Santa Monica Runner Earns Spot in Rio Olympics

SANTA MONICA, CA — Kate Grace of Santa Monica earned a spot on the U.S. team for the Rio Olympics on the Fourth of July by winning the women’s 800 meters at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials — Track & Field in Eugene, Oregon in a race where favorites Brenda Martinez and Alysia Montano were involved in a collision and fell.

Grace won in a personal-record time of one minute, 59.10 seconds. She called making the Olympic team surreal.

“I’ve never podiumed in a national event, and now I’m going to the Olympics,” said Grace, whose previous best finish at a track national championship was fourth in the 800 in 2013. “I knew I could run at this level even though I’d never done it before.”

The 27-year-old Grace took the lead for the first time when she passed Ajee’ Wilson on the final stretch.

“I felt strong and my split-second decision was stay on the inside and wait for something to open and I would be able to kick the last 100,” Grace said.

Wilson finished second in 1:59.51 while Chrishuna Williams got the final Olympic berth by finishing third in 1:59.59. All three runners are first-time Olympians.

Montano, a Canyon Country resident and 2004 graduate of Canyon High School, was leading the race when she was overtaken before the curve by Wilson, Raevyn Rogers and Martinez. As Montano tried to get back in front, there was a tangle. Martinez was thrown off-stride and Montano fell to the ground.

The contact was ruled incidental and there was no change in the order of finish.

Montano screamed and cried, dropping to her knees on the the track several times, then getting back up to complete the race. She finished in 3:06.77.

Montano finished fifth in the 800 in the 2012 Olympics in a race in which the first- and third-place finishers were later found to be in violation of doping rules.

Grace was a three-time Southern Section 800 champion while at Marlborough School. She finished seventh and fifth in the 800 in the 2010 and 2011 NCAA championships while competing for Yale.

— City News Service, photo courtesy of Kate Grace/Instagram