Samantha Wood

Happy birthday to the USA’s Samantha Wood, who closed out four years of college running by winning a race and then running the fastest steeplechase of her life.

In March, at the Bob Larson and Jim Bush Legends meet, Samantha won the 3000m steeplechase in 10:43.63. Six weeks later at the Steve Scott Invitational she ran **10:38.48**, a lifetime best, in her final season for San Diego State. She has run 2:11.52 over 800m, 4:29.20 over 1500m and 17:01.58 over 5000m, and she raced cross country for the Aztecs through to the NCAA West Regional.

The steeplechase deserves more respect than it gets, and hers is the version that gets the least. Seven and a half laps, twenty-eight solid barriers that do not tip over, and seven water jumps, all while running what is essentially a 3000m. It is the only event on the track where being tired makes you worse at a *technical* skill rather than just slower, and the only one where a mistake in the last kilometre puts an athlete on the ground. Nobody drifts into it. You have to choose it.

She chose it and stayed with it for four years in the Mountain West, and the reward came at the very end. Running your best race in your last season is the ending every senior wants and most do not get.

She also has a second craft. Samantha runs a photography business, and the account name is a good one for somebody who spent four years going over barriers: aerials.

Happy birthday, Samantha! Four years, twenty-eight barriers a race, and a lifetime best to finish on. Go get it. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇺🇸