The women’s 1500m race. The PNW Invitational took place on March 16, 2024 at Oregon State University (Lulu Devoulin/ Emerald)

Oregon track and field’s Klaudia Kazimierska is into the 1500m semifinal at the Paris Olympics after yet another strong personal showing on Tuesday morning.

Two months removed from running a personal-best 4:06.92 in the 1500m preliminaries at the NCAA Championships, the Polish sophomore pushed the bar even higher in Europe. 

She ran another personal-best and dove under the Olympic standard of 4:02.50 ahead of the Games for the first time — this time 4:01.89 at the Irena Szewińska Memorial meet in Poland.

She wasn’t finished.

After setting her personal-best and breaking Oregon’s school record in the race, she won the 1500m title in Poland’s national championships. Then, in Paris, Kazimierska ran another sub-4:06 time — 4:03.49 — and qualified for the event final.

It’s been an unprecedented run of improvement from the second-year Duck, for whom the best could still be yet to come. 

Her Olympic semifinal run is set for Thursday, August 8. She’s expected to return to Eugene for the 2024-25 season, where she’ll be amongst the early favorites for the 1500m title.

For now, though, her sights are surely set on a place in the Olympic final — and she’ll likely have to improve once again to get there.