Galen Rupp started today’s Olympic Trials 5,000 meters with a chance to become the first American runner to win the national championship 5,000, 10,000, and marathon in the same year. History didn’t smile on Rupp, however, as Bernard Lagat (13:35.50), Hassan Mead (13:35.70), and Paul Chelimo (13:35.92) grabbed the top three spots.
Lagat’s sub-53-second final lap put him on his fifth consecutive Olympic team—two for Kenya, the last three for the U.S. It also made him the second 41-year-old distance runner on the American squad. He is six months senior to marathon runner Meb Keflezighi. “The last lap, I just put my head down, and counted off the numbers,” Lagat said. “One, two … I knew there were five ahead of me. I told myself, ‘It’s now or never.’”
As storied as his career has been, Lagat worried that he might be concluding on a sour note. He was sick at last year’s national championships, sick at the Prefontaine Classic meet this year, and dropped out of the 10,000-meter final eight days ago. “It was crushing. I didn’t want my kids to see me end that way,” he said. “This year my daughter said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to make the team. I want to go to the gymnastics in Rio.’ ”
A former elite 1500-meter runner, with bronze and silver medals in that event in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, Lagat used his closing speed to get out from behind a big pack contending for the top spots. At the gun, a dramatically slowing Rupp led the eventual top three, plus Ben True, Eric Jenkins, and Ryan Hill.
Chelimo attacked first, then Mead, then Lagat came through in the final 50 meters to claim the win. He received thunderous applause from the knowledgeable Hayward Field crowd, which he’s performed in front of since his undergrad days at the Washington State University. “I’ve been racing here since the late 1990s,” Lagat said. “I think the fans know that I always make a hard, honest effort. I appreciate them so much.” Lagat has a personal best of 12:53.60 in the 5,000 meters.
RELATED: Bernard Lagat's Amazing Victory, in 12 Photos
Like Lagat, Mead did not finish in the 10,000 meters last Friday, a result that he called “devastating.” He raced in the 2008 trials—“I was just a puppy”—and again in 2012—“I still wasn’t competitive”—and put a lot of pressure on himself in preparing for 2016. “I knew I had to get it done this year,” he said. “I liked where I was the last three laps, and I never looked back the last lap. Everything I had to get done was right in front of me.”
In the final meters, Mead, 26, who trains with the Oregon Track Club Elite, thought he might get around Lagat for the win, but couldn’t find the room. “To go across the line knowing I had made the Olympic team, I’m not sure it has hit me yet,” he said. “I definitely didn’t want to wait another four years.”
With a best 5,000-meter time of 13:02.80 and mile speed in the 3:54-3:55 range, Mead could fare well in Rio.
Chelimo, 25, surged past Rupp at the beginning of the last lap to grab the lead. Before the 5,000-meter semifinal, he had mistakenly taken a sleeping pill instead of ibuprofen, but he was awake and flying now. “I was trying to make it hard on Bernard and Hassan,” he said. “I didn’t want to wait for the final 200 meters.” Chelimo’s best 5,000 is 13:21.61, but he’s improving fast, as are many the members of the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program.
Four U.S. Army runners—Shadrack Kipchirchir and Leonard Korir in the 10,000 meters; Hillary Bor in the steeplechase; and now Chelimo—have now qualified for Rio.
Chelimo almost lost the third spot in the final meters to a desperately sprinting Eric Jenkins, a University of Oregon grad and member of the Oregon Project. At the tape, the margin between them was 0.06 seconds.
“I’ve run on this track a lot of times, but I’ve never experienced anything so intense,” said Jenkins, another 10,000-meter dropout. “I thought I had a shot at Paul. I knew it was going to be close, and I thought my lean was pretty impressive. But it just wasn’t enough.”
Ben True finished fifth, less than a half-second behind Jenkins. One of the premeet favorites with his 5,000 personal best of 13:02.74 and a recent 1500-meter breakthrough (3:36:05), True was trying to live through the disappointment of a subpar race in the 2012 trials when he had Lyme disease. He had also struggled in the 10,000 meters, finishing 11th. “It’s heartbreaking not to make the team,” he said. “I thought I was in good position with a lap to go, but I just didn’t have it. I don’t know if it was the 10K or if I’m just not as fit as last year.”
After being passed by a handful of runners on the last lap, Rupp practically jogged to the finish, placing ninth in 13:41.09. “I’m disappointed of course, but at least I went for it,” said the double 5,000/10,000 winner from 2012. “The others closed good, while I died a bit. Maybe the marathon training is a factor in my not having much leg speed now.”
Rupp sprinted a 61-second lap to open a lead on the pack between 3200 and 3600 meters. However, he had no defense when the contenders stormed back over the last 500 meters.
“I mean I wanted to just pick it up gradually and make a long drive to the end,” he said. “The hope was to get away so that [Oregon Project teammate] Eric [Jenkins] could sit back and not have to do any work and pick guys off because he obviously can close really well.”
The first two-and-a half laps of the race had been covered at a ridiculously slow pace, basically 75 seconds per lap. At that point, Brian Shrader Australian Sprinter, 16, Runs Record-Breaking 200m. William Kincaid joined him. “We were going so slow it was embarrassing,” Shrader said. “I was planning on waiting and waiting, but I thought, ‘This is stupid. Go for it.’”
He and Kincaid stayed out front until Rupp gave chase, and bolted past. Kincaid finished eighth in 13:39.96, and Shrader 14th in 13:58.48.
Lagat has one of those faces that, when he smiles, he puts out enough energy to light up a mid-sized city. He did a lot of smiling tonight. And jumping up and down. And hugging his kids. And waving an American flag. There was no one who wasn’t impressed and delighted by his stunning performance.
A reporter asked Rupp for a comment. The 30-year-old produced a wry grin. “I don’t know what to say right now,” he said. “Ask me in another 10 years.”
Jenkins, just 24, and therefore 17 years younger than Lagat, out quipped Rupp. “I’ll probably retire before Bernard does,” he said.
