WTW: Donavan Brazier is healthy and racing like it, Americans & Europeans are dominating the men’s 5000, biggest winners from NCAAs & is Track Town USA dead?

Smith: Everything points to him being 100% healthy right now. He started running in January and I started giving him small workouts in February. Had to build very gradually because he hadn’t run in a few years so very low volume and low risk assignments. I was not expecting that time, because I know exactly what he’s done. That’s one of my favorite things about the sport. Training can attempt to predict this or that but there isn’t a metric on a watch that tells you where someone’s heart will take them inside a race. I have a soft spot in my heart for these athletes that have been through hell and are still standing. I was really happy for him.

Of course, there is no need to take Mike’s word for Brazier’s heatlh. Brazier spoke to Dave Ross, who did interviews for us in Portland.

Both Hoey and Brazier need to be considered medal threats for 2025. That being said, the event is loaded. Remember, five guys ran 1:41 last year, including American Bryce Hoppel, and eight guys broke 1:42.10.

Which is wild because the year before that, in 2023, only two guys broke 1:43 and both those marks came at Pre after Worlds.

• DONNY MF BRAZIER: In case you weren’t convinced. He’s officially, officially back. 1:43.81 negative split
• Josh Hoey’s sensational 2025 continues, moves to #3 all-time in US on 800 list. 1:42.43. Hoppel struggles to 1:47

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Westerners are rocking the 5000 in 2025

2/80 (2.5%) – number of Diamond League 5000s that had been won by non-African-born men prior to last week. In the 15+ year history of the series, 78 out of 80 Diamond League 5000s had been won by African-born men prior to last week (American Ben True won a watered-down 5000 in NYC in 2015 and Jakob Ingebrigtsen won a 12:48 race in Florence in 2021).

2/2 (100%) – number of Diamond League men’s 5000s won by non-African-born men last week as American Nico Young ran 12:45.27 to take down a stacked field in Oslo on Thursday before Sweden’s Andreas Almgren ran 12:44.27 to set a European record against a less stacked field in Stockholm on Sunday.

We’ve already written and talked a lot about Young’s incredible win — we believe a US man hadn’t run within 10 seconds of the 5000 world record and won in Europe since Mary Liquouri did it 1978 — so we’ll turn our attention to Almgren’s run here. What makes his run even more special than a European record and win in front of the home crowd is that it didn’t occur with ideal conditions. In Oslo, it was 61 degrees Fahrenheit with a 3 mph wind according to Apple Weather, and 8 of the 16 runners ran personal bests. In Stockholm, it was 73 with a 7 mph wind and just 3 of the 14 finishers PR’d.

The top 3 men on the 2025 world 5000 list were not born in Africa, as well as four of the top six and five of the top nine.

2025 Men’s 5000 List Top 10 Times
1 12:44.09i WR Grant Fisher USA 
2 12:44.27 AR Andreas Almgren SWE 
3 12:45.27 NR Nico Young USA 
4 12:45.93 Biniam Mehary ETH
5 12:46.41 Kuma Girma ETH
6 12:46.59 NR George Mills GBR 
7 12:46.82 Hagos Gebrhiwet ETH
8 12:47.67 Thierry Ndikumwenayo ESP
9 12:48.20 Graham Blanks USA
10 12:49.07 Yomif Kejelcha ETH

Bold = Not born in Africa

Additionally, all five of the fastest non-African-born 5,000 performers of all time have set their PRs this year.

In addition, the 5 fastest non-African-born performers of all-time are all from this year:

1. 12:44.09i Grant Fisher
2. 12:44.27 Andreas Almgren
3. 12:45.27 Nico Young
4. 12:46.59 George Mills
5. 12:48.20 Graham Blanks https://t.co/eMUfDCN1qR

— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) June 17, 2025

I asked someone close to one of the three men at the top of the 2025 world list list why they thought non-Africans are doing so well. Here is there reply:

You guys need to believe how powerful bi-carb is too.

Controlled threshold training during base allowing a higher ceiling for specific period.

Super shoes in training allowing for higher stimulus and lower body impact while maintaining threshold.
Recover faster all the time.

Bi-carb in hard workouts allowing to go much deeper in key workouts.
Bi-carb in races, operate faster pace earlier on and don’t die.

Heat training when not at altitude to maintain hemoglobin mass and all high altitude gains. Can train HARD and still recover at sea level while doing heat protocol training 5times per week.

Wave light.. visual stimulation to keep it even early on and then chase when it gets very very tough.

When I pushed back and said African runners have been naturally doing some sort of double threshold work for 50 years as they often start super slow but end up near their threshold, I got the following reply:

Have they done lactate threshold profiling testing and running directly below their LT1 in the morning then LT2 in evening… accumulating more and more minutes over the base block and then using it the day after huge workouts too??

Yes they run around their LT.

No they don’t have any kind of scientific control over long periods to really maximize that type of training

Non-African-Born Win Rate in Diamond League men’s 5000s
2025 – 2/4
2024 – 0/5
2023 –  0/5
2022 – 0/6
2021 – 1/3
2020 – 0/1
2019 – 0/6
2018 – 0/5
2017 –  0/3
2016 – 0/6
2015 – 1/5
2014 – 0/7
2013 – 0/7
2012 – 0/6
2011 –  0/6
2010 – 0/7

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Kevin Young: From 28-year world record holder to outside the top 20

When Karsten Warholm ran 46.70 to set the 400-meter hurdles world record on July 1, 2021, he broke one of the longest-standing records in track & field. On August 6, 1992, American Kevin Young had run 46.78 in the Olympic final in Barcelona to become the first man under 47 seconds, breaking Edwin Moses‘s record. The legendary Moses had held the record for 16 years and when Warholm broke Young’s record, Moses’s 47.02 pb was still tied for the #7 time in history. Young’s WR would stand for even longer — it was almost 29 years old by the time Warholm broke it.

In the 2020s, however, Warholm, Rai Benjamin, and Alison dos Santos have completely transformed the event. Warholm’s world record now stands at 45.94. Less than four years after Warholm broke his world record, Young’s 46.78 no longer ranks among the 20 fastest times ever after Benjamin ran 46.54 and dos Santos 46.68 in Stockholm on Sunday. And Moses’s 47.02 is all the way down in a tie for 35th.

If you’re wondering how the top 20 times break down, Warholm has eight of them, Benjamin has eight, and dos Santos has four.

After yesterday’s 400m hurdles at Stockholm, Kevin Young’s 46.78, which stood as the WR for over 10,500 days (until 2021), is no longer in the top-20 times in history. pic.twitter.com/hJk3zoXJdv

— James Rhodes (@James_Athletics) June 16, 2025

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Ranking the NCAA distance champions’ medal prospects

The 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships were full of incredible marks, as they always are. 

Watching Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone‘s NCAA record of 52.75 get broken by Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland (52.46) reminded me it’s always a mistake to say you “will never see anything like xxx again.” SML is one of the greatest track & field athletes in the history of the sport and her NCAA record only lasted seven years (though it’s worth noting that SML set her record as an 18-year-old true freshman while Sutherland is a 21-year-old senior).

That being said, the new NCAA women’s steeplechase record of 8:58.15 set by Alabama’s Doris Lemngole has a good chance of lasting a VERY long time, like Henry Rono‘s men’s collegiate record of 8:05.40, which has stood since 1978 (unless Lemngole comes back next year).

Lemngole’s run, which ranks #11 on the all-time list (just behind Courtney Frerichs‘ 8:57.77 American record), was one of the greatest performances ever run in the distances at an NCAA championship. She’s the 2025 world leader and has a real shot at a medal at the 2025 Worlds — which her coach Nick Stenuf said has been the goal since the start of the season.

Speaking of medals, I thought it would be fun to rank the odds of every one of the 2025 NCAA distance champions from most to least likely to medal in Tokyo this year.

35-40% – Doris Lemngole – Alabama/Kenya – Women’s Steeple – Only five women in the world broke 9:00 in 2025 and Lemngole just soloed an 8:58 without rabbits and looked beautiful doing it.

MB: Doris MF Lemngole 8:58 Steeplechase

12% – Ishmael Kipkurui – New Mexico/Kenya – Men’s 10,000 – He’s a former world junior XC champ and he’s the world leader in the 10,000 at 26:50. If Joshua Cheptegei sticks to the marathon, there’s an extra medal to be had.

5% – Brian Musau – Oklahoma State/Kenya – Men’s 5000 – The idea that a 13:11 guy could medal in the year 2025 seems wild until you realize a guy with a 13:02 pb won Olympic silver last year. And in 2022, a guy with a 13:06 pb won the bronze (Oscar Chelimo) and a guy with a 13:10 pb was 4th (Luis Grijalva). His odds go way up if Jakob is out.

5% – Roisin Willis – Stanford/USA – Women’s 800 – Considering Willis’ teammate Juliette Whittaker made the Olympic final last year, it’s not crazy to think Willis could make the World Championship final this year. And if she make the final, she could medal as she has a good sense of pace and will run smart, particularly since reigning Olympic champ Keely Hodgkinson is injured and Olympic bronze medallist Mary Moraa hasn’t been on fire and so often uses bizarre tactics.

3% – Pamela Kosgei – New Mexico/Kenya- Women’s 5,000/10,000 – The double NCAA champ is good, but 14:52/31:02 doesn’t sniff a medal at Worlds. If she focuses on the steeple, however (where she’s run 9:15 this year and is a former African junior champ), a medal isn’t inconceivable. 

2% – Sophie O’Sullivan – Washington/Ireland – Women’s 1500 – On Sunday, I thought to myself, “Am I crazy thinking there is some route to a medal this year for Sophie O’Sullivan?”

She didn’t make the Olympic final last year (she didn’t even get to the semis) or at World Indoors this year, but O’Sullivan has been laying waste to the NCAA of late. She won NCAAs by nearly a full second — that’s a lot in a 1500 — and won Big 10s by 1.69. Super impressive.

O’Sullivan ran 4:00 last year while coming off a stress fracture so it’s not inconceivable that she could run 3:56 this year. If I was her, I’d definitely be aiming for sub-4:00 first, then mom’s PB (3:58.85), and not forgetting about the Irish record of 3:55.87 (Ciara Mageean). She has been a HUGE winner over the last few weeks as a top pro career seems to be in her near future.

The problem is, it’s super hard to medal in the women’s 1500. The Irish record of 3:55.87 would have placed 6th in last year’s Olympic final. Diribe Welteji ran 3:52 in Paris and didn’t medal.

MB: All you haters– Sophie O’Sullivan NCAA Champion

2% – James Corrigan – BYU/USA – Men’s Steeplechase – At this point last year, former BYU runner Kenneth Rooks had an 8:15 steeple pb. He won Olympic silver less than two months later. Corrigan has an 8:13 pb, and, like Rooks, Corrigan’s best career finish in NCAA XC was in the 30s.

2% – Nathan Green – Washington/USA – Men’s 1500 – The top three at USAs last year in the men’s 1500 went 1-3-5 at the Olympics. So making the US team is super hard. But if you make it, you certainly should be dreaming of a medal. Of course, the big 4 of Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse, and Ingebrigtsen are all REALLY good.

2% – Sam Whitmarsh – Texas A&M/USA – Men’s 800 – Considering Whitmarsh hasn’t broken 1:45 this year and five Americans have already broken 1:44 with three of them being former world champs (Josh Hoey and Bryce Hoppel indoors, Donavan Brazier outdoors), it’s hard to see Whitmarsh making the US team. But Whitmarsh ran a very good tactical race at NCAAs to earn a dominant win and is coming on at the right time. Good tactics go a long way in the 800. If he makes the team and gets in the final, weirder things have happened, particularly if the final is tactical.

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One of my bigger winners at NCAAs was someone who lost — Ethan Strand of North Carolina. His kick in the 1500 was sensational and he went from last to second in the last 150. Any fears that he was a tweener really best suited for the 3000 and is someone who couldn’t hack it in a tactical 1500 died down considerably.

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Does NCAA track & field have a presentation problem?

One of my biggest takeaway from the 2025 NCAAs was, “If you want to know why track & field isn’t more popular, all you need to do was watch that meet on TV.”

Now, since my brother is all the time telling me I’m too negative and reminding me of Teddy Roosevelt’s quote about how “it’s not the critic that counts,” I’ll lay off being critical for a moment. Instead, I’ll let Texas A&M coach Pat Henry do my bidding.

After the meet was over, the legendary coach, who has won 37 NCAA titles during his career at LSU and Texas A&M, called on radical changes to be made to the NCAA format as detailed in a Eugene Register Guard story.

“We have got to change the sport. We have got to change this to a team qualifying and coming into this meet as a team. It needs to be USC bringing 25 men, maybe, or 28 men or 30 men and us bringing the same number and maybe six or 10 more schools doing the same thing, in my opinion.”

I’m not so sure a team championship would be any more popular. The reality is that track, like tennis or golf, is an individual sport. At the indoor championships, when there was a protest and the 4 x 400 (and thus the team title) hadn’t been decided, the fans cleared out. That being said, I do find it odd that athletes who qualified individually don’t impact the team scoring at NCAA XC but everyone impacts it at NCAA track.

But my gripes about the meet in Eugene are much more specific.

1. The fact that the men’s meet ended in a tie is a joke. This isn’t the year 1925. In 2025, we break ties in championships in all sports but track & field. Use a tiebreaker. Whoever finished higher in the 4 x 400. Whoever had the most event winners, 2nd places, etc. Just no more ties.
2. ESPN’s coverage of the meet was awful. Here’s how it can improve:
   i) Hire a professional play-by-play announcer to lead the broadcast (Bill Spaulding anyone?).
   ii) If they are going to shove the team aspect down our throats, they need to do a better job on presenting it, particularly when the meet comes down to the 4 x 400. Everything about the 4 x 400 coverage was done poorly and/or incorrectly. Heading into the 4 x 400, three teams had a shot at the team title, and all of them had a team in the 4 x 400 final:
   USC led with 40 points.
   Arkansas was 2nd with 34.
   Texas A&M was third with 33.ESPN did not summarize the following three key facts prior to the race getting started.
   If USC finished fifth or higher, they would have clinched at least a tie for the title. 4th would have earned them an outright title.
   For Arkansas to have a shot to win, they had to finish third or higher.
   For Texas A&M to have a shot to win, they had to finish second or higher. Instead, viewers were shown a graphic that incorrectly said USC would clinch the title with a 4th-place finish (that would actually have clinched them the outright title). And as the runners rounded the final turn on the anchor leg, lead ESPN announcer Dwight Stones said: “USC is way back. They need to be 4th or better to win the title.” Not true. 4th or higher would guarantee them an outright team title.  And not once before or during the dramatic final 4 x 400 was it ever said, “For Arkansas to have a chance to win, they must be third or higher. For Texas A&M to have a chance to win, they must be 2nd or higher.” When exactly that happened — A&M finished second with Arkansas third — it would have been quite dramatic for viewers to realize it as people tried to figure out where USC was. Additionally, if you are going to talk about team scores, please create a TV-friendly version of Microsoft Excel and introduce the viewers to the concept of “projected scores.” Golf has a projected cut line, and it’s not hard for viewers to understand. Don’t act like the team that went 1-2 in the first event and has the early lead is going to win.
3. The myth of TrackTown USA is dead. The crowds in Eugene were disappointing. The men’s meet came down to the wire with the team title on the line in the 4 x 400 and here is what the crowd looked like:
   By comparison, here is the back straight during the men’s 4×400 at the last NCAAs at the old Hayward Field in 2018 (though the old Hayward Field had a smaller capacity):Can we just be honest? At most track meets, a huge percentage of the crowd is parents, friends, relatives, agents, etc. Eugene used to have a few thousand more locals that would show up to support track compared to other venues. Most of them are now either too old to attend (or dead), priced out, or bored of track as there are a million big meets in Eugene (are you going to spend five weekends this year going to Big 10s, NCAAs, Nike Outdoor Nationals, the Pre Classic, and USAs?). Plus there are way more entertainment options available than a decade or two ago as anyone can now stream every movie ever produced and every sporting event on planet Earth to their phone.  The next three NCAA meets are all in Eugene, which makes it 13 of the last 15 when all is said and done. If the NCAA is going to go to Eugene every year, meet organizers should consider tarping over sections of the stands to compact the crowd. But I’ve got no problem with returning the NCAA meet to Buffalo, Raleigh-Durham, Boise, Austin, Knoxville or Sacramento. Hell, any of the current regional sites would work fine. I’d rather have a 6,000-capacity stadium be totally sold-out than a 12,000-stadium be half-empty.

P.S. LRC’s Jonathan Gault was in Eugene for NCAAs and reports there was a decent-sized crowd in the home straight on Friday. But it did not come across that way on the broadcast because many of the cameras are pointed towards the east side of the stadium, where many fans choose not to sit because of the sun.

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The 13 most popular messageboard threads from last week

The hardest core track fans are going at it 24/7/365 on the forum.

1. Sad news former NCAA 1500m record holder Eliud Kipsang has died at 28, help send his body back to Kenya
2. Nico MF Young. Holy shit. Nico Young 12:45.27 FTW in Oslo outdoor AR!!!! George Mills British record!! Young wins WR attempt in Oslo. Wow.
3. Update: Grand Slam Track LA Cancelled
4. Rita Gary (Furman Coach) tweets about foreign athletes
5. What new drugs are all these American runners taking?
6. Graham Blanks has a crucial decision to make
7. Katelyn Touhy 15:04
8. Jakob Posts What I Eat In a Day Video
9. Bobby Kersee’s latest self-awareness fail
10. Nico who? Sweden’s Andreas Almgren solos a 12:44.27 European Record in Stockholm
11. Hocker 13:09 in Sweden – should he just stick to 1500?
12. DONNY MF BRAZIER: In case you weren’t convinced. He’s officially, officially back. 1:43.81 negative split
13. HSer Maurice Gleaton and Christian Coleman get into an altercation at Star Athletics Sprint Series

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