Elle St. Pierre Edges Elise Cranny as Top 3 All Break Meet Record with Valby 4th at 2024 US Olympic Trials 5000m
By LetsRun.com
EUGENE, Ore. — Elle St. Pierre of New Balance Boston held off Elise Cranny of Nike in a thrilling stretch duel to win the women’s 5000 at the 2024 US Olympic Team Trials – Track and Field and set a USATF championship record of 14:40.34, beating Cranny by just .02.
Karissa Schweizer finished third at 14:45.12 to take the last Olympic spot. The race played out largely as expected with the University of Florida’s Parker Valby doing all the leading until the final 800. The top 4 had separated from the field at that point and with 800m to go the eventual top 3 passed Valby, as St. Pierre took the pace and would never look back.
St. Pierre edges Cranny (Kevin Morris photo)
Valby had been running mostly 71-second laps and St. Pierre ran 67.21 to drop Valby by the bell. With 200m to go Schweizer was off the back, leaving St. Pierre and Cranny to battle for the win. Cranny came back on St. Pierre the final 100m, but could never quite catch her as it was a great stretch duel.
Final lap (Need a VPN to watch? click here)
| PLACE | ATHLETE | SPONSOR/SCHOOL | RESULT | PB/SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elle St. Pierre | New Balance Boston OLY STD | 14:40.34 | MR |
| 2 | Elise Cranny | NIKE OLY STD | 14:40.36 | SB |
| 3 | Karissa Schweizer | NIKE/Bowerman TC OLY STD | 14:45.12 | SB |
| 4 | Parker Valby | Florida OLY STD | 14:51.44 | PB |
| 5 | Whittni Morgan | adidas | 15:05.53 | SB |
| 6 | Allie Buchalski | BROOKS Beasts TC | 15:12.87 | |
| 7 | Ella Donaghu | Nike Union AC | 15:14.27 | |
| 8 | Taylor Roe | PUMA/Puma Elite Running | 15:15.37 | |
| 9 | Rachel Smith | HOKA | 15:22.16 | |
| 10 | Abby Nichols | HOKA NAZ Elite | 15:25.19 | |
| 11 | Josette Andrews | OAC OLY STD | 15:26.25 | |
| 12 | Katelyn Tuohy | adidas | 15:33.40 | SB |
QT: Great racing by St. Pierre and Cranny
Only .02 separated them at the end, as Cranny and St. Pierre ran 62.32 and 62.42 respectively the final lap. It was great racing as the top 3 all broke drug cheat Regina Jacobs‘ USATF championship record of 14:45.32 from 2000.
The fans will get a St. Pierre-Cranny rematch in the 1500 where St. Pierre will be the favorite thanks to her 3:56 pb compared to Cranny’s 3:58.88.
St. Pierre’s best event is the 1500, but she couldn’t pass up the chance of running the 5000. “I think it would have been hard to sit at home and watch the 5,000 go by and there’s enough days to recover so I’m just happy to do both,” she said.
QT: Parker Valby ran well, but just isn’t at this level yet
Parker Valby just completed the most accomplished NCAA season by a female distance runner ever and set a personal best in today’s final in 74-degree heat, but she was outclassed the final 800m. No shame in that as the top 3 all broke the previous USATF record in the event and Valby was 14 seconds ahead of 5th place. A strong run but she was beaten by 3 runners a level ahead of her right now.
“My legs are dead, I know I couldn’t have given anything more,” Parker said after, adding, “I’m not normally that nervous before races but you could ask my coach I was almost in tears but I held together. I gave it my best effort so I can’t really ask for anything more.”
