OTC Elite advances four athletes to Olympic Trials finals
OTC Elite’s Hassan Mead navigates his way to one of the coveted auto-qualifying spots in his heat of the 5,000-meter on Thursday. He will compete for a spot on the Tokyo Olympic team on Sunday. Photo by Jay Bendlin/TrackTown USA
By Curtis Anderson | June 26, 2021
EUGENE, Ore. - Oregon Track Club Elite will be represented by four athletes on the final day of competition at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field.
Hassan Mead, a veteran of two World Championships and the 2016 Rio Olympics, gets things started in the 5,000-meter final at 10 a.m. Mead advanced with a third-place finish in Heat Two of the semifinals on Thursday.
OTC Elite will have two finalists in the women's 800m at 4:30 p.m.
Chanelle Price, who competed in the 2008 Olympic Trials as a 17-year-old, reached the finals for the first time in her storied career. Racing in her fourth Olympic Trials, Price placed third in her heat in 1:59.90 to automatically advance.
The 2014 World Indoor gold medalist has run under 2:00 in three of her past four races, including the first round and semifinals of the 800m at these Trials.
"I don't think it's hit me yet," Price told the media. "Once I get cooled down and have time to reflect, I'll probably be in tears."
She will be joined in Sunday's final by Hanna Green. The 2019 World Championships qualifier finished fourth in her heat at 2:01.19, right behind Price, but she was clipped from behind on the final stretch and she was added to the final after her appeal was upheld.
Sabrina Southerland, a former NCAA Indoor and Pac-12 outdoor champion for the Ducks, finished seventh in her heat at 2:05.61 and failed to advance. Still, it has been a breakthrough season for Southerland, who ran a near 2-second PR of 1:58.82 at the Portland Track Festival on May 29.
In the men's 1,500m, Vince Ciattei advanced to the final with a fourth-place performance of 3:38.74 in the first heat. The former Virginia Tech standout clocked his PR of 3:34.57 at the Portland Track Festival.
2016 Olympian Ben Blankenship, who has been able to train for only three weeks due to injury, failed to advance after placing 11th in the second heat at 3:46.38. Remarkably, he made his season debut in the first round of the 1,500m on Thursday.
The men's 1,500m final begins at 4:40 p.m.
Elsewhere, OTC Elite's Jake Heyward placed third in the 1,500m with a time of 3:42.41 at the Muller British Athletics Championships in Manchester, England on Saturday. The 22-year-old Heyward will find out on Monday if he has been selected to represent Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics.