) and we know he’s a lot faster now. Tony Van Diepen is slated to take this one through 400 in 50-51. Can Nuguse hold on for a 1:45 or 1:46? And will that be enough to win against a field with true 800 men Isaiah Harris (1:44 pb) and Tonatiu Lopez of Mexico (1:43 pb)?
How fast does Yared Nuguse run in the 800 on Saturday?
-
%
Women’s 1500 (11:10 p.m. ET): GDS returns
The biggest storyline of this race is the return of Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, who, in case you forgot, finished 5th at the 2021 Olympics but hasn’t raced since May 2022 after a season-ending sacrum injury. No longer with Bowerman TC, GDS’s top competition here includes OAC teammates Sage Hurta-Klecker and Sintayehu Vissa as well as Japanese record holder Nozomi Tanaka (3:59 pb).
Men’s 1500 (11:18 p.m. ET): Kincaid & Nur drop down
2016 Olympic champ Matthew Centrowitz is running this meet but is in the B heat (9:33 p.m. ET) — perhaps an admission that he isn’t quite ready to rock and roll with the big boys at this point in the season. The top section is led by NCAA 3k champ Fouad Messaoudi of Oklahoma State, who has already run 3:35 this year, as well as Woody Kincaid and Abdihamid Nur, training partners under Mike Smith in Flagstaff. Kincaid has been on fire this year, with an American record at 5k and a pb at 10,000 (27:06). Nur, who made the Worlds final at 5,000 in 2022, didn’t race indoors after some sickness early in the year but opened up with a 3:39 at Bryan Clay three weeks ago and will look to run faster here in a race that is being paced for 3:32.
If that is indeed the pace, Eliud Kipsang‘s 3:33.74 NCAA record could be in danger. Milers Henry Wynne, Eric Holt, and Vincent Ciattei are also entered and will look to protect their turf against the distance guys dropping down.
Women’s 5,000 (11:28 p.m. ET): Tuohy, Andrews, Infeld, and more chase fast times
This is the distance race of the night. The women’s 5,000m standard for Worlds got a lot faster this year (15:10 in 2022, 14:57 in 2023), and right now, only two Americans have it — Elly Henes and Natosha Rogers. There are a number of Americans in this field capable of hitting that time — Henes, Josette Andrews, Whittni Morgan, Emily Infeld, to name a few, plus Brits Jessica Warner-Judd and Melissa Courtney-Bryant — and as things stand, the pace should go out even faster than the Worlds standard. Meet director Jesse Williams told LetsRun on Friday that Micaela DeGenero and Dani Jones are tentatively scheduled to pace through 3k at 14:48 pace. (Alicia Monson was initially down to pace but withdrew after getting COVID).
Hitting the world standard and establishing some sort of US pecking order is part of the story of this race (though 2/3rds of Team USA from Worlds last year — Elise Cranny and Karissa Schweizer — will not be here). The other storyline is whether North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy can conquer one of the greatest unbroken barriers in college track & field: the sub-15:00 5k.
Tuohy spoke with Race Results Weekly’s David Monti earlier this week and said her main goal is to hit the auto standard for the US championships (15:09.59). But Tuohy could wind up going much faster than that.
(For more on Tuohy, including her thoughts on turning pro, check out Monti’s story here: RRW Katelyn Tuohy Is Ready To Race An All Out 5000, Is A Historic Sub-15 In The Cards?)
Let’s think about this logically. Tuohy’s pb is 15:14, which she ran in April 2022 — a race she won by 12 seconds. Since then, Tuohy only been in one “fast” 5k — a race where time, not place, was important — and she ran 15:15. But that was at BU in December, Tuohy was coming off a long cross country season, and she told Monti the main aim of that race was to hit a qualifying mark for NCAA indoors.
Now let’s consider what Tuohy did the rest of indoors. She ran 4:24 to break the NCAA mile record of 4:25 run by Jenny Simpson. And she ran 8:35 to break the NCAA 3000 record, which used to be held by Simpson at 8:42 (Schweizer ran 8:41 in 2018). The NCAA 5k record? It’s held by — yes, you guessed it — Jenny Simpson. Simpson has the fastest outdoor time (15:07.64) and the fastest overall time (15:01.70 indoors) and, assuming Tuohy is in the same sort of shape as indoors, she could crush those marks.
Consider: Simpson ran those times totally solo — her 15:01 came in a race she won by 62 seconds, her 15:07 in a race she won by 44 — and did it without super shoes. And that was after running slower in the mile and 3k than Tuohy did this year. Tuohy will have super shoes, great conditions, and a fleet of pacemakers and pros to latch on to. Everything is in position for Tuohy to take down the collegiate record, just as Abdihamid Nur did at this meet a year ago on the men’s side.
How fast will Katelyn Tuohy run on Saturday night?
-
%
Men’s 5,000 (11:47 p.m. ET): Teare leads the way
This race is tentatively being paced for 13:10 through 3k, which should put the leaders close enough to hit the world standard of 13:07 if they close quickly. Reigning US 5,000 champ Cooper Teare and Millrose 3k champ Josh Kerr are the headliners, though Morgan Beadlescomb and Ben Flanagan (1-2 at the BAA 5K) are in good shape, as is Kenyan Athanas Kioko (13:09 indoors, 27:23 at The TEN).
