Rooting Again For Donn Cabral

What are you doing Friday night at 7:42 Eastern time?

You should be watching the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. That will be the time when Princeton alum Donn Cabral runs in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase final. 

Cabral is a 2012 Princeton graduate. He is also a two-time Olympian in the steeplechase, and a two-time Olympic finalist at that, having finished eighth in the steeplechase at the last two Olympic Games. In fact, he is one of only six Americans who have ever finished in the top eight in the steeplechase in two different Olympiads.

Now at 31, he's chasing another shot at the Games. 

He took the first step Monday night, when he ran in the semifinal at the U.S. Olympic Trials. There were two heats, and the top five in each heat plus the next four fastest advanced to the final.

Cabral finished fifth in the first heat, nine-hundredths of a second away from the automatic qualifier into the final. This put him in position of having to watch the second heat and hope that no more than three runners beat his time of 8:24.14.

As it turned out, his time would have won the second heat by nearly five seconds. TigerBlog has no idea how the pacing of the two different races worked out or what any of it means for Friday night's final.

To reach the Olympics, a runner needs to be in the top three in the final and have run the Olympic qualifying standard this year. Cabral has not yet met the standard of 8:22.0 (his career personal best is 8:19.4). In fact, only five of the 14 runners in the final have already met the standard.

Again, TB has no idea how that plays into tactics and strategies for the final.

He does know that Cabral is one of the most impressive Princeton athletes he's ever seen. He once wrote this about him:

Anytime Cabral was around - running or just walking into the building - everyone gave him the "there he is" look. It's the rock star treatment. He's not a big man, and in TB's limited dealings with him, he's quiet. He seems polite, respectful. And driven, very, very driven. TB doesn't remember too many athletes who have competed here who drew attention to themselves simply with the sheer impressiveness of their training the way Cabral has. It's as if he's putting on a show for the people who happen to look out on the track when he goes through his workouts. TB has stood on the balcony and watched him, along with other people in the department, and muttered only "wow" as he went lap after lap, seemingly in a dead sprint the whole time. 

There are some things in sports that almost cross over into art, and the way Cabral has run is one of them. He had a meteoric rise as a steeplechaser, going from a novice to the NCAA champion his senior year of 2012 to the Olympic finals that year in London. He repeated that trip to the final in 2016 in Rio.

For all of that, perhaps the moment of Cabral's career that stands out the most to TB is the Heps cross country race his junior year, back in 2010. Cabral was sick that day and not supposed to run, but he competed anyway.

TB was standing near the finish line and saw Cabral as he came to the line. There was literally nobody else in sight as he headed for home, and he ran the final 100 meters or so in a sprint where he seemed to go faster and faster with each stride. It almost seemed like he was going to lift off the ground, he was going so fast. 

Here is how it looked:

Now he's back in the Olympic Trial finals. Qualify or not, he's still had an amazing career, one of the best ever by an American distance runner. 

And by a Princeton athlete. Where does he rank? Well, it's so hard to compare the apples and oranges of different eras and sports at Princeton, but there is no way he's not among the most elite athletes who has ever competed here.

Remember, he runs again Friday night at 7:42.

Make sure you tune in.