From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

When is a race not really a race?

When it doesn’t matter how fast – or slow – you run.

Pleasantville’s Nia Ali, who missed the 2021 Olympic Trials to have a baby, began her quest to make this year’s U.S. Olympic team Friday by advancing to the semifinals of the 100-meter hurdles at the Olympic Trials in Eugene.

With the slowest time of her life.

There are three rounds of the hurdles at the Trials in Eugene, and in Friday night’s first round there were four quarterfinal races and 29 total runners. According to the pre-determined qualifying rules, the first five hurdlers in each of the four races plus the next seven-fastest qualify for Saturday’s semifinals.

But when two runners scratched, it left seven runners in each of the first heats and six in the final race. With 27 qualifying spots and 27 entries, everybody advanced.

Yeah, it seems ridiculous. They ran four races and didn’t eliminate anybody. Why not just cancel the first round? Who knows? Maybe they’re trying to replicate the three rounds of the Olympics.

But when Ali was in the paddock preparing for the third heat, she realized that a runner in the fourth heat – Alex Gochenour-Brondyke – had scratched. That meant she would move on to the semis unless she got hurt or DQ’d.

So she jogged.

Her official time was 20.38 seconds – about six seconds slower than the next-slowest hurdler and eight seconds slower than the fastest.

Ali, interviewed by 1987 NCAA 800-meter run finalist Lewis Johnson on Peacock, said jogging the race was a last-minute decision after she had a sub-par warmup. She said running non-competitively was the best thing for her overall chances of making the team.

Masai Russell [12.35], Alaysha Johnson [12.37] and Tonea Marshall [12.41] all ran faster Friday night than Ali has run this year.

The semis are scheduled for 8:04 p.m. Saturday. The top two in each semifinal plus the next-two fastest qualify for the final, scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday.

Ali has reached the finals at U.S. Nationals eight times – 5th in 2011, 8th in the 2012 Trials, 3rd in 2013, 8th in 2014, 3rd in the 2016 Trials, 8th in 2017, 2nd in 2019 and 1st last year.

She’s bidding to become the first South Jersey woman to win consecutive U.S. titles since Carol Lewis in the long jump in 1985 and 1986.

Ali won the Olympic silver medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and then won the world championships in Doha, Qatar, in October of 2019.

She’s now 35 but still among the fastest hurdlers in the world.

Ali ran 12.44 in Gainesville in April, the 6th-fastest time of her life and 6th-fastest in the world this year and No. 2 among Americans coming into the Trials.

Her 12.30 in Monaco last summer is 9th-fastest in world history and 3rd-fastest among U.S. women.