Nico Young is having his moment — again.
In his second outdoor track race since making his first U.S. Olympic team in 2024, the 22-year-old Newbury Park High School graduate set the American outdoor record in the 5,000 meters on June 12, when he unleashed a fearsome kick to win at the Bislett Games in Oslo in 12 minutes, 45.27 seconds.
Shortly after crossing the finish line, Young was embraced by fellow racers and all-time greats Hagos Gebrhiwet and Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, the second- and fourth-fastest men ever in the event, whom Young had defeated on the way to making his own history.
The congratulatory hug was a message: Welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Young.
“I feel really good,” Young told reporters after the record-setting performance. “That was an incredible race.”
The race had been billed as a world-record attempt for Gebrhiwet, Kejelcha and others to chase Joshua Cheptegei’s mark of 12:35.36 set on Aug. 14, 2020, in Monaco.
A pacemaker led the field through the first 2,100 meters at world-record pace, running just over four-minute miles, or 15 miles per hour. Pace lights ran along the inside rail of the track so that runners and spectators could see how fast they would need to run to break the record.
Young tucked into sixth position for the early laps, but just before reaching the 3,000-meter mark, the pace began to lag. The strung-out field suddenly bunched back up. Young fell back to ninth place as racers jockeyed for position heading into the deciding final laps of the race.
“I saw the lights kind of move away, and I heard them say it in the stadium, I was like, ‘We are kind of falling off of 12:35 pace,’ ” Young told Citius Mag. “It worked out really well for what my initial plans were.”
When the bell rang to signify the final lap, the race was on.
Young’s bright pink Adidas kit flashed against the track as he made his move from fourth position, swinging out wide to pass Kejelcha to move into third.
He overtook Ethiopian Biniam Mehary on the back stretch, then charged past British runner Georg Mills as they hit the final turn. Swinging his arms and gritting his teeth, Young held off Mehary in the final 100 meters to claim the victory.
FloTrack commentator and former world-class distance runner Steve Cram was shocked at Young’s performance.
“What on Earth is going on in U.S. distance running?” Cram wondered aloud on the broadcast. “That is astonishing. What a run.”
Young’s finish in Oslo is part of an inflection point in American men’s distance running this year, led by Young and Grant Fisher.
Fisher set the world record and all-around American record in the 5,000 meters earlier this year when he ran 12:44.09 on Feb. 14 at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational.
Before Young’s race in Oslo, Fisher also held the outdoor American record in the event, 12:46.96, set at another international Diamond League race back in 2022.
The two fastest American 5,000-meter runners to ever do it will likely clash should both Young and Fisher contest the event later this summer at the USA Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Before then, Young confirmed that he will race at the second Diamond League meet of his career June 20 at the Meeting de Paris at the Stade Charlety. There he will face fellow American Cole Hocker, the reigning Olympic champion over 1,500 meters, at 1:27 p.m. PDT. The race will be streamed live on FloTrack.
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for the Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Newbury Park High graduate Nico Young is now the US record-holder in the outdoor 5,000
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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