Below is an excerpt from the Lap Count newsletter, posted with permission. Kyle Merber’s Lap Count newsletter both entertains and enlightens fans about athletes and happenings in our sport.
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From the Lap Count Newsletter
Welcome to The Lap Count’s first-ever personality quiz! Would you rather…
A.) Compete in front of 60,000-plus roaring fans but not have a world class beach nearby?
B.) Compete at what might at times feel like a high school dual meet, but with a world class beach nearby?
If you answered “A,” you probably would have enjoyed lining up for the European Championships, held last week in Munich. And if you chose “B,” then congrats — you would have had a blast at the NACAC Championships!
In fairness, this was only the fourth edition of NACAC and the European Championships pre-dates World War II. But the fact that the two events took place concurrently made it hard not to compare them. And there’s also the fact that unlike Europeans, NACAC was not broadcast from a major media outlet, but instead from some guy named Joey’s personal YouTube channel – but I won’t be casting any stones from inside this glass house! The chat worked together to try and figure out how the points system works and if winning the meet would qualify an athlete for worlds (for the most part it doesn’t).
Regardless of the kinks that probably still need to be ironed out as a championship in terms of overall presentation, NACAC is a great opportunity to earn some serious rankings points and to wear the USA jersey in international competition. Although it was close to 100 degrees for most of the event, Uncle Sam’s team won a meet record 29 golds and 65 medals.
Some meet highlights:
- Kara Winger is supposed to be retiring in a couple weeks, but she threw her best javelin throw (64.68m) since 2019.
- Holtamania continued as Empire Elite’s Eric Holt beat a deep 1500m field to win in 3:37.62 – not bad for a guy who never made an NCAA meet.
- Heather MacLean closed in 59-seconds for her last quarter to take the 1500 in 4:04.53 – apparently running without Covid is like taking the donut off a baseball bat.
- Sean McGorty closed in 3:03 for his final 1200m in the 10,000m even though he didn’t have to – he ran 29:23 to win by ten seconds.
- Sixteen years after winning the U23 NACAC 10000m, Stephanie Bruce won the senior version in 33:12.
- Ajee’ Wilson nabbed a tight one over Allie Wilson in the 800 (1:58.47) by one hundredth of a second and Jonah Koech (1:45.87) didn’t need a photo finish to confirm his victory.
- Woody Kincaid won the 5000m in a laughable 14:48 – that’s not a typo! Natosha Rogers won the women’s in a significantly better 15:11, but she did not close her last lap in 53.
