What will Natalie Dumas run at USATF Senior Nationals in Eugene?
It’s a fascinating question!
Dumas met the A standard in both the 400-meter hurdles and 800 at West Philly Nationals and has a pretty strong provisional B standard in the 400. So she has some options.
Senior Nationals is scheduled for July 31 – Aug. 3 at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
At Franklin Field over the weekend, Dumas ran 55.99 to win the intermediate hurdles on Friday, 51.14 to win the 400 on Saturday and 2:00.11 to win the 800 on Sunday.
She’s under the A standards in the intermediates [56.00] and 800 [2:00.50] and close to the A standard in the 400 [51.00] and well under the B standard [52.50]. The way it works is everyone with the A standard qualifies automatically and if the field isn’t filled with A qualifiers – that’s 32 runners in each event – the B qualifiers are added starting with the fastest until the field is full.
According to the World Athletics database, Dumas currently ranks 17th among U.S. women in the 800, 18thin the intermediates and 17th in the 400. That’s for 2025, but the qualifying period opened on June 21, 2024, so those rankings aren’t necessarily identical to the rankings of qualifiers (although they could be).
But the bottom line is Dumas can definitely race the intermediates and/or 800 if she wants and most likely the 400.
Here’s what the schedule looks like in Eugene for Dumas’s three events:
Thursday, July 31
3:21 p.m. – 800-Meter Run first round
4:39 p.m. – 400-Meter Dash first round
Friday, Aug. 1
3:31 p.m. – 400-Meter Hurdles first round
5:04 p.m. – 800-Meter Run semifinals
6:03 p.m. – 400-Meter Dash semifinals
Saturday, Aug. 2
1:03 p.m. – 400-Meter Dash final
1:40 p.m. – 400-Meter Hurdles semifinals
Sunday, Aug. 3
1:18 p.m. – 800-Meter Run final
1:34 p.m. 400-Meter Hurdles final
If Dumas enters one event, she probably has the most room for improvement in the 800, mainly because when she ran that 2:00.11 it was her 4th hard effort in 48 hours (including a sprint medley anchor) and running an 800 against elite competition fresh would very likely bring her under two minutes, something only two South Jersey runners have ever done – Shawnee’s Michelle DiMuro ran 1:59.85 at the 1996 Olympic Trials in Atlanta, and Haddonfield’s Erin Donohue ran 1:59.99 in Liège, Belgium, in July 2010.
If she elects to enter two events, the 400-800 double is probably impossible, since the 1st-round races are only 78 minutes apart on Day 1 of Nationals.
If she runs the 400-400IH double, she would have only the 400 trials on Thursday and the intermediates first round and potentially 400 semis on Friday but with about a 2 ½-hour break in between.
If she chooses the 800-400IH double, she would have only the 800 trials on Friday but the intermediates trials and 800 semis about an hour and a half apart on Saturday afternoon.
As we wrote on Tuesday [https://sjtrackblog.com/2025/06/24/how-many-women-in-the-history-of-the-planet-earth-have-done-what-natalie-dumas-did-we-looked-it-up-and-you-wont-believe-the-answer/], Dumas is the only female in the history of the world to run as fast as she did in all three events.
Whatever she winds up racing in Eugene, it’s going to be incredible to watch!
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One note about USATF qualifyiing: Meets must meet specific criteria to be eligible for qualifying. From the entry requirements: “All entry performances must be legal marks that have been achieved at a USATF-sanctioned meet or at a meet listed on the World Athletics Calendar. Meets on the World Athletics Calendar must also have results included in the World Athletics Toplists.”
West Philly Nationals – also known as Insert-Shoe-Company-Here Nationals – was listed on the World Athletics Calendar and its results are in the World Athletics database, which makes Dumas’s performances eligible.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 