Allie Ostrander will step on to the track at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon on Thursday night to compete for one of three spots on the US Olympic Track and Field team in the Women’s 3000M Steeplechase.
Ostrander qualified to the finals as an at-large selection based on her preliminary time of 9:35.56 run on Sunday. The top five in each of the two preliminary races automatically qualified to the finals along with the fastest, next four racers. Ostrander’s race time was the fastest of the non-automatic qualifiers.
The top qualifiers into the finals include the 2016 Olympic Bronze medal winner Emma Coburn who posted the fastest qualifying time of 9:21.32; 2016 Olympic steeplechase 8th-place finisher Courtney Frerichs; and Grayson Murphy and Courtney Wayment, who placed first and second in Ostrander’s qualifying heat on Sunday.
Allie Ostrander will likely need a personal best (and then some) to earn an Olympic berth for Team USA. Her personal best time of 9:30.85 was recorded at the 2019 at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. To qualify to the Olympic team, Allie Ostrander will need to run in the mid-9:20’s in Thursday’s final.
The Women’s 3000M Steeplechase final is scheduled for Thursday at 7:47 p.m. AKDT. Coverage of the race is planned for the NBCSN television.
