EUGENE, Ore. – (June 30, 2024) – Another day, another Lumberjack track and field alum turned Olympian. Abdihamid Nur, a 2022 Northern Arizona graduate, qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Team after finishing second in the men's 5,000-meters with a time of 13:09.01 at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials today at Hayward Field.
Nur is the second NAU alum to qualify for the Olympics, joining 2024 graduate
Nico Young who finished third in the 10,000-meters with a time of 27:52.40 on June 21.
Young will race in the 10,000-meters on Aug. 2 while Nur will toe the line in the first round of the 5,000-meters on Aug. 7 with the finals set for Aug. 10.
Nur clocked a time 13:24.14 in the first round of the 5,000-meters to finish second overall and advance to the finals. He joins Grant Fisher on the Olympic team.
Olympians are not the only thing the pair have in common, as Young owns NCAA Division I records outdoors in the 10,000 (26:52.72) and indoors in the 5,000 (12:57.14) and Nur is the collegiate record holder outdoors in the 10,000 (13:06.32). They both also won indoor NCAA titles in the 3,000-meters and 5,000-meters with Nur winning in 2022 and Young claiming the titles in 2024.
Nur runs professionally for Nike and has won two national titles, representing the U.S. at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. Young signed his first professional contract with adidas two days after qualifying for the Olympics.
Current Northern Arizona junior
Maggi Congdon was the lone collegian to qualify for the final in the 1,500-meters after running an NAU and Big Sky Conference school record of 4:02.79 in the semifinals on Friday night. She set a personal best by five seconds to break her previous school record of 4:07.81 set at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships.
In today's final she ran a time of 4:08.45 to finish 12
th.
Northern Arizona sent a group of 10 qualifiers made up of both current and past student-athletes competing in 10 events at the trials including Brooke Andersen (hammer throw),
Kyairra Reigh (400m),
Colin Sahlman (1500m), Futsum Zienasellassie (10k),
Karrie Baloga (3k steeplechase),
Alyson Churchill (5k, 10k) and
David Dunlap (200m).
For further information on the 2024 Paris Olympics, stay tuned to NAUAthletics.com
