Peabody's Heather MacLean Races To Olympic Semifinals In 1,500

PEABODY, MA — Heather MacLean is one step closer to an Olympic medal after she advanced to the semifinals of the 1,500 meters Sunday night in Tokyo.

The Peabody Veterans Memorial High and UMass-Amherst alumna raced in the third heat of the preliminaries Sunday and finished in 4:02.40 — earning a place in one of the two 12-runner semifinals Wednesday morning.

The top six in each of Sunday night's four heats advanced. MacLean was fifth in her heat — which was the fastest of the four in the prelims.

Fellow Americans Elle Purrier St. Pierre and Cory Ann McGee both also advanced. Wednesday's races will take place at about 6 a.m. EDT.

.@heathair31 is moving on to the Olympic women’s 1,500m semifinals Wednesday after posting the fifth-fastest time in her heat and overall on Monday morning : https://t.co/tgxbwNE4Pu#Toyko2020 X #Flagship pic.twitter.com/ElXfTf8oXU
— UMass XC/T&F (@UMass_XC_TF) August 2, 2021

An outdoor viewing party was scheduled at the Leather City Common in Peabody to root on MacLean.

MacLean finished third in the U.S. Olympic Trials on June 21 in Eugene, Oregon. She held off the fourth-place runner — Shannon Osika — by just nine-hundredths of a second for the final qualifying spot. The 25-year-old MacLean ran 4:02.09 that day with Osika a step behind in 4:02.18.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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