UK Athletes in Dubai, HS Update, College Update, Pro Update, & Athlete Spotlight
Welcome back to the Run Rank weekly recap! There were records, new #1 times, and all sorts of crazy results to cover this week.
The United Kingdom must try and find ways to bring their elite athletes back after training in Dubai.
We are finally getting into the part of the season where we will be reporting more results than news stories. This will be broken up into high school, collegiate, and professional results.
We will wrap it up with our Athlete Spotlight. Read until the end to find out how a former track & field star is now pursuing new goals, like the stock market.
Let’s go!
UK Athletes in Dubai
After a sudden announcement on Friday that the UK would be requiring anyone entering the country to quarantine, this caused some additional stress on some UK elite athletes who have been training in Dubai.
As many as 12 elite British athletes have been in Dubai training and will now be required to either stay in Dubai, or to quarantine when the arrive back in the UK which could affect their training cycle. Some athletes have been frustrated by the government going back on their word and wished they had some notice of the change before being stuck in Dubai.
However, this sentiment does not seem to be shared among the British population. Some have viewed this as athletes complaining after getting a paid holiday to Dubai while the rest of the world struggles to deal with the pandemic.
You can read more here.
New US #1’s for High Schoolers
On the boys side, Eric Albright is the only new US #1 for running events with a time of 2:28.96 in the 1000m. However, Chris Hilton had the boy’s high school performance of the weekend with a high jump of 2.14m to lead the country by 0.06m.
On the girl’s side, Sophie Gorriaran and Roisin Willis hashed it out for new US#1 and #2 marks in the 600m with times of 1:27.02 and 1:27.20 respectively. At the 757 Showdown in Virginia Beach, Takiya Cenci led 10 girls under 58 seconds and into the US Top 50 in the 400m while she ran 56.21.
The high school season is building more and more momentum as it goes on and will surely lead to more top times in the future.
Matthew Boling & Athing Mu Continue to Shine
In the NCAA, records were dropping left and right and some familiar names continue to build on their success in the indoor season.
For the men in the NCAA Division I, Matthew Boling was the headline of the weekend when he ran a NCAA #2 and World #2 time of 20.53. This time adds to the sophomores already impressive resume that has him sitting at #5 in the 60m, and #2 in both the 200m and 400m across all of Division I. The other top headline came from Arkansas when the Oregon DMR team ran a time of 9:19.42 to break their previous NCAA record set last year, as well as the indoor world record. This beat the time set by Team USA in 2015. As for other top times set this past weekend, new marks were set in the 60m, 400m, Mile, and 3000m for the running events. These times were 6.56, 45.29, 3:54.54, and 7:46.10 set by Micah Williams, Bryce Deadmon, Charlie Hunter, and Cooper Teare respectively. Deadmon’s time is also good enough for the World #2 time. Hunter’s time is currently the World #1 in the mile and is faster than any converted 1500m time as well.
For the women, Athing Mu was in the news again after she split 50.03 on the Texas A&M 4x400m to help the team win the meet with a time of 3:31.09 and a new NCAA #2. There were also new NCAA #1 times in the 400m, Mile, 5000m, and the 60m Hurdles this weekend. These marks were 52.48, 4:35.69, 15:36.22, and 8.06 set by Paris Peoples, Lauren Gregory, Katie Izzo, and Imani Carothers respectively. Izzo is currently leading the world as well with her 5000m time.
In the NCAA Division II, Benjamin Azamati continues to dominate after he ran a new 60m and 200m PB this weekend in times of 6.60 and 21.59. His 60m is currently #1 in DII and his 200m is 8th.
There was another quieter week in the NCAA DIII, NAIA, NJCAA, or NCCAA. We will keep you updated as these seasons progress towards their championship meets.
Pro Update
On the pro circuit, there are some new top times in the world as the best of the best begin their 2021 seasons.
On the men’s side, Istvan Szogi ran a new World #1 time in the 1500m this past weekend with a time of 3:37.55. While this is the #1 1500m time, converted with the mile times it is #2. Bethwell Birgen ran a World #1 time in 7:34.12 in the 3000m to lead the pack to the top 5 times in the event so far this year.
On the women’s side, Dina Asher-Smith was the talk of the world when she ran a 7.08 in the 60m dash for the world lead. Her British teammate, Keely Hodgkinson, also performed phenomenally well in the 800 with a time of 1:59.03, the first sub 2 minute 800m in the world this year. Femke Bol opened the 2021 season strong with a time of 50.96 in the 400m for a world lead. She will look to continue on her success in 2020 heading into the Tokyo Olympics. In the women’s 1500m and Mile, there are two new World #1 times. In the 1500m, Katharina Trost of Germany led several elite women in a time of 4:12.02 for the world lead. For the Mile, Aleksandra Gulyayeva ran a time of 4:27.68 which converts to a 4:07 1500m, giving her the title for now. Beatrice Chepkoech, an athlete we recently covered in an article for the steeplechase, ran a World #1 in the 3000m for a time of 8:41.98.
Athlete Spotlight
For this week’s athlete spotlight, we will talk about a former track star who made waves in the stock market world this week. We are talking about Keith Gill, also known as DeepF———Value on reddit.
If you have not heard, a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets took over the stock market news this week as they invested in stocks that were relatively cheap in hopes to inflate the prices of the stocks and make some money for the little man, not just the hedge funds. Gill led this movement after an initial investment of $754,991 which was worth as much as $50 million at it’s peak. Talk about a solid return on investment!
Gill stated to the Wall Street Journal that he wants to use some of his earnings to build a track in Brockton, Massachusetts.
On the track, Gill certainly has the accolades of a great career. During his time at Stonehill College, Gill helped lead his team to multiple Northeast-10 and NCAA East Regional Championships in cross country and two years as runners up in the championship events. He was the USTFCCCA Indoor Athlete of the Year in 2008 with multiple All-American Honors. His personal bests include a 1:52 800m, 2:24.73 1000m, and a 4:03.43 mile. His career was ended after an achilles injury unfortunately.
You can read more about his amazing story here.