This CT athlete had one last chance to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. He made the most of it.

Eric van der Els had one last chance to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in the 5,000 meters.Van der Els, 26, of Norwalk, is a professional runner with North Carolina-based ZAP Endurance, coached by Peter Rea, a former UConn runner who grew up in Farmington. If van der Els, himself a former Husky runner, didn’t make the qualifying time – 13 minutes, 25 minutes – his running future would be up in the air.Van der Els – who had shown promise in his first race for ZAP back in Nov. 2022 – had been injured and missed the entire year last year. But the expectation in his contract, at the very least, Rea said, was to qualify for the Trials.And so he did. On the very last day of qualifying, June 9, in Portland, Ore., van der Els ran the 5,000 meters in 13:21 – lowering his personal best from a meet in April by 18 seconds. He will run the 5,000 meters preliminary heat at the Trials in Eugene, Oregon on June 27 and hopes to make it to the finals June 30.He is one of a number of Connecticut athletes who have qualified for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials – which begin June 21 – including Chloe Scrimgeour of Conard High and Georgetown (5,000), Sean Dixon-Bodie of Bloomfield and the University of Florida (triple jump) and Henry Wynne of Westport, who was the NCAA indoor mile champion in 2016 at Virginia (1,500).Van der Els had less than six months to train for a Trials qualifying time after he finally became healthy in January. It was either qualify for the Trials and keep running as a pro or get another job. ZAP Endurance funds athletes and gives them a stipend for room and board, as well as training them and sending them to competitions.“If that was the end of my career – I’d say, ‘You know what, I totally understand. I was hurt, I didn’t hit the standard, and you need to have athletes here who are top tier,’” said van der Els, who was the Big East indoor 3,000-meter champion and the outdoor champion in the 1,500 meters at UConn, before graduating in 2022.Eric van der Els, a former Big East champion at UConn from Norwalk, qualified for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in the 5,000 meters on the last day of qualification earlier this month. (Photo by Ryan Warrenburg/ZAP Endurance)“I knew that all season – back up against the wall, the 11th hour – it’s not a great feeling but that’s part of being the athlete I think I am, I can get these things done on that particular day. That put some fire behind me.”Rea had been following van der Els’ UConn career and when he was done, offered him a two-year contract with ZAP, which is based in Blowing Rock, N.C.“He piqued my interest not just because we share the same alma mater, but I felt like he fell into the category of athlete who was incredibly talented, had a great attitude, he was super motivated, but hadn’t really made a splash collegiately on the national scene,” Rea said. “I felt like he possessed the ability to really make a splash on the national scene and even international scene.”In his first race, the Abbott Dash 5K, the national 5K road championship in New York City in November 2022, van der Els finished 10th. But that winter, he tore his posterior tibial tendon in his foot, which knocked him out for an entire year.He started training again in January.“We sat down and said, ‘It’s a six-month run to the Trials. A lot is going to have to go well,’” Rea said. “He has stayed true to the process. Every time we’ve gone through a full three-week training block, each one has been a little better than the previous one.“There were a couple things I saw in training that led me to believe the Trials standard was possible. I will say he surprised even me a little bit with 13:21. I was happy to see it.”Van der Els ran 13:39 earlier in the year, then 13:31 in April at a meet in Los Angeles. His previous best was 13:36, which he ran in college.“I think for him, (13:31) made 13:25 a little more realistic,” Rea said. “It led him to believe that the Trials mark was feasible on a big night.”The last chance meet in Portland usually attracts a quality field and the weather is cooler. Van der Els knew he would have to go hard the entire race; he had a habit of going out hard, slowing in the second mile and then picking it up at the end. The ZAP coaching staff had been on him to commit to the middle of the race and to have faith in his training and ability that he would still be able to finish well. Even his UConn coach, Greg Roy, who is retired, had been texting him about it.Van der Els committed to the whole race and now he’s going to the Trials. He hopes to make it to the finals June 30.Rea said he would be extending van der Els’ contract when it runs out July 31.“I hate that callous side of it,” Rea said. “But the truth is, I’m not sure his 2024, 2025, 2026 would really look the same had (June 9) not happened.”

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