On ZAP Endurance athletes Matt McClintock and Joe Stilin are heading west this weekend to contest the 10,000m at the Portland Track Festival. The race will take place Friday May 28th at 8:10pm pst (11:10pm eastern) at Lewis and Clark College outside of Portland, OR. Three weeks after the Portland Track Festival 10,000m is the final for the men’s 10,000m at the US Olympic Trials. For all intents and purposes will be the last remaining chance for athletes to qualify in the 10,000m.
Joe and Matt both have marks that put them on the list for the Olympic Trials. But in all likelihood they will need to improve those marks in order to qualify for next month’s Olympic Trials. The automatic qualifying standard for the Olympic Trials is 28:00. While they make take qualifiers that run slower than that, the current descending order list indicates it will take a time close to the standard to qualify.
Matt is coming into the meet fresh off a win at The Track Meet 2 weeks ago where he ran a 28:13 personal best and ZAP club record. Joe’s personal best is 28:21, which he set in 2019, and due to the delay of the Olympics is within the qualifying window for the Trials. Joe decided to forgo The Track Meet 10k, instead focusing on a good week of training back in Blowing Rock and putting all his energy into this weekend.
The meet will be broadcast live on Portland Track Festival’s website, both Friday and Saturday’s races are available for $5.99. You can view the complete heat sheets here and can find information on live results here.