Isaac Updike
Ketchikan’s Isaac Updike followed his record-setting 3,000-meter steeplechase win at the Penn Relays two weeks ago by following up with a world-leading time Saturday in a steeplechase that covered an unconventional distance – 2,000 meters – at the Princeton Elite Invitational in New Jersey.
The 2,000 steeple is usually contested in high school meets in the U.S., but pros, like Updike, sometimes run it early in the season as they build their training toward 3,000 steeples later in the meat of the season. The 2,000 this year has been run by pros everywhere from Japan to Portugal to Germany, Argentina, Venezuela and Australia, and, of course, the U.S.
In any event, Updike’s winning time of 5:25.01 in a four-man field topped the previous world best this season, set by Japan’s Yasunari Kusu, who clocked 5:29.11 on home soil three weeks ago.
The Nike-sponsored Updike opened his season at the Penn Relays by winning the 3,000 steeple in a meet-record 8:22.92, which at the time stood as the fastest by an American this year. It currently sits No. 2 among Americans, and No. 9 in the world, after Olympian Hilary Bor clocked 8:17.82 to finish fourth at the Diamond League opener Friday in Doha, Qatar. Bor’s time stand No. 5 in the world this year.
Updike on Saturday ticked off laps four laps that averaged about 65 seconds per, then closed in 62 to beat his Empire Elite Track Club teammate, Travis Mahoney (5:27.18).
Updike is 2 for 2 this season after suffering through a knee injury in the offseason. The Penn Relays marked his first race in about nine months. He is ramping up his training and racing in anticipation of the U.S. Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in June. That meet serves as the qualifier for the World Championships on the same Hayward Field track at the University of Oregon in July.
Last season, Updike pocketed his personal best in the 3,000 steeple when he won the Oregon Relays in 8:17.74. He went on to finish fifth in the U.S. Olympic Trials.
About a month after that, he became the second Alaskan to break the four-minute barrier in the mile when he won an American Track League competition in California in 3:58.26. The only other Alaskan to crack the sub-4 club is Kodiak’s Trevor Dunbar, who in 2017 delivered a 3:55.54.