The battle for a 10,000-meter roster spot on the United States national team for the IAAF World Championships will be without a two-time Olympian on June 20. In an interview with Runner’s World, Matt Tegenkamp announced he will not compete at the the U.S. Championships in Des Moines. 

After finishing 19th at the Summer Olympic Games in London, Tegenkamp has yet to race on an outdoor track. Any plans of returning are on hold now as his focus shifts to training for a fall marathon. No venue has been selected yet. Olympic teammate Dathan Ritzenhein will be running the Chicago Marathon on October 13. 

In September, Tegenkamp got his first victory after the Olympics in the USA 20K road running championships, where he posted a record time of 58:30 in his longest race. He battled against Luke Puskedra to the end. 

Just a few weeks ago, Tegenkamp extended the distance a bit further with a third place finish at USA 25K on May 11. In that race, Mo Trafeh broke the American record in 1:14.18 with Tegenkamp crossing the finish line 25 seconds later.

Tegenkamp talked things over with coach Jerry Schumacher in the winter and decided by the spring to take up a new challenge. He coached Simon Bairu before the Houston Marathon where he finished in 2:19:52. Most recently, Schumacher has found success with Kara Goucher and Shalagne Flanagan after their fourth and sixth place finishes respectively at the 2013 Boston Marathon. 

Read the full interview with Tegenkamp on Runner’s World.

Chris Chavez is a staff writer for Flotrack and a journalism major at Marquette University. He once beat Joey Fatone of NSYNC in a half-marathon. Feel free to to reach him with any questions, comments, or feedback on Twitter or by email.