With a time of 3 minutes, 45.86 seconds on June 25, former Duck Cooper Teare qualified to run the 1500m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, the last opportunity to earn a place in the Worlds.

“Oh my God, it feels amazing,” Teare said. “It set in there for a second right after I finished. I think I’m going to get another wave of joy coming in pretty soon.”

Teare, who had success competing in long distances, namely the 5000m, moved to the faster, full-mile race with the intention of setting a record and walking away with some hardware.

“I’m not here to just be happy making a world team,” Teare said after the race. “I want to get a medal.”

A two-time NCAA record holder at Oregon, Teare is the collegiate mile record holder with a 3:50.39 time. He also won the NCAA championship outdoor 5000m in 2021, and is No. 2 in NCAA history in the 5000m with a time of 13:12.27. 

“In college I came in and went straight to the 5K, and I would run one tactical and one ‘try to run fast’ 1500 every year, and I don’t think I reached my potential,” Teare said. “I knew I could run fast in a few races but you don’t want to give it up and be a ‘5K 10K guy’ if you can be a ‘15 5’ guy.”

During his qualifying run, Teare kept close to his teammate from the University of Oregon, Reed Brown, who did not qualify. In the last 200 meters Teare was able to unbox himself from the field, getting to the outside where he found room to accelerate.

With Brown’s failure to qualify, Teare will be without his pace-setter. Having no allies to rely on, Teare will have to monitor and control pace on his own. Given his experience running longer distances he can be expected to maintain a high pace to avoid being caught in the middle of the pack amongst stronger finishers. 

With his admittance to the world championship, Teare will get a chance to compete against Norwegian powerhouse Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the current world record holder in the event. 

As a University of Oregon Alumni, Teare will have the support of the crowd behind him as he competes on the world stage.

“I like running fast. At Hayward you always want to run fast,” Teare said. “I don’t just want to win races, I want to have the time to go along with it, too.” 

The World Athletics Championships begin July 15, with the final taking place on July 19 at Hayward Field.