Sara Hall falls short of Olympic goal in women’s 10,000-meter qualifier

Sara Hall falls short of Olympic goal in women’s 10,000-meter qualifier

A packed field of 41 long-distance runners — including a former Sonoma County prep sports star — did their best to ignore the heat and finish the women’s 10,000-meter race on a sweltering Saturday at the U.S. track and field Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon.

But only the top three finishers would earn a ticket to next month’s Olympics, and 2001 Montgomery High graduate Sara Hall, in sixth, was not among them.

Hall, 38, is on the outside looking in as some of the qualifying runners now decide whether to stick with the 10,000-meter distance in Tokyo or focus only on the 5,000, which she did not compete in.

All three of the runners ahead of her who are already on the 5,000-meter team would need to drop the 10,000 for Hall to grab a spot in Tokyo. Those decisions are due by Thursday.

“I made all the right moves I needed to; I just didn’t have it,” Hall told the website Runner’s World after the race. “Those girls are really strong.”

Saturday marked Hall’s seventh career event in the Olympic trials. She hasn’t been to an Olympic Games before.

Still, sixth place is her best performance yet at the trials, in track events and the marathon. She finished in a time of 31:54.50.

Another Viking alumna, 2004 grad Kim Conley, pulled out of the race early Saturday morning, citing an unspecified injury.

“I’ve done everything I can in the last few weeks to get to the line, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough,” Conley wrote on Instagram. “I look forward to being on the start line again and letting all my competitive instincts shine when I’ve returned to full health and fitness.”

Saturday’s winner, Emily Sisson, got out to the front early and set a meet record. She finished in 31:03.82 to earn a trip to the Tokyo Games.

“I kept telling myself, ‘If you’re feeling the heat, so is everyone else too,’” Sisson said. “I’m used to leading from the front, so it doesn’t really spook me.”

With Saturday’s highs forecast to reach 102 at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus, meet organizers took pity on the distance runners and moved their race to the morning instead of its early evening time slot. Still, it was 85 when the starting gun went off.

Soon after, it was Sisson applying the heat to the other 40 women in the race. It was a tactical decision to set a brisk pace from the outset.

“It was hot. We knew it was going to be hot,” she said after beating Deena Kastor’s 2004 trials record by nearly 6 seconds. “It was hard. It didn’t feel easy.”

Karissa Schweizer finished second in 31:16.52. She’s also qualified in the 5,000. Third place went to Alicia Monson (31:18.55), who retreated into the shade after the race and covered her legs in wet towels to cool down.

“I just kind of expected it to be pretty brutal out there,” Schweizer said. “The problem with the heat is that it just makes you feel exhausted. … I just worked through every lap.”

Race officials took the rare step of setting up a water table on the track and runners stayed cool before the race any way they could. They wore ice vests, poured water over their necks and remained in the shade as long as possible.

Still, four of the runners didn’t finish on a sweltering day.

Everyone was trying to focus on the race, not the heat. It was far from easy, and runners could face similar conditions in Tokyo.

“It was a grind,” Sisson said of the race. “But, yeah, I’m really happy with that.”