Isaiah Harris only needed to finish in the top six of his 800-meter heat race at the US Olympic track and field trials Thursday to advance to the Friday’s semifinal round. The Lewiston native nearly pulled off the win in Eugene, Oregon, anyways.
Harris started in lane 7 in the nine-person heat, and by the first 100 meters he was in fourth place. He was up to second after 200 meters, then settled back into third, just off the pace of the top two, with 500 meters to go. With 200 meters to go, he was back up to second, behind Penn State’s Darius Smallwood.
Harris, who competed for Penn State before turning pro, surged to the front in the closing stretch then slowed down and was edged at the line by Texas A&M’s Sam Whitmarsh, with Whitmarsh finishing in 1 minute, 46.13 seconds to Harris’s 1:46.14. Those were the two fastest times of the four heat races. Smallwood faded to sixth, the last competitor in the heat to automatically qualify for the semifinals, which are scheduled for 9:39 p.m. EDT.
Whitmarsh and Harris have both already achieved the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:44.70, so a top-two finish or one of the three next-fastest times in the semifinals, and a top-three finish in Sunday’s event final, for either would send them to Paris. Harris finished fourth in the US trials three years ago and missed out on making the team for the Tokyo Olympics.
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