Lyles completes his double
Sprinter comes from behind to defeat Bednarek for men's 200 title in Olympic Trials
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For the third time in the last three years, Noah Lyles has received a serious challenge in the men’s 200 meters prior to a global championship.
The first time occurred in the 2022 USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships when Lyles had to come from behind to defeat Erriyon Knighton by two hundredths of a second with a 19.67-second clocking.
The second took place last year when Lyles turned back Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, 19.47 to 19.50, in a Diamond League meet in London.
And the third happened in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday evening when Lyles had to overtake Kenny Bednarek in the final 20 meters of the race while winning his second consecutive Olympic Trials title and his fifth national championship in a row. It was also his 17th consecutive victory in the 200.
Lyles’ winning time of 19.53 was the fastest in the world this year, broke the meet record of 19.66 that had been a world record when Michael Johnson set it in 1996, and left the three-time defending World champion six hundredths of a second in front of Bednarek’s personal best of 19.59. Knighton, the silver medalist in last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, placed third in 19.77, and he was followed by fourth-place Christian Coleman in 19.89, fifth-place Kyree King in a personal best of 19.90, and sixth-place Courtney Lindsey in 20.00.
Lyles’ time was the eighth fastest of the 26-year-old sprinter’s career and it came about after Bednarek really made him work during the final 100 meters of the race at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
Bednarek, who had run a personal best of 9.87 seconds in the 100 while finishing second to Lyles’ 9.83 clocking last Sunday, was in the lead coming off the turn of the 200 on Saturday. Christian Coleman, better known for his exploits in the 100, was Bednarek’s closest pursuer at that point in the race, but Lyles was not far behind him in third place.
Lyles soon moved passed Coleman, but it took a while for him to begin making up ground on Olympic silver medalist Bednarek, who was on the way to lowering his personal best of 19.67 that he had set in a Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, in early May.
However, Lyles had begun to close in on Bednarek with about 40 meters to go and he went past him about 20 meters after that.
While Lyles told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports that he was grateful to have won, Bednarek made it clear he was disappointed to have lost.
“With this race, I had it,” he said to Johnson. “But I tightened up a little bit, so I’m going to get him the next time.”
It will be interesting to see if that happens, for Lyles followed his narrow victory over Knighton in the 2022 national championships by winning the World title with an American record of 19.31 that left him way ahead of second-place Bednarek in 19.77.
Last year, he followed his close win over Tebogo in London by winning the World Championships with a decisive 19.52 to 19.75 victory over second-place Knighton.
How the U.S. trio fares in the Olympic Games in Paris in August will also be interesting as Lyles, Bednarek, and Knighton went 1-2-3 in the 2022 World Championships and Lyles and Knighton finished first and second, ahead of third-place Tebogo, in last year’s global title meet.
“The USA is the USA,” Lyles said when Johnson asked him if he had sent a message to the Jamaican sprinters with his performance. “We don’t take anything light. We don’t give anything. You gotta take it from us.”
While Lyles came from behind to win the men’s 200, Gabby Thomas won her second consecutive Olympic Trials title in the women’s race by coming off the turn in first place and then gradually separating from her closest pursuers during the final 50 meters.
Thomas clocked 21.81 seconds and was followed by second-place Brittany Brown in a personal best of 21.90 and third-place McKenzie Long in 21.91.
Sha’Carri Richardson placed fourth in 22.16, followed by Tamara Clark in 22.20, and Abby Steiner in 22.24.
Richardson had tied her personal best with an eased-up 21.92 clocking in her semifinal on Friday, but she did not run a strong turn on Saturday and appeared to let up on the throttle in the last 20 meters of the race when it was obvious she was not going to place among the top three finishers.
After running a yearly world-leading time of 21.78 in her semifinal, the 26-year-old Thomas told Johnson that she wanted to run faster in the final. But she did not seem upset about falling short of that goal.
“It is incredible,” she said when Johnson asked her about making the Olympic team while he interviewed her, Brown, and Long. “I know I needed to get today done and this is the first half. And there is no gold medal in Paris without making the team today. So I’m just ecstatic to be alongside these people.”
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While the men’s and women’s 200 meters were the two most highly-anticipated events of the meet on Saturday, finals were also contested in the women’s 10,000 meters, the women’s long jump and shot put, the men’s discus, and the men’s and women’s 20-kilometer walk.
Weini Kelati won the women’s 10,000 meters in 31:14.07 in a race in which the lead changed hands four times during the last 410 meters of the contest. NCAA champion Parker Valby from the University of Florida placed second in 31:41.56 and third-place Karissa Schweizer was credited with the same time.
The race started at a cautious pace and it stayed that way for a long time as Susanna Sullivan led a lead pack of more than 20 runners through splits of 5:08.29 for 1,600 meters, 10:15.01 (5:06.72) for 3,200, 15:29.63 (5:14.62) for 4,800, and 20:48.60 (5:18.97) for 6,400.
Erika Kemp moved to the fore shortly after that and would lead the race for most of the next four laps before Valby took the lead with two kilometers left.
While the splits for the leaders had been 5:03.20 from 6,400 to 8,000 meters, it dropped to 4:42.32 from 8,000 to 9,600.
Schweizer, who had finished third in the 5,000 on Monday, surged into the lead with a little more than a lap to go, but Kelati went to the fore with about 280 meters left. However, Schweizer retook the lead with about 140 meters to go.
It briefly looked as though Schweizer’s move had broken Kelati, but the 27-year-old runner who had sought asylum in the U.S. in 2014 after representing Eritrea in the women’s 3,000 meters in the World Athletics U20 (under 20) Championships in Eugene battled back to retake the lead with about 60 meters left in the race while running in lane one while Valby and Schweizer battled each other in lane two.
The women’s long jump was won by Tara Davis-Woodhall with a wind-aided leap of 7.00 meters (22 feet 11¾ inches), but the World indoor champion got a scare before making her second Olympic team.
Davis-Woodhall, 25, fouled on her first two jumps before she leaped 6.64 (21-9½) on her third jump to move into fifth place.
Although she improved to 6.69 (21-11½) in the fourth round, she still remained in fifth place. But her 7.00 leap in the fifth round moved her into the lead before she fouled on her sixth attempt.
Jasmine Moore, who won the triple jump on the second day of the meet on June 22, finished second at 6.98 (22-10¾), followed by World indoor silver medalist Monae’ Nichols at 6.86 (22-6¼).
Nichols was in fourth place with a best of 6.77 (22-2½) after five rounds and she briefly fell to fifth when Quanesha Burks jumped 6.80 (22-3¾) on her sixth attempt. However, Nichols then moved to third with her clutch 6.86 leap on her final jump.
Although Davis-Woodhall struggled on Saturday, she did win her seventh meet of the year without a loss and has leaped 7.00 or farther in each of her last five competitions.
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The competition in the women’s shot put was somewhat similar to that of the long jump in that the favorite did not have a great series, but did have one big effort in the second half of the competition that was good enough to win.
Because of that, two-time defending World champion Chase Jackson won her first Olympic Trials title after finishing fifth in the meet in 2021.
Jackson’s top mark of 20.10 (65-11½) gave her a 20-centimeter margin of victory over second-place Raven Saunders at 19.90 (65-3½) and she finished half a meter in front of third-place Jaida Ross of the University of Oregon at 19.60 (64-3¾).
While Saunders, the Olympic silver medalist in 2021, took the lead with a put of 19.88 (65-2¾) in the first round, Jackson had fouls in the first and third rounds sandwiched around an 18.87 (61-11) effort in the second.
With NCAA champion Ross hitting her best mark in the second round and Adelaide Aquilla producing her top effort of 18.92 (62-1) in the third, the 29-year-old Jackson was in fourth place entering the ring for her fourth put of the competition. But she proceeded to uncork a season best of 20.10 (65-11½) to take the lead for good and followed that with a 19.63 (64-5) effort in the fifth round and a foul in the sixth.
Saunders, who recently returned to competition after an 18-month suspension for a whereabouts violation, fouled in rounds two through five before hitting her best mark of 19.90 (65-3½) in the sixth.
In the men’s discus, Andrew Evans made his second Olympic team — and first since 2016 — when he won the event with a throw of 66.61 (218-6). He was followed by Sam Mattis in second place at 66.07 (216-9) and Joseph Brown in third at 65.79 (215-10).
Reggie Jagers finished fourth at 65.75 (215-8) and Turner Washington placed fifth at 65.66 (215-5) in a competition in which the top seven throwers topped 65 meters (213-3).
Mattis, who finished third in the Trials in 2021, hit his best effort on his first throw, while the 33-year-old Evans threw 61.32 (201-2) in the first round and 64.98 (213-2) in the second before registering his winning mark of 66.61 (218-6) in the third.
After a foul on his fourth attempt, he threw 66.01 (216-7) on his fifth and 64.90 (212-11) on his sixth.
Brown was in eighth place after the first five rounds with a best of 61.58 (202-0), but he vaulted to third after he topped that mark by more than four meters with a clutch effort of 65.79 (215-10) on his final throw of the competition.
In the 20-kilometer walk events held in the morning, Nick Christie and Robyn Stevens had large margins of victory in winning the men’s and women’s races, respectively.
Christie won his second Trials title in a row and his sixth consecutive national championship with a time of 1 hour 24 minutes 46 seconds while finishing more than five minutes ahead of second-placed Emmanuel Covera, who timed 1:30:15. Jordan Crawford placed third in 1:30:52.
The 32-year-old Christie took command of the race very quickly as he had an 18-second lead over second-place Clayton Stoil after coming through the first kilometer in 4:11 and his five-kilometer split of 20:42 left him just over two minutes ahead of second-place Crawford at 22:44.
Although Christie’s 5-kilometer splits got progressively slower as the race went on, he was nearly three and half minutes ahead of Covera when he passed 10 kilometers in 41:36, and he was up by more than four minutes when he came through 15 kilometers in 1:03:09.
Like Christie, Stevens won her second consecutive title in the Olympic Trials as her time of 1:37:38 was two minutes ahead of second-place Miranda Melville at 1:39:38. Michelle Rohl placed third in 1:42:27.
The 41-year-old Stevens was 13 seconds ahead of second-place Melville and 19 up on third-place Rohl when she came through the first kilometer in 4:50 and her advantage over Melville had expanded to a minute and 12 seconds when she clocked 23:28 at 5,000 meters and it was a minute and 39 seconds when she passed 10 kilometers in 47:33.
It had grown to nearly three minutes when she came through 15 kilometers in 1:12:02. However, she gave up 43 seconds of her advantage during the final five kilometers of the race as her 25:36 split for that segment of the contest was more than two minutes slower than her opening 5,000 meters.
With the automatic qualifying standards for the 20-kilometer walk for the Olympic Games set at 1:20:10 for men and 1:29:20 for women, the chances of Christie and Stevens advancing to Paris through a rankings system kept by World Athletics would appear to be remote. But they should know for sure on July 7 when World Athletics is expected to release its final rankings for the qualifying period that began on December 31, 2022, and will conclude today.
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In addition to the eight finals held on Saturday, semifinals were held in the women’s 400- and 100-meter hurdles.
As expected, defending Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone posted the fastest semifinal time in the 400 hurdles when she won the first of three heats in 52.48.
The world record-holder at 50.68, McLaughlin-Levrone had a clear lead over the remainder of the field after the second of 10 barriers and posted the fastest time in the world this year, despite the fact that she eased up significantly during the final 50-60 meters of the race.
Dalilah Muhammad, the silver medalist in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, placed second in 54.16 and Cassandra Tate also recorded a season best while finishing third in 54.66.
Shamier Little, the silver medalist in last year’s World Championships, as well as in 2015, won the second semifinal in a season best of 53.49, while Rachel Glenn of the University of Arkansas lowered her personal best to 53.68 while finishing in second place.
Anna Cockrell broke 53 seconds for the first time in her career when she won the third semifinal in 52.95 after pulling away from NCAA champion Jasmine Jones of USC in the final 50 meters of the race.
Cockrell, who moved into a tie for eighth on the all-time U.S. performer list with her effort, had a small lead over Jones as they approached the 10th — and final — hurdles of the race. But her advantage grew substantially when Jones almost went down after she cleared her hurdle awkwardly.
In the women’s 100-meter hurdles, Alaysha Johnson and Masai Russell each ran 12.36 seconds in winning their semifinal races and Christina Clemons won her semifinal in 12.52.
Johnson and Tonea Marshall were credited with identical times in the second semifinal in which Johnson finished four thousandths of a second in front of Marshall, who moved to ninth on the all-time U.S. performer list with her personal best.
Russell, who lowered her personal best to 12.35 in the first round, was trailing Grace Stark of the University of Florida after the first six flights of hurdles in the third semifinal, but she made up a lot of ground on the NCAA champion during the final third of the race as her 12.36 clocking left her well ahead of Stark’s personal best of 12.45.
Clemons won a tight race in the first semifinal as she and Olympic silver medalist Keni Harrison were each credited with times of 12.52, with 2019 World champion Nia Ali third in 12.55.
Tia Jones did not start the second semifinal after she had run her first race of the outdoor season on Friday when she clocked 12.90 to finish fourth in her first-round heat.
Jones, who has a personal best of 12.38 in the 100 hurdles, had won the 60 hurdles in the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships on February 16 after tying the then-world record of 7.67 in a semifinal. But she sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury just after finishing that race and underwent surgery in March.
The final day of the Trials will start this afternoon with the men’s hammer throw at 5:50 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time.
The women’s pole vault will begin at 6:15, followed by the men’s high jump at 6:30, the men’s triple jump at 6:55, and the women’s javelin at 7:10.
The men’s 5,000 meters will kick off the track finals at 7:30, and it will be followed by the men’s 800 at 7:51, the women’s 100 hurdles at 8:00, the women’s 1,500 at 8:09, the men’s 400 intermediate hurdles at 8:20, and the women’s 400 hurdles at 8:29.
You can click here for a meet schedule, as well as results.