EUGENE — Cooper Teare rocketed off the final turn with a perfectly timed kick to win the men’s 1,500 meters Saturday in the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field.
Teare appeared lost in traffic on the last lap’s back straight. That quickly changed as he rounded the turn and headed for home.
The victory in 3 minutes, 45.86 seconds earns the former University of Oregon star a berth in next month’s World Athletics Championships, also at Hayward Field.
It was a hot, eventful afternoon before 3,664, starting with Sydney McLaughlin’s victory in the 400 hurdles in a world-record time of 51.41.
Veteran Kara Winger, 36, won her ninth — and final — USATF javelin title. As if winning wasn’t enough, Winger summoned some “Hayward Magic” to earn the world championships qualifying standard on her final attempt with a throw of 210 feet, 10 inches.
Speaking of veterans, Evan Jager put three, tough, injury-hampered years behind him with a second-place finish in the steeplechase.
Hillary Bor won in 8:15.76. But the 33-year-old Jager competed like a champion, summoning enough will to finish hard, passing third-place finisher Benard Keter on the home straight while pushing for the finish line.
The clock caught Jager in 8:17.29 and Keter in 8:19.16. All three made the U.S. team for the world championships.
McLaughlin, so far ahead of the rest of the field she appeared to be running solo, broke her own 400 hurdles world record of 51.46 set last year.
Who needs competition when you have the crowd behind you?
“Every time I come here, I can just feel something amazing is going to happen,” McLaughlin said. “Ever since I’ve been 14 coming here, it always leads to amazing performances for me.”
Teare missed the Tokyo Olympics after finishing fourth in the 5,000 in last year’s trials. Only the top three went.
He didn’t leave anything to chance this time as he swung wide off the turn.
As Teare recounted it, “I just told myself, ‘Don’t look back. Just get past the line. Then you can think about what everyone else is doing.’ I was just trying to focus on myself, put the legs down and get to that line first.”
He did, and left confusion in his wake. Neither second-place finisher Jon Davis of the University of Illinois nor Josh Thompson, third, has bettered the world championships qualifying standard.
Thompson, who trains with the Portland-based Bowerman Track Club, probably will make the U.S. team by virtue of his world ranking. Davis almost certainly won’t.
That would seem to put former University of Oregon Johnny Gregorek in position for Team USA’s third 1,500 berth. It will all be sorted out on Monday, when the world rankings are released.
Gregorek came across sixth, making him the highest-placing finisher with the standard. He made a game effort, lunging at the finish line and greeting reporters afterward with a bloody lip and a heavily bandaged right hand.
“That’s racing,” Gregorek said.
Kara Winger, of Skyview High School in Vancouver, takes a victory lap after earning first place in the women’s javelin during Day 3 of the USA Track and Field championships from Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, June 25, 2022. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Winger took the lead in the javelin competition by one inch over Ariana Ince with the fifth of her six allotted attempts, a throw of 198-4. But Winger hadn’t thrown the world championships standard of 210-0.
So, it was all or nothing when Winger — who already had announced she would retire at the end of this season — geared up for her final attempt. When she let it fly, she wasn’t sure it would be good enough until her fellow competitors began jumping up and down.
“I was already crying,” she said.
Jager, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist who trains with the Bowerman Track Club, also was in tears as he neared the finish line in the steeple. At that point, he knew he had made the U.S. team.
“It felt like making my first Olympic team, winning silver at Rio — the same kind of emotions,” he said. “I couldn’t even really keep it together until the finish line. The emotions just came pouring out of me.”
Alaysha Johnson, UO school record-holder, made Team USA in the 100 hurdles, finishing second to world record-holder Keni Harrison. It was close. Harrison crossed in 12.34, Johnson in 12.35.
Two-time Olympian Devon Allen, UO record-holder in the 110 hurdles, won his qualifying heat. The semifinals and final take place Sunday.
Five-time Olympian Allyson Felix finished sixth and out of contention in the 400 in what probably will be her final appearances in a U.S. championships.
Here the results of the USATF Outdoor Championships.
Here are the results of the USATF U20 Championships.
— Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive
KenGoe1020@gmail.com | Twitter: @KenGoe