MANTZ, O’KEEFFE WIN THRILLING OLYMPIC TRIALS MARATHON

MANTZ, O’KEEFFE WIN THRILLING OLYMPIC TRIALS MARATHON
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2024 Race Outcomes Weekly, all rights reserved, used with Permission ORLANDO (03-Feb) — Conner Mantz and Fiona O’Keeffe scored spectacular victories this morning on the USA Olympic Workforce Trials Marathon, clinching their Paris Olympic staff spots with robust instances.  Mantz, 27, who had the quickest qualifying time for these Trials, broke away late within the race along with his coaching associate Clayton Younger and completed in 2:09:05, simply three seconds slower than Ryan Corridor’s 2007 occasion document.  Younger solely completed a second again and likewise made the Olympic staff.  O’Keeffe, 25, made a sensational marathon debut, pulling away from the pack within the nineteenth mile and working alone to the end in a Trials document of two:22:10, a USA debut document.  Behind her, Emily Sisson (2:22:42) and Dakotah Lindwurm (2:25:31) booked the opposite two staff spots.The third-place man, Leonard Korir, solely secured a provisional staff spot.  The USA has not but “unlocked” a 3rd quota place for the Paris 2024 Males’s Marathon, and Korir’s time right now of two:09:57 was nicely off the two:08:10 required by World Athletics to safe a 3rd spot.  It’s nonetheless doable for him to safe a staff berth by means of the World Athletics factors system or if one other USA athlete runs under the time commonplace by Might fifth.  It’s largely out of Korir’s fingers at this level.

PANNING BREAKS THE RACE OPEN

Zach Panning, the highest American from final summer season’s World Athletics Championships Marathon, was the primary athlete to make a severe transfer in right now’s males’s race.  Panning, 28, who trains with the Hansons-Brooks Unique Distance Mission, surged to the lead in the course of the sixth mile, recording a 4:49 mile cut up.  Sixteen males stayed with him, however that might quickly change.

“After I noticed Zach hit the entrance at 5 and a half miles, I checked out Clayton,” mentioned Mantz, who represents Nike.  “I simply checked out him.  I didn’t even nod.  He checked out me, and I used to be like, we’re going for it.”

Panning, carrying a vivid yellow cap and sun shades, ran a blistering sequence of miles: 4:49, 4:48, 4:47, 4:51, 4:49, 4:48, and 4:52 by means of the 13-mile mark.  He hit midway in 1:04:07, which put the Paris qualifying commonplace of two:08:10 inside his grasp.  Solely seven different males had been in a position to maintain that tempo: Mantz, Younger, Korir, Teshome Mekonen, Galen Rupp, Elkanah Kibet, Andrew Colley, Shadrack Kipchirchir, and Nathan Martin.

Panning felt assured.  He had educated in Florida all winter and knew what the nice and cozy and sunny circumstances would imply later within the race.  Nonetheless a younger marathoner, he felt free to experiment.

“This was my first Trials and, I might say, inexperience was displaying somewhat bit,” he mentioned later.  “I’m actually pleased with how I raced.”

Panning saved up the new tempo by means of 16 miles, then pushed even more durable within the seventeenth mile, the place he ran 4:44, the quickest of the race.  That introduced the pack down to 5: Panning, Mantz, Korir, Colley, and Kibet.  Rupp was 5 seconds again and would proceed to fade within the closing miles of the race to complete sixteenth in 2:14:07.  His quest for a fifth Olympic staff was over.  Colley would additionally drop out.

“I did the most effective I might to get throughout the road,” a weary Rupp informed reporters.  “It simply wasn’t my day right now.  It’s clearly actually disappointing.  I had hoped to do higher. It’s simply the way in which it goes generally.”

After hitting the 20-mile mark in 1:37:22, Panning’s vitality began to wane.  His subsequent three miles had been 4:59, 5:08, and 5:06.  The two:08:10 end time, which appeared so doable ten miles earlier than, was now unimaginable.

“I executed the race plan however possibly acquired somewhat antsy somewhat early,” Panning lamented.  “Simply possibly a pinch too excited.  It’s hindsight 20-20.  I’m actually pleased with how I raced, and I believe I did all the things I might.”

By the 24-mile mark, Mantz and Younger had been alone.  Panning was 18 seconds again, and Kibet was coming for him.  Panning solely managed a 6:03 for his twenty sixth mile and would end sixth in 2:09:33.

However the battle for third wasn’t over.  Korir discovered new power after mentally giving up earlier within the race.  He realized that he might catch Kibet and handed him with about 800m to go to take third in 2:09:57.  Korir had been fourth on the 2020 Trials and didn’t need that to occur once more.

“After I noticed these guys coming again to me and I used to be seeing it was like 800 meters to go, and I used to be like, don’t end fourth once more,” Korir informed Race Outcomes Weekly.  “Strive no matter you’ve acquired to do.”

Kibet acquired fourth in 2:10:02 (a brand new USA masters document by one second), and C.J. Albertson –who was solely in ninth place at midway– took fifth in 2:10:07.

Two pre-race favorites, Scott Fauble and Sam Chelanga, dropped out.

O’KEEFFE STUNS IN MARATHON DEBUT

O’Keeffe solely certified for these Trials with a half-marathon efficiency (1:09:34), so it will need to have come as a shock to her rivals when she and Lindwurm moved to the lead within the eleventh mile and went by means of midway in a quick 1:11:43.  A really robust group of ladies had been behind them together with Sisson, Keira D’Amato, Sara Corridor, Emily Durgin, Makenna Myler, Caroline Rotich, Nell Rojas, Lindsay Flanagan, Betsy Saina and Annie Frisbie.

“I assume it felt proper,” O’Keeffe defined to reporters later about why she went to the entrance.  “Possibly somewhat little bit of not understanding what I used to be moving into.”

O’Keeffe determined to roll the cube within the seventeenth mile and recorded a 5:16 cut up, the quickest of the race to date.  She ran 5:27 for the 18th mile, then 5:22 for the nineteenth.  That daring transfer launched her into sole possession of the lead.

“That is going to sound corny, however I simply didn’t wish to have any regrets right now,” O’Keeffe informed reporters.  “I wasn’t positive at that stage if it was a mistake or if it was going to repay.  I simply needed to go for it.”

O’Keeffe ran alone from there to the end.  When she broke the tape, her race bib was purple and stained with blood. The bundle of an vitality gel packet she had tucked into her race uniform had chafed her.

Sisson pulled away from the remainder of the ladies and, like O’Keeffe, ran alone to the end in 2:22:42.

“I attempted to maintain my eyes on her,” Sisson mentioned of O’Keeffe.  “Fiona ran an ideal race. It was an incredible debut.”

The battle for third was epic.  Lindwurm was solely in sixth place on the 20-mile mark however moved as much as fourth by mile 21 and edged previous Rotich to get into third place within the twenty second mile.  It might not be till the twenty fifth mile that Rotich needed to let go, and Lindwurm clinched the third and closing staff spot.

“It feels so good,” Lindwurm informed reporters.  “If I’ve dreamed of this as soon as, I’ve dreamed of it a thousand instances.  It nearly doesn’t really feel actual.  I can’t let you know what number of instances I pictured holding this American flag.  I don’t know if I’m ever going to take it off.

Fourth place went to unheralded Jessica McClain.  McClain was in thirteenth place at midway (1:12:38), and slowly moved up within the second half working her personal race.  She clocked a four-minute private greatest of two:25:46 and completed much better than most anticipated.

“I understand how to run within the warmth, so I knew to be affected person,” McClain mentioned.  “Just about each marathon I’ve run, that’s what I can base my expertise on.  Lots of people have come again to me every time.  I do know I’m an excellent second half of the race runner, so I simply tried to remain inside myself.”

Corridor, who’s 40, completed fifth in 2:26:06, a nationwide masters document.  These had been her eighth Olympic Trials (combining observe and marathon Trials).  She has but to make an Olympic staff, and a reporter requested her if she would attempt once more in 2028.

“I by no means thought I’d nonetheless be doing this at this level, so I’d by no means say by no means,” Corridor mentioned.  “I’m simply going to maintain doing this so long as I’m having fun with it and enhancing.  I’m very grateful for that.”