With Boylston Street doing its best imitation of a wind tunnel, the BAA 5K didn’t produce any course records on Saturday morning. But both the women’s champion, Molly Huddle, and the men’s champion, Dejen Gebremeskel, looked strong and fast as they begin building up to the Rio Olympics.
Although well off the American and course record she set in 2015, Huddle, 31, ran much of the way well clear of other female competitors and won the women’s race for the third straight year.
The Providence-based runner tried to shield herself from the worst of the windy conditions by ducking behind male runners and finished in 15:14. The time was 24 seconds behind her record-setting effort, but 14 seconds ahead of runner-up Buze Diriba (15:28) of Ethiopia. Caroline Chepkoech of Kenya finished third in 15:35.
“I wanted to run as hard as I could,’’ said Huddle, a 2012 Olympian. “The guys in front of me were a little too far ahead so I was just trying to reel them in and use them as a target. I heard some women behind me and think around a mile we started to separate.
“I’m happy enough [with my race]. I don’t usually run as fast myself as I do in a deep race. So, I expected it to be a little slower than last year. It would have been nice to run a little faster, but I need to be dragged to that.’’
In the men’s race, Gebremeskel made a big move with roughly 800 meters left and freed himself from defending champion Ben True and Kenya’s Stephen Sambu. Entering the race, Gebremeskel hoped to break the course record True set last year, but his 13:39 finish was 17 seconds behind the mark.
“It was a really nice race,’’ said Gebremeskel, the silver medalist in the 5,000 meters at the 2012 London Olympics. “I tried to break the course record but because it’s morning and it’s cold I couldn’t break it.’’
The men’s field went through the first mile in 4:22 with Gebremeskel, True, and Sambu working together. Sambu, who prefers to lead and push the pace, did that until 800 meters remained. Then, Gebremeskel took off for the finish line.
“I can’t complain too much,’’ said True, 30, who trains in Hanover, N.H., and missed two weeks of running earlier this year with a hip injury. “It was my first race in 7½ months. So, I really didn’t know how it was going to feel, especially in that last little bit. It’s hard when you’re training by yourself to know how to push really hard when the race situation comes around. I felt surprisingly good up until the very end when I was trying to reel back Dejen after he made a strong move.’’
O’Hare in control
The BAA Invitational Mile featured a controlled effort from Boston-based Chris O’Hare. The British middle-distance runner made his move to the front with about 400 meters to go, then held off the rest of the field down Boylston Street. As he approached the finish line, he kept glancing left and right, making sure no one was sneaking up with a late surge. And no one was.
“I didn’t want to have to tap into that last gear,’’ said O’Hare, who finished in 4:10.2. “I came off the bend [onto Boylston] and thought, ‘Do enough to hold it.’ I don’t really want to go 110 percent at this time of the year. So, I did enough to win and that was it.’’
Like the top 5K runners, O’Hare is focused on qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The women’s mile was decided by a stride with Brook Handler narrowly edging out Heather Kampf at the line. The two runners were separated by two-tenths of a second. Handler finished in 4:49.6 and Kampf followed in 4:49.8.
“By the time I turned [onto Boylston], we were duking it out,’’ said Handler. “You’re not really even thinking about anything. I had the inside position so I had a huge advantage. I just got lucky that that’s where I ended up coming around the last corner. I think that’s what gave me the edge.’’
Before the pros took to the roads for the BAA Invitational Mile, high school athletes from the towns along the marathon route covered the distance. In the boys’ scholastic race, twins Matt and Thomas D’Anieri of Wellesley easily took the top two spots in identical times of 4:33.1. Rebecca Grusby of Newton won the girls’ scholastic mile in 5:29.1.
Shira Springer can be reached at springer@globe.com.
