A race for the ages
Holloway caps superb week by winning high hurdles in 12.88 in Olympic Trials
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The lone final event on the schedule for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday evening was well worth the wait.
Held at approximately 10:50 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, during a session that included semifinals in five track events and first-round qualifying in six other events, the final of the men’s 110-meter high hurdles turned out be a doozy and a half.
Led by the winning performance of three-time defending World champion Grant Holloway, the race was historically fast and deep as the first three finishers broke the 13-second barrier and six competitors clocked 13.15 or faster.
Taking advantage of a fast track, great competition, and a wind reading of 2.0 meters-per-second, the maximum allowed for record purposes, Holloway clocked 12.88 seconds, followed by Freddie Crittenden in second place in 12.93 and third-place Daniel Roberts in 12.96.
Cordell Tinch finished fourth in 13.03, followed by Ja’Qualon Scott of Texas A&M University in 13.09, and Cameron Murray in 13.15.
Holloway’s time was the second-fastest of his career and the fourth-fastest in history. It also capped a superb trio of races for him during the Trials as he had run 12.92 in the first round on Monday and 12.96 in the semifinals on Thursday.
Crittenden and Roberts moved into a tie for eighth and a tie for 12th, respectively, on the all-time U.S. performer list while bettering their previous personal bests of 13.00.
Tinch’s time was tied for the second-fastest of his career and Scott and Murray each recorded personal bests.
The times by Roberts, Tinch, and Scott were the fastest ever for their placings and Murray’s was tied for the quickest ever.
Most important to Holloway, his win gave him his second consecutive title in the Olympic Trials as he won the final in 12.96 in 2021 after running 12.81, the second-fastest time in history, in a semifinal.
“Man, two-time Olympian. That just speaks for itself,” he said to Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports after Johnson asked him how it felt to make his second Olympic team. “My goal was just come out and execute each round.”
Holloway, 26, led the field over the first of 10 sets of hurdles in the final as expected. But he has had better starts during his career.
Crittenden, Roberts, and Tinch had separated themselves from the rest of the field by the fifth set of hurdles, and the question then was would any of them be able to reel in the first-place Holloway?
The hurdler affectionately known as the Big Flamingo is not easy to defeat. But he has been beaten in the past when he gets overtaken in the final 15-20 meters of a race
That occurred in the final of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 when he was run down by Hansel Parchment of Jamaica, who is known for being a strong finisher.
However, that scenario did not come to pass on Friday as Holloway maintained most, if not all, of his lead from the midway point of the race until the finish while recording the eighth sub-13 performance of his career.
While the 110 high hurdles was the event of the day on Friday, there were plenty of other notable performances, particularly in the women’s and men’s 200 meters, and in the men’s 800.
Sha’Carri Richardson, who had won the women’s 100 last Saturday, won the first of three semifinals in the 200 when she tied her personal best of 21.92 seconds, despite the fact that she backed way off the throttle in the last 30 meters of the race.
McKenzie Long proceeded to win the next semifinal in 22.01 while overtaking Brittany Brown (22.08) and Tamari Davis (22.10) in the last 50 meters of the race.
Long had run a yearly-world leading time 21.83 seconds in winning the 200 for the University of Mississippi in the NCAA championships on June 8, but that mark was surpassed in the third semifinal when World Championship silver medalist Gabby Thomas ran 21.78 while finishing ahead of second-place Abby Steiner in 22.03 and third-place Tamara Clark in 22.12.
The time by Thomas was the third fastest of her career and was doubly impressive because she had eased up during the last 10 meters of the race.
“I was really happy with that,” she said to Johnson. “That felt like a very smooth and easy run for me and I didn’t really know what to expect. So to see that kind of time, something that felt so nice and controlled, is a good feeling.”
There were no world-leading marks in the semifinals of the men’s 200, but there were five clockings of under 20 seconds, although three of them came in a wind-aided race in which the reading was 2.5 meters-per-second.
Erriyon Knighton, the silver medalist in last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, won the first semifinal in 19.93 while finishing well ahead of Kyree King, who placed second in 20.25.
Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek then took the second semifinal in 19.96 while finishing ahead of second-place Courtney Lindsey in 20.05.
Then came the third semifinal in which three-time defending World champion Noah Lyles clocked a wind-aided 19.60 while finishing ahead of second-place Christian Coleman in 19.89 and third-place Robert Gregory of the University of Florida in 19.98.
“Yeah, that felt real easy,” Lyles told Johnson. “I was shocked to see that time pop up. Wasn’t even really trying. Shut down pretty hard too in the end.”
The U.S. has not won a medal in the men’s 800 meters in an outdoor global title race since 2019 when Donavan Brazier set an American record of 1:42.34 in winning the World title in Doha, Qatar. But there were six sub-1:45 clockings in the semifinals of the event on Friday, including a pair of sub-1:44 efforts.
Josh Hoey ran 1:45.73 in winning a tactically-run first semifinal ahead of Clayton Murphy, who clocked 1:45.76. But the times were significantly quicker in the next two races.
In the second semifinal, Charles Jones led the field through the first 400 in 51.14 seconds before Brandon Miller and Hobbs Kessler had moved in front of him by 600 meters.
Miller and Kessler, who finished third in the 1,500 on Monday, were clear of the remainder of the field midway down the home straightaway and they appeared to be content with grabbing the two automatic qualifying spots for the final. But Kessler edged past Miller a little ways before the finish line and both of them seemed surprised with their personal bests of 1:43.71 and 1:43.73, respectively.
Abraham Alvarado finished third in 1:44.44.
Kessler’s time moved him to 13th on the all-time U.S. performer list and crushed his previous best of 1:45.07. Miller moved to 14th on the all-time national list and bettered his previous best of 1:44.24 that he had run in finishing fourth in the USA Track & Field Los Angeles Grand Prix at UCLA on May 18.
World indoor champion Bryce Hoppel won the third semifinal in 1:44.01 after running a very controlled race that he led for most of the contest after first 200 meters.
Hoppel was just back of Vincent Crisp when Crisp led the field through the first 400 in 51.26 seconds. But he had taken the lead heading down the backstretch and he ended up finishing comfortably in front of Jonah Koech, who placed second in 1:44.47.
NCAA champion Shane Cohen of Virginia finished third in a personal best of 1:44.92 after closing well.
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Rai Benjamin, Caleb Dean of Texas Tech University, and Trevor Bassitt won the three semifinal sections of the 400-meter intermediate hurdles.
Benjamin, who set an American record of 46.17 while finishing second to Norwegian Karsten Warholm’s world record of 45.94 in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, won the third semifinal in 47.97 after absolutely cruising the final 50 meters of the race. CJ Allen placed second in 48.16 and Aldrich Bailey finished third in 48.69.
Dean, who had run 47.23 in his NCAA title victory, won the second semifinal in 48.92 while finishing ahead of second-place Khallifah Rosser in 49.72, who just held off Vance Nilsson for the second automatic qualifying spot for the final.
Nilsson, who just completed his senior year at Gilbert High School in Arizona, ran 49.77 to move into a tie for fourth on the all-time U.S prep performer list after having lowered the prep record in the 300 intermediate hurdles to 34.83 last month.
Bassitt, the bronze medalist in the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, won the third semifinal in 49.02 as NCAA runner-up Chris Robinson of Alabama finished second in 49.34.
The two semifinals of the women’s 1,500 meters were won by Nikki Hiltz and Emily Mackay, who had placed second and third, respectively, in that event in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, in March.
Hiltz took the first semifinal in 4:01.40 after running their final 300 meters in 45.99.
It was a heat chalk full of big names as the last four automatic qualifying spots for the final went to Sinclaire Johnson in 4:01.68, Heather MacLean in 4:02.09, Cory McGee in 4:02.09, and Elle St. Pierre in 4:02.14.
St. Pierre, McGee, and MacLean had finished 1-2-3 in the Olympic Trials in 2021.
Mackay had run her final 300 in 47.02 in winning the second semifinal in 4:02.46 ahead of Elise Cranny in 4:02.56, Helen Schlachenhaufen in 4:02.68, Maggi Congdon of Northern Arizona University in 4:02.79, and Addy Wiley in 4:02.92.
The four first-round heats of the women’s 100-meter hurdles were won by Masai Russell in 12.35 seconds, Tonea Marshall in 12.41, Keni Harrison in 12.49, and Christina Clemons in 12.56.
Russell’s time was a personal best by a hundredth of a second as she overtook Alaysha Johnson (12.37) during the last 25 meters of the race. It also moved her into a three-way tie for sixth on the all-time U.S. performer list.
Marshall’s time bettered her previous of 12.42, moved her to 13th on the all-time U.S. list, and left her comfortably in front of second-place Talie Bonds, who ran 12.66.
Tia Jones, who was running her first race of the outdoor season, finished fourth in 12.90 while advancing to the semifinals.
Jones had tied the then-world indoor record of 7.67 seconds in the women’s 60-meter hurdles in a semifinal of USA Track & Field Indoor Championships on February 16 before winning the final in 7.68 later in the day. But she sustained an injury to an anterior cruciate ligament just after finishing the final and underwent surgery in March to repair it.
Harrison, the Olympic silver medalist the 100 hurdles, won her semifinal in 12.49 to finish four hundredths of a second in front of NCAA champion Grace Stark of Florida.
Clemons won her semifinal in 12.56 while finishing well in front of second-place Rayniah Jones in 12.77.
Nia Ali, the 2019 World champion, finished seventh — and last — in 20.38 after basically jogging through the race because she knew she would advance to the semifinals as long as she finished.
Because there were only 27 entries in the first-round heats on Friday, everyone who ran was guaranteed a spot in the three semifinals that will each consist of nine entrants.
Ali told Johnson her decision to cruise through her heat made sense to her as it allowed her to conserve as much energy as possible for the semifinals.
“I had to do what I had to do today,” she said.
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In women’s pole vault qualifying, 10 competitors advanced to the final by clearing 4.50 meters (14 feet 9 inches) and three moved on by making 4.35 (14-3¼) on their first attempts.
Defending Olympic champion Katie Moon and 2016 silver medalist Sandi Morris each cleared 4.50 on their only vaults of the qualifying round.
Chase Jackson, the two-time defending World champion in the women’s shot put, led qualifying in that event with her single put of 19.66 (64-6).
Olympic silver medalist Raven Saunders was second at 19.54 (64-1¼), followed by NCAA champion Jaida Ross of Oregon at 19.46 (63-10¼).
Kara Winger was the leading qualifier in the women’s javelin at 63.01 (206-8). She was followed by Maggie Malone Hardin at 62.04 (204-9) and Avione Allgood at 59.37 (194-9).
Winger, who is attempting to make her fifth Olympic team, returned to competition in the New York City Grand Prix earlier this month after she had retired following the 2022 season in which she won the silver medal in the World Championships and raised the American record to 68.11 (223-5).
Qualifying in the men’s triple jump was paced by collegians Russell Robinson of Miami and Salif Mane of Farleigh Dickinson.
Russell, who had finished a centimeter behind first-place Mane in the NCAA championships on June 7, bounded a personal of 17.13 (56-2¾) on Friday, followed by Mane with a wind-aided 16.97 (55-8 ¼).
Donald Scott was the No. 3 qualifier at 16.77 (55-0¼).
Qualifying in the men’s hammer throw was led by Rudy Winkler at 77.08 (252-11). He was followed by Justin Stafford in second place at 76.12 (249-9) and Daniel Haugh in third at 74.94 (245-10).
Winkler had set the American record of 82.71 (271-4) when he won the Trials in 2021.
The evening session of today’s meet will begin at 7:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, with the final of the men’s discus.
The first races on the track will be the semifinals of the women’s 100-meter hurdles at 8:04.
In the addition to the men’s discus, finals will be contested in five other events tonight.
Those events are the women’s long jump, starting at 8:20, the women’s 200 at 8:27, the women’s shot put at 8:50, the women’s 10,000 at 9:09, and the men’s 200 at 9:49.
You can click here for a meet schedule, as well as results.