Results from the Weekend

The post-Stockholm Diamond League hiatus has led to some manner of chaos in the world of track and field as no one seems to be able to agree on which meets to attend. This has produced a situation that is at once thrilling and overwhelming. Thrilling because there are multiple compelling track meets to watch each weekend. The act of finding streams, juggling multiple schedules, and flipping through channels to catch he everything is invigorating. It’s also overwhelming because it’s damn near impossible to keep up with absolutely everything you want. There’s also the looming anxiety that, despite your best spreadsheet work, you’re missing something crucial or have forgotten about a particularly notable meet.

What follows is our best attempt at compiling the significant results from this weekend.

Adidas Boost Boston Games

Ludlow and Wilson look strong in the 800m: Concerns were growing about Ajee Wilson as she has struggled so far this season, both in terms of lackluster times and the way she has run them. She’s run slow—by her standards—and has generally looked flat in those races. She turned that around Friday night with her first sub-2:00 performance of the season, going wire-to-wire and holding off Molly Ludlow on the final straight to take the U.S. lead in the 800m. Speaking of Ludlow, she became the third U.S. woman to break 2:00 this season a mere .21 seconds after Wilson accomplished the feat. Entering the season the 800m was set to be one of the most compelling events of the U.S. Trials, and after this weekend, that looks to finally be coming to fruition.

Ben True breaks out in the 1500m: Ben True set a 4-second personal best, running 3:36.05 for third place. You read the right. Four second PRs in the 1500 are nearly unheard of outside of high school, let alone among elite runners, but that’s what True did. It’s at least a little disappointing that True will not be taking this new-found 1500m speed to the Trails in two weeks, but it’ll be interesting all the same to see how this translates to longer tactical races.

Dejen Gebremeskel and Hagos Gebrhiwet move into position for Rio: With Ethiopia selecting their teams based on time, Gebremeskel and Gebrhiwet held out of Stockholm for a fast time in Boston. It paid off with respective times of 12:59.89 and 13:00.20 to move them into second and third place on the Ethiopian national list for the season behind Muktar Edris.

Brooks PR Invitational

Is Leo Manzano on track to make the U.S. 1500m team?: Manzano came in second in 3:39.70, which isn’t impressive on it’s own, but is a significant step in the right direction for a runner who’s previous season best was 3:43. With a pretty light 1500m field heading to the trials, Manzano, even with a 3:39.70 looks like a solid pick to make the team.

Victoria Track Classic

Duane Solomon returns after layoff: He only ran 1:46.71, but got the win. With Boris Berian still posturing with Nike and threatening to skip the Trials entirely, the U.S. needs bodies in the 800m, so it’s good to see that Solomon is at least healthy.

Melissa Bishop wins by over 2 seconds: She ran 1:58.90 and smoked previous American leader Chrishuna Williams who came in at 2:01.63. Bishop took second in Beijing last year and, thanks to the resurgence of Caster Semenya, is unlikely to do any better than that in Rio, but she’s in good form and will make the crowded race for second even more exciting.

New Balance Nationals

Sydney McLaughlin runs 5th fastest time in the world in 400m Hurdles: Running 54.46 seconds, McLaughlin broke the American Junior record in the event. The time is good for 5th-best in the world and 4th best among Americans this season. If she competes at the trials, she will do so as a 16 year-old. She joins a growing—and strong—teenage contingent of Donovan Brazier and Vashti Cunningham with real chances of traveling south to Rio in August.