Updates from Sopot

For those of you interested in the professional running scene, this three day stretch is the World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland. Today while most of us were sleeping or getting ready for school, the prelims for most of the distance finals unfolded on the track in Sopot and the US had some mixed results.

Both Gabby Grunewald and Shannon Rowbury advanced to the final in the woman's 3k, Rowbury with the last auto in her heat and Grunewald with the last time qualifier. Only 3 girls in total were eliminated during the prelims, so it's not exactly a difficult journey to the finals, but it's nice to see the US represented. The favorite in the final will be Genezebe Dibaba, the world indoor record holder at 1500m, 3000m and 2-miles. She is on a whole other level relative to this field. If things are tactical we know Rowbury and Grunewald have strong kicks, but the 3k is pretty loaded and both woman will need some fortune to snag medals on Sunday.

The men's 1500m prelims eliminate a slew of favorites from the world championship final. In Heat 1 the US's Lopez Lomong was facing off in a stacked heat and, off slow fractions, was outkicked and missed the final. Also missing the final was multiple world championship finalist Mekonnen Gebremedhin and up and coming miler Lee Emanuel of Great Britian. Tesfaye of Germany made it to the finals, he is proving to be an excellent tactician in recent years. Jakub Holusa of Czech Republic surprised for the second spot in the finals. That can happen in a kicker's race. His best 1500m ever is only 3:38 (Lomong's is 3:32) but Holusa has 1:45.12 800m speed and that got him in as a surprise finalist. He has also clocked 7:53 this year indoors for 3k as a nice Pr.

In the second heat, things were also fairly tactical. As a result, former WC silver Medalist and sub 3:30 man Silas Kiplagat was left out of the final, thus eliminating perhaps the biggest name in the field. Finishing ahead of him was Ayanleh Souleiman, a fantastic 800m-1500m type who was the bronze medalist in the WC 800m last year. Souleiman was joined by Nick Willis of New Zealand  who is having an excellent indoor season. The former Michigan grad outkicked Kiplagat and Chris O'Hare (former indoor collegiate mile record holder) to get in. He also beat out former teammate Nate Brannen. Souleiman and Willis go into the final as the two clear favorites for medals in the event. Stunningly, Kiplagat's 3:39, which got him third in the heat, was also not good enough to get on time.

The final heat was quick from the gun, and that allowed Will Leer among others to pass into the final on time. Aman Wote and defending world indoor champion Abdalaati Iguider took the 1-2 auto qualifying spots and the field flooded in quickly behind them. Will Leer outkicked a slew of top metric milers like Birgen and Ozbilen and ended in 3:38.02 for third in the heat and the third fastest time of the day. Birgen and Ozbilen will join Leer as the final time qualifiers with David McCarthy, former Providence miler, running 3:39.46 and just missing Ozbilen's spot.

The 1500m final is loaded, but if Leer can race tactically sound, he has proven he has great kicking ability. There are certainly better runners in this field than him on paper, but Leer's kick always makes him dangerous. If I had to guess, in a field like this, I don't expect Leer to be in the top 5, but a lot of other big names have been eliminated so who knows what other superstars will fail to rise to the occasion.

In the women's 800m, Ajee Wilson, the young american superstar at 800m, took a surprising exit from the world indoor championship, perhaps eliminating the USA's best shot at a medal. Wilson finished her heat in 4th in 2:02.90 and needed to win her heat to get an auto bid into the 6 woman final. In Heat 3, PA's own Chanelle Price led the race nearly wire to wire and, although she just barely missed out on the win, she did run 2:01.05 and got herself into the world final! Congrats to Easton's Chanelle Price! Things should be interesting for Chanelle in final. The final isn't exactly loaded with the big names at 800m and she likely will assume the pace and command the race. If she can do that and hold off enough kickers on the last lap she should snag a medal. Price is tough to pass on an indoor track and has PRs almost across the board indoors this season. I think Price has a fantastic chance to sneak onto the medal stand in Sopot.

In the men's 8, we had a bit of a let down. Both Erik Sowinski (who I had very high hopes for) and Nick Symmonds (last year's world championship sliver medalist) missed qualifying for the finals by a decent margin. Symmonds is never ready to run fast indoors so his miss wasn't as surprising for me as Sowinski's who wasn't even close to qualifying off a 1:48 run. I like Sowinski and think he has lots of room to develop, he just needed some extra experience on the world scene.

Sowinski was in the same heat as the class of the field, Mo Aman who won the heat on the final lap outkicking Kevin Lopez who took the race through in a blazing 52.9 that left some of the lesser name guys gasping for breath. Meanwhile, Aman was quite comfortable at that pace and made it through.

In the second heat, Symmonds couldn't quite stay in contact as the heat was won in 1:46.18 by Andre Olivier. Symmonds finished fourth in the heat with a 1:47.29. Marcin Lewandowski of Poland was second in 1:46.26 and is a very dangerous name looking ahead to the finals. Ollivier's race was a pleasant surprise win in the heat. Third in the heat, and qualifying for the finals on time was 22 year old Thijmen Kupers who came through with a big surprise 3rd place. His 1:46.55 was just .09 off his outdoor PR. As a point of reference, Balla (DQ'd from this heat), Symmonds and Lewandowski are all 1:43 or faster guys.

The third and final heat was also blazing fast. The first two laps were covered in 51.71 by Mutai. Adam Kszczot of Poland, countryman of Lewandowski, won the heat impressively. Andrew Osagie, who is always clutch at the world championships, raced to a 1:45.88, good for second in the heat and second fastest time of the day, to qualify for yet another world championship final. Osagie rounds out a very intriguing final that is led by Aman and the Polish runners, but has darkhorses including Osaige himself and Olivier to join the newcomer Kupers.

The men's 3000m trials and women's 1500m trials will happen later today! Hopefully Rupp, Lagat, Kampf and Moser will get through to the finals in the USA jersey.

EDIT: Heather Kampf in a bit of a surprise leads her heat for about 1400m before being edged out, but she still snags an auto spot into the finals! Represented the USA well after her surprise call up to the big leagues with Cain pulling out due to injury. Moser also looked very good, she won her heat without much issue. Aregawi of Sweden, likely the favorite to win the race, also won her heat and qualified fairly easily in the fastest time of the day.

Heat 1 of the 3k is all finished up and Galen Rupp notched one of the auto qualifying spots in the heat. Also qualifying were favorites Dejen Gebremeskel and Augustine Choge. Andrew Vernon from Great Britian got the 4th auto spot. The heat was pretty quick overall with the top 7 all running under 7:50. Gelant and Biringham get in on time.

Turns out the second heat was just as quick and the names get through to the final. Lagat qualifies out of heat 2 along with Ndiku, Gebrhiwet and Ibrahomiv. Ndiku is a really potent sleeper going forward, after winning his heat today he comes into the final with a strong 3:29 Pr from a year ago that gives him a great kick against this field. Cam Levins, the Canadian sensation, manages to sneak in on time. Zane Robertson joins him out of this second heat.

Sets up a very exciting final with defending champion Lagat, big time world level medalists like Rupp, Choge, Gebremeskel, and Gebrhiwet and then sleepers like Ndiku and Levins who have nice closing speed. This is probably the most exciting final for me personally.