By Elliot Denman // Photo by John Nepolitan

NEW YORK - The sting of his fourth-place finish in the 5000-meter final at the 2016 USA Olympic Trials will surely stay with Eric Jenkins forever.

His 13:35.98 clocking at Hayward Field left him 48/100ths of a second out of winning it all, 28/100ths out of second place, and a mere 6/100ths out of third.

And the men who beat him in Oregon – winner Bernard Lagat, runnerup Hassan Mead and third-placer Paul Chelimo went on to finish, respectively, fifth, eleventh, and second in the Olympic final at Rio's Estadio Olimpico.

It would be easy to moan and groan over the might-have-beens of it all – "I could have been a contender," the old line goes – but that's not Eric Jenkins.

This Eric Jenkins, the 24-year-old out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and now Portland, Oregon, isn't looking over his shoulder at all. This Eric Jenkins is determined to make amends for his near-miss at the Trials. This Eric Jenkins has already taken the measure of the man who won the Olympic 1500-meter championship in Rio.

Jenkins was a late-late entry into the 36th edition of the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile, staged by the New York Road Runners Saturday afternoon, but his timing was just perfect once the 19-man field for the Professional Men's Mile was sent off at 1 p.m. at East 80th Street.

With a brilliant final surge, Jenkins edged to the win in 3:49.4, beating out Matthew "Centro" Centrowitz, who'd stunned the world with his 1500-meter triumph at Rio – first by an American man at the Games in 108 years.

"Centro," a Jenkins training partner under coach Alberto Salazar at the Nike Oregon Project, settled for second a half-stride back in 3:49.5, with Colby Alexander third (3:50.3), Olympic 800-meter bronze medalist Clayton Murphy fourth (3:52.3) and Canadian Olympian Charles Philibert-Thiboutot (3:52.5) fifth.

With 17 of the 19 starters breaking four minutes, it was one of the greatest mass finishes in history. But none could nudge the Fifth Avenue record – Villanova grad Sydney Maree's 3:47.52 in the very first running of the event, in 1981.

So is Jenkins (who'd run third in the 2016 Millrose 3000 race) a miler now, or a 5000 man?

"That remains to be seen," he said. "We'll just have to see about that.

"Centro seemed to have it about the three three-quarter mark, he was totally out there, but I just kept him in sight and held on and somehow got by at the very end."

Fifteen minutes before the men, Olympic 1500-meter bronze medalist Jenny Simpson ran off with the women's title in 4:18.3 for her fourth consecutive Fifth Avenue crown and fifth in six years. Like the men's race, the women 's mile was determined in the final meters – with British Olympian Laura Muir of Glasgow, Scotland, second in 4:18.4; Minnesota's Heather Kampf third (4:19.7), Michigan's Amanda Eccleston fourth (4:20.6) and Olympic 800-meter finalist Kate Grace fifth (4:22.7.) Seventeen of the 23 starters broke 4:30.

Taking all this in at the finish line, with immense pleasure, was NYRR Millrose Games director Ray Flynn. It will now be his delight to invite the best of these best to the 110th edition of the classic NYRR Millrose Games, scheduled for Feb. 11, 2017, at the New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory.

"It was my privilege to be there in Rio and see the race that Matthew ran and won," said Flynn. "It was one of the most exciting 1500-meter races I have ever seen.

"It was wonderful to watch."

Along with his Olympic gold medal, "Centro" came to Fifth Avenue as owner of the fastest mile run anywhere in 2016 – that was his 3:50.63 NYRR Millrose Games win over New Zealand's Nick Willis (3:51.06) back on Feb. 20. In an unprecedented situation, that indoor 3:50.63 is still faster than any mile run outdoors for the year – and that is Kenyan Asbel Kiprop's 3:51.48 at Oslo on June 9.

Now, though, Jenkins has upstaged them all with his 3:49.4, but on the global charts straightway road miles fall in a different category than track races.

"I didn't let Eric get by, he just went by," said "Centro" with a wry smile.

"The pack broke apart early, like immediately" said third-place Alexander. "There was a group of about five of us at the quarter.  And we separated even more and more by halfway.

"I just hung on.

"So I had a good view of the race up front. Jenkins just went ahead in, it looked like, the last 10 meters."

"You've got to love this sport, "said now five-time women's champion Simpson. "Sometimes you have down days and you might let things get you down.

"Well forget about that. You've got to find reasons to be happy, and that's what's going to keep you in this sport a long time."

Despite all that dominance, the Fifth Avenue women's record continues to Patti Sue Plumer's 4:16.68 in 1990.

"Hats off to Jenny," said Muir, seventh in the Olympic 1500. "She's a great runner and has won this many times before, so to come second to her is still petty good."

The busy day "On The Avenue, Fifth Avenue," wasn't just for the elite racing pros. The NYRR's 22-race mile program began at 8 a.m. and included events in all age categories from kids to octogenarians, as well as wheelchair and handcycle racers.

The senior citizens of the George Sheehan Memorial Mile sections were special stars, too. Shore AC's Harold Leddy of  Bridgewater, N.J. (5:35)  and Long Islander Kathryn Martin of Northport (5:50) were speediest in 60-64; Peter Mullin of Houston (5:36) and Robin Schreck of Lake Hopatcong, N.J. (7:37) led in 65-69; Noel Haynes of Brooklyn (5:40) and Laurie Baker of New York (8:07) in 70-74; Jim Olsen of Jersey City (6:58) and Lynn Blackstone of New York (9:16) in 75-79;  and Witold Bialokur of Rego Park, Queens (7:05) and Julie Hoffmann of Kalamazoo, Mich. (8:13) in 80-up.

Among the most delighted of these winners was Brooklyn's Haynes in the 70-74 category, who outbattled the renowned Gary Patton of Iowa (5:43) and Jose Aguirre of Perth Amboy, N.J. (6:11) for his win.

"I just ran my own race, set my own pace, all the way," said the Barbados-born Haynes. "I take good care of my body, sleep, eat and train. 

"I only eat good food, rice, garlic onions, bananas, raisins, things like that.

"I tell people now, the older I get, the faster I get."

His next big start will be in October's World Masters Championships in Perth, Western Australia.

A special presence in the event was Sid Howard, 77, of Plainfield, N.J. and Central Park Track Club. Still rehabbing from injuries, he still placed third in 75-79 at 7:51, and thus kept his streak alive.

He's the only athlete to have in every edition of this event since its origin. 

"I haven't had a really competitive race in over two years, I've been injured all that time," said Howard, also a many-time World Masters Champion. "This year I've had no real training for the mile at all.

"But I still couldn't miss it.

"I had to be here.

"I'm just happy God let me run."