Shortly after the U.S. Championships, many top Americans headed to Europe to improve upon their personal bests. Sean McGorty, Joe Waskom, and Emily Mackay headlined the top results of U.S. distance runners competing in Europe over the past week.

Sean McGorty secures the 5000m spot

If a standard falls in a forest in Belgium and no one is able to watch it, does it make a sound? Fortunately for Sean McGorty, his fourth-place finish in 13:02.13 at the Heusden 5000m was loud enough to register in the eyes of World Athletics, and he’ll finally be sleeping easy.

Despite McGorty’s third-place finishes in the 5000m and 10,000m at USAs, there were still contingencies being drawn up about the World team since he lacked the standard in both. But now McGorty can confidently tell his family to book their flights to Budapest. However, it still remains unclear which days’ tickets to the meet they should purchase.

McGorty still sits on the bubble of the 10,000m, and the question remains if he will run both. His decision – should his bubble status be enough – is likely dependent on how Grant Fisher’s femur is feeling. The next man up would be Conner Mantz, who’s only one spot behind McGorty in the global descending order list. Mantz would theoretically be deep in fall marathon prep by the time, so no telling if he would even accept the position should it fall to him.

Rather than getting frustrated by staring into the unknowable black box that is the rankings system (or the lack of a live stream showing a race with such championship implications), we should just take a moment to laugh at ourselves every now and then. Like… THIS is the sport I have dedicated my life to? Part of my Saturday afternoon was spent repeatedly refreshing a Belgian race results website. There is no footage, splits, interviews, or context anywhere. Fortunately, a CITIUS follower sent us a picture to confirm that Sean was definitely there.

Joe Waskom moves up the charts

If your job’s primary responsibilities are email-based and you were enjoying a classic summer Friday, then hopefully you caught the live stream of Joe Waskom squeezing onto the starting line of a 20-person 1500m field in Lignano, Italy, then winning the damn thing in a shiny new PR of 3:34.64.

For those who missed out, it was not a smooth ride. Despite being a race presumably thrown together for the intent of producing fast times, this was a physical one, which for the young American, is an apt introduction to the European circuit where elbows are a bit sharper and room to run is harder to come by than an ice cube. And realistically, a little exposure to truly physical racing was the main benefit of this outing for Joe. Coming in, Waskom sat in the 53rd of 56 spots slated for Budapest, and was already a very likely candidate to be named to the World field. This near miss of the Worlds standard will propel him deep into safe territory rank-wise.

In years like 2023 when the US Championships are not at the end of the qualification window, it is certainly preferable that athletes are allowed to chase times. But it just still seems so unnecessary. Obviously, Waskom is good enough to compete well at Worlds. He finished second in a national meet up against four guys who had the standard and eight more that were within the rankings quota. If the system has determined that Cole Hocker, Hobbs Kessler, and Cooper Teare are fast enough to have earned their spot, then why would the guy who beat them not be?

This is just once again my plea that we give qualifying spots to the federation rather than to individuals. Enough with the sporting world’s most confusing song and dance! It seems like 98% of the time that an athlete needs to chase a time in order to officially make a team, they do it. Spare everyone the airfare to Europe! (Here come the emails about 2004!)

Binghamton strikes back!

This isn’t the sort of newsletter that would highlight all of the dumpster fire performances that some athletes produced immediately following disappointing outcomes at USAs, but trust me – they exist. And they’re justified! USAs was an emotionally taxing weekend – in Eugene, no less – and it’s perfectly understandable that some athletes would have a bit of a comedown following the ups and downs of such a high-stakes qualifying meet.

An entire year’s schedule is built around being at your very best for one race. Every meticulously researched race traveled to, each training session muscled through, all those nights in watching Netflix and all those vegetables that you don’t really like eaten… it’s all done in the hope that you’ll be your absolute, possible most-competitive in one moment. And if the payoff isn’t there and things don't work out as visualized, journaled out, or prayed for, there are a couple of ways to respond when your agent has a flight booked to the Morton Games two days later.

Option one is self-preservation via total disengagement from the sport. It’s hard for this not to come across as cartoonish – either holing up in your hotel room with the blinds drawn and a middling sitcom providing background noise, or bending the ol’ elbow at enough local watering holes that you might require Tommy John surgery. You then show up for the European circuit looking totally shell shocked.

New Balance Boston’s Emily Mackay clearly chose option two! She channeled the disappointment of an eighth-place finish at USAs to win the 1500m at the Morton Games the following Friday. Then three days after that, in Marseille, Mackay became just the 14th US woman to break the four-minute barrier and the first this year, as she leaned across the line in 3:59.99.

There must be something in the water in New York’s Southern Tier, because Mackay’s Binghamton Bearcat compatriot Eric Holt of Empire Elite also embarked on a successful revenge tour last week. “Holtmania,” after finishing last in the final at USAs, headed north of the border to Victoria to win the Harry Jerome Classic 1500m in 3:37.87, and then took a second off his 800m PB, winning the Victoria Classic in 1:46.44. Needless to say, he was fired up.

Once nationals is over it becomes a full-time job trying to keep up with the global dispersal of your 150 favorite professional athletes. So sit back and relax as The Lap Count will try to navigate French athletics websites using only a limited understanding of elementary Spanish — so you don’t have to!