EUGENE — Grant Fisher ran a strong race to win the men's 10,000-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials on a hot Friday night.
Fisher, the U.S. record holder, broke away from a fiercely competitive lead pack in the final two laps to finish in 27 minutes, 49.47 seconds and secure a spot on the Olympic team.
Following him on the U.S. team was former University of Portland star Woody Kincaid in second place in 27:50.74 and Northern Arizona University's Nico Young in third place in 27:52.40.
The 10,000m was the only Friday final in the qualifying round, which kicked off eight days of competition over 10 days in front of a crowd of 11,227 at Hayward Field, but there was plenty of action in the qualifying round, with reigning world champion Shakari Richardson, 2021 Olympic champion Assing Mu and a number of athletes with ties to the University of Oregon advancing to first-round races.
The win was vindication for Fisher, who made a controversial decision to leave the Eugene-based Bowerman Track Club after last season and train essentially on his own in Park City, Utah.
“Deep down, I knew it was the right choice,” Fisher said. “Leaving Bowerman was a hard decision. It was a risky one because that's all I knew. I had really thrived under the system, but in my heart I knew it was the right time. I was ready for a change.”
- clock: To watch every event at the Olympic Trials for under $6, subscribe to NBC's low-cost streaming service, Peacock Premium ($5.99 per month), which will broadcast every event until the final day. Major events will also be broadcast live on NBC and USA Network. If you don't have cable, you can watch select events live for free on Fubo (free trial) or DirecTV Stream (free trial).
After missing out on a spot on the U.S. team for the 2023 World Outdoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, he entered the year with one big goal.
“I want to be on the team,” Fisher said. “I wasn't on the team last year. I watched Budapest from the couch. It was awful. This race wasn't a qualifying race, it was a goal. I wanted to win. I wanted to win in a big way.”
Mission complete.
Kinkaid had a hiatus from training in April and May with a hip injury, so he worked to stay in shape with 10 days of cross-training during the crucial period.
Kincaid was the 2021 Olympic Trials champion, but admitted she arrived in Eugene for this year's trials feeling nervous.
“Nobody wants to go into the Olympic Trials after not racing for three months,” Kincaid said. “It wasn't ideal.”
No need to worry, Kincaid ran the final 400 meters in 55.7 seconds, firmly securing his spot on the U.S. team.
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In the women's 100m, Richardson stumbled at the start, but it didn't matter.
She quickly regained her balance and ran through the heat, winning in the fastest time of the day, 10.88 seconds.
Saturday's 100-meter semifinals will feature a number of sprinters who ran collegiately at Oregon State, including alumni English Gardner and Jenna Prandini, as well as current Oregon sprinter Jaydin Mays.
While Richardson chose not to speak to reporters in the interview area afterwards, Gardner, 32, the 2016 Olympic Trials champion, took the court. She spoke passionately about overcoming injuries and the self-imposed pressures of the past few years.
“It took me about three years to get out of that,” Gardner said, “and I realized I had put too much effort into athletics. … I'm just starting to fully understand this and finally start loving what I do again.”
That said, she'll probably need to run a faster time than she finished in 11.17 seconds on Friday, and she knows it.
“If you look at the video, you can see I have a little bit of pain on my right side,” Gardner said, “the side that I had surgery on. I need to find out what's going on. I didn't like the way I was lowering my foot forward with every step. It wasn't painful, but it looked awful.”
Prandini, a two-time Olympian, finished in 11.03 seconds, while Mays finished in 11.07 seconds. Mays last competed in front of a Hayward crowd at the NCAA Championships earlier this month.
“It's a surreal experience,” Mays said of the trials, “most of the people here are older than me. There are some women who have run the fastest times in the world and have done things that will live on forever.”
While Mew is making a lot of noise internationally, former University of Oregon star Raevyn Rogers of Portland-based Union Athletics Club delighted the hometown crowd by cruising through the first round of the women's 800 meters with ease.
Rogers, who starred at the University of Oregon before going on to compete professionally and winning a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, jumped out of the box on the back straight and went off the track on the home straight to qualify third in a time of 2 minutes 1.73 seconds.
She was a mystery going into the Trials after withdrawing from last month's Prefontaine Classic. On Friday, she said she wanted to keep a low profile before the Trials and take her time to “tune up.” “I think there were some stresses I was under that were different than normal leading up to the Trials,” she said.
“Once I had a break, I was able to rediscover myself, and that's the most important thing.”
Rogers looked good in the qualifiers and didn't have to push herself too hard. The top six from the four qualifiers advance to Sunday's semifinals, and she said she felt ready.
“Look, I'm a competitor and a fighter,” Rogers said. “I believe in myself.”
This is the same approach that American record holder Mu took in his first qualifying round.
In her first race of the year, she qualified third in a time of 2 minutes 1.73 seconds, after Mu was absent at this point due to a reported hamstring injury.
She insisted on Friday that her “hamstring is fine. No problem.”
If she was limping, it didn't show; rust and all, she looked good enough to finish in the top three in Monday's final and earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
“I'm just going to take it one day at a time, one race at a time, and keep training my legs,” Mu said. “It's been a while.”
Here are the results of the Olympic Qualifiers.
— Ken Goe, The Oregonian/OregonLive, KenGoe1020@gmail.com
