Former Gophers runner Ben Blankenship qualifies for 1,500-meter semifinals

Update: Ben Blankenship finished ninth among the 15 runners in his 1,500-meter heat Tuesday morning at the Rio Olympics, and qualified for Thursday's semifinals.

At the Olympic Stadium, Blankenship ran for most of the heat in second and third place before easing toward the finish and taking ninth. More important, he ran a 3:38.92 and realized down the stretch that he would easily advance.

Jakub Holusa of Poland won the heat in 3:38.31, and the top nine qualifiers for the semifinals all came from the heat in which Blankenship ran.

"I really thought if, being the last (heat), and having everyone jog the first two, if we would have just clipped along, we could get 12 through our heat (into the semifinals)," Blankenship said afterward. "I made it through. It just wasn't very pretty."

Blankenship added that he wasn't running at 100 percent.
"I got jet-lagged and my legs were just heavy, he said. "I just need to do something to just open them up. I felt like this at the USA championships, too."

RIO DE JANEIRO – As Ben Blankenship made plans for the 2016 season, he never doubted the 1,500 meters still was the right race for him. The distance fit his running and training style perfectly, and at 26, the former Gopher didn't feel ready to move up to longer races.

Blankenship had another powerful incentive as well: the excruciatingly tiny margin that separated him from a berth at the 2015 world championships, when Leo Manzano edged him by .02 of a second at the U.S. championships for the final spot on the team.

"I wanted a do-over,'' Blankenship said. "I wasn't going to give up easily.''

The Stillwater native got exactly what he wished for. At the Olympic trials in July, he and Manzano fought it out again down the home stretch, just as they had a year earlier — but this time, Blankenship pushed in front. That third-place finish at the trials earned him a place in Rio, where he will run Tuesday in the first round of the men's 1,500 at Olympic Stadium.

The heats in the 1,500 start at 8:30 a.m. Twin Cities time.

The last time the track world gathered for the Olympics, Blankenship was enduring a year filled with injuries. Unable to run or train at full capacity, he wound up working for a friend's excavation business in Colorado for a time, but he felt certain he wasn't done with the sport.

He stuck with it then, just as he stuck with it over the final meters at the trials to reach the biggest meet of his career.

"To make the Olympic team, I knew I was going to have to beat Leo,'' said Blankenship, who lives and trains in Eugene, Ore. "He's always going to be there. I tried to keep that in mind through the whole race, making sure I could win the shoulder-to-shoulder battle.

"At the time, it was hard to process that I actually made it. Finally, something has come to fruition that you've worked so hard on. But as excited as I am, and as excited as my family is, I'm still working to make sure I'm in the best position possible in Rio.''

Blankenship and former Gophers teammate Hassan Mead are the first U track and field athletes to make the U.S. Olympic team in 24 years. Gophers coach Steve Plasencia — whom Blankenship considers his Olympic role model — and Ron Backes competed at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

Unlike most athletes at the Summer Games, Blankenship doesn't recall watching the Olympics while growing up in Stillwater. He didn't really think about it until 2011, when he was finishing his career at the U. Blankenship won three Big Ten titles and holds school records in the indoor mile, the indoor 3,000 and the outdoor 1,500.

He began having hip problems in his final season. For most of 2012, he ran only intermittently, trying to get healthy and figure out his future in the sport. An invitation to join the prestigious Oregon Track Club Elite in 2013 reset his career, and since then he has established himself as one of the top 1,500-meter runners in the country.

"Ben is a gifted athlete, and he has a calm about him,'' Plasencia said. "He's a very cool customer with a steely resolve. He had some outstanding times for us, and I thought he would keep getting better.''

Last year's U.S. championships gave Blankenship some valuable experience for the Olympic trials. He said he was nervous, and he thought every race had to be perfect.

He came to the Olympic trials as a wiser runner, finishing in 3 minutes, 36.18 seconds to beat Manzano by .44 seconds.

After making the most of his do-over, Blankenship aims to make another stride forward.

"I've worked pretty hard to get where I am,'' he said. "I need to go out and execute my job, just do what I've been training to do. I want to run to best of my ability. And once you get there, anything is possible.''