Kenneth Rooks and Katie Moon advance to Olympic finals in steeple and pole vault Monday...
In what turned out to be the slowest of the three heats, Rooks was towards the front for most of the race and held his position, making sure that he was in a good spot to claim one of the five spots for Wednesday's final.
The Brigham Young University alum was clean over the last water jump and barrier, taking second in an identical time of 8:24.95 over Simon Koech of Kenya, as Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia won the heat in 8:23.89.
In the morning session, former Washington State University volunteer coach Katie Moon was two and done.
The reigning Olympic champion only needed two attempts to qualify for the finals in the women's pole vault, clearing 14-5.25 (4.40m) and 14-11 (4.55m) to move on to Wednesday night's finals.
In one of the more unusual pole vault qualifying rounds, eleven women cleared 14-11 (4.55m), one short of the twelve needed for the finals.
Another nine made 14-5.25 (4.40m) on their first attempt. Rather than conduct a jump off between the nine women to cut the field down to twelve, the nine who cleared on their first attempt were all advanced to Wednesday's finals, tentatively set for 7 pm Paris time/10:00 am Pacific.
Allen ran 48.64 in a heat that included 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil and Rasmus Mägi of Estonia, both of whom are regulars on the Wanda Diamond League circuit.
Mägi took the win in 48.62, with Allen second in 48.64, and dos Santos third in 48.75 to get the three automatic spots into Wednesday's semifinals and avoid running in Tuesday's repechage round.
Washington alum Gianna Woodruff of Panama was nosed out in a photo finish for the second and final spot in the semifinals in heat 2 of the women's 400 hurdles repechage round by Great Britain's Jessie Knight.
Woodruff ran strongly over the middle portion of the race, but saw China's Mo Jiadie pull away to win in 54.75.
Knight charged over the last 20 meters to catch Woodruff, who was an Olympic finalist in Tokyo, at the line.
Both were credited with the same time of 55.10.
Sweden's Mondo Duplantis highlighted the four finals contested Monday night at the Stade de France, breaking both the Olympic and world records in the pole vault, clearing 20-6 (6.25m).
The USA's Sam Kendricks, who never got to compete in the Tokyo Olympics when he contracted COVID upon his arrival in Tokyo and was isolated from the rest of the team, finished second with a season best 19-6.25 (5.95m), while Emmanouli Karalis of Greece was third at 19-4.25 (5.90m).
American Valarie Allman successfully defended her Olympic title in the discus with a throw of 228-0 (69.50m). Feng Bin of China was second with a throw of 221-6 (67.51m), while former Olympic champ Sandra Elkasevic was third with the identical mark, with Bin getting second on the basis of a better second throw.
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya won the women's 5000m in 14:28.56, ahead of teammate Faith Kipyegon at 14:29.60, with Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands third at 14:30.61.
The Ethiopian federation filed a protest stating that Kipyegon obstructed Gudaf Tsegay with two laps to go, and got Kipyegon disqualified. After a counterprotest by the Kenyan federation, the disqualification was overturned.
Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson won the women's 800 finals, running 1:56.72, ahead of Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma's season best 1:57.17, with Kenya's Mary Moraa, the defending world champion from Budapest, third at 1:57.42.
Tuesday will be a light day for athletes with Washington ties competing, with only two stepping onto the purple track.
One of them is used to stepping on the purple track, as Washington school record holder Sophie O'Sullivan will run in the first of three heats in the women's 1500 meters at 1:05 am Pacific time/10:05 am Paris time.
She'll need to place in the top six to advance to Thursday's semifinals and avoid running in Wednesday's repechage.
The other runner competing Tuesday is Josh Kerr of Great Britain and Seattle's Brooks Beasts, who lines up in the finals of the much anticipated men's 1500 meter finals at 11:50 am Pacific/8:50 pm Paris time.
Kerr, who was third in the Tokyo Olympics and comes into the meet as the reigning world champion, and defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, have had a running feud that has simmered over the last year.
Ingebrigtsen egged on the crowd in the final turn in the semifinals in Budapest, then passed Kerr and several others to win the heat, which was taken as a bit of showboating and disrespect.
Kerr got the last laugh at the world championships, sitting on the Norwegian until the last 200 to win the world title.
Both have traded barbs at each other over the last several months in the media, particularly after Kerr set the world record in the two mile in New York in February.
No matter how you slice it, it's the most interesting and intense rivalry in track and field.
As Kerr told reporters after Sunday's semifinals, "Fans should expect the most competitive 1500m the sport has seen in a long time. There's been a lot of talking words over the last few years. I'm looking to settle that on Tuesday and give it my best performance."
The start lists and results for the Olympic track and field competition is available on the World Athletics microsite, which is available here.
In the United States, streaming is available on the NBCOlympics.com site or Peacocktv.com ($).
Tuesday's session will also be shown live on E! starting at 1 am Pacific, while the evening session will be broadcast on NBC starting at 10 am Pacific, and on KING5 in Seattle (check local listings for times of the NBC network broadcasts).
In Canada, Olympic action will be shown on CBC and streamed on CBC.ca.
NOTE: World Athletics, KING 5, and the sports information office of Brigham Young University contributed to this report.
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