Joe Waskom’s Big Kick Travels Well, Waskom Runs 3:34.64 PB To Win 1500 in Lignano, Italy
By Jonathan GaultSix days after finishing second at the USATF Outdoor Championships in the 1500 meters, University of Washington star Joe Waskom continued his impressive 2023 season by running a pb of 3:34.64 to win his first career European race at the Meeting Internazionale Sport e Solidarieta’ in Lignano, Italy, on Friday.
Running in a field of 18 athletes plus two pacers, Waskom had to run a lot of extra distance on the turns and appeared to be in trouble at the bell in seventh place, four meters back of the lead group of six. But Waskom threw in a big surge on the first turn of the final lap, going from 7th to 1st in the span of 100 meters. He would protect his lead the rest of the way, finishing over a second ahead of runner-up Joao Bussotti of Italy (3:35.65) thanks to a 54-second last lap.
You can watch the entire race here:
Full results
Waskom moved up from 7th at the bell to 1st by the finish
Quick Take: Waskom should easily make it to Worlds
While Waskom came up short of the World Championship standard of 3:34.20, the time was an improvement on the 3:35.32 pb he set at USAs and means that Waskom is a near-certainty to be named to the World Championship team when the qualification period ends on July 30. Waskom entered the meet ranked 53rd on the Road to Budapest list with a ranking score of 1190; currently the last guy qualified for Worlds is Spain’s Gonzalo Garcia, who is 67th at 1179.
But Waskom’s world ranking will improve when the updated rankings are released next week. He will receive 1180 points for running 3:34.64 plus a 40-point bonus for the win (since Lignano is a Category D meet), which is a total of 1220 points. That bumps out Waskom’s lowest score of the rankings period (the 1157 points he got for his prelim at USAs) and brings his new overall ranking score to 1202, pushing him up to 46th in the rankings (assuming everyone else stays the same). With only 16 days remaining in the ranking period, it is highly unlikely enough guys will displace Waskom to move him out of a spot at Worlds.
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