We’re so back.

As the calendar flips to August, we’re officially entering championship season as the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships got underway last night in Eugene, Oregon. 13 months after Hayward Field hosted last year’s Olympic Trials and two months after the NCAA Championships, many of the same players are back in action, looking to cement their place in track and field’s great pantheon of superstars.

The first day of USAs delivered a little bit of everything regardless of your taste, showcasing track’s shortest and longest events a few hours apart as reigning World champions Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson cruised through the 100m prelims and two first-time champions were crowned in the 10,000m.

The stakes weren’t exactly high in in the opening rounds of the 800m, where six of the eight entrants in each heat were guaranteed a spot in the semifinal, but nevertheless all eyes were on 2021 Olympic champ Athing Mu-Nikolayev as she races her way back into national contention following a devastating fall in the final of last year’s Trials. So far, so good as Mu-Nikolayev picked up a heat win in a season’s best 2:00.06… but the job gets harder from here, with competitors like Sage Hurta-Klecker, Addy Wiley, Ajee’ Wilson, and defending champ Nia Akins looking strong.

The 10,000m finals weren’t blazing fast at first — they rarely are — but their conclusions were as dramatic as racing gets. Two first-time national champions were crowned, but their stories couldn’t be more different: For Nico Young, it was the ascendance of a 23-year-old wunderkind who’s done little but thrive since turning pro last summer. He took down reigning champ and Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher thanks to a 3:57.03 final 1600m and a 27-second final 200m. For Emily Infeld, however, her victory served as long-awaited just desserts for the 35-year-old workhorse who medaled in the event a decade ago, when Young was in middle school.

While there were few surprises in the prelims, the outcomes in the finals were certainly unexpected. Let that be a reminder as you tune in and follow along over the next few days that anything can — and will — happen.

The CITIUS MAG team continues to bring you live shows every morning and every evening of USAs on our YouTube channel, along with live coverage on our social media and dozens of interviews with athletes in the mixed zone. The fun is just getting started!

Race Of The Day: Men’s 10,000m

In some sense, the final race of the evening went according to form, with the three fastest Americans of the year taking the top three spots in a blistering close. For about seven kilometers, the race crawled along behind Young’s former NAU teammate Drew Bosley, but when Fisher hit the front with five laps remaining, things really picked up.

Much like his win in 2024, Fisher clicked off 60-second pace from the front for the final mile as he, Young, and Graham Blanks quickly and decisively separated themselves from the chasers. The only other athlete in the field with the qualifying standard, Woody Kincaid, was gapped by the leaders and would ultimately finish eighth. For about 9800 meters, it seemed highly likely that Fisher would defend his title, although he didn’t get nearly as much separation from his younger rivals than he has in the past — and then Young unleashed a final attack that Fisher couldn’t match on the final turn, beating the 28-year-old to the homestretch and defending his position all the way to the finish.

Young crossed the finish line in 29:02.12, over a minute slower than the year prior, but the finish time truly didn’t matter. A statement was made, both domestically and around the world: the U.S. has not one, but three genuine medal contenders in the long distances.

Young and Blanks are now two-for-two over in making teams since turning pro, and Fisher deserves a lot of credit for his consistency, making his fourth team in the last five championships. All three runners are at the top of their game, but last year it sure seemed like Fisher would wear the crown of top American distance runner for the foreseeable future, and one season later that pecking order is far from set in stone.

Athlete Of The Day: Emily Infeld

Emily Infeld is one of those runners you can’t help but root for. The gritty but unflappably kind veteran of the sport has been kicking around USAs since 2010, and though she’s had plenty of success along the way, including winning World bronze in 2015 and making the Rio Olympic team, she’s never won a national title on the track — before yesterday.

In recent years, Infeld has been defined by a series of injuries and coaching changes, leaving Bowerman Track Club in 2022 and shifting sponsors to Brooks. She made her most recent World team in 2022 but struggled at last year’s Olympic Trials, finishing sixteenth in the 5000m, and generally speaking, a performance like that from a then-34-year-old at the end of an Olympic cycle tends to lead to retirement announcements.

But Infeld is no quitter, and her race performance — a 31:43.56 10,000m victory outkicking 2023 champ Elise Cranny — showed her grit more than anything else. For comparison, Cranny’s 1500m PB is 3:57.87 and Infeld’s is 4:05.66, but that didn’t matter in the final lap this time.

There’s a lot of math that goes into 10,000m qualifying these days, but the short version is this: Infeld and Cranny don’t have the automatic qualifying standard in the event, but their finishes are likely to land both of them within the ranking quota for the World Championships. In third place behind them, Taylor Roe is right on the border and will be anxiously looking at entry lists and scratches as Worlds approaches, hoping that other athletes’ decisions end up breaking her way. If she doesn’t get selected ultimately, the spot goes to Weini Kelati, who finished fourth just 0.9 seconds off the podium.

But all that is a problem for number-crunchers and Team USA officials to work out later. For now, Infeld gets to bask in the glow of her signature victory having earned it the hard way.

Drama Of The Day: Women’s Long Jump

It’s often very difficult to follow long jump competitions, even with the best of television broadcasts. But that doesn’t mean that the field events are boring — just woefully under-appreciated.

Yesterday’s long jump final had NOTHING but dramatic plot twists and thrilling finishes. On paper, you might look at three-time U.S. champ Tara Davis-Woodhall leaping a world-leading 7.12m, extending her two-year win streak to fourteen competitions, and assume the competition was locked up from the start. You couldn’t be more wrong.

For those that aren’t familiar with the long jump format, all entrants get three attempts and then the top eight after the first rounds get another three. Davis-Woodhall fouled her first two attempts, meaning she needed a legal top-eight jump on her third just to stay in the competition. She got the job done, logging a 6.92m leap to keep jumping, and then with that confidence boost she blasted the next two attempts into the stratosphere, recording the two longest jumps of 2025 so far — 7.11m and 7.12m — to secure the victory.

But the drama was just getting started. World Indoor champ Claire Bryant may have gotten very lucky with her series, as she jumped a wind-aided 6.97m in the third round to eventually land in second place, but her best wind-legal jump would’ve placed her fourth. In the jumps, wind-aided marks count for placing in the competition, but not as your official performance for qualifying or record purposes — meaning Bryant made the team with a little bit of good fortune.

Last, but not least, the final rounds and the final spot couldn’t have been closer. In the fifth round, 2022 U.S. champ Quanesha Burks jumped as season’s best and her first World qualifier, a 6.90m mark to move into third place. The round after, Stanford junior Alyssa Jones leapt a lifetime-best 6.90m of her own on her last jump. In the event of a tie in long jump, the athletes’ second-best jumps are a tiebreaker — but Jones and Burks had the same second jump at the time, at 6.74m. As things stood, Jones’s third-best mark of 6.72m put her in third place and qualifying position… for a few minutes.

After a clutch fifth round, Burks delivered once again! Her final jump of 6.82m gave her the better tiebreaker, landing Burks on her fifth national team. All is not lost for Jones, however — as it stands, Davis-Woodhall is in a good position to potentially win the Diamond League final, and if she does, the U.S. unlocks a fourth spot for Worlds. One last plot twist weeks after the fact.

Like any track event, the final moments of a field event battle can be a roller coaster; you simply have to pay attention. If you do, you won’t regret it.

Photo Of The Day

Craig Engels celebrates advancing to the semifinal of the 800m with a second-place finish in 1:48.46. Two hours later, he ran a season’s best 3:35.44 in the first round of the 1500m.