Worlds Day 1 AM Recap: Sifan Hassan Rips Last Lap, Kenneth Rooks Beats El Bakkali
By Jonathan Gault
BUDAPEST, Hungary – The 2023 World Athletics Championships are officially underway and it’s 1500 meters down, 23,000 to go for Sifan Hassan, who began her 1500/5k/10k triple by winning her heat of the 1500 prelims on Saturday morning. Hassan did it in style, going from 9th to 1st over the final 400m thanks to a 59.22 last lap. The only bad news for Hassan is that she has only 6.5 hours to recover for tonight’s 10,000m final instead of 7.5 after this morning’s session was delayed by an hour due to rain.
Americans Nikki Hiltz, Cory McGee, and Sinclaire Johnson all advanced in the women’s 1500, while Kenneth Rooks and Isaac Updike (who was advanced after a fall) qualified for the men’s steeple final (Benard Keter was eliminated). World record holder Ryan Crouser also qualified for the men’s shot put final despite competing with two blood clots in his legs.
Analysis and interviews from the first session below. Full results here.
Men’s steeple: Girma vs. El Bakkali is set as Rooks & Beamish impress
The men’s steeplechase prelims unfolded largely as expected on Saturday morning. World record holder Lamecha Girma and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali advanced with ease, as did Kenyan champion Simon Koech. The United States sent two of three men through to the final. US champion Kenneth Rooks looked terrific in heat 2 and actually snuck ahead of El Bakkali at the finish line to win the heat in 8:23.66. The other Americans did not fare as well. In heat 1, Benard Keter was 5th at the bell – the final auto qualifying spot – but, bothered by a pelvic injury he picked up in a fall in Monaco, he struggled on the last lap and faded to 8th. In heat 3, Isaac Updike was also in 5th coming out of the final water jump, but he stumbled on his landing and was quickly passed by two athletes. Updike was then taken out from behind entering the final turn and though he only finished 11th in 8:31.81, he appealed and was advanced to the final.
Quick Take: Outside of the big guns, Rooks and George Beamish looked the most impressive
Kenneth Rooks is only the fifth-fastest American in 2023 (and #25 in the world), and even though his 8:16.78 included a fall at USAs, he was not a lock to make the final in Budapest. So for Rooks, in his debut World Championship, to finish at the front of a heat that included the reigning world and Olympic champion in El Bakkali, was some impressive stuff (Rooks never appeared to be ahead during the home straight but both men were given the same time, with Rooks thousandths ahead).
Rooks said he knew El Bakkali was not going all-out, but was optimistic about his chances in Tuesday’s final. Though Rooks has had a very long 2022-23 season – he ran his first cross country race for BYU on September 1, 2022, and has kept racing through indoor and outdoor track – he said he feels great physically. The bigger challenge was ensuring he still felt mentally ready to go after not racing for six weeks after USAs. To that end, he ran a 2k steeple time trial at altitude in Provo last week. His time of 5:27 (8:10 pace) convinced him that all is well and that he’s in the shape of his life right now.
“I think I’m capable of running 8:05 range,” Rooks said. “We’ll see what happens. I gotta recover first but I have confidence that I can compete with these guys.”
Quick Take: George Beamish on why he’s transitioned so well to the steeple — “you have to start at being pretty good at running already”
Five months ago, Beamish, 26, had never run a professional steeplechase. The New Zealand/On Athletics Club athlete ran just 8:42 in his debut – a cautious race at the Mt. SAC Relays on April 13 – but lowered his pb to 8:20 in his next race and all the way down to an Oceania record of 8:13 in Monaco on July 21. Now he’s a World Championship finalist.
Realistically, Beamish may still be a year or two away from medal contention, and with gold and silver spoken for between El Bakkali and Girma, there’s only one up for grabs in Budapest. But he sheepishly admitted that his prelim today felt “so easy” and is excited to see what he can do in the final.
How do you go from steeple rookie to World Championship finalist in four months? Beamish said that the biggest factor is simple: “being pretty good at running already.” Add in some natural athleticism and Beamish was in a good spot. All that was missing was some fine-tuning when it came to his hurdling technique. After Beamish’s debut, three-time US steeple champ and former Bowerman/current Puma Elite assistant Pascal Dobert came to Boulder and shared some tips, which Beamish feels have made a difference.
“It was a good thing that Dathan [Ritzenhein] didn’t pretend to know anything about hurdling, he wasn’t going to try and coach me something he didn’t know,” Beamish said. “And I appreciated that.”
Quick Take: Benard Keter said he hasn’t been the same since falling in Monaco
Keter was feeling confident after an 8:17 pb for 2nd at USAs but fell in Monaco on July 21, scraping his knee and hurting his pelvis on the fall. Keter said his last workout before Worlds didn’t go well and knew once that was the case that today’s race could be an issue.
Quick Take: A rough finish for Isaac Updike, but he is moving on
Updike may have caught a break by getting advanced. Though we’ll never know how his last 100 would have fared, he was already moving backwards coming off the water jump before he fell.
Women’s 1500: Hassan shows a big kick and all three Americans are through
Sifan Hassan and reigning champ Faith Kipyegon were the big names in the women’s 1500 and both advanced as heat winners as Hassan closed in 59.22 to win heat 1 in 4:02.92 after hanging near the back for most of the race. Americans Nikki Hiltz, Sinclaire Johnson, and Cory McGee advanced while the biggest woman to exit was Uganda’s Winnie Nanyondo, who had made the last three global finals but could only manage 12th place in heat 4.
The most interesting heat was the third one as it was run very quickly. Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir won it in 4:00.87 and the top eight all ran 4:02.15 or faster. Under the old qualifying system, all eight would have made it either automatically or on time. But this year, World Athletics scrapped time qualifiers in the distance events, meaning the top six in each heat make it and everyone else goes home. That left 2022 NCAA champ Sinta Vissa of Italy (4:01.66) and Sophie O’Sullivan of the University of Washington and Ireland (4:02.15) as the odd women out despite both running pbs (Vissa’s was a slight improvement on her 4:01.98 from Florence while O’Sullivan took more than five seconds off her 4:07.18 from the Euro U23 champs). In fact, Vissa and O’Sullivan ran faster than the winners of the other three heats.
Quick Take: Sinclaire Johnson thinks she’s in a better spot than the 2022 Worlds
Sinclaire Johnson did not run badly at the 2022 Worlds, finishing 6th overall, but she came away with the feeling that she had peaked for USAs instead of Worlds. This time around, Johnson feels the opposite is true and actually feels better than she did at the 2022 Worlds. Part of that reason was enforced – she was injured this spring and could only start running a month out from USAs – but part of that is because she has done more endurance work this year, which she feels will help her at Worlds. Last year, Johnson relied on the base she had built with the Bowerman Track Club and topped off her speed. In 2023, her second year with the Nike Union Athletics Club, she’s focused more on building and maintaining strength throughout the season.
“Strength is my area I can grow more in, just more appropriate to me,” Johnson said.
Quick Take: Laura Muir is feeling more like herself now
Muir has medalled at the last two global championships but she has had a difficult 2023 as she separated from longtime coach Andy Young – a relationship that had been a source of stress. That transition away from Young led to some rough moments this year, but Muir said she’s enjoying herself more under new coach Steve Vernon and believes things have turned a corner as well physically. She said last week she believes she is in shape to break her 3:54.50 British record from the 2021 Olympic final.
“Physically it’s been there all year,” Muir said. “But it’s not just a physical game. It’s the whole picture, isn’t it?…Some days, I wasn’t on it as I should be in terms of my mental space.”
Quick Take: Sophie O’Sullivan has gone from 12th in the NCAA final to 4:02 in two months
One year ago, Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan was 12th at Pac-12s and did not even qualify for NCAAs in the 1500. Now, thanks to her 4:02.15 today, the University of Washington runner, 21, has run faster than any NCAA woman in history outside of Jenny Simpson.
O’Sullivan – daughter of 1995 5,000 world champ Sonia O’Sullivan and Australian coach/agent Nic Bideau – began 2023 with a 4:17.54 pb. She then PR’d in four of her first five races of the year, getting down to 4:08.06 at the West Regional, but bombed the NCAA final in Austin and finished DFL in 4:22.81.
Rather than pack it in, however, O’Sullivan went over to Europe where she rebounded by running a 4:07.18 pb to win the Euro U23 champs in July. Today, she took more than five seconds off that – and hit the 4:02.50 Olympic standard in the process. Though she didn’t advance, she was very happy with the result and said that getting out of the US has helped relieve some of the stress that comes with competing in the NCAA system.
“I run best when I can stand on the start line with a smile, think this is pretty good, and actually have a bit of fun with it,” O’Sullivan said. “And I don’t think I really did it there [at NCAAs].”
O’Sullivan said she does plan to return to Seattle in the fall.
Nikki Hiltz and Cory McGee after advancing
