SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, California, March 06 — It may have been a carefully choreographed time trial, complete with pacing lights and a cast of pacers, but Grant Fisher’s record-shattering 10,000 at The Ten stunned nonetheless, confirming that the 24-year-old Stanford alum is indeed among the world’s elite. The Nike Bowerman star’s 26:33.84 sliced 10.52 seconds off Galen Rupp’s ’14 standard.
The event, delayed a day by high wind fears, featured what was basically two races going on simultaneously, with wave lights and pacers lined up both for the World Champs qualifying standard of 27:28 and an AR-targeting paced of 26:44.
Up at the front, the race came down to Olympic silver medalist Moh Ahmed and Fisher, who had four weeks earlier crushed the American Indoor Record at 5000 with his 12:53.73.
Olli Hoare, fresh off a 1500 runner-up finish (3:36.54) less than an hour earlier, paced for the first 2K. Nike Bowerman’s Josh Thompson then led through 3200 (8:33.33).
Then Britain’s Sam Atkin took over, leading the front pack through 5K in 13:23.1 (Fisher at 13:23.7 in 4th). A half lap later, Woody Kincaid assumed the lead, taking them to 7K.
That left Ahmed and Fisher, with the Canadian in the fore. He passed 8K in 21:22.47 (Fisher 21:22.72) and kept reeling off 64s until around 8600, when he moved aside and told Fisher to lead.
At 9K (24:01.9), it was clear to all that the American Record would go down. Fisher gradually upped the ante, but wasn’t able to shake his teammate. Finally, on the last backstretch, Ahmed made his move, sprinting into a lead that stretched to about 7m on the final turn.
Fisher waited to make his final bid coming off the bend, moving out to lane 4 to catch Ahmed, who himself had swung wide to avoid lapped runners. He finished with a one-stride lead in 26:33.84 as Ahmed clocked a Canadian record 26:34.14. His final 200 took just 27.7, last 400 57.99. His last 5K took just 13:10.1.
Fisher told the trackside interviewer, “Confidence has just been going through the roof lately. It’s been a dream start to the year. This is about as good as it can get, to PR in two events, to do it with your teammates.
“Today we had all hands on deck, we had 3-4 rabbits out there… When you have a team where guys want to help each other, things come together.
“Hopefully we can build on this. The big stuff’s in the summer.”
This was a data-gathering mission, noted Ahmed: “Now we know we’re in the 26:30s and we’re ready for championship season.”
The other race-within-the-race was won by Australia’s Jack Rayner in 27:15.35. Three other Americans made the world standard: Sean McGorty (4th in 27:18.15), Shadrack Kipchirchir (7th in 27:24.93) and Conner Mantz (8th in 27:25.23).
RESULTS
1500: 1. Geordie Beamish’ (NZ) 3:36.53; 2. Olli Hoare’ (Aus) 3:36.54; 3. Vincent Ciattei (OTC) 3:39.27; 4. Luis Grijalva’ (Gua) 3:41.04; 5. David Ribich (BrkB) 3:41.80.
10,000: I–1. Grant Fisher (NikBowTC) 26:33.84 AR (old AR 26:44.36 Galen Rupp [Nik] ’14) (7, 12 W)
(64.70, 64.47 [2:09.17], 64.17 [3:13.34], 64.08 [4:17.42], 64.37 [5:21.79], 64.35 [6:26.14], 64.04 [7:30.18], 63.87 [8:34.05], 64.29 [9:38.34], 64.21 [10:42.55], 64.48 [11:47.03], 64.44 [12:51.47], 64.66 [13:56.13], 63.77 [14:59.90], 64.27 [16:04.17], 64.13 [17:08.30], 63.91 [18:12.21], 62.66 [19:14.87], 63.60 [20:18.47], 64.25 [21:22.72], 64.19 [22:26.91], 63.66 [23:30.57], 62.72 [24:33.29], 62.56 [25:35.85], 57.99)
(13:23.7/13:10.1)
(57.99, 2:00.55, 4:06.93, 5:11.12, 8:21.63);
2. Moh Ahmed’ (Can) 26:34.14 NR (9, 14 W) (58.08);
3. Jack Rayner’ (Aus) 27:15.35 NR;
4. Sean McGorty (NikBowTC) 27:18.15 (10, x A);
5. Kieran Tuntivate’ (Tha) 27:23.64; 6. Patrick Dever’ (GB) 27:23.88; 7. Shadrack Kipchirchir (ADP) 27:24.93; 8. Conner Mantz (Nik) 27:25.23;
9. Kanta Shimizu’ (Jpn) 27:31.27; 10. Sam Chelanga (USAr) 27:33.77; 11. Andy Butchart’ (GB) 27:36.77; 12. Lopez Lomong (NikBowTC) 27:39.96;
13. Connor McMillan (adi) 27:40.55; 14. Pat Tiernan’ (Aus) 27:45.95; 15. Lawi Lalang (unat) 27:52.44;
16. Robert Brandt (UArm) 27:52.56; 17. Reid Buchanan (On) 27:52.74; 18. John Dressel (Puma) 27:57.51; 19. Frank Lara (AltraRRP) 28:40.43.
II–1. Luc Bruchet’ (Can) 27:56.12; 2. Ben Eidenschink (unat) 28:00.54; 3. Willy Fink (UArm) 28:06.36; 4. Tai Dinger (WiRRT) 28:19.79;
5. Ben Blankenship (NikOTC) 28:20.29; 6. Mo Hrezi’ (Lba) 28:30.58; 7. Alec Sandusky (HansB) 28:35.36; 8. JP Flavin (HansB) 28:36.82; 9. Alex Monroe (unat) 28:40.53;… rabbits—Hoare’, Josh Thompson, Sam Atkin, Woody Kincaid.
