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Husky alums Brian Fay and Kieran Lumb win national titles in Ireland and Canada...


On the final day of qualifying for the Budapest World Athletics Championships that begin on August 19th at the brand new National Athletics Centre, here's what went down:

IRISH CHAMPIONSHIPS

Under wet and rainy skies in Dublin's Morton Stadium. Brian Fay (right/photo courtesy UW Athletics) won the Irish national championship in the 5000 meters, using the same tactic seen numerous times during his career at the University of Washington of sitting, then unleashing a kick over the final 400 meters.

Fay, who probably had little incentive to compete at the national championships after setting the Irish national record in the 5000, and getting both his world championships and Olympic qualifying standard out of the way when he ran 13:01.40 in Heusden, Belgium on July 15th, sat on Cormac Dalton before pulling away to win in 13:39.20 to Dalton's 13:44.43.

Courtesy of Athletics Ireland's Twitter page, here's the last lap:


A few hours after winning the 5000, current Husky Sophie O'Sullivan looked to win her first Irish senior national title at 1500 meters, but was denied by Sarah Healy, who she defeated a few weeks ago at the European Athletics Under-23 meet in Espoo, Finland.

Healy went to the front over the last two laps and maintained the lead, holding a late charge to win in 4:11.39, with O'Sullivan second in 4:12.00.

For those of you keeping score at home in the Road to Budapest (move the radio button to the event you're looking for), O'Sullivan's time of 4:12.00 is worth 1111 points (need to download the scoring table here), plus 80 for finishing second at nationals. She entered the day ranked number 54 in the Road to Budapest standings in the women's 1500 with 1152 points.



The 1191 points earned from Sunday's national championship raised her five race score (throw out the lowest score) from 1152 to 1169 points, which (pending the outcome of other races around the world Sunday) raises her to 47th in the Road to Budapest standings (56 is the field size for the men's and women's 1500).

We project that O'Sullivan will be inside the top 56 and will be selected to Ireland's team for the world championships when the final rankings are released on Wednesday, pending official announcement by the Irish federation.


CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS...

Just up the road and over the border from Seattle in Langley, British Columbia, recent Washington grad student Kieran Lumb (above, next to Fay) won his first title in the 1500 meters at the Bell Canadian Track & Field Championships, running 3:37.24.

Lumb followed the lead of Rob Heppenstall early before he ceded to Charles Phillibert-Thiboutot. 

Still in second, the Washington alum sat on Philibert-Thiboutot until they exited the final turn, where the Vancouver native put a burst to win the national title in 3:37.24 to 3:38.01 for the runner-up.

Another Husky grad student, Aaron Ahl, fresh off a double victory in the 1500 and 3000 two weeks ago in Victoria, finished sixth in 3:42.45.

Lumb, who entered this weekend in 52nd place in the men's 1500 in the Road to Budapest standings with 1199 points, scored 1144 points on his winning time of 3:37.24, plus earned 100 bonus points for winning the Canadian title (all national championship meets are classified by World Athletics as a Group B competition).

His five-race average after today was raised from 1199 to 1213 points, which puts him in a tie for 48th place.



We project that both Lumb and Joe Waskom of the Huskies, who was second at the Toyota USATF championships three weeks ago, will be inside the top 56 and will be selected to Canada and the USA's teams for the world championships in the men's 1500.

Waskom's five-race score is below:




Also in Langley, Washington's Madison Heisterman ran a season best of 4:15.42 to finish seventh in the women's 1500. Washington alum Roan Allen was third in the mens' javelin with a best of 228-7 (69.67m).


LAST CHANCE IN LUXEMBOURG...

In Schifflange, Luxembourg, Washington's Carley Thomas fell short of making her second world championship team at 800 meters at the Meeting International Schifflange.

Thomas, who basically needed to run the world championship standard of 1:59.80 to get a spot on Australia's' team, finished fifth in 2:02.16, as Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda won in 2:00.78, less than a second off the standard.

In the women's B section of the 800, Olympia native Brooke Feldmeier was seventh in 2:05.33.

Washington volunteer assistant coach Sam Prakel won the men's 1500 in 3:39.88. Former UW grad student Jack Rowe was eighth in the men's 5000 in 13:32.88.


NOTE: The sports information office of the University of Washington, Athletics Ireland, Athletics Canada, and the Meeting International Schifflange contributed to this report.

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