Walla Walla's Kenneth Rooks wins heat of the steeple and advances to Tuesday's finals...
BUDAPEST, Hungary--Walla Walla native Kenneth Rooks (Paul Merca photo) won his heat of the men's 3000 meter steeplechase this morning to highlight the early session of the World Athletics Track & Field Championships at the National Athletics Centre.
Despite a one hour delay to the start of the meet because of a thunderstorm that went through the area, Rooks was comfortably in the middle of the pack through the first half of the race, going through 1500 meters at 4:21.16, then just as he did at the USATF nationals in Eugene, he got himself towards the front, getting to fifth place at the bell, as he and defending world champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco crossed the finish simultaneously in 8:23.66, with Rooks given the win.
The top five runners in each of the three heats advance to the finals on Tuesday night at 9:42 pm local time (12:42 pm in Seattle).
In the mixed zone afterwards, Rooks said, "There was a lot of jostling going on during the race. It helped not to have to worry about time, but placing. The NCAA racing helped out."
He mentioned briefly that Darin Durand, his coach at College Place HS flew out from Walla Walla to watch him race.
"It was really good to have my high school coach come out here. I owe a lot of my success to him."
In the first round of the women's 1500, Washington's Sophie O'Sullivan of Ireland (Paul Merca photo) finished ninth in heat 3, but walked away with a new school record, running 4:02.15, getting under the Olympic standard.
Marta Pen Freitas of the Brooks Beasts and Portugal finished tenth in 4:07.74 in the fourth and final heat.
Later this evening, Josh Kerr of Great Britain and the Brooks Beasts, along with former Huskies Sam Tanner of New Zealand & Kieran Lumb of Canada, and current Husky Joe Waskom of Team USATF in the first round of the men's 1500.
Kerr leads it off in heat one at 7:02 pm (10:02 am Pacific time) in a heat that features defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway.
Former UW roommates Tanner and Waskom are in the second heat nine minutes later, while Lumb is in the third heat at 7:20 pm (10:20 am Pacific time).
CNBC also has coverage of Saturday's evening session, while NBC (KING TV 5 in Seattle) will show the final 90 minutes of Saturday's session starting at 11:30 am Pacific.
NOTE: World Athletics, the WABudapest 23 Organizing Committee, and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.
paulmerca.blogspot.com may receive a commission for any purchases made from links clicked. Please support this site and our sponsors by clicking on the links. You can also support the site by clicking the yellow "Buy Me A Coffee" link below.
Comments