Atlanta Track Club had a solid opening week of races to kickoff the 2022 outdoor season. The week of April 11, 2022, Atlanta Track Club sent six athletes to Boston,MA, two athletes to Gainesville, Fl, and two athletes Walnut, CA to compete at some of the most prestigious events of the spring. To kick off the Boston Marathon weekend, Emma Grace Hurley started off with a team record and Personal Best (PB) in the 5K. In the B.A.A. Road Mile Shane Streich had a strong 3rd place finish after leading much of the race. Yolanda Ngarambe was the women’s team top finisher in 6th, followed closely by Allie Wiilson (8th) and Sadi Henderson (10th).
In Gainesville, FL at the Tom Jones Invite, Samson Colebrook and Akeem Sirleaf doubled in the sprints, both running under 21 seconds for 200m and equally fast times in the 100m. In Walnut, CA, Daniel Nixon opened his outdoor season in the 800m at the Mt. Sac Relays with a 1:49 performance. Development Team member Abbas Abbkar competed in the 800m as well.
On April 22-23, in Atlanta on the track of Georgia Tech, some Elites dropped down to work on their speed and others moved up in distance which led to a few PB’s in the distance events. Hurley added another lifetime best this time in the 1500m. Olivia Baker and Nixon stretched their range by stepping up to the 1500m and both improved on long-standing PB’s. Hurley doubled in the 5000m joining teammates Bridget Belyeu and Joanna Stephens in Friday night’s race under the lights. Baker then joined teammates Gemma Finch, Rachael Walters, and Sadi Henderson in stepping down and running the 400m.
On April 25-30, the elites traveled to two of the most prestigious meets in the country. The Elites traveled to the Drake Relays and to the Penn Relays, and also had two athletes compete in the U.S. Road Mile Championships. On Tuesday April 26, 2022 in Des Moines, Iowa, ahead of the Drake Relays, Olympic Trials finalist, Allie Wilson and American Record holder Shane Streich competed in the U.S. Road Mile Championship. Allie finished in 4th in the women's mile at 4:36, while Shane finished in 3rd in the men's mile with a 4:04 performance.
At Drake Relays, Streich joined Daniel Nixon on Saturday in a tactical 800m, where Nixon finished 7th and Streich finished 8th. Also on Saturday, Wilson joined Finch in the women's 800m, where both made their outdoor season debut. Wilson won the event in 2:03 and Finch finished in 7th. Yolanda Ngarambe, Swedish Record holder in the indoor mile, finished 4th in the women's 1500m in 4:12 after making a strong push for the win over the last lap.
At Penn Relays, Baker and Henderson stepped down a distance and ran the 600m, where Baker finished 5th and Henderson finished in 7th against some of the top 800m women in the world. Both walked away from the star studded race with PB’s at the distance. On May 1, 2022 at the Pure Athletics Meet in Clermont, Florida, Akeem Sirleaf ran 20.58 in the 200m finishing in 7th place.
