All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
Elise Cranny runs the 5,000 meter race at the Paris Olympics as a large crowd gathered at Niwot High School to watch the event. Cranny finished 11th overall.
The Niwot High School commons area was filled with coaches, teachers, students and fans to watch NHS alum Elise Cranny in the 5,000 meter race at the Paris Olympics.
Silver Creek grad Valerie Allman took the gold medal in the discus at the Paris Olympics.
Niwot High School graduate Elise Cranny finished 11th in the women's 5,000 meters in Paris, France at the 2024 Olympics on Aug. 5.
Cranny, 28, ran with the leading pack for most of the race, generally in sixth or seventh place behind the lead runners. With a lap to go, Kenya's Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet broke away from the pack, with Cheget taking the lead in the final strides to win the gold medal with a time of 14:28.56.
Kipyegon appeared to finish second, but was initially disqualified for making contact with Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay, the world record holder in the event, with just under two laps to go. Initial reports had Cranny finishing 10th, but after Kipyegon appealed, the disqualification was overruled, and she was reinstated to the silver medal position. Tsegay finished ninth with a time of 14:45.21.
That ruling moved Cranny and others down a notch, resulting in an 11th-place finish for the Stanford University grad. Cranny posted a time of 14:48.06, just behind her USA teammate Karissa Schweizer at 14:45.57. Her 11th-place finish was two spots better than her 13th-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in the same event.
Niwot High School hosted a watch party for the finals of the 5,000 meter race, with over 75 coaches, teachers, students and fans in attendance. Spectators were also able to cheer for Silver Creek alum Valerie Allman, who took the gold medal in the women's discus, as the event was held at the same time as the 5K race, with the network coverage of the 5K cutting away to Allman's winning throw of 69.5 meters. The gold-medal-winning throw came on her fourth throw, and was almost two meters longer than the second-place throw.
On Friday, Aug. 2, Cranny ran in the first heat of the prelims for the 5K event, finishing seventh with a time of 14:58.55 to earn a spot in the finals. The first eight runners in each of the two Friday heats qualified for the finals on Monday. Fans attending a watch party at The Wheel House in Niwot cheered her on in the preliminary race, and were also rewarded with an opportunity to watch Allman qualify in the discus. Allman and Cranny were teammates at Stanford University.
Cranny, a legendary runner at Niwot High, holds the American indoor 5,000-meter record at 14:33.17, and is also part of the world record relay team in the 4×1,500-meter relay. She went on from NHS to become a 12-time All-American at Stanford after winning eight state cross country and track and field state titles at Niwot.
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