Gwen Jorgensen finishes fifth in U.S. 10km Championships

The fifth act of the planned journey to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Marathon for Gwen Jorgensen took place in Atlanta, Georgia today at the AJC Peachtree Road Race, which hosted the U.S. 10km Championships.

Gwen Jorgensen’s post-triathlon racing results before today:

• 5,000m indoors – 2nd (15:15.64) – in Seattle
• 10,000m outdoors – 31:55.69 – winning at Stanford
• Half Marathon – 4th (1:10:58) at U.S. Half Marathon Championships
• 10,000m outdoors – 7th (32:24.09) at U.S. 10,000m Championships

Going through the halfway point in 15:49, right on the shoulder of Aliphine Tuliamuk and Sara Hall (who were first and second respectively in the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in May), Jorgensen was in a great position as the race headed up ‘cardiac hill’ on the challenging circuit in Atlanta.

Starting to break to a group of 6 pic.twitter.com/biN5BhZWST

— Gwen Jorgensen (@gwenjorgensen) July 4, 2018

Tuliamuk broke clear between the sixth and seventh kilometre, leaving Hall and Stephanie Bruce together in second and third, with Gwen now in a battle for fourth with Allie Kiefer.

pic.twitter.com/fw3lYhnXOt

— Gwen Jorgensen (@gwenjorgensen) July 4, 2018

Drama next as the leader briefly took a wrong turn, allowing Stephanie Bruce to close the gap a little, and as they approached the final kilometre it seemed as though it was going to be a shoulder-to-shoulder sprint.

.@aliphinetuliamu accidentally made a wrong turn pic.twitter.com/jVkn7wDKlh

— Gwen Jorgensen (@gwenjorgensen) July 4, 2018

Bruce would prove the strongest, pulling away from the defending Peachtree 10km winner, Tuliamuk, to take the win by eight seconds in a time of 32:21. Olympic Triathlon Champion Jorgensen finished fifth, 49 seconds down on the winner with a 33:10 clocking.

Prospects?

Atlanta will host the U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials in February 2020 – an event Jorgensen plans to be racing at – which was in part the reason for her race today. Plenty of work to do between now and then if Tokyo 2020 is going to be a realistic prospect.

Finished feeling like I gave it everything & that’s a step in the right direction. Lots of work to do and excited to put my head. Thank you #ajcprr for the opportunity & fun race. Thank you as well to my sponsors, family, friends, and fans for allowing me to chase my crazy dream. pic.twitter.com/CbybYm0ZWr

— Gwen Jorgensen (@gwenjorgensen) July 4, 2018

49 seconds behind Stephanie Bruce today is half a minute more than the same gap was on the track two weeks ago in Des Moines, where Bruce finished third in the U.S. 10,000m track championships (32:05 versus the 32:24 of Jorgensen). On paper at least, that might be the weakest of Jorgensen’s five post-triathlon race performances to date and the goal of Olympic Gold in the Marathon is arguably looking more distant than ever – and it was already an incredibly tough target.

https://twitter.com/gwenjorgensen/status/927929085539491840

AJC Peachtree Road Race – U.S. 10km Championships
Atlanta, Georgia

ELITE WOMEN

1st – Stephanie Bruce – 32:21
2nd – Aliphine Tuliamuk – 32:29
3rd – Sara Hall – 32:41
4th – Allie Kiefer – 32:52
5th – Gwen Jorgensen – 33:10