Olympic Gold Medalist Runs Prescribed 3,000 Meters In 9:41 Before Dropping Out Of 5,000

Story and photos by Keenan Gray of DyeStat

WALNUT, Calif. - The rumors were true: Athing Mu-Nikolayev ran in a 5,000 meters race.

Well, sort of.

The American 800 meters record holder caught a lot of people off guard when it was revealed she would be on the starting line of a much longer distance event at the 65th Mt. SAC Relays.

To no surprise, Mu-Nikolayev didn’t finish the race. She ran three-fifths of the women’s elite race on Friday night at Hilmer Lodge Stadium in her first race back since last summer’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene.

“It was definitely long,” Mu-Nikolayev said. “Longer than 800 meters, or 1,500 meters, but it was fun.”

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Mu-Nikolayev was out of her element in terms of racing the longer distance. The last time she raced anything longer than 1,500 meters was back in high school her junior year when she ran a 5k in cross country.

That didn’t stop her from going to lead once the gun went off. Through the first 200 meters, she split 36.80 seconds, a little quick for an entire 5,000 meters race to maintain.

She eventually settled in with a group of five other women over the next couple of laps, going off splits around 76-78 seconds.

“The splits were pretty good,” Mu-Nikolayev said. “We had a really good pacer and the girls that were running were pretty good. It’s more fun to do it out here than it is do it at practice.”

Her fastest split of 76.82 seconds led her to cross the line at 3,000 meters in 9:41.75 to conclude her evening.

“To do something like this is way out of my comfort zone,” Mu said. “Just coming out here, just running and seeing how far I can take my body in this race, which is fun instead of going out and trying to do something great every time I step out onto the track.”

Mu-Nikolayev’s unfortunate fall in the U.S. Olympics Trials final of the women’s 800 meters was one of the biggest storylines leading up to the Paris Olympic Games. Since that race, she stepped away from competition to focus on herself and other personal things outside of running.

One of those personal moments included getting married.

“A lot of downtime for me,” Mu-Nikolayev said. “It was nice to get my personal life set up how I wanted to do without a whole bunch of eyes. I love my husband, and my family and I have had a great time together celebrating.”

But now the attention turns back to the track. Her focus is making a return to the global stage, which includes returning to Tokyo in September, the same place she won her first Olympic gold medal in 2021.

“We’re really focusing on staying healthy this year,” Mu-Nikolayev said. “Just getting into races to have fun…The trajectory of the year is the same. We’re going to put ourselves in the places that’ll be best for us, in terms of racing and competing.”

Along with Mu-Nikolayev’s brief appearance, elite competition continued another day in the distances, including a Utah Valley sweep in the 5,000 from Caila Odekirk in the women’s race and Moh Guled in the men’s race.

Odekirk led a 1-2 finish for the Wolverines, winning in 16:02.24, with teammate Anna Martin finishing 13 seconds behind in 16:15.45.

Guled lowered the Utah Valley outdoor record down to 13:42.22 to easily win the men’s race by 23 seconds.

Utah Valley also picked up a win in the women’s 1,500 invitational race, thanks to Elizabeth Ferrell running 4:31.18.

Missouri Southern’s Ryan Riddle won the men’s elite 1,500 in 3:43.18.

Earlier in the day Minnesota State’s Grace Johnson tied the NCAA Division 2 lead in the women’s 100 meter hurdles in 13.11 seconds to win the collegiate section. Adeyah Brewster, who’s in a tie for the national lead with her teammate Johnson, finished second in 13.17.

South Dakota’s Tre Young and Anna Willis swept the men’s and women’s elite pole vault competitions in the “B” section, both clearing personal best heights. Young cleared 5.41 meters (17-9) on the men’s side. Willis went over 4.50m (14-9) in the women’s field to move to fourth in the NCAA this season.

USC’s Ezra Frech, who won two golds in the 100 and high jump at the Paris Paralympics last summer, jumped 6.62m (21-8.75) to finish 27th in the men’s collegiate long jump. Arkansas’ Jurian Hughes won with a mark of 7.65m (26-1.25).

High school racing got underway with a pair of distance relays and individual events.

Great Oak CA delivered the race of the entire day, winning the boys 4x800 relay invitational section in a meet record 7:35.01, holding off both Herriman UT and Wilson (Long Beach) CA. The final baton carriers were three abreast going into the final 100 meters, with Great Oak's Jack Paradise inching away at the end to deliver the win.

Wilson (Long Beach) won its third girls 4x800 relay title in the last four weekends, running 9:02.68.

Herriman prevailed in the boys 4x1600 relay, beating Harvard-Westlake CA by 10 seconds in 17:28.23.

Santiago (Corona) CA ran 20:52.64 to take the girls 4x1,600 title.

Arcadia CA's Charlotte Hopkins ran a personal best 4:49.99 to win the girls invitational mile.

Trabuco Hills CA's Dylan Jubak dipped under 4:10 for the full mile for the first time in his career, winning the boys invitational race in 4:10.25.

Temescal Canyon CA's Megan Crum repeated as champion in the girls 3,200 meter, winning in 10:21.00.

Herriman's Noah Manwaring held off Kimball CA's Andres Lomeli in the boys 3,200 invitational race by a margin of 9:06.35 to 9:06.61.