Galen Rupp at the 2007 Cardinal Invitational (© Randy Miyazaki)
Palo Alto, California, USAShowing the poise of a veteran distance runner, 20-year-old Galen Rupp outclassed a large field of experienced runners in the men’s 10,000m for a classy 27:33.48 victory at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in Palo Alto (USA) on Sunday night.
Rupp, a third-year student at the University of Oregon, is hardly unknown in US running circles after his 28:15.52 performance two seasons ago while still an 18-year-old. But tonight, the boy became a man in a most unforgettable way, as Rupp calmly dispatched thirty-six other runners, including three Kenyans and four altitude-trained Mexican runners for a stunning win at the facility at Stanford University.
The opening stages of the race resembled the unwritten Pirandello play “Thirty-Seven Runners in Search of a Pacemaker”. That such a collection of distance running talent - arguably the best field the US will see this season - should be allowed to gather without the inclusion of a tempo-maker was both unexplained and a bit mind-boggling. Left to their own devices, the runners were forced to collectively forge their way along, as Mexicans David Galván and Alejandro Suarez alternated at the front during the moments when Anthony Famiglietti and Ireland’s Alistair Cragg weren’t trading off stints in the lead.
It has been said that an elephant is an ant designed by a committee, and in a this vein, the ad-hoc “Committee for the Promotion of Speed” slogged its way through an initial 5km in 13:54.4, which put the Osaka “A” standard of 27:49 - the goal of virtually all the runners - in jeopardy for all but a few of the front runners.
Enter Simon Ndirangu, a Kenyan relatively new to the running scene and one whose prior experience has been mostly on the roads. The winner of this year’s Carlsbad 5K took charge during the sixth kilometre and spread out the lead runners who, until that point, had all been stepping on each other’s heels. Suddenly, that 67-second lap average started to drop to the 65- and 64-second level. Salvation seemed imminent.
All the while, Rupp stayed back in the pack, patiently waiting for the right moment to make his move. Slowly, he crept through the crowd until, with four laps left, he was in range of Galván, who by then had moved ahead of Ndirangu. With three to go, Rupp was on the Mexican’s shoulder, and upon entering the backstretch with 1100 metres remaining, the young American burst to the lead.
The pair waged a nail-biting battle the rest of the way. Coming off the final curve, it appeared that Galván wanted to apply a knockout blow, but Rupp found one last gear to increase his advantage slightly in the final metres before hitting the finish line, as Galván clocked 27:33.96 in the runner-up spot. Rupp’s final lap was 60.4, his final 800 traversed in 2:05.2.
“Did you like that?” were the first words Rupp said to his coach, Vin Lananna, with the simultaneous air of sincerity and youthful sarcastic cockiness.
“Any time a quality field like this gets together, it’s going to be fast,” offered Rupp moments after the race, adding that this night at Lananna’s former “workshop” at Stanford had been planned since last December. “We cut down training a lot during the early part of this year in preparation for tonight,” Rupp reported.
The young runner said he was aware of Galván’s closing salvo at the end, but that it made him “just keep driving for the finish. I wanted to win, but it was even more important to get the “A” standard [for Osaka].”
The slow opening stages seemed to cause Rupp little concern. “I knew things were going to pick up later. I just wanted to be patient.”
The victory also brought a big confidence boost to the young runner. “To feel that good and run that fast was a fantastic feeling.”
Eleven World Championships A standard
So the race that appeared headed for statistical disaster after 5km actually brought eleven runners under the “A” standard for this summer’s World Championships, all with PBs. Finishing behind Rupp and Galván was Ndirangu in a 27:38.56, as Alistair Cragg’s fourth-place 27:39.55 wiped out Mark Carroll’s Irish record of 27:46.82 which came on the same Stanford track seven years ago.
The biggest PB improvement among the Osaka qualifiers was Ed Moran’s sixth-place 27:43.13, which was a full minute under his previous career best.
The honour of being the youngest Osaka qualifier during the evening went fittingly to Takezawa Kensuke of Japan - Rupp’s junior by 156 days - with a ninth-place 27:45.59.
The Women’s 10,000m, while not as dramatic as the men’s race, was nonetheless on a top level, as Jen Rhines sprinted away from New Zealand’s Kim Smith at the end for a World leading 31:17.31 PB victory. Smith’s 31:20.63 was also a career best.
“Everything went according to plan,” said Rhines. “It’s a good start for the year.”
The initial stages of the contest saw Rhines in a two-person battle with Fyles Ongori. But in the sixth kilometre, both Rhines and Smith moved past the Kenyan. With one kilometre left, Smith appeared to be in position to attack for the lead, but Rhines lost little, if any, of her advantage during the final two laps.
“I heard the crowd making noise, so I knew she [Smith] was probably starting to move close,” remarked Rhines. “At that point, I had just had a couple of bad laps. But I’m glad that she did come up. It quickened the tempo of the race in the last stages, and it was probably the reason that we both got PBs.”
With her third-place 31:37.82, Katie McGregor also dipped under the Osaka “A” norm.
Bogdan avenges Birmingham upset
The men’s Steeplechase put Mircea Bogdan on the top pedestal with a Europe-leading 8:23.12, a personal best by more than four seconds. The ebullient Romanian felt that he had the race in hand the entire way, but he waited until the final backstretch to make his move. “The pace was too fast for me to go earlier. I wasn’t sure that I could hold on for that long.”
The outcome was sweet revenge for the Craiova native as the runner he defeated tonight, Josh McAdams in 8:23.69, had prevented him from successfully defending his NCAA steeple title last season. It also helped purge the memory of his last-place performance in the 3000m heats at last month’s European Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
“I embarrassed myself there,” he said, adding that weather delays in Chicago had caused him to arrive in Britain two days late. “I needed a race like this tonight.”
The women’s Steeplechase went to Lindsey Anderson, a student at Weber State University in Utah, in an unchallenged 9:39.95.
The superior leg speed of New Zealand’s Adrian Blincoe [1500 best 3:35.50] brought a win in the men’s 5000m with 13:27.34. “I didn’t think I would challenge my best [13:21.73],” said the Villanova assistant coach. “The goal tonight was just to win.”
“I changed to 5km training [from 1500] over the winter, but the main factor in my success is my lack of chronic injury. In the last twenty-five weeks, I’ve taken only four days off. That was never possible before,” Blincoe continued.
Brent Vaughan chased Blincoe into the finish with a 13:30.12, a PB by nine seconds and just ahead of the 13:31.55 of Ian Dobson.
The women’s 5000m was taken by Renee Metivier Baillie in 15:27.57 with a final-stretch kick over Sara Slattery (15:30.86) and Stanford student Arianna Lambie (15:31.34 PB).
After his impressive double win in the 5000 metres and the mile two weeks ago at the Mt SAC Relays, Juan Luis Barrios once again was impressive with a gun-to-tape PB 3:38.71 in the 1500m. It was a big step for 23-year-old Mexican, who indicated that one of his goals for the year was to claim Arturo Barrios’ national record in the event (3:37.61). It is not a family feud, as the two runners are not related.
In the women’s event, Lindsey Gallo had no real challenger during her 4:09.60 performance ahead of Canada’s Malindi Elmore (4:12.06) and Deirdre Bryne of Ireland (4:12.79).
A pair of Australians repeated their Mt SAC victories in the 800 metres. Madeleine Pape’s PB 2:01.17 was the winner ahead of Frances Santin (2:02.85) in the women’s race, and 20-year-old Lachlan Renshaw held off Gabe Jennings, 1:48.60 to 1:48.97, in the men’s contest.
Make no mistake about it. The Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational is a distance carnival, with field events serving as window dressing. Standing out among these ancillary events was Ed Wright’s performance in the men’s High Jump, as the University of California student leaped a PB 2.21.
Ed Gordon for the IAAF
