The American distance crew capped its impressive weekend with four more medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships on Sunday, led by Matthew Centrowitz’s gold in the 1500 meters and silver-medal finishes by Ajee’ Wilson in the 800 and Ryan Hill in the 3,000 meters.
Shannon Rowbury added a bronze in the women’s 3,000 meters to bring Team USA’s medal haul to six in the middle-distance and distance races.
Hill set the early tone for the Americans with a dramatic finishing kick that propelled him from fourth to second on the final lap of the 3,000-meter final. The crowd erupted as Hill inched closer to the eventual winner, Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, coming down the home straightaway. The near miss—by only 0.18 seconds—left the 26-year-old American wanting even more than silver.
“Some of that ‘just get top five’ mentality probably cost me the gold medal,” Hill said. “But before this race my best world finish was seventh, so to come back with second is really hard to complain about.”
On the women’s side, the 3,000-meter final quickly became a race for second place behind world-record holder Genzeba Dibaba of Ethiopia, who charged to the lead with nine laps to go and never let it get close.
About 15 meters back, Rowbury settled into a chase pack led by Meseret Defar of Ethiopia, Stephanie Twell of Great Britain, and Betsy Saina of Kenya. Defar made a strong move in the last quarter-mile to claim silver, but Rowbury kept it close, hanging on for the bronze in 8:55.55.
“It was incredible,” Rowbury said. “You only get so many opportunities at a championship, and you only get this [chance] once in a lifetime to have worlds at home. I wanted to take full advantage.”
Behind Rowbury, former Dartmouth standout Abbey D’Agostino rallied late to finish fifth in the 13-athlete field.
“I’m psyched,” D’Agostino said. “Heading into the last lap, I couldn’t even tell you what place I was in. I just kept my eyes fixed [ahead] and knew I could pick off a couple people.”
In the women’s 800-meter final, Wilson passed Kenya’s Margaret Wambui in the final 50 meters to win silver in 2:00.27, while fellow American Laura Roesler finished fourth. Wilson’s late-race surge wasn’t quite enough to eclipse Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba, who won in a world-leading time of 2:00.01.
Wilson said the silver-medal performance earned her some redemption from the 2014 world championships in Poland, where she failed to qualify for the final. But like Hill, the 21-year-old was only half-satisfied with second place.
“I wasn’t prepared for Francine [Niyonsaba] to come up, and when she did, I just didn’t react fast enough,” Wilson said. “I waited too late to make my charge, and silver is what I get for that.
“Silver’s great,” she added, “but I still wish I would have walked away with gold.”
One American who did walk away with gold on Sunday was Matthew Centrowitz, who used his finishing kick to charge past New Zealand’s Nick Willis on the final straightaway, much as he did at the Millrose Games only a month earlier.
“I said to myself, ‘Look, I’ve been in this position before,’” said Centrowitz, who ran a winning time of 3:44.22. “I found myself level with 50 meters to go, and I just thought how bad I really wanted it.”
Jakub Holuša of the Czech Republic finished second in 3:44.30 ahead of Willis in 3:44.37. Just 0.15 seconds separated the first three finishers. American Robby Andrews used a big last lap to finish fourth in 3:44.77.
Sunday’s races capped a brilliant four-day competition for Team USA, which won a meet-record 23 medals, including 13 golds, in all events
