BOTH PACE & TACTICS TO PLAY A ROLE FOR OLYMPIC TRIALS MEN ON SATURDAY
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

ORLANDO (02-Feb) - Competing successfully in tomorrow's USA Olympic Team Trials Men's Marathon will require the top athletes to keep one eye on their rivals and the other on the race clock.  That's because, with the exception of two athletes, finishing in the top three alone won't be sufficient for making a team spot under both USA Track & Field selection procedures and World Athletics rules.  Athletes will need to place well *and* run fast.

That's a tall order in a race which is traditionally tactical.  Of course, there are no pacemakers, and the weather will be warm and sunny.  Athletes and coaches have thought long and hard about how to best approach the race.

"I think it will take a very good performance to make the team, obviously," said 2:08:52 marathoner Scott Fauble at a press conference today.  "It's always taken a good performance.  I'm not focused on what that time is; the time will come from competing."

Fauble, 32, has a particularly difficult task tomorrow.  During the Olympic Games qualifying period, which opened on November 1, 2022, Fauble did not achieve the primary Olympic qualifying time of 2:08:10 or the secondary "reallocation" time of 2:11:30 set by World Athletics.  Men who have run 2:11:30 or better can be substituted by the USOPC for men who have run the 2:08:10 standard.  So Fauble can only let the pace lag by so much because if he doesn't run at least 2:11:30 tomorrow he can't be selected for the team no matter what his finish place.  Moreover, he'd have to finish first or second with that time to make the team. If he comes in third he'd need to run the full 2:08:10 standard because the USA only has two quota places right now.

The marathon is just as much mental as physical, so Fauble has tried not to focus too much on the time requirement.  A relaxed athlete can compete better than a tense athlete, he feels.

"The biggest change for me coming from 2020 to 2024 now is, honestly, putting less pressure on myself," Fauble continued.  "Trying to train as well as I can without looking forward (at) the race and letting each day come to me.  Just kind of being more process-oriented, not trying to win Trials in practice, feeling like every day in practice was make or break.  Letting the process come to me instead of really forcing it."

For Conner Mantz and Clayton Young the task is simpler because they both have the 2:08:10 qualifying time.  If they make the top three they are on the team, regardless of finish time.  The two men train together in Provo, Utah, under Brigham Young University coach Ed Eyestone.  Young, 30, who wore sunglasses at today's press conference, said that despite his strong performance at Chicago last fall where he ran his Olympic Games qualifying mark, he still feels like an underdog.  That feeling, he said, helped him get ready for this race.

"As the discussion started after Chicago, who's everybody's top favorites, who's making that team, I realized that I was not making people's top three," Young told reporters.  "I kind of embraced that mentality, that underdog mentality, and I'm going to take that all the way to the finish line."

Mantz, 27, has to be viewed as the co-favorite along with defending champion Galen Rupp who is trying to make his fifth Olympic team.  Mantz --who embraced road running right after finishing his NCAA career at Brigham Young University where he won the NCAA Cross Country Championships title twice-- has run three successful marathons in three starts.  In his debut in Chicago in 2022 he clocked 2:08:16, then ran 2:10:25 in Boston the following spring.  Last October in Chicago he ran his Games qualifier of 2:07:47 and finished sixth overall.

But after Chicago, Mantz found out that a pain in his leg was a stress reaction in his femur.  That was a scare, but he said today that he had healed successfully.

"I think the stress reaction in my femur was a big, like, big scare," Mantz explained.  "But I'm just really fortunate to have a great support group around me and be able to get back pretty quickly.  It not only gave me a physical reset, but a mental reset.  I think I'm in a good spot."

For Sam Chelanga, 38, who represents the U.S. Army, these are likely his last Trials.  He finished 21st in the 2020 Trials in Atlanta and many thought his career was over, especially because of the big competition interruption due to the pandemic.  But in 2021 he won the USATF 10-K road running title at age 36, and finished eighth at the USA Olympic Trials in the 10,000m.  His 2:08:50 personal best in Chicago last October came as a surprise to many.  He said today that running for the U.S. Army has helped him find a greater purpose.

"The journey has been amazing," said Chelanga, who wore army boots to today's press conference.  He continued: "For me, I've got thousands of active-duty soldiers and reserves who know this call of serving the country.  We all have certain things that we just like to enjoy, like running.  I'm that guy.  I just show them that you just keep sticking your head in the game, one day you might make it to the Olympics.  Saturday, that's my goal.  I hope that I shine for those people."

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Tomorrow's race will be broadcast live on the NBC-owned streaming platform Peacock starting at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.


PHOTO: Four of the top male contenders for the 2024 USA Olympic Marathon team (left to right): Conner Mantz, Clayton Young, Sam Chelanga and Scott Fauble (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)


PHOTO: Five of the top female contenders for the 2024 USA Olympic Marathon team (left to right): Aliphine Tuliamuk, Emily Sisson, Keira D'Amato, Betsy Saina and Jenny Simpson (Photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)