BOZEMAN — After every final, Duncan Hamilton prefers taking a couple days to process what happened.
Every race brings with it “complex emotions,” said the Bozeman High graduate and former Montana State standout. The men’s steeplechase final at the 2024 USA Track and Field Olympic Trials — a race Hamilton’s entire outdoor season revolved around — was no different.
Hamilton placed sixth in the final in 8 minutes, 29.20 seconds Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. That result had “a bit of a sting to it,” Hamilton said, especially knowing he would miss out on the Paris Olympics.
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Duncan Hamilton competed in his second U.S. Olympic Trials men's steeplechase final Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
“It definitely hurts to not make the team,” he added. “But I still think I did a lot of things right.”
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This marked Hamilton’s fourth trip to the USATF Outdoor Championships. Hamilton previously placed 14th at the 2021 Olympic Trials, fourth at 2022 USAs and eighth at 2023 USAs. He felt the most nervous entering this year’s final.
“At my first Trials (in 2021), I wasn’t seriously thinking I would make the team,” Hamilton said. “So it was kind of like, I’ve got nothing to lose, let’s just go out there and race fast, kind of deal. But this one, I think there was definitely a lot more pressure on me.”
A two-time national runner-up at the NCAA level, Hamilton said the transition to professional running has come with its growing pains. Right before competing at last year’s USAs, Hamilton announced he would be joining Bowerman Track Club and head coach Jerry Schumacher.
Schumacher, who is also the head cross country and track and field coach for the University of Oregon, has coached 28 Olympians, with that group winning a combined 10 Olympic and World Championship medals. But his high-volume, strength-focused training regimen takes time to adjust to, something Hamilton learned from his teammates early on.
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Duncan Hamilton runs the U.S. Olympic Trials men's steeplechase final Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
“I feel like I’ve crammed a couple years of training into one year,” Hamilton said. “We’ve been hitting it hard. So I’m just excited to see results.”
That has required patience and confidence in the process. Over the past year, Hamilton trained in Eugene during the fall and at altitude (about 7,000 feet) in Flagstaff, Arizona, during the winter. He came back to Eugene in the early spring and went to another altitude camp in Park City, Utah, leading up to the Trials.
During that stint in Park City, Hamilton faced a setback after contracting COVID-19. His workouts suffered, he said, but he recovered a week or two before the Trials. Outside of that, he felt confident entering USAs.
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Duncan Hamilton runs the men's steeplechase preliminary heat at the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. June 21, 2024.
He raced in the first heat of the men’s steeplechase semifinals, finishing eighth in 8:27.20 after fading over the final two laps. Hamilton said he still struggles tactically at times. Schumacher also pointed to the concept of “the washing machine,” Hamilton said, referring to a lead pack of runners cycling around with inconsistent surges and lead trade-offs that waste energy.
The weather — it reached a high of 90 degrees in Eugene — and not feeling 100% were also potential factors that affected his final two laps, Hamilton added.
The top five in each heat plus the next four fastest overall times advanced to the final. Hamilton and Schumacher anxiously watched the second heat, checking times every 100 meters. Coming off the track, Hamilton said he was resigned to the fact he would miss the final. But the second heat — won by Kenneth Rooks in 8:26.90 — was slower, and Hamilton qualified as the 13th of 14 runners for the final.
“Not an ideal scenario at all,” Hamilton said.
Schumacher and Hamilton refocused for the final, looking to conserve more energy and sit for the first mile of the race. The final went out slowly, with Hamilton sitting at the back of the pack for about the first 2,000 meters of the race.
“I wasn’t expending any mental energy. I was conserving a lot of physical energy as well,” Hamilton said. “It felt good to have a lot of gas left towards the end of the race, but I still think I was just a little bit too far back when the race actually started.”
The race finally opened up over the final two laps when Rooks took the lead and pushed the pace. Once it started to string out, Hamilton focused on making up as much ground as possible, moving up from 10th to sixth. Rooks (8:21.92), Matthew Wilkinson (8:23.00) and James Corrigan (8:26.78) took the top three Olympic qualifying spots.
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Duncan Hamilton competes at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the men's steeplechase final Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
“I think if I had run a couple seconds faster, started 200 meters sooner or something like that, I would have been a lot happier with the day,” Hamilton said. “But either way, I’m still happy with it, and I know that I got a lot more out of my body than I did in prelims.”
The disappointment lingered with Hamilton following the race, yet he remained hopeful for the future. In the short-term, he’s looking at races later in the summer, such as the Sound Running Sunset Tour on July 20 in Los Angeles and another race in Memphis, Tennessee. No official decision has been made yet.
Hamilton’s next opportunity to make his first Olympic team will be in 2028 ahead of the Los Angeles Olympics. He will also get a shot to qualify for the 2025 World Athletics Championships next year.
Getting on those teams will require more fine-tuning for Hamilton. He gained even more confidence in Schumacher as a coach last weekend, watching how the tactical shift in between races mostly paid off. The hope, Hamilton said, is to close that gap at the next few USATF Outdoor Championships.
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Duncan Hamilton runs down the home stretch of the men's steeplechase final Sunday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
“I have a lot of faith that I’m going to develop well as an athlete, especially under Jerry’s training,” Hamilton said. “And I just think that I’m going to be the next great American steepler. And so I think just with all the work that I’m going to put in over (the next) couple years, I think it’s going to be a different story at the next Trials. I think I’ll be at the front.”
Braden Shaw can be reached at bshaw@dailychronicle.com or 406-582-2690. Follow him on Twitter @ByBradenShaw