EUGENE — Joe Klecker won a back-and-forth battle with Grant Fisher on the last lap’s home straight to claim the USA Track & Field men’s 10,000-meter championship Friday at Hayward Field.
Fisher, who runs for the Portland-based Bowerman Track Club, made a hard moving coming off the turn and surged into a slight lead as the fans roared on the first night of the Prefontaine Classic.
But Klecker gathered himself to make one, more supreme effort in his final few steps to pass Fisher and win in 28 minutes, 28.71 seconds.
It was a thrilling finish for the crowd of 4,182 on a cool, dry evening.
Fisher, the U.S. record-holder in the 10,000, was a close second in 28:28.21. Sean McGorty, who trains with Fisher with the BTC, crossed third in 27:18.15.
“I went to the front with maybe a ‘k’ to go,” Klecker said. “I was just going to stay here until someone pulled up on my shoulder. When Grant did, then it was just trying to match his footspeed. Grant has great footspeed.”
Mission accomplished. Klecker, Fisher and McGorty all claimed spots on Team USA for the World Athletics Championships, which will be contested July 15-24 at Hayward Field.
USA Track & Field elected to hold its individual championship races in the men’s and women’s 10,000 in conjunction with the Pre Classic, rather than during the USATF Outdoor Championships, June 23-26.
In theory this will allow distance runners to more easily double back in the 5,000, which will be contested with the other USATF events in June.
Much of the men’s 10,000 was run at a pedestrian pace, with almost all of the runners still in the race until things heated up over the final few laps.
Klecker hung in there, tightly focused. His plan was simple.
“I didn’t really think about who was left,” he said. “I couldn’t really see who was left. If anyone pulled up on my right shoulder, I wanted to go with him and give him a fight to the line.”
Reigning Olympic champion and world record-holder Armand Duplantis breezed to victory in the Pre Classic pole vault with a best clearance of 19-4¾.
The event was moved from Saturday to Friday after meet organizers looked at forecasts calling for rain on Saturday.
As it turned out, conditions Friday were perfect with temperatures in the low 60s and little wind. Duplantis took advantage. He was the only vaulter to clear the winning height. He then had the bar moved to 19-11. He missed his three attempts at the height, although the last was a near thing.
Olympic silver medalist Chris Nilsen was second. Two-time Olympic champ Renaud Lavillenie had a quick night’s work. Lavillenie, the meet record-holder, successfully cleared just one height at 17-9 before bowing out with three misses at 18-5.
The crowd gave Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh an enthusiastic ovation when she broke her country’s flag after winning the high jump with a best mark of 6-6¾. U.S. Olympian Vashti Cunningham was second.
Here are results from the USATF 10,000-meter championship and the Prefontaine Classic.
— Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
KenGoe1020@gmail.com | Twitter: @KenGoe
