By Nate Mann
Zouhair Talbi’s goal for Portland Track Festival on Saturday night was to break 28 minutes in the 10,000-meter competition. He just missed it, finishing in 28 minutes, 2.89 seconds.
But despite narrowly missing his target time, Talbi won the men’s high performance 10,000 and set a new meet record. The finish also beat his personal best by 20 seconds.
“I’m so happy to break my time,” said Talbi. “I’m so satisfied.”
The Moroccan runner, who had previously competed for Florida State University, ran unattached at the Portland Track Festival.
For the bulk of the race, Talbi ran alone in third, 40 meters behind two frontrunners. After staying with the leaders – Reid Buchanan and Geoffrey Kipchumba – through the first three miles, his legs lost their usual strength.
“In the middle of the distance, I didn’t feel my legs,” said Talbi.
For miles four and five, Buchanan and Kipchumba engaged in a two-man chess match. The frequent lead swapping slowed their pace from consistent 67-second laps to 68- or 69-second laps. Talbi, still trailing by 40 meters, capitalized on the shuffling and closed the gap with roughly 3,000 meters remaining.
Kipchumba replaced Talbi a mile later by falling into third place and a new chess match began between Talbi and Buchanan with 1,200 remaining.
The Moroccan waited until he heard the bell to make his final move. With one lap to go, he passed Buchanan and maintained that marginal lead through the finish line in meet record time.
Winning in a final push is typical for Talbi. “I’m always like that in the last lap. I’m tired but I just go. I just go,” he said.
Buchanan finished less than one second behind in 28:03.68 but missed his goal of the world championships qualifying standard – 27 minutes and 40 seconds – by a significant margin.
“When I try to go at the world standard and it’s clear to me that I’m not going to get that, I’m in a tough position to not give up in general,” said Buchanan. “So having the crowd here just sparked a little bit of competitiveness in me to help finish that out even though pretty much all hope is lost, laps to go.”
Although Buchanan graduated from the University of Portland in 2016, the hometown crowd may have fueled Talbi as well. “I wish they would’ve been a little bit quieter because I think it sparked him to run faster,” Buchanan joked.
