Symmonds continues dominance in men’s 800m
It’s been called the most exciting race in track and field, and Monday’s 800-meter races proved to be no exception. Nicholas Symmonds ran a blazing 1:43.92 to take first place, finishing nearly a second ahead of Khadevis Robinson. Robinson’s second-place finish offers some redemption for a heartbreaking fourth-place finish at the Olympic Trials four years ago. Duane Solomon Jr. took the third spot on Team USA, finishing in a near dead heat with Robinson, just one-hundredth of a second slower at 1:44.65.
Symmonds makes his second-straight Olympic team in the 800 meters, repeating his first-place finish at the 2008 Olympic Trials, when he was part of a historic Oregon sweep. In Beijing four years ago, Symmonds advanced to the semi-finals before finishing sixth and missing out on a chance to run for a gold medal.
“That bitter taste from not making a final has been in my mouth for four years,” he said. “There’s only one way to fix that.”
His winning time of 1:43.92 was the fastest 800 ever run by an American at Hayward Field. With cool temperatures and relatively low wind, the Oregon Track Club star said he knew at the beginning the conditions were ripe for a fast race.
“As I was warming up my legs felt great,” Symmonds said. “I looked up at the American flag and saw it sitting still and thought, ‘We could really do something special tonight.’”
As the elder statesmen of the group, 35-year-old Robinson said he’s encouraged by the fact that it took career efforts from younger racers to challenge him. Even at his age, Robinson says he knows he can still compete with the best in the world.
Solomon earns his first Olympic bid after shaving more than half a second off his previous PR, set two years ago in Des Moines. Solomon said his plan was to run in the middle of the pack early on and pick runners off one at a time in the last half of the race.
Oregon’s Elijah Greer was in contention for a a spot in London, sitting in fourth place as the pack made its final turn. He started to charge forward, but eventually fell to sixth with a time of 1:45.40.
Montano on top in women’s 800m
In the women’s race, Alysia Montano took first place in 1:59.08.  Montano lived up to her reputation as a fast starter and opened up a sizable lead in the first 400 meters while four runners battled for second and third.
“For me, my first 600 I wanted to simulate what it will be like, what it has been like, at the world stage,” Montano said. “There’s no point in being conservative if you’re not going to make the next round.”
Montano’s lead evaporated considerably in the last 200 meters of the race. Geena Gall, Alice Schmidt and Molly Beckwith all jockeyed for position around the Bowerman Curve, aiming to challenge for the top spot with an all-out sprint on the final straightaway.  Five women finished the race quicker than the Olympic ‘A’ standard time of 1:59.90, with Gall and Schmidt finishing in 1:59.24 and 1:59.46, respectively, to round out a Nike sweep of the top three.
“We all knew it was going to be a dogfight at the end,” Schmidt said.
It’s the first Olympic team for Montano, who has competed for the United States in both the indoor and outdoor World Championships. She took third at the World Indoor Championships in 2010 and placed just outside of the medals at the 2011 World Championships.@@both years checked@@
Also making her first Olympic team is Gall, a ten-time All-American at the University of Michigan, who has also run for the U.S. at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Montano’s narrow victory of Gall was a repeat of this year’s Prefontaine Classic, where Gall’s then-PR of 1:59.28 wasn’t enough to beat the notoriously fast-starting Montano.
With the third-place finish, Schmidt makes her second consecutive 800-meter Olympic team after a second-place finish at the 2008 Olympic Trials. Schmidt finished sixth in the opening round in Beijing with a mark several seconds slower than her PR at the time.