EUGENE — Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia ran a nice, tactical race Saturday to win the women’s 5,000 meters in the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field.
It was exciting at the finish before a crowd estimated to be 12,132.
Tsegay had to hold off a late charge by Kenyan Beatrice Chebet on the home straight to clinch in 14 minutes, 46.29 seconds. Chebet was a close second in 14:46.75.
For the three Team USA runners — Elise Cranny, Karissa Schweizer and Emily Infield – it was a tough evening on the track.
Cranny second-guessed herself afterward for not responding better when the race got serious in the final 600. She came across ninth in 14:59.99.
Infeld, who fought off a case of COVID after the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships, never factored.
Schweizer ran with Cranny in the front pack until the final two and a half laps. Then Schweizer began to falter. She stepped off the track with about 550 meters remaining with what was said later to be a left calf strain.
Cranny saw Schweizer stop, and felt her heart sink. The two runners train together as members of the Portland-based, Nike-sponsored Bowerman Track Club.
“We have the same goals,” Cranny said. “We work really well together in races. I think we could have helped each other in the last 800.”
Bowerman Track Club teammates Karissa Schweizer and Elise Cranny (facing camera) hug after the women’s 5,000-meter final on Day 9 of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 23, 2022, in Eugene, Oregon. Mark Graves/The Oregonian
Tsegay, meanwhile, spent most of the race at the front, trading the lead with teammate Letesenbet Gidey, the world record-holder.
At the bell for the final 400, Olympic champ Sifan Hassan made a big move to challenge. Hassan passed Tsegay heading into the final curve, and seemed to be winding up for a big finish.
But Hassan couldn’t sustain it. Tsegay retook the lead heading onto the home straight. Chebet chased her to the line.
Ethiopian Dawit Seyaum was third. Gidey finished fifth, Hassan faded to sixth.
Tsegay, last summer’s Olympic bronze medalist, said she expected Hassan to make the big move on the last lap and was happy to have responded.
“There was no more difficult time in this race,” she said.
Hassan represents the Netherlands and once trained in Portland with the now-defunct Nike Oregon Project. She took a long break after last summer’s Olympics and concedes she isn’t in the same kind of shape this year.
“I did my best, and I gave everything,” Hassan said. “I did the race smart, and did not make any mistake.”
Schweizer and Cranny stayed within striking distance for much of the way.
“Going into the race I was like, ‘Be ready for a big last 1k,’” Cranny said. “I feel that’s where things usually happen. I’m a bit bummed. I feel with 600 to go, I had nothing left.
“The race kind of got away, which is frustrating.”
Until leaving after last year, Infeld trained with Cranny and Schweizer on the Bowerman Track Club. But she had been sidetracked by a string of injuries.
She claimed a spot on Team USA for the world championships with a strong, third-place finish at last month’s U.S. championships. It was a nice comeback story.
Then, three days later, COVID struck. She said she never became seriously sick. But it still interfered with her training.
“I didn’t work out for two weeks,” Infeld said. “It was tough. There are only three and a half weeks between USAs and the (world) prelims. I just tried to tell myself I was going to be really tapered.”
The power of positive thinking only goes so far. In Saturday’s final, Infeld’s body didn’t respond the way she wanted.
“I had one week of half workouts, half taper and I think that kind of showed today,” she said. “I just felt flat.”
Here are results from the World Athletics Championships.
— Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive
KenGoe1020@gmail.com | Twitter: @KenGoe
