KELATI TAKES U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS 10,000M TITLE, SECURING OLYMPIC TEAM BERTH
By Rich Sands, @sands
(c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Shared with permission
EUGENE, ORE. (29-Jun) — Weini Kelati was all but assured of a ticket to Paris before the women’s 10,000-meter run even started at U.S. Olympic Team Trials — Track & Field. The only competitor who had met the qualifying time for the Summer Games, she essentially only needed to stay on her feet and finish the race. Even so, she found an extra gear on the final lap to sprint home for her first Olympic berth and her first national title on the track. Behind her, Parker Valby narrowly edged Karissa Schweizer for the runner-up spot, though both will have to wait to see if their World Athletics rankings are good enough to qualify for Paris.
On a warm evening with low humidity, a field of 23 women set off with caution at Hayward Field. Marathoner Susanna Sullivan was the early leader, towing the field through a sluggish, but steady, early pace. Schweizer, Amanda Vestri, Kelati and Valby were on her heels through halfway (16:09.40), though most of the field was also in contact.
Erika Kemp made the race’s first real move in the seventh kilometer, taking the lead just before eight laps to go, with Schweizer, Kelati, Valby, Vestri, Jessica McClain and Kellyn Taylor following. Both McClain, 32, and Taylor, 37, are veterans who ran the Olympic Trials Marathon last February.
Valby, who finished fourth in the 5000 earlier in the meet and said she only fully committed to running the 10,000 today, moved to the front three laps later, after getting the thumbs up from her University of Florida coach, Will Palmer. Only Schweizer and Kelati were able to match her pace, and at the bell, they both passed Valby, though they were unable to shake her. Down the backstretch, with 250 meters remaining, Kelati surged to the lead. She held off a challenge from Schweizer on the final turn and crossed the line first in 31:41.07. Valby caught Schweizer down the homestretch and inched into the runner up spot. Both were clocked in 31:41.56, and just 4/1000ths of a second separated them.
“I wanted to go to the front, but I said I have to wait, this is not what I planned,” said Kelati, a native of Eritrea who became a U.S. citizen on the eve of the 2021 Olympic Trials. “Patience, patience, patience, I kept telling myself that. I had to stay patient because I know I have that speed, have been working on my kick.”
It was fitting that she made her first U.S. Olympic team at Hayward Field, the site of her decision to seek asylum in America after competing for Eritrea at the 2014 World Athletics Under-20 Championships. “Every single time I’m here I have to have high goals and work towards them, no matter what,” she said. “I’m so happy to come here and make the team.”
Once Valby had gotten over the sting of the 5000, she decided that the 10,000 was a chance for redemption. “I didn’t want to leave on a fourth-place note,” said the six-time NCAA champion, admitting that the toll from the 5000 was much more emotional than physical. “I was super, super nervous for the 5K and I think that got the best of me. Before this race I was just having fun with it.”
An emotional Schweizer — who competed in the 5000 and 10,000 at the Tokyo Olympics — was in shock that she was once again able to finish in the top three in both events after a long recovery from surgery on her calf last fall.
“My road to getting to these Trials was way different than I had in the past,” she said. “I had to do a lot more cross-training than I would like to do and I’m just really happy because I feel like I’m finally back to being myself.”
That included her typical strong finish.
“I know I have a lot of strength in my last lap, my kick,” Schweizer said. “It’s not full force right now because I’ve just been coming back from something. So I had to install this confidence that wasn’t quite there yet, so I went for it.”
While Kelati knows her spot on the team is assured, Valby and Schweizer felt fairly comfortable that their performances tonight did enough to boost them into the World Athletics rankings quota which close after all global results are received on June 30. It will then take another week before the final rankings are released.
“I did look at the time a little bit towards the end and I knew I had to squeeze it down for the last lap to ensure that I could get up in the rankings system,” Schweizer said. “The rankings system has been a bit of a whirlwind, for sure.”
McClain, fourth at the marathon Olympic Trials in February, matched that agonizing place here, in 32:04.57. This was only her second track race in four years.
“I was hoping it would go fast and I was excited to run really fast, but I knew if it played out like the way it did today I likely wouldn’t have that last gear,” she said. “So it was about getting to the line as close to the top three as possible. I was pleased how it ended up for me based on how the race unfolded.”
Vestri, who is in the midst of a breakthrough season, finished fifth in 32:11.00, followed by Taylor (32:12.02), Maggie Montoya (32:13.26) and Kemp (32:21.84). Stephanie Bruce, now 40, finished 22nd in her fifth Olympic Trials 10-K, this time just nine months after giving birth to her third child.
PHOTO: Weini Kelati edges Parker Valby (2nd place) and Karissa Schweizer (3rd place) in the 10,000m at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000m (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)