NEW YORK (23-Jul) — Woody Kincaid was crowned national 10,000m champion here on the first night of the Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Icahn Stadium. The athlete practically jogged through the first half of his race before showing true fitness by running minutes faster in the second half and closing with fast final laps. Kincaid, a two-time Olympian, was winning his third national 10,000m title.
KINCAID FINDS HIS KICK
Kincaid, 33, had just one real rival in tonight’s race: double-Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher. Fisher, 29, the North American record holder for both 5000m and 10,000m, has been in excellent form this year and came into tonight’s meet full of confidence after winning his first Wanda Diamond League race in Paris on June 28.
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But the two men were not near the front of the field in the early going because the pace was so slow. Fisher ran in last position nearly to the halfway mark which was reached in just 16:12.63 by the University of Oregon’s Luke Tewalt. Kincaid was in the middle of the pack.
“We were going really, really slow,” said Fisher, who was the 2024 Olympic Trials 10,000m champion.
With ten laps to go, Fisher decided to up the pace and send a strong signal to the rest of the field. From loafing along at 80 seconds a lap, Fisher ran 61-flat from 6000 to 6400 meters. Everybody woke up.
“I wanted that first (hard) lap to be real,” Fisher told reporters, “so that anyone who went with me knew it was real.”
Fisher ran the next four laps in 63.7, 64.3 and 64.2. Only Kincaid and Drew Bosley could hold that pace, and it quickly became a three-man race. Kincaid was a little surprised by Fisher’s early move.
“When he went with ten laps to go I thought, he can’t hold this for ten laps,” Kincaid said. “I think Grant went a little bit too early.”
Indeed, Fisher’s pace began to slow. Bosley briefly took the lead in the penultimate lap, and Kincaid waited for the backstretch of the final circuit to launch his kick. Bosley couldn’t go with his two rivals, but Fisher kept it close. Rounding the final bend Kincaid went into overdrive, running the final 100 meters in 12.9 seconds and capping off a 54.9-second final lap. His time of 30:13.66 was the slowest winning time at a USATF Championships since Max Truex ran 31:22.4 in 1959.
“He has a really great kick now,” said Kincaid of Fisher, “so I went a little bit before 200 and put a little something on it and it worked out.” He added: “It’s nice to know that finish is still there, that kick is still there.”
Fisher did not try to hide his disappointment.
“Not happy, not happy,” Fisher said when asked about his race. “I tried to move pretty early, did not feel that good when I moved, but wanted to stay on the gas a long time. I felt like I still had a bit in the tank with a lap to go. Woody just had more.”
Fisher was timed in 30:14.46 to Bosley’s 30:20.60. Kincaid ran his second half in 14:00.89, more than two minutes faster than his first (16:12.77).
