Christie captures third national championship this year, Burnett secures first career crown on the track in preparation for upcoming Pan American Games in Peru

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

DES MOINES – Katie Burnett gladly took advantage of the opportunity to secure her first 10,000-meter racewalk national title in between a pair of 50-kilometer races and Nick Christie continued to demonstrate his dominance against American opponents at any distance Sunday morning at the Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships.

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Following his 20,000-meter victory at Drake Stadium last year, Christie set the facility record at half the distance by clocking 41 minutes, 56.61 seconds, giving him three national championships this year, along with his indoor 3,000-meter crown in February in New York and 20-kilometer road title in March in California.

“My former coach Dave Smith said, ‘When you step on the starting line, you need to go up there with the mentality that you’re number one and everyone else can sort out second and third,’ and I like to race carrying that with me,” said Christie, who now boasts seven career national track titles.

“I was pretty excited about this performance. I’m gearing up for the Pan Am Games in the 20k and 50k in the next two weeks, so today was just about feeling the pace and getting an idea of what I want to go out in (during) the 20k next week.”

Christie has yet to finish a 50-kilometer race this year in his two previous opportunities, but will attempt the demanding double of the 20-kilometer event Aug. 4 at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, followed Aug. 11 by the 50-kilometer competition.

“The big thing was getting on a worlds pace and getting a feel for that,” Christie said. “I think (the 50-kilometer race) is more of a mental task than it is a physical one. It’s really easy to go out too fast, to get ahead of yourself in that race.”

Although Christie’s victory was wire to wire over Emmanuel Corvera (43:10.87) and John Cody Risch (43:36.43), Burnett relied on an impressive second half of the race to capture her first national championship on the track, also eclipsing the facility record by clocking a personal-best 46:12.45.

“It was stellar today. I just did a 50k two weeks ago, so coming off that I had a really good recovery,” said Burnett, who secured the IAAF World Championships standard with her 4:29.45 performance in the 50-kilometer event July 13 in San Diego.

“I knew I could do well, I knew I could PR today. Luckily, I had a hot race in Mexico in April, so I’ve continued heat training all year in preparation for this and Doha.”

Burnett, who captured her first national title in 2018 in the 50-kilometer road event in Santee, Calif., improved from second place last year at Drake Stadium in the 20,000-meter racewalk final behind 42-time national champion Maria Michta-Coffey.

Robyn Stevens led for the majority of the first half of the race Sunday, before Burnett took control in the middle two kilometers, producing her three fastest laps – all under 1:49 – during the stretch from 4,000 to 6,000 meters to turn a two-second deficit into a 17-second advantage.

“That’s how my coach does a lot of my track training, is a sustained kind of fartlek effort,” said Burnett, who improved on her mark of 46:52.56 from last year’s 10,000-meter event in El Cajon, Calif.

“We have parts where we pick it up and then parts when we go easier. When I had a big gap, I knew I should cool myself off a little bit and ease up and then push again, so I was really used to that kind of thing.”

Stevens (47:22.54) remained in second through 8,000 meters until Miranda Melville (46:49.90) produced the fastest 2,000-meter split of the race by closing in 9:09.59, ahead of Burnett’s 9:09.76 stretch midway through that allowed her to take the lead for good.

Melville and Stevens will compete Aug. 4 in the 20-kilometer event at Pan American Games, with Burnett and Stephanie Casey racing Aug. 11 in the 50-kilometer competition in Peru.