Syracuse’s Justyn Knight makes World Championship Final

Syracuse Orange distance star Justyn Knight isn’t intimidated by anyone he competes against. Today in London at the IAAF World Championships, he showed that as he earned an automatic qualifier to Saturday night’s 5,000m final. Knight finished 4th in his heat with a time of 13:30.27. Yomif Kejelcha from Ethiopia edged out Mo Farah to win the heat in a time of 13:30.07.

Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images

On a rainy evening in London, the runners were closely bunched throughout the 12 and ¹⁄₂ lap race. Here is where Knight was at each kilometer split:

1k: 11th place

2k: 14th place

3k: 12th place

4k: 14th place

To move up 10 spots in the final kilometer against the best in the world is proof that Justyn’s kick is as strong as Malcolm Gladwell suggested. He covered that final K in about 2:29 (roughly 4 minute mile pace). You can see in this photo that Justyn is tucked behind about 6 or 7 other runners, but he’s able to break through for the automatic qualifier, which was huge because the 2nd heat of the 5,000m was faster.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images for IAAF

Saturday’s Final will be held at 3:20 pm Eastern time and we’ll get to see if Justyn can replicate today’s performance. Congratulations to Justyn. We wish him Good Luck on Saturday

Update:

Post-race interview with Justyn