Team USA Wins 4 Track & Field Medals, Including First Men’s 1500m Medal In 44 Years

The United States hadn’t won a medal in the Men’s 1500m since the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, but that near half a century dry run was snapped on Tuesday when American Leo Manzano won the silver medal. Manzano just barely missed out on the gold medal, finishing up just 0.71 seconds behind Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi.

“If he deserves it, I guess it was up to the people,” Manzano told the Associated Press. “I don’t know what his objective was. He probably knew what it was, but I really don’t know.”

Distance running is being treated to a shock in London in the form of medals — yes, medals — won by Americans. For decades, the sport has been utterly dominated by Kenyan and Ethiopian runners. Since the Sydney games in 2000, eight of the nine medals awarded at 10,000 meters, seven of nine medals in the 5,000-meter race, and five of nine marathon medals went to Kenya or Ethiopia. In that same period, the U.S. had won just one, a silver in the 2004 marathon in Athens.

You have to go back at least as far as the days of Steve Prefontaine and Frank Shorter in the early ’70s to find true American distance-running sensations.

That rut ended in spectacular fashion on Saturday when Galen Rupp stormed out of the final turn of the 10,000-meter race to grab silver, only meters behind his training partner, Mo Farah, who is British but trains with Rupp in Oregon. No American had medaled in the 10,000 meters since Billy Mills upset the field and took gold in Tokyo in 1964.

Both Rupp and Farah are coached by one of the most well-known American distance runners ever, Alberto Salazar, who won three New York City Marathons in the 1980s and had a legendary victory in the 1982 Boston Marathon, which became known as the “Duel in the Sun.” For the last decade, Salazar has coached the Nike Oregon Project, a program that uses air-thinning technologies to replicate high altitude living conditions, which bolsters the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles during endurance races. The program was founded by Nike with the goal of putting middle- and long-distance American runners on the Olympic podium. It’s apparently working.

The new American assertiveness in multi-lap track events continued Tuesday with silver and fourth-place performances by Leonel Manzano and Matthew Centrowitz (also a Nike Oregon Project athlete), respectively, in the 1,500-meter race.

That means Americans are actually leading the medal count for middle- and long-distance races in London. USA 2. Ethiopia 1. Kenya, unbelievably, has been shut out thus far.

What does this mean for the future of distance running in the U.S.? It’s huge.

Not only is it encouraging to see Americans on the podium, but, perhaps most promising, the U.S. is poised to capitalize on this momentum. Nearly every high school in the country has track and cross-country programs, and nearly every city has an annual marathon, not to mention countless 5K and 10K road races. The U.S. hosts three of the most prestigious marathons in the world in the New York City, Boston, and Chicago marathons. Unlike, say, soccer — another major sport where the U.S. has similarly maintained a second-rate status at the international level in recent decades — the cultural infrastructure is there for Americans to succeed in distance running. Perhaps a little Olympic inspiration is the nudge the sport needs to climb to the next level.

Looking ahead, there could be more excitement to come. The men’s 5,000 meters starts Wednesday with prelims and will conclude with the final on Saturday. Rupp, the new silver medalist at 10,000 meters, will try for another medal at the 5,000-meter distance, which he won at trials. He’ll be joined by compatriots Lopez Lomong and Bernard Lagat. The U.S. hasn’t medaled in the 5,000-meter event since 1964, when Bob Schul and Bill Dellinger took gold and bronze, respectively.

Also notable could be the men’s 800-meter final, which will be run Thursday. 800 meters is on the short side of middle-distance, but American (and outspoken advocate for athletes’ right to promote sponsors) Nick Symmonds is a medal hopeful at that distance. If he runs well it will only add to the momentum that’s been established at the longer distances.

The marquee event, though, will happen Sunday morning when all eyes shift to the streets of London for the men’s marathon.

Ryan Hall is considered the top American marathoner. His PR, at 2:04:58, is legitimately world class. Oh, and his AT&T commercial, in which he gets through several classic novels on audiobook during a single training run, is the best commercial spot of these Olympics. But maybe, as both marathoner and bibliophile myself, I’m a little biased.

Also representing the U.S. in the marathon will be Abdi Abdirahman and Meb Keflezighi. If he’s healthy (he’s been slowed in recent years by injury), Keflezighi could be the man to watch. He, more than Hall, has put up results when it matters most. Keflezighi is the only American to medal (silver in Athens 2004) in the Olympic marathon since Frank Shorter in 1976. Keflezighi beat Hall by 22 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials in January. That race was the first U.S. trials to see four American men run under 2:10:00. Which tells me that this team is the best we’ve ever brought to an Olympics.

Tuesday was a big day for track and field at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, featuring a pair of historic achievements. Australia’s Sally Pearson set an Olympic record in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, posting a time of 12.35 seconds to take the gold, while Lolo Jones from the United States missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish.

Meanwhile, in the men’s 1,500m final, Algerian runner Taoufik Makhloufi won gold, just one day after being reinstated following a disqualification for a lack of effort in an 800m heat. Leo Manzano took silver in the 1500m, becoming the first American to medal in the event in 44 years.

Leo Manzano of Team USA got a silver medal in the men’s 1500 meters at the 2012 Olympics on Tuesday. And, in doing so, he stopped a streak of futility for the U.S. in the event that lasted nearly a half-century.

Manzano, who placed second to Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi (3:34.08 seconds) in the event, ran his fastest time of the year in the event for silver, and became the first American man to win a medal in the 1500m since Jim Ryun, the first American to run the mile in less than four minutes. Ryun’s silver medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was the last silver and last medal for a Team USA member in the event.

In a photo finish, Australia’s Sally Pearson won gold in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, setting an Olympic record with a time of 12.35 seconds. Pearson narrowly edged Team USA’s Dawn Harper, the defending gold medalist, who was officially just 0.02 slower.

The bronze medal also went to the United States, with Kellie Wells finishing in 12.48. Lolo Jones -- looking to make up for a disappointing performance at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, when she stumbled over the second-to-last hurdle -- finished in fourth place (12.58), missing a medal by just 0.11 seconds. Only three-tenths of a second separated the top six finishers.

Erik Kynard had his chances to win the men’s high jump on Tuesday at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. But Russia’s Ivan Ukhov kept raising the bar, literally, and forced the American to settle for silver.

Kynard was first to clear 2.33 meters in the men’s high jump, but Ukhov topped that twice, at 2.36 and 2.38 meters, and Kynard could not clear the bar at either of those heights or at 2.40 meters.

Robert Harting of Germany gave his country its sixth gold medal with a throw of 68.27 meters in the men’s discus final Tuesday afternoon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The toss came on his fifth of six throws, besting Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi (68.18 meters) and Estonia’s Gerd Kanter (68.03 meters).

Hadadi gave Iran its eighth medal at the this year’s Olympics and Kanter gave Estonia its second. Harting galloped around the Olympic oval after winning the event, hugging friends and family in the stands.

Lolo Jones posted the second-slowest qualifying time in the women’s 100-meter hurdles semifinals Tuesday to advance to the finals at 4:00 p.m. ET later in the afternoon. Joining her will be two more Americans: Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells.

Jones finished third in her heat with a time of 12.71 seconds, forcing her to qualify on time. Harper, the defending gold medalist in the event, and Wells took easier routes to qualification by winning their heats outright. Harper won her heat with a personal best of 12.46 seconds. Wells posted a seasonal best of 12.51 seconds.

The afternoon schedule for track and field Tuesday at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London features four more medal events. The men’s high jump final will start things off at 2:00 p.m. ET. The event features three Americans: Erik Kynard, Jesse Williams and Jamie Nieto.

The semifinals for the women’s 100-meter hurdles begin at 2:15 p.m. ET. The United States will be represented by an American in each of the three heats. Dawn Harper, Lolo Jones and Kellie Wells all hope to advance to the finals at 4:00 p.m. At 3:25 p.m., Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix and Sanya Richard-Ross take on the semifinals in the women’s 200-meter semifinals.

China’s Liu Xiang went into the 110m hurdles looking for redemption for an injury withdrawal in the event in 2008, when he was the defending Olympic champion. Alas, he he suffered another injury on this stumble over the first hurdle in the first qualifying round.

In case that crash doesn’t look horrific enough for you, here it is from the side angle, where you can see Liu crumple to the ground.

For the second straight Olympics, China’s track hero, Liu Xiang, failed to even finish his qualifying heat in the 110 meter hurdles, while the United States’ Aries Merritt was the fastest qualifier by more than a tenth of a second.

Liu crashed into the first hurdle in his heat and crumpled to the track, eventually hopping off the track before other competitors helped him into a wheelchair. For the second straight Olympics, he failed to clear a single hurdle: Liu won the 2004 gold medal -- the first men’s track and field medal in Chinese history, which managed to come in a premier event -- and at one point held the world record in the event, making him one of the faces for China’s delegation at the 2008 games in Beijing. But he had to withdraw from the heats in 2008 due to an undisclosed Achilles injury. Again, he’s suffered injury at an unfortunate time.

Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake are turning looking bored while running insanely fast into an art form. The pair easily qualified for the semifinals in the men’s 200 meter. Also qualifying were all three Americans taking place in Round 1 of heats, including Wallace Spearmon.

The 200m is the second of three events for Blake and Bolt, and another race in which they are expected to finish with gold and silver medals, with most of the drama coming in wondering which Jamaican sprinter will bring home the top spot. While their races are intensely exciting, their heats are about 150 meters of sprinting and 50 of taking it easy, which is a pretty entertaining show of skill in its own right. Each runner finished first in his heat despite races more than a second worse than their personal bests.

Tuesday’s Olympic schedule includes the fifth day of track & field competitions. Among the scheduled events is the women’s 100m hurdles final, where Lolo Jones will try to capture the gold medal that narrowly escaped her in 2008.

Jones was leading the event in 2008 heading into the second to last hurdle, but she tripped and stumbled causing her to fall all the way back to seventh place. She will get a chance at redemption Tuesday, although she will have to beat a strong field that includes fellow American and 2008 gold medalist Dawn Harper. Australian Sally Pearson, who won the silver medal in 2008 and the 2011 World Championship, is also in the field.