When does finishing 2nd become your greatest race?
Simple.
When your time breaks your National Record!
Emma Coburn is now America's fastest 3000 meter Steeplechaser!
She couldn't quite beat Hiwot Ayalew's winning time of 9:10.64 (the Glasgow--London--DL Meet Record), but her time of 9:11.42 beat Jenny Simpson's mark by 1.08 seconds!
And it moved her from 17th A-T World up to 11th!
I checked what her 3000 flat time is, and all I could find were times SLOWER than she's run over 28 hurdles and 7 water pits!
With a 4:06+ 1500 time, she's clearly capable of a HUGE PR there.
And in the 5000!
And anything else she chooses to run!
Besides Coburn's AR, there were 2 other National Records broken in this race.
With European Championship significance!
Charlotta Fougberg's 9:23.96 is the new National Record of Sweden.
And the new NR for Finland is Sandra Eriksson's 9:24.70.
These ladies broke their NR's by 11 and 10 seconds, respectively!!
A much smaller PR was run by Stephanie Garcia.
Her 9:24.28 beat her previous best by 0.07 seconds, and she remains 4th A-T US.
A huge upset occurred in the Women's DT in Glasgow.
Gia Lewis-Smallwood beat Sandra Perkovic!!
Her mark of 221-9 moves her from 5th A-T US up to 3rd!
But the biggest star of the Glasgow DL might have been Dafne Schippers!
She won both the 100 "B" race and the 200, setting new Netherlands National Records in BOTH!!
Her time of 11.03 beat LJ winner Tianna Bartoletta's 11.07, and she was just 0.02 slower than the winning time in the "A" 100 race!
And in the 200, she just nipped Allyson Felix, 22.34 to 22.35, outkicking her in the final meters!
Tom Walsh of New Zealand didn't win the SP, but his 69-7.75 is the NZ National Record!
Bernard Lagat finished well back in a sluggish 5000, but he finally (after 2 earlier attempts) got the Age 39 record with his 13:27.08.
Room for lots more!!
Two other Age Records fell.
Helen Clitheroe ran the 3000 in 9:03.95 at Age 40, beating Joyce Smith's venerable 9:11.2 from 1978!!
And Kim Collins continues to roll in the 100, his 10.07 again getting (his own) Age 38 record.
The One Mile distance is getting a lot of attention this year, it being the 60th Anniversary of Roger Bannister's cracking of the 4:00 barrier!
But in the past 24 hours, in two separate locations 1000's of miles apart, the US Women's All-Time Mile list was radically changed, at least in the lower half of my DDD list!
And one US man crashed the party!
Sarah Brown started things off at Vancouver's Harry Jerome meet.
Her winning time of 4:26.67 made her 15th fastest American ever!
Then in the Morton Games in Ireland, 3 more American women made the list.
Molly Huddle won the race in 4:26.84.
This is the Age 29 record.
And it makes her 16th A-T US!!
Aisha Praught's SC year has brought her 2 or 3 PR's.
But here she ran the Mile in 4:27.61, for 20th A-T US.
And Lauren Penney ran 4:28.02 to latch onto 24th place A-T US.
Cut OFF the list was a biggie!
Jan Merrill was one of America's greatest runners in the 70's, but her 4:28.23 from 1979 is no longer in my Top 24!
Not to be outdone by these women, Will Leer broke the Morton Games Meet Record with his PR of 3:51.82.
This puts Leer in 19th place on the A-T US list!!
I love that these women (Leer too, but I'm speaking now of the women!!) ran these times, and made my list.
But, with all due respect to their athletic ability, they are NOT considered the best milers in the United States.
Looking at my list, there's just 1 woman who can truly be considered a "deluxe model" American miler.
She's Shannon Rowbury, whose 4:20.34 from 2008 ranks her second on the list.
Kim Conley's also on the list, her 4:27.23 from 2012 ranking her 18th A-T US.
But Conley is best known as a 5000 meter runner.
Only this Indoor season, with her 4:24.54, did she become a top-rated miler.
Missing from the Outdoor Top 24 are such MILE (or 1500!) icons as Jenny Simpson, Mary Cain, Morgan Uceny, Brenda Martinez, Gabe Grunewald, Heather Kampf, Treniere Moser, and Katie Mackey.
And you could probably add a few others with list-making potential, such as Emma Coburn (See earlier comments!), Abbey D'Agostino, Cory McGee, and maybe even Jordan Hasay, who PR'ed with 4:07.70 in the Glasgow 1500, despite finishing LAST (13th place)!!
It's my "bucket list" dream to see the One Mile (AND the TWO Mile!!) list radically revised.
There's far too many times on there from the 70's (Francie Larrieu's 4:27.52 from 1979), the 80's (FIVE women, including the AR holder, Mary Slaney!!), and the 90's (TEN women!!).
Let's have someone open their meet schedule to a LOADED Women's Mile race!
If we're going to honor Bannister, this would be a great way to do it!!
Sorry for the digression!
I do have 3 more marks to report, which I missed from earlier blogs.
Amber Campbell got a PR in the HT (in Edmonton).
Her 241-6 won the meet, but she remains in 6th place on the A-T US list.
I somehow overlooked Arianna Washington's 11.22 100 time.
This makes her 13th A-T HS, tied with 1 other.
And Brock Eager threw the Hammer 231-0, for 17th A-T HS.
Next up is the Herculis DL in Monaco, just 6 days away.
And from what I can tell, the line-ups for this one are spectacular!
(Don't make me look bad, Monaco.....PRODUCE!!!)
Also upcoming are the 6-day-long World Junior Championships (July 22-27) in Eugene.
I'm planning on a PREVIEW BLOG sometime prior to July 22nd.
Look for it!
And then there's the Commonwealth Games, the T&F portion being from July 27th through August 2nd.
Finally, we might expect some good marks from Belgium's Heusden-Zolder meet on July 19th.
If you like this blog, please pass the word around to like-minded records and marks "animals"!!
And is there anything you'd like to see in here that I'm not doing.....or not doing enough of?
Anything you'd want me to STOP doing?
See you next week!
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