Pasco native Marisa Howard earns silver medal in steeple at Pan Am Games...
After a slow opening kilometer that featured quite a bit of jostling, Canada’s Genevieve Lalonde broke open the race, and took the victory in a Pan Am Games meet record time of 9:41.45.
Howard clocked 9:43.78, and third place finisher Belen Casetta of Argentina finished in 9:44.46, as all three podium finishers ducked under the previous meet record of 9:48.12 by Ashley Higginson of the USA four years ago.
Howard said afterwards, “The race went out as I thought—being a bit tactical. We went through four laps in about 5:20, and that’s when Genevieve started pressing the pace, with around 3 laps to go. A little bit of a gap opened up & I tried to cover the move.”
“I wish I could have won, but I’m cherishing this silver medal, as it’s my first international medal,” she said.
She said that she came out of the race with a small war wound from hurdling so close to people in the early part of the race.
Howard's road to Lima came with some bumps, as she wasn't on the original roster, and had to win an arbitration hearing a few weeks ago against USA Track & Field because of a discrepancy in the team selection process.
Before the start of the race, Howard’s fellow USA teammate and Boise State alum Allie Ostrander of the Seattle based Brooks Beasts withdrew after warming up for the race.
Sources within the team said that Ostrander, the reigning NCAA steeple champ was suffering from a virus, a fact later confirmed by Brooks Beasts coach Danny Mackey.
Howard will next put on the Team USA uniform on September 9-10 at The Match between the USA and Europe in Minsk, Belarus.
While the track and field competition at Athletics Stadium is complete, Bellevue’s Katie Burnett finishes off the Pan Am Games competition Sunday morning in the women’s 50 kilometer walk at Parque Kennedy that begins at 5 am, Pacific time.
Complete results of the Pan Am Games are available here.
In Bydgoszcz, Poland, University of Washington volunteer coach Amos Bartelsmeyer finished sixth in the men’s 1500 meters at the European Athletics Super League Team Championships meet Saturday.
In a very tactical race, Bartelsmeyer ran 3:49.99 as Marcin Lewandowski of host Poland took the win in 3:47.88, giving his team 12 points.
Bartelsmeyer’s sixth place finish gave Germany 7 points.
University of Washington alum Martin Bingisser finished 12th in the men’s hammer with a throw of 189-5 (57.75m) to give Switzerland 1 team point.
Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki won the event with a throw of 258-8 (78.84m).
After two days and 22 of 40 events completed, Poland leads with 193, followed by France at 181.5, and Italy is third with 171 points.
In each of the events, each country has one entry. In this format that emphasizes team competition, the bottom five finishing countries are relegated to the First League.
Complete results of the European Athletics Super League Team Championships are available here.
In Memphis, Tennessee, Katie Mackey of the Brooks Beasts finished fifth in the women’s invitational 1500 at the Ed Murphey Classic Saturday.
Mackey ran 4:06.38, her second fastest time this season, as Helen Schlachtenhaufen won in 4:03.59, under the Tokyo Olympic qualifying standard.
Mackey’s Beasts teammate Allie Buchalski was 11th in a new personal best time of 4:12.50, more than two seconds under her previous PR of 4:14.77 set last month at the Portland Track Classic.
Complete results of the Ed Murphey Classic are available here.
NOTE: The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, USA Track & Field, the Lima 2019 Organizing Committee, European Athletics, and the Ed Murphey Classic contributed to this report.
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