It's...a small track after all⏱

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Start with the best 🇻🇪🇸🇪🇺🇸

This past weekend, the World Indoor Championships were held for the first time since 2018 and if you are willing to look past some recent, questionable geopolitical decisions, Serbia did a wonderful job hosting the event. The 18,000-seat stadium was packed with action and fans, making for an incredible atmosphere that would make most outdoor facilities blush. Enough with off years — in my first move as World Athletics president, there would be annual indoor and outdoor championships, and on Tuesdays, free ice cream!

Let’s cut to the chase — what world records did you miss?

1. Grant Holloway ran 7.29 second for the 60m hurdles in the semi-final to tie his previous WR. For some perspective on how much better than everyone else he is at this, check out this photo. In the final Holloway ran 7.39, winning comfortably for his 57 straight 60m hurdles race victory.

2. Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.20m on his third and final attempt of the meet to surpass his previous world record from a couple weeks ago. He inched(?) his mark up a single centimeter, the fourth time in his career he’s established a new WR by such a tiny increment.

3. Yulimar Rojas leapt to 15.74m in the triple jump to win the competition by a full meter. This surpasses her Olympic outdoor best of 15.67m and is now 0.24 meters farther than the next best jump in history. The women’s triple jump was only first contested at the Olympics in 1996, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming one of the dirtiest events in all of T&F. Remove everyone with a doping sanction to their name from the all-time list and Rojas’ accomplishment becomes even more of an outlier.

Four laps of chaos

You may remember Mariano Garcia from his jubilant celebration following a surprise victory at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. Well, folks. He did it again.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the 800m, it’s that when you are hot you’re hot. After not qualifying for the Olympic Games, Garcia made up for lost time on the international circuit, winning gold at his first ever World Championships in 1:46.20.

At the beginning of the race I remember thinking to myself, this seems more crowded than normal. Despite things going out in a blistering 23.9, the field was bunched up on top of itself. Before diving into the couple of thoughts I have about the logistical setup of this race, it’s probably important to mention that Isaiah Harris is a friend, and we previously lived together during a six week training camp. That connection is why I have spent a bit more time thinking about this race than maybe I otherwise would.

Harris won his prelim the day before in 1:47.00, running the fastest time of the day and looking as good as I have ever seen him. So why was he — the top seed — sharing lane four to start the race? Ask any sprinter and they’ll confirm that if there’s one advantage to running faster than necessary to advance in heats it’s to get a favorable lane draw for the final.

After losing the initial reaction off the line, Harris struggled to find his spot and spent the whole race searching for position. The 800m is run with a one turn stagger so small mistakes like this are exacerbated. The Lap Count’s suggestion would be to add an additional curve to string things out before athletes come crashing down on each other.

Granted, the eventual winner was in last place after the first lap, so it’s not impossible to go out slow and still win, but that’s not how Isaiah prefers to race. Garcia had lane five all to himself — his race-from-the-back plan was a strategic one to steer clear of the jostling.

Nothing uncouth happened regarding lane assignments. According to technical rule 20.4.2, when there are more runners than lanes, it’s up to the delegate to decide where to put everyone. Which is dumb, but why were there more athletes than lanes?

The final was initially going to be filled with the four heat winners plus four time qualifiers. However, it was changed late enough into the program that this hadn’t been communicated to the broadcast team yet. And finalists were ultimately the top two finishers in each heat, which is a better and more just system.

According to the precedent of every recent iteration of the World Indoor Championships and the World Athletes Series Regulations handbook, which was approved for 2022, the 800m should only have six finalists. Similarly, the 1500m is normally supposed to cap at nine, though this year they found room for an extra three. If there is one place in society where it should be acceptable to be exclusive, it’s in a global championship final.

After this disappointing outcome that I am blaming entirely on external factors and through no fault of my friend, things got even worse for Isaiah Harris fans. The morning of the 4x400s, he was called on to race the semi-finals, to keep fresh legs for the evening. With 150m remaining on his anchor leg, he pulled a hamstring and fought through it. He still split 48 seconds despite finishing with a serious limp, but it wasn’t quite enough for the US to qualify.

On a more positive note, I’d be remiss not to mention Bryce Hoppel’s bronze medal! It was his first global podium and well-deserved following his fourth place finish at Worlds in Doha three years ago. Hoppel ran between 1:45.30 and 1:46.87 on five occasions this indoor season — say what you will about him, but don’t say he’s not consistent! Also… what else are you saying about him?

Do you want to support the sport’s elite athletes? Then subscribe to our Friday morning premium newsletter! This week we’ll be speaking with two-time Olympian Chris Benard. Time to learn about the triple jump! Sign up to receive an interview in your inbox every week to support this initiative, which has now raised over $18,900, with all proceeds going towards those whose stories we share.

Bigger than sports 🇺🇦

“Our military protects our country at home and today, I protect my country on the track”

How could you not root for Yaroslava Mahuchikh? The 20-year-old Olympic bronze medalist from Ukraine hid in a cellar before making a three-day-long car journey to represent her country. With the weight of war on her shoulders, Mahuchikh set a world-leading mark of 2.02m to win gold and stand atop the podium as her country’s national anthem played inside the stadium.

There’s a tendency right now to overstate the significance of certain moments. (Your friend saying, “my life is a movie” when describing a night that ended at 3am at a Taco Bell drive-through, for instance, falls into this category.) But it’s not remotely hyperbolic to say that Mahuchikh winning gold was a monumental achievement, and a near-unbelievable story that is probably already subject to a production race between every major streaming platform.

A global medal at an indoor track meet doesn’t exactly move the cause much of a splash on the scale of a country under violent siege, but for Mahuchikh, her friends, her family, and hopefully some of her countrymen, it can serve as a source of hope and a reminder of the human resilience on display all across Ukraine.

The weight of gold has been lifted

Alas, the twelve-time US champion is now the world champion, too. When Ajee’ Wilson crossed the finish line in 1:59.09, her celebration was more a sigh of relief than anything. In her previous eight appearances at global championships, she came agonizingly close with four podium finishes.

On three occasions she was beaten by athletes who would no longer be eligible to compete in the 800m today due to rule changes regarding XY DSD athletes. Ajee’ has never once made an excuse, complained, or disrespected her competitors. In fact, in an interview after the 2019 Pre Classic, Ajee’ lent her support to Caster Semenya, saying that she absolutely should be allowed to run. Wilson has been consistent in her belief that her job is to focus on herself and be the best that she can be. And in a not too different world, this gold medal is not her first, but just another.

All of this said, I’m not exactly writing a career retrospective here. Ajee’ is only 27-years-old, which, considering the length of her CV, might be surprising. She’s got plenty of great running ahead of her, but I’d like to shift the conversation slightly away from Wilson’s signature event.

Her 1500m best of 4:05 was run four years ago, and although there weren’t any Diamond League appearances in there, she has won her last 13-of-14 races at the distance. Her mile best is 4:33 from the 2016 Long Island Mile — you wouldn’t have believed my excitement when she reached out to run the event! Considering the next generation of 800m stars is on the rise and given Ajee’s tactical prowess, it isn’t too bold a prediction to suggest that her next global podium appearance might not be in the 800m.

In partnership with WCH Oregon22

In 114 days the best athletes in the world will be heading to Oregon, but are you? The likes of Mondo Duplantis, Grant Holloway and Yulimar Rojas will be competing in your backyard at the World Athletics Championships — but Team USA needs our support! Athletes like Devon Allen have traveled the world competing on the biggest stages, but there’s no place like home: NEXT STOP OREGON

Jakob loses Tefera defends!

Entering the weekend, every pundit outside of Ethiopia would have picked Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the 1500m. When you’re the defending Olympic champion, you’ll always be the favorite, but after you pop off a 3:30.60 world record run earlier this season, you’re not just the favorite — it’s basically a foregone conclusion that you’ll win.

When drawing up his race plan, Ingebrigtsen probably wasn’t hoping to be up front pushing the pace in a fast race from 1200m out. But Abel Kipsang really bait-and-switched him into doing exactly that, by going out in 41.7 for the first 300m then swinging wide into lane two. Not exactly something you see everyday in a championship 1500!

When a 3:29 guy runs with intent from the gun, you sort of have to respect it, so it makes sense for a guy like Jakob to latch on. However, if he could take a mulligan on his decision to take over the race, I am sure he’d gladly allow the race to play out differently.

Instead, as it actually transpired, Samuel Tefera found himself an extremely capable Norwegian rabbit. In the final 50 meters when Tefera swung wide to out-kick Jakob it was a bit of a shock, which is a testament to how good Jakob has been. The defending champion and former world record holder winning the race is considered an upset! Tefera is zero-for-three making outdoor finals, but he has proven his ability to run fast, especially indoors.

On Monday, Jakob shared on Instagram that upon returning home to Norway, he tested positive for COVID. This is where we could potentially dive into a personal essay on whether or not it is excusable to share excuses if the excuses are facts. Instead, let’s recall that in 2018 Tefera won this race in 3:58.19 (yes, it was a 1500m and the second lap of 41.9 is worth laughing at all over again). This weekend he set a championship record of 3:32.77 — Jakob didn’t lose, Tefera won.

Half a bite of the Big Apple 🍎

There are better places to go than New York if you want to run fast, but where else can you spend $79 on a prix fixe brunch (re: eggs, toast) with bottomless mimosas to celebrate after the race? The United Airlines NYC Half has never been the easiest course in the world, and now that competitors have to climb the vestiges of an ancient glacial moraine in Brooklyn and an East River-spanning bridge before even getting to the hills of Central Park, it’s only become more difficult.

When Molly Huddle ran 1:07:41 in 2016 to set the previous course record, it rolled out of Central Park and then south on the Hudson River-adjacent West Side Highway bike path, which on most spring mornings would provide a nice tailwind for about 11 miles. There were some hills and there still are, but the new course that starts in Prospect Park and comes across the Manhattan Bridge before heading north towards Central is brutal. Just as if they’d taken the subway, runners hopefully planned on getting to their destination a bit later than hoped for. This course was easily a minute slower than what it once was.

Which is why Senbere Teferi’s new course record of 1:07:35 is so darn good! Had this been run on a Valencia speedway, then her performance and all those behind her would be getting way more attention. In addition to having run the women's only 5k world record of 14:29, Teferi has also gone 1:05:32 — however, that puts her almost discouragingly low on the all-time descending order list as the seventh fastest ever… from Ethiopia!

Teferi looked comfortable working off Kenya’s Irine Cheptai before sprinting away in the final moments to win by two seconds. Here’s hoping her next challenge comes against her compatriots like Letesenbet Gidey and Yalemzerf Yehualaw, who she hasn’t faced on the roads in recent years. After a title fight like that, we all deserve to recover over a few $18 bloody marys at Tavern on The Green!

On the men’s side, Rhonex Kipruto made it his race to lose from the get-go with a 28:22 first 10k. As the world record holder over 10k, he’s split 1:58 faster, so this was more comfortable for him than the rest of the pack. Kipruto remained relatively unchallenged for the whole of his 1:00:30 victory. Again, the race winner ran over two minutes slower than their personal best (57:49), set in Valencia.

That makes Ed Cheserek’s second place finish (1:00:37) extra encouraging! King Ches has been a bit quiet as of late on the scene, spending a bit of time back home training in Kenya and spending time with family. After filling the years immediately after his probably unmatchable college career running fast time trials and fighting to gain American citizenship, this is hopefully the beginning of the next chapter of his career where he just crushes everyone in the longer road races.

I can see it now: Eliud Kipchoge is entering Central Park on his way to the final World Marathon Major title missing from his mantlepiece. But Ed Cheserek is on his ass and hasn’t led a single step of the NYC Marathon. He’s clipping Kipchoge’s heels because he is distracted fixing his shorts, which were never realistically going to fall down. With 100m to go Ches looks over to see that his coach has finally given him the green light — the paddles come out, and King Ches wins his debut and we all start wearing Skechers.

Time Trial Season 🗣

I’ve said on the record that the two athletes right now who should be considered must-watch TV (or streaming) for every fan are Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker. They are electric on the track and their work with fan outreach should hopefully make them role models for many other athletes coming up in the sport. The pair gets it — they are professionals who are doing their job selling shoes and tickets. That’s why it’s not ideal to see the duo run a 5000m time trial in Stanford this weekend. It’s not their fault that they decided this would be their schedule, it’s the system’s.

What would normally be considered appointment viewing didn’t make its way onto my radar since their race overlapped with the World Indoor Championships. As we have come to expect, Teare and Hocker of course ran amazing, posting personal bests of 13:06.73 and 13:08.55, respectively. But in a world where I’m forced to direct my attention toward either international racing for global medals or running fast against no one, there’s no competition — well, except the one that I care about.

There are certain boxes that must be checked on the road to the World Championships in Oregon this summer. First and foremost, you’ve gotta hit the standard of 13:13.50. Unfortunately, the road to Eugene does not have to cut through Belgrade. Although Hocker qualified to compete in both the 1500m and 3000m, having won both events handily at the USATF Indoor Championships, it was ultimately decided that the trip didn’t fit into his long term plans. Teare had initially entered to run in Spokane as well, but he was forced to scratch due to a positive COVID test.

From a big picture perspective, it is not the athlete’s responsibility to decide what’s best for track and field — that’s for me to do! Their objective is to figure out how to best serve themselves throughout their own careers. However, it is up to the governing bodies to either incentivize or punish certain behaviors that are determined to be helpful or harmful for the sport.

World Athletics and USATF continue to throw more money into prize purses to act as a dangling carrot to convince star athletes to show up. The trope about runners not having a pot to piss in obviously isn’t true for everyone when an additional $30,000 seemingly doesn’t move the needle.

To fix this, the first suggestion that I always make is that World and Olympic standards should be allotted on a country to country basis, not individually. If three guys have run under 13:13.50 and someone with a 13:20 season’s best shows up and beats everyone at the qualifiers, then doesn’t that prove his fitness is good enough to deserve a spot on Team USA?

The counterargument is that athletes wouldn’t race as much. However, that’s not much different than the position Teare, Hocker and others currently find themselves. What if there was a league minimum of required races one must run to remain eligible? I’m just spit-balling here, but I am fairly certain there are a certain number of football games a team has to play to make the Super Bowl.

The less drastic option that doesn’t call for a system-wide overhaul is to create a blackout period. Similar to how baseball teams can’t make it to the World Series during winter months, maybe track and field athletes can’t run standards during the third week of March when the World Indoor Championships are happening?

One of the more confusing aspects of the sport is that there is no regular season, which makes it difficult for part-time followers. The majority of the year is a chaotic free-for-all with no rhyme or reason. If World Athletics throws up some guide posts as to when races “count” and when they don’t, then maybe it’ll be easier to steer star athletes towards the meets fans are watching — like the World Championships.

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

• Athing Mu opened up her outdoor season with a 600m in 1:24.13, the second fastest time ever (although she has run 1:23.57 indoors).

• Bobby Whilden set the 60m WR for 85-89 year olds at the USATF Masters Championships running 9.63 seconds. He’s always had serious wheels! He anchored Texas to a Penn Relays winning 440yd relay in 1956!

• Romania’s Delvine Meringor (2:25:03) won the battle of the sexes at the Los Angeles Marathon as she held off Kenya’s John Korir (2:09:07) by just eight seconds. The now two-time champion started 16 minutes and five seconds behind.

• The Italian Olympic 100m Champion Marcell Jacobs had the better lean to best Christian Coleman 6.41 to 6.41 in the 60m at Worlds. I don’t really know what this means, but every sprint analyst keeps mentioning that Jacobs is so hard to beat because he doesn’t make any mistakes. In my opinion it’s also significant that he sprints faster than everyone else.

• In the pole vault, Sandi Morris (4.80 SB) successfully defended her world indoor title while training partner Katie Nageotte finished second.

• Tai Dinger won the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in 22:56 in a sprint finish against Zach Panning (22:56) and Johnny Crain (22:57). Natosha Rogers (25:30) won the women’s race by 51 seconds.

• Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards won the 400m in a national record time of 45.00. This was an emotional win for him following the recent passing of several family members, and the tragic death of his former teammate, Deon Lendore, who was killed in a car accident in January.

• There’s a new weird rule in the horizontal jumps about what constitutes as a foul. Now rather than just being where the foot lands, if a toe breaks the vertical plane of the scratch plate then it doesn’t count. It’s not a popular update as fans like seeing marks, not fouls.

• Given his recent dominance, a Ryan Crouser loss at the World Championships came out of left field. After the meet he shared on Instagram that he has been battling an elbow injury (and yet he still finished second!). This was a special win for Brazil’s Darlan Romani who was fourth in both Doha and Tokyo.

• Fred Kerley ran a world leading 200m in 20.04 at Arizona State.

• Ivana Vuleta of Serbia was the lone gold medalist for the host country as her jump of 7.06m was a world lead. The fans LOVED her for it!

• Nijel Amos announced he is pursuing the ability to compete as an independent athlete in the future, rather than representing Botswana. Although he has not publicly mentioned it, several news outlets speculate that his exclusion from funding for the 2024 Olympics sparked the decision.

• Only in track and field would a tiebreaker in the 60m hurdles be decided by the random drawing of a name out of a bag.

• Ethiopia was the big winner at the World Champs taking home four gold medals (nine medals total). The 1-2-3 sweep in the women’s 1500m was the first ever, partially because it’s hard to be that dominant, but also because it requires the rare third wild card entry.

• Elinor Purrier St. Pierre won her first global medal, taking second in the 3000m (8:42.04) behind Lemlem Hailu (8:41.82). In a crowded and tactical race with 20 women, St. Pierre forcibly held the rail and closed in 2:05 for the last 800m.

• Check out this behind the scenes look from New Balance Nationals of the Newbury Park record breaking 4 x Mile. Lots of cool new projects on the way via the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel — Like & Subscribe!

Thank you again to UCAN for sponsoring this Lap Count! As a newsletter writer, it’s a blessing and a curse to have so much happening on the track this week. It’s impossible to dive into a full-analysis for every outstanding performance since these emails have a character limit! But if you haven’t subscribed yet to the CITIUS MAG newsletter then now is a good time as Chris fills in the holes in my weekly ramblings!