by Jeff Hollobaugh

Jenny Simpson makes it clear: “Leading the race was not planned.” Sometimes, though, things happen. “A funny combination of events,” as she puts it. An armchair coach–or even this author–might have said only a fool would lead a World Championship final when Abeba Aregawi seemed unbeatable in the months leading in. Simpson, though, is anything but a fool.

She had surprised the world by winning the title in Daegu two years earlier. She followed that with a considerably less happy Olympic year (she didn’t make the final in London). So at the end of 2012, she returned to her college coach, Mark Wetmore, who had guided her to a U.S. steeplechase record and a 3:59.90 for the Buffs. A hard winter of training put her in amazing shape for her title defense. Her slowest time leading up to Moscow, 4:03.35 at Drake, was faster than anything she ran the previous year. “I knew I’d made a real significant gain in physical ability and in confidence.”

Yet the competition loomed much larger than before. Abeba Aregawi, the Ethiopian-born Swede, had finished 5th in London and ran undefeated at 1500 prior to Moscow. Hellen Obiri had run 3:58.58 to win at the Prefontaine Classic. Faith Kipyegon, just a teenager, had pushed Aregawi to the line in Doha, clocking 3:56.98 to the Swede’s world leading 3:56.60. Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia had run 3:57.54 at Doha and also seemed like a creditable threat.

In planning the race with her coaches, Simpson refused to discuss the final until she had safely made it through the semis. She felt snakebit from the previous season: “I’m a little bit superstitious, and I know I don’t want to just have the final in my mind and have it taken away again.”

When they did sit down to plan, Simpson remembers, “We talked about the most serious competition–or the most prepared competition–and we talked about how being fast was better than the race being slow for me.

“Then I woke up the morning before my final. And we saw that I had been randomly drawn in lane one for the start of the race. I think that for most distance people, lane one is the worst lane you can possibly get, because you’re starting out so fast, the tempo of the race is truly set in the first 200 and 300, and nobody wants to lead. And yet you are the person that everyone is going be collapsing in on. Lane one is horrible. I definitely was not happy when I saw that.”

Then came the delay of the start, as the officials wanted to give Bohdan Bondarenko the stage for a world record attempt in the high jump. “So they held us. They didn’t start the race until quite a bit after when they said it was going to begin. People got really nervous and amped up. We had been standing out there for so long and we were way beyond warmed up and ready to go. I think that all that just got me really quickly off the starting line.”

When the gun fired, Simpson shot to the lead. Teenager Mary Cain came in from the outside and the two bumped elbows a little before Cain dropped back behind her. Obiri moved to a stalking position a half-stride behind Simpson’s shoulder. Likewise, Aregawi put herself just off Obiri’s shoulder. Simpson led the crowded pack–running up to four wide–through the 400 in 65.76. Behind her, the places shuffled a bit. Zoe Buckman of Australia edged ahead of Cain on the inside and put herself behind Obiri, as Aregawi kept her options open on the outside. “When I found myself in the lead,” says Simpson, “I remember thinking, ‘This is a safer place. And I feel like I can handle this, and I don’t want to give it up.’

“I thought, ‘I need to control this race. I don’t necessarily have to go out and be crazy and run it as fast as I can. But if I’m going to be in the lead, I have to keep it, and I need to control the race from here. I think that mentality kept me from making a huge mistake. I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t too fast, it isn’t too slow. This is really comfortable. I know I can run the whole way this way, and so there is no reason to give up the lead,’ So I had a lot of conviction. I just felt like if I was in this position, I better own it and I need to run smart and hard the whole way and not give it up until I have to.”

After 600m, Dibaba made her move to join the leaders, but in the space of the homestretch she slipped back again as Moroccan Siham Hilali brought herself nearly even with Simpson and Aregawi. At 800 to go, the Swede made a move to edge ahead of Simpson into the lead before the turn. Simpson responded and calmly held her off. “At that point I had so much invested in the race, I already had 700m of leading. I thought, ‘I can’t give it up and give other people hope,’ I had just done just a lot of the work.” She passed through 800 in 2:13.95, a 68.19 lap. “I wasn’t leading the race so that people could take over and sprint past me and it would be a free-for-all at the end.”

Around the next turn, Aregawi ran just off Simpson’s shoulder, as Dibaba again made a bid to join them at the front. Simpson started to increase the pace with 500 to go. “One of the horrible things about being the leader is that you can’t see and you can’t sense very much of what is going on behind you. So I didn’t want be caught off guard. I needed to be the first person to start winding it up. If I didn’t do that all of a sudden three people would be passing me. And then I would have absolutely no control over what happens over the last 400m. I’d be just like everybody else vying for position.” At the bell, Simpson (3:03.75) still led by half a stride over Aregawi, Yekaterina Sharmina of Russia, and Buckman. Rather than fold under the pressure of their kicks, Simpson again upped the ante at the front.

Aregawi edged ahead at 1200 (3:18.97). Simpson’s third lap took 65.04. Thirty meters later, when Obiri tried to pass Simpson as well, she responded with another gear change.” I definitely wanted to stay in contact with [Aregawi]. I definitely was still fighting to win the race. But at the same time on the very top of the final curve, when Helen came up on me, I’m bridging the gap between wanting to win and fight for the win, and still protecting the silver medal. There is a very short period of time on the top of the turn where I really had to defend my space.”

Coming off the turn, the gains Aregawi made became apparent. She sprinted for gold. Simpson, however, rather than folding after carrying the lead for so long, decisively outstripped Obiri and Kipyegon to grab the silver a stride behind the Swede. Her last lap took 59.24. Afterwards, Aregawi, who finished in 58.84, said, “Today, the race suited me perfectly.”

Simpson looks back on it thoughtfully: “I think in that instant that I was focused on defending my second-place position, Abeba Aregawi got just the ground on me that I wasn’t able to make up the last hundred meters. I don’t know, looking back, do I think there’s anything I could’ve done to still win it? I don’t know. I definitely was running as hard as I could.”

As for taking the gamble of leading a championship, Simpson says, “I think sometimes the reason that people get eaten alive when they’re leading, is the entire time, they don’t want to lead. They don’t want it. They have been forced into that position and they’re hating every single second of it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m kind of a positive person. Or maybe I have a screw loose or something. But I think once I was in the lead it hearkened a little back to my steeplechasing days when I led a lot of races, I said to myself, ‘I’m comfortable here, I’m safe here,’ It’s so much less likely that you will fall when you’re in the lead. And I was really happy to have that position. And then I didn’t want to give it up.”

Watch the race on YouTube.

Results (8/15/2013): 1. Abeba Aregawi (Sweden) 4:02.67; 2. Jenny Simpson (US) 4:02.99; 3. Hellen Obiri (Kenya) 4:03.86; 4. Hannah England (GB) 4:04.98; 5. Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) 4:05.08; 6. Yekaterina Sharmina (Russia) 4:05.49; 7. Zoe Buckman (Australia) 4:05.77; 8. Genzebe Dibaba (Ethiopia) 4:05.99; 9. Nancy Langat (Kenya) 4:06.01; 10. Mary Cain (US) 4:07.19; 11. Siham Hilali (Morocco) 4:09.16; 12. Yelena Korobkina (Russia) 4:10.18.

Acknowledgements due to Track & Field News for the correct, detailed splits. Photo: USATF.

by Jeff Hollobaugh

As the world’s best runners converge upon Europe for the remainder of the Diamond League season, much of the focus will be on records. Especially in the middle distances and beyond, records are forged on the fastest European tracks more through careful orchestration than brute competition. Indeed, if competitive fire was needed to make distance records happen, fans would see far more of them in the Olympic Games. Rather, most distance records happen with a rabbit leading the way, and no medals on the line.

Abdi Bile (bee-lay) seemed always stymied in the chase for Olympic gold and records. The Somalian great certainly had the talent for both. In 1987, he captured the World Championship title in the 1500 with a stunning 1:46.0 final 800. Two years later, he outlegged Sebastian Coe at the World Cup in the British great’s final 1500 race. Yet his Olympic history played out unfortunately. In 1984, as a relative unknown with two years of running behind him, he qualified for the historic Los Angeles Olympics 1500 final against Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram–this despite having fractured his leg at the NCAA meet. However, he was disqualified after Brazilian Agberto Guimaraes failed to finish due to a bumping incident. Then, in 1988, when he should have been near his career peak, he missed the entire season because of injury. In 1992, the injury story all over again. Finally he made it back to the Games in 1996, but by then, he no longer had that killer kick; he finished 6th in the final.

Similarly, his chase for records, even behind the pacing of friendly rabbits, was equally unlucky. After his world title in 1987, he felt stung by some people saying that José-Luis González, the silver medalist, was actually the better runner and would have prevailed if the initial pace had not been so slow. So he aimed for a world record attempt in the 1500 at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels. “I just wanted to show those people that I could win either way.”

Trouble was, the weather didn’t cooperate. Temperatures were below 60 Fahrenheit (16˚C) at racetime and wet and windy. “That day it was raining, it was cold, it was freezing, and when I got there, I just said, ‘Oh my goodness this is crazy. Maybe you just have to change your mind.’ I thought if I could run 3:40, I would win. ‘That’s all you need!’ And I just said no. I don’t care if it’s raining. I don’t care if it’s freezing. I’m going to go.

“I went to the front. I did and González followed me up to 800, and he just died badly. I mean, I destroyed him.” Bile’s 3:31.80 indeed demolished the field. Jim Spivey of the U.S. salvaged second place more than five seconds back. Steve Scott was even farther behind (3:38.25 in 4th), and González finished 6th in 3:41.60. “That shows you how bad that day was,” says Bile. “But I ran a time that showed that I could run in the cold and the rain and the sun.” But had the weather gods smiled on Bile, that 3:31.80 might indeed have been a world record.

Two years later when he lined up at the Golden Gala 1500, in Pescara, Italy, he still had his eyes on Saïd Aouita’s world record of 3:29.46. Bile’s best was 3:31.71 from two years earlier, but he had just come off a victory in Oslo’s Dream Mile in 3:49.90, a 1:44.68 in the 800 two days later, and then a PR 2:14.51 in the kilometer. He felt ready, very ready.

The Pescara race had been orchestrated for a record. Briton Ikem Billy and another would do the early pacemaking, and Tony Morrell would then take the field to 1200m. It started well: 55.52 at 400, and 1:52.94 at 800. “I was feeling so good, and the pace was just right on,” recalls Bile, who passed those posts at 56.0 and 1:53.6. Then, with more than 400 left in the race, Morrell started slowing. At the same time, Bile wanted to stretch out his long legs and unleash a long kick. He passed the 1100m mark in 2:35.8, and would need a 53.6 finish to get the record, a split that seemed very achievable given his history as a kicker.

“With one lap to go, the pacemaker was slowing down, and I tried to tell him, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out! Move out!’ But he didn’t move out. He stayed there. And I’m trying to pass him from the outside, the inside, push him, saying, ‘Move! Move! Move!’ and he didn’t move. I think he was thinking he just wanted to get to 1200m to get his money.” Bile couldn’t begin his kick because of the obstruction, and his frustration grew throughout the penultimate turn.

That’s when Bile, worried that the record would slip away, decided to get more aggressive. He launched a major drive to get past Morrell as they came off the turn approaching the 1200m mark. But when Morrell hit 1200, he slowed and veered to the outside of the track, putting him on a collision course with the World Champion. Says Bile, “When I tried to pass him on the outside, he tried to move out. So he pushed me, and we ran together all the way to lane eight. I [had to] stop.”

It had all happened quickly–the snafu can be seen in the video (link below), though somewhat obscured by the discus net. Yet it is clear that Bile suddenly found himself out of the race, at a near stop, and out of world record contention. “By the time I ran all the way out to lane eight, the people who were behind me already came and passed me.”

Kenya’s Wilfred Kirochi had gotten well ahead of Bile, with Italy’s Gennaro Di Napoli now running even and New Zealand legend John Walker a step behind. It took 80 meters for Bile to get back into the lead: “I came back again, and I caught the people, and I passed them.” He stormed around the turn and to the finish as the clock ticked away. At the line, he led by nine meters in clocking a PR 3:31.20 ahead of national records for Kirochi and Di Napoli. He missed Aouita’s global standard by 1.74 seconds. His final lap took 55.4, a split that included the bumping out to lane 8 and the loss of his momentum. “Still, I ran 3:31.20, which took a little bit with all the stopping… and chasing people–a very bad race.”

That Pescara race is almost lost to history. Though Bile would run a faster time later in the season–3:30.55–he probably never had a better chance to break the world record than he did in that Italian city by the sea. He would end his season, and his career, without a world record. The reporter from the Italian paper La Stampa recognized something special in the 26-year-old’s performance that day: “Bile always remained close to the leaders, deciding to produce a performance of great historical magnitude. And when he stretched, majestic as ever, in the last 250 meters, he created a vacuum no one could fill.”

Long ago, Bile, now a coach for the United Arab Emirates, made peace with the lost opportunities in his career. “There were always some problems and some confusion, but still I managed to run some good times and still win.”

Watch the race.

   Results (7/19/1989): 1. Abdi Bile (Somalia) 3:31.20 NR; 2. Wilfred Kirochi (Kenya) 3:32.57 NR; 3. Gennaro Di Napoli (Italy) 3:33.33 NR; 4. John Walker (New Zealand) 3:35.96; 5. Alessandro Lambruschini (Italy) 3:37.25; 6. Branko Zorko (Yugoslavia) 3:37.74; 8. Davide Tirelli (Italy) 3:38.29.

by Jeff Hollobaugh

When the script for a race has already been written, how much flexibility does an athlete still have? We’re talking about the NCAA Final, and everyone involved seemed to act as if the top two already had their names set in stone: defending champion Mac Fleet vs. eight-time NCAA champion Lawi Lalang. According to the script, Lalang would lead from the gun and try to burn Fleet’s kick away. The previous night, Lalang did just that to Fleet’s teammate, Edward Cheserek, to win a historic 5000m. Lalang has been able to use that race plan successfully in the 1500 as well, winning the Pac-12 race against Cheserek a month earlier, 3:36.34-3:36.50.

As formidable an opponent as Lalang is, it was hard to be surprised with the outcome of the final stretch match. Remember that Fleet had many months to prepare for this race, and it went exactly as he had visualized, with one exception: “It was a little bit slower than what I expected the first K [kilometer] to be,” he said. Yes, battling to the wire in a fast 5000 takes something out of a man’s legs, and Lalang’s limbs lacked a bit of zip. His 1500 pace of 58.0, 1:58.3 and 2:59 was not fast enough to burn anyone off. In fact, a disciplined rabbit could have done no better for the field. Note that I’m not dismissing Lalang’s kick–he is a true master at kicking off a fast leading pace–but that 13:18 had an inestimable effect.

The script almost seemed too easy for Mac Fleet. Follow, kick, lean. Perhaps the only thing easier would be memorizing Hodor’s lines in “Game of Thrones.” Note that he was prepared for the lean, as he made clear in the post-race press conference. He never expected that getting by Lalang would be easy. In fact, the only surprise was the aforementioned slowness of the pace. (Not a bit slow by NCAA Championships standards, but a bit slow for Lalang.) Said Fleet, ” When we came through 800 and the race was what it was, I was pretty excited because my chances from there got better. I knew we weren’t going to drop the field at the pace we were at.”

Fleet’s observation is spot-on. The slower Lalang’s pace, the greater variety of runners had a chance on the last lap. That generates the real question here. Did some of the other runners, by believing the pre-race hype that this race belonged to Fleet and Lalang, throw away their own chances to win?

The next two finishers bear a much closer look. It is possible to imagine scenarios where either of them could have gone down in history as the biggest upset winner in recent memory.

Loyola’s Sam Penzenstadler is a very curious case. Looking at his season record going into the NCAA meet, the typical prognosticator can be forgiven for not noticing him. On the surface, with a best of 3:43.25, he had no business in the finals. Hence Track & Field News left him out of their final top 10 picks, and LetsRun gave him short shrift as well. Says Penzenstadler, “My goal was to get top eight. That would be first-team All-American. And then a spot on the podium. Anything above that would’ve been great.” Realistic stuff there.

But a post-race look at Penzenstadler’s numbers makes one wonder if maybe he could have challenged the favorites. He ran his last lap in 54.76, just faster than Lalang. And his last two laps took 1:54.87, faster than anyone else in the race. His last three took just 2:55.96–faster than both Fleet and Lalang. (Note that 6th-placer Grant Pollock produced similar closing numbers.)

How did those numbers not bring him closer to the win? It’s not that he went out too slow. At the 300, he ran a reasonable 6th. However, over the next 200m he lost contact and allowed several others to pass him. At 600m, he had fallen back as far as 9th. Finally, at around 800m, he seemed to engage again, tightening the gaps and running more aggressively. He recalls, ” I think I was falling off a little. Then they slowed down just a little bit, which helped me and some other guys catch up. It was like a big pack again with like 600m to go. We were all back in the race.”

Maybe it was that he had slipped to 10th and 11th was knocking on his door. He stuck to the rail, passing one on the inside, and then bumping with another. His move to position himself for the kick at the 400 to go mark brought him to the outside of the pack in 8th place. Then more contact. On the backstretch, Penzenstadler found his rhythm just before Peter Callahan blasted past. “I was moving and that got me going because he just flew by me, and I used his momentum. He kind of left an alleyway for me to go through and I got behind him. It helped a lot. It did catch me off guard, but it was a good thing.” On the turn, Penzenstadler got up to 5th. Though Callahan got ahead, the Loyola junior continued his steady drive to the line, finally nailing him in the last 20m.

After the race, the Loyola coach, Randy Hasenbank, said, “We had a plan, based on how the field would go out, and the race unfolded just how we thought it would. And Sam executed that plan to perfection.” No doubt he did, if Penzenstadler was aiming for All-America status. After all, who would have thought he could have won? Yet, if he had run for the win from the start, he might have kept better contact over the first lap, and certainly been in better position once the kicking began. While we don’t know how Fleet would have reacted to being side by side with Penzenstadler on the final 100, the race would have been infinitely more interesting, particularly because Fleet was only focusing on Lalang.

Now that he’s had some time for it to sink in, Penzenstadler reflects, “I think that if I was up there with Fleet and Lalang, those two wouldn’t have wanted me to win. And they would’ve pushed even harder. It would’ve been close, though, and would’ve been interesting to see how that would have played out. Fleet looked very relaxed in the video. He looked very good.”

As for his amazing improvement this year, the former 4:18 high school miler says, “It’s still kind of unbelievable to think about. It still hasn’t sunk in fully. Now our next goal is I’ve got to go for national title.” And next time, he might not follow the script.

The other upset candidate, Peter Callahan, came into the race highly regarded, even tabbed by some as a dark horse favorite. The New Mexico junior improved steadily all season, and clocked a 3:40.50 in taking a narrow (0.05) second to Lalang at the West Regional. So while Callahan surprised no one by being in the mix on the last lap, what many will remember is his unfortunate fade-out over the last 100m. While fourth place in the NCAAs is not an embarrassing result, take another look at that last lap. If not for bad timing, Callahan might have won. He delivered an incredible 200m stretch in the midst of the last lap, from 1200 to 1400m. From the available videos, it looks like he may have split about 25-flat from post-to-post, even while running on the outside of the turn to pass traffic. Compare that to Fleet’s 26.4 for the final furlong, and Fleet’s sprint was close to the rail for most of the curve, until he ran wide to hold off Callahan and chase Lalang.

Bottom line: if Callahan been closer than 7th at the beginning of the final 400, he would have avoided some of his traffic problems. And if he had held off just a little bit on his final sprint, another 50-100m, say, he very well might have blasted past Fleet and Lalang on the final stretch. It seemed Callahan himself realized this after the race, saying, “I went a little early but didn’t fully commit to it.” He added, “I was in contact… If I can see the leaders and there aren’t gaps, then I’m comfortable.” However, sometimes being in position to win is more important than being comfortable.

Watch the race (bad music apology)

Results (6/14/2014): 1. Mac Fleet (Oregon) 3:39.09; 2. Lawi Lalang (Arizona) 3:39.13; 3. Sam Penzenstadler (Loyola/Chicago) 3:39.77 PR; 4. Peter Callahan (New Mexico) 3:39.90 PR; 5. Jordan Williamsz (Villanova) 3:40.25; 6. Grant Pollock (Virginia Tech) 3:40.41 PR; 7. John Simons (Minnesota) 3:40.57; 8. Michael Atchoo (Stanford) 3:40.66; 9. Rorey Hunter (Indiana) 3:40.75; 10. Sam Prakel (Oregon) 3:41.04 PR; 11. Thomas Joyce (California) 3:41.08 PR; 12. Brannon Kidder (Penn State) 3:44.30.

[photo courtesy of the Horizon League]