EUGENE, Ore. (July 21, 2022) – Just 15 men will run in the 5,000-meter finals at the 2022 World Athletics Championships on Sunday, with two having formerly represented Northern Arizona University.
Finishing off a historic season dating back to an All-American run at NCAA Cross Country Championship in November,
Abdihamid Nur continued to shine on the track in the opening heat of the 5K while
Luis Grijalva broke away from the pack to push the pace of his second heat. Both men earned automatic bids into the 5K final, scheduled for 6:05 p.m.MST/9:05 p.m. EDT on Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
Running along with former Lumberjack Geordie Beamish in the first 5K heat of the night, Nur moved forward and back of the 21-man pack through the first 3,400 meters of the race. Making a move from 16th up to sixth in a condensed pack of runners over the next 400 meters, Nur found himself on the inside and just outside of automatic qualification with two laps remaining.
In sixth at the bell, Nur pushed hard along the inside just behind fellow American runner Grant Fisher and ran a 12.96 final 100 meters as part of a 56.37 final lap to move into the fifth and final automatic qualifying spot for his heat. Just .24 of a second separated Nur's time of 13:24.48 from the winner of his heat, Uganda's Oscar Chelimo and .01 of a second behind Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei, the current 5K world-record holder.
As for Beamish, finishing 12th with a time of 13:36.86, the native of New Zealand ran within the top 10 at times during the opening 1,200 meters before settling into the middle of the pack. Ranking 23rd of 41 men in the 5K semifinals, Beamish closed the opening heat strongly, moving from 17th with 700 meters remaining into 12th.
With the first of qualifying spots on time sitting at 13:24.56 following the opening heat, Grijalva broke off the gun into the lead group of the second heat. After slipping from third back to ninth in the opening 1,900 meters, but still trailing the lead by just a second, Grijalva elected to truly push the pace.
Breaking out more than two seconds ahead of the pack, Grijalva led the heat for 1,200 meters before Kenya's Daniel Simiu Ebenyo retook the lead at the 3,200-meter mark. Still sitting inside the automatic qualification range, Grijalva held strong inside the top five for the following 1,000 meters before slipping to sixth with two laps remaining.
Just .08 of a second off of fifth at the bell, Grijalva surged back ahead into fourth with 300 meters remaining and ultimately landed in third with a season-best time of 13:14.04 and comfortably qualified for the final alongside his former teammate Nur.
Nur is one of two Americans, along with Fisher, to qualify for the final while Grijalva stands alone for Guatemala and all of Central America. Just four runners qualified for the final from North, Central and South America, with Nur and Grijalva representing two of the four.
