With close to 200 people watching at her alma mater in Richford, and no doubt many more across Vermont, Elle Purrier St. Pierre capped her week of Olympic racing Friday morning with a 10th-place finish in the finals of the women’s 1,500 meters.
The “Richford Rocket” got a fast start, then settled into the middle of the pack by the end of the first of four laps. She stayed in the middle as the field started to spread out, though had slipped toward the back by lap three.
Purrier ran the final lap near the back of the 13-woman field, coming across the line in a time of 4:01.75.
Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon took gold Friday morning, running an Olympic-record time of 3:53.11. Laura Muir of Great Britain took silver in 3:54.50, and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands took bronze running 3:55.86.
For the third time this week, Purrier St. Pierre’s family and a crowd of local residents gathered in the gymnasium at Richford Junior Senior High School, where Purrier St. Pierre graduated in 2013, to watch her race.
The gym erupted in cheers every time Purrier St. Pierre appeared on the television broadcast.
Watch parties for the former dairy farmer have also been held in her hometown of Montgomery at the Phineas Swann Inn & Spa.
“There’s nothing quite like living in a small town for things like this,” said Purrier St. Pierre’s sister, Ginny Rainville. “From the bottom of our hearts, we are so grateful for all the support from the communities around here.”
In the opening round of the women’s 1,500 on Sunday, Purrier St. Pierre finished third in her heat with a time of 4:05.34. She ran strong just behind the leaders, and surged into first on the final lap before being passed about 50 meters from the finish line.
Her semifinal performance Wednesday was a nail-biter — Purrier St. Pierre did not finish high enough in the first of two heats to advance to Friday’s race automatically.
But the second heat finished several seconds slower, so her time of 4:01.00 was just fast enough to qualify for one of the final’s two slots based on time.
Purrier St. Pierre did not break her personal best and American record at the Tokyo games, a blistering 3:58.03 that she set at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.
The two other Vermonters competing at the Tokyo games this summer also came up short of the podium. Brooke Mooney from Peru, Vt., and her team finished fourth in women’s eight rowing, while Burlington’s Ilona Maher and her team finished sixth in women’s rugby.
“There’s no words,” said Annie Purrier, Purrier St. Pierre’s mother, of the cheering crowd Friday morning. “It’s just so unbelievable that we have all this support.”
Correction: Jinny Rainville’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.
