Brooks Beasts' Marta Pen Freitas bumped out of qualifying heat of 1500m at Olympics...
Pen Freitas, the Portuguese national champion in this event, ran in the third of three heats knowing that a time of around 4:06 would advance to Wednesday night's semifinals.
Through the first 1200, Pen Freitas, competing in her second Olympics, was in prime position to get one of the six automatic qualifying spots, splitting 2:11.5 through 800 and 3:16.3 at 1200.
However, she got herself in trouble with 200 to go as Rababe Arafi of Morocco slowed down to stop when Pen Freitas' momentum took her straight into Arafi's back.
The Mississippi State alum was stopped momentarily, but that was enough to knock her out of contention for one of the six automatic spots.
Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, the defending Olympic champion, won the heat with the fastest time of the day at 4:01.40. In fact, three of the six time qualifiers came out of her heat.
In a text from Beasts coach Danny Mackey, he said that they would pursue protesting the results, as they felt that she was obstructed with 200 to go; however, he said that the Portuguese federation would have to initiate the protest process, instead of personal coaches.
UPDATE (9:10 pm Pacific): In a updated text from Brooks Beasts coach Danny Mackey, the Portuguese federation's protest on behalf of Pen Freitas was successful and she will be advanced to the semifinals.
All three Americans--Heather Maclean (4:02.40), Cory McGee (4:05.15), and Elle Purrier St. Pierre (4:05.34) advanced to the semis.
In the two finals contested Monday morning, Jasmine Camacho Quinn of Puerto Rico, a former NCAA champion at Kentucky, won the 100 hurdles in 12.37, with fellow Kentucky alum Keni Harrison of Team USATF second in 12.52.
The men's long jump was won by Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece with a sixth round jump of 27-7.25 (8.15m) to match leader Juan Miguel Echevarría of Cuba's jump, but earned the victory with a better second jump of 26-9 (8.15m) to Echevarría's 26-6/5 (8.09m). Echevarría did not take all six of his jumps after hurting himself early in the competition.
JuVaughn Harrison, who finished seventh in the high jump Sunday night, was the top American with a fifth place finish, as the double NCAA long jump/high jump champ from LSU managed a best of 27-7.25 (8.15m).
Looking ahead, former Pullman resident Katie Nageotte goes in group A of the women's pole vault qualifying Monday night at 7:20 pm Tokyo time/3:20 am Seattle time.
In just over an hour afterwards, Washington alum Gianna Woodruff of Panama goes in heat 2 of 3 in the 400 hurdles at 8:45 pm local time/4:45 am Seattle time, as she faces off against world record holder Sydney McLaughlin of Team USATF, and Anna Ryzhykova of Ukraine.
Results and start lists are available through the home page of the World Athletics Tokyo Olympics microsite.
NOTE: The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, USA Track & Field, & World Athletics contributed to this report.
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