UW alums Fulton & McMahon-Staggs, plus current Dawgs David-Smith & Cochran race in Cork Wednesday...
Over the next three weeks, things will start ramping up as athletes try to hit the qualifying standards for the various national championship meets coming up at the end of the month and/or score enough world ranking points that could help qualify for the world championships in September.
Wednesday evening in Cork, Ireland, the Cork City Sports meet happens, which is a World Athletics Continental Tour-Bronze level meet.
The women's 3000 features a pair of current Huskies in Julia David-Smith (383) and Mia Cochran (381, Paul Merca photo), along with alum Eleanor Fulton.
Fulton is the top seed in the race, with a listed personal best of 8:44.68.
They'll go up against a field that includes Cara Feain-Ryan of Australia, who was a two-time world championships qualifier in the steeplechase.
Cochran hasn't raced since the NCAA West Regionals at the end of May, where she ran 16:08.76 in her section of the 5000.
For David-Smith, who set a personal best in the 5000 of 15:39.97 on June 28th in Carquefou, France, this race is serving as a tuneup, as she was named by the French federation to compete in the European U23 Championships in Bergen, Norway from the 17th through the 20th of this month.
Fulton, David-Smith, and Cochran run at 7:30 pm local time (11:30 am Pacific).
Also competing in Cork is Washington grad Ronan McMahon-Staggs, who is entered in the mile.
McMahon-Staggs, who was sixth in the NCAA indoor mile, but surprisingly failed to qualify for the outdoor 1500, last raced on June 15th at the Portland Track Festival, where he ran 3:40.61.
He is one of the top seeds in the race at 3:51.85, but will have to contend with Australia's Matthew Ramsden and Arkansas' Reuben Reina Jr, an NCAA qualifier both indoors and outdoors in the mile and 1500.
The men's mile is the last race of the meet, getting underway at 9 pm local time (1 pm Pacific).
The meet will be streamed starting at 9:30 am Pacific time on the European Athletics YouTube channel, which you can access here (may be geo-blocked in certain countries):
MORE FROM EUROPE...
As noted above, Washington's Julia David-Smith was named by the French federation to compete in the 5000 at the European Athletics Under-23 Championships in the 5000 meters.
The European U23 Championships will be held July 17-20th in Bergen, Norway.
The Spanish federation also announced that Washington rising sophomore Sofia Cosculuella will represent her country in the heptathlon.
Cosculuella, who was last year's Spanish national champion, finished sixth at the NCAA championships with a score of 5856 points.
On July 5th, Western Washington's Bec Bennett (photo courtesy Czesław Cybulski Memorial) set a new school and GNAC record in the 400 meters at the Czesław Cybulski Memorial meet in Poznan, Poland.
Bennett's previous personal best was 52.61, set five years ago in Sydney, before everything was shut down because of the worldwide pandemic.
She'll next race on July 12th at the Moore Guldensporenmeeting in Kortrijk, Belgium, which is a World Athletics Continental Tour-Bronze meeting.
NOTE: European Athletics, World Athletics, the Czesław Cybulski Memorial Meeting, and the Cork City Sports Meeting contributed to this report.
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