Duo shines in Los Angeles Grand Prix
McLaughlin-Levrone, Benjamin win their races in impressive fashion in meet at UCLA
In a meet in which Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran away from a high-caliber field in the women’s 200 meters, it was fellow one-lap hurdler Rai Benjamin who turned in the best statistical performance during the USA Track & Field Los Angeles Grand Prix at UCLA on Saturday.
While McLaughlin-Levrone, the defending Olympic champion and world record-holder in the 400 hurdles, ran a personal best of 22.07 secon
ds in winning the 200 against a field that included two competitors who had combined to win the last three USATF titles in the event, Benjamin won the men’s 400 intermediate hurdles in 46.64.
The time by the 26-year-old Olympic silver medalist was the ninth fastest in history and the fourth fastest of his career that also includes two silver medals and one bronze medal in the World Championships.
“I ran fast in a four a couple of weeks ago so I knew the strength was there,” Benjamin said in an interview with Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports. “It means a lot to open up 46.6. I’m just excited to take this into next week.”
The 400-meter race that Benjamin referred to came in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, California, on April 20 when he opened his season with a winning time of 44.42.
The upcoming meet he alluded to is next Saturday’s Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, where Benjamin ran 46.39 last September while defeating Olympic and three-time World champion Karsten Warholm of Norway.
The world record-holder at 45.94, Warholm has yet to compete this season, but Saturday’s race included Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, who had finished a place ahead of third-place Benjamin in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year.
McMaster led Benjamin through the first three flights of hurdles at Drake Stadium before Benjamin drew even with him over the fourth barriers and took the lead at the fifth. From then on, it was all Benjamin as he entered the home straightaway with a sizeable lead that he expanded all the way to the finish line.
Roshawn Clarke of Jamaica finished a distant second in 48.11, followed by McMaster in 48.51.
Benjamin’s time bettered the previous yearly world-leading mark of 46.86 that 2022 World champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil had run in a Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, eight days earlier.
“It was very impressive,” he said when Johnson asked him what he thought about dos Santos’ performance, “but I just needed to focus on my own race. I knew I was in 46 shape so I just wanted to come here… execute my own race and run like hell coming home.”
The 24-year-old McLaughlin-Levrone, who has set the last four world records in the women’s 400 hurdles, had initially been scheduled to run in that race on Saturday. But she and her coach, Bobby Kersee, had later decided to compete in the 200.
That switch meant that she went from a heavy favorite in the 400 hurdles to a decided underdog in the 200 while running against a field that included Gabby Thomas, the silver medalist in last year’s World Championships and the No. 4 performer in history at 21.60, as well as Abby Steiner, a 21.77 performer who won the 2022 NCAA and USATF titles.
McLaughlin-Levrone entered the race with a best of 22.39, but that time had come during her freshman — and only — season at the University of Kentucky in 2018. She had contested only one 200 since then prior to Saturday and that race had come on May 4 when she ran a wind-aided 22.38 to win the Oxy Invitational at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California.
Nonetheless, she performed like a seasoned veteran at UCLA.
Running in lane six, one outside of Thomas in five and two inside of Steiner in eight, she got off to a good start before tasking a definitive lead 80 meters into the race. Her lead had grown to a stride as she turned onto the backstretch straightaway, and when none of her more experienced opponents could make a dent in it during the ensuing 50 meters, she expanded her advantage to the finish line. Her 22.07 clocking moved her to second on the yearly world list and left her well ahead of second-place Steiner at 22.32, third-place Brittany Brown at 22.35, and fourth-place Rhasidat Adeleke of Ireland at 22.45.
Thomas, who had run 22.08 in the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on March 30, did not run the turn well and placed sixth in 22.68.
“Pretty good,” McLaughlin-Levrone said when Johnson asked her how she felt about her performance. “For running a 200, it was acceptable. I was hoping to go under [22]… so I’m happy with it.”
During her interview with Johnson, McLaughlin-Levrone confirmed that she will compete in the 400 hurdles when the U.S. Olympic Team Trials are held at Hayward Field from June 21-30.
She had focused on the 400 last year after lowering her world record in the 400 hurdles to a scintillating 50.68 seconds in the World Championships at Hayward Field in 2022.
She performed well in the one-lap event without hurdles, running a yearly world-leading time of 48.74 in the USATF meet to move to 10th on the all-time performer list. But she had withdrawn from the World Championships in Budapest with a knee issue.
While Benjamin and McLaughlin-Levrone turned in the two most noteworthy performances in the meet on Saturday, there were several others.
In the men’s competition, Joe Kovacs won the shot put at 22.93 meters (75 feet 2¾ inches), Bryce Hoppel took the 800 in 1:43.68, and Michael Norman placed first in the 400 in 44.53.
On the women’s side, Halimah Nakaayi won the 800 in a Ugandan record and yearly world-leading time of 1:57.56, Ethiopian Diribe Welteji took the 1,500 in 3:55.25, and American Anna Cockrell placed first in the 400 hurdles in 53.75.
Kovacs posted his second victory of the season without a loss by producing the top six puts of a competition in which fellow American Roger Steen and Nigerian Chukwuebuka Enekwechi finished second and third, respectively, with bests of 21.78 (71-5½).
Steen was awarded second place because his second-best put of 21.36 (70-1) was farther than Enekwechi’s No. 2 effort of 21.27 (69-9½).
Kovacs, a two-time World champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist, produced a put of 22.29 (73-1¾) in the first round before improving to 22.66 (74-4½) in the second and his top mark of 22.93 (75-2¾) in the third. He then registered efforts of 22.73 (74-7) in the fourth round, 22.03 (72-3½) in the fifth, and 21.97 (72-3) in the sixth.
Hoppel, who won the men’s 800 in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on March 3, had opened his outdoor season with a winning time of 3:44.32 in the 1,500 in the Kansas Relays last month.
He won Saturday’s 800 at UCLA after moving from fourth place to first in the home straightaway in a race in which the first six finishers ran under 1:45.
After pacesetter Bobby Poynter brought the field through the first lap in 50.88, Kenyan Noah Kibet and American Brandon Miller battled for the lead down the backstretch before Kibet led Miller, 2022 World 1,500 champion Jake Wightman of Great Britain, and Hoppel through the 600-meter mark.
Hoppel was still in fourth place when the field came out of the final curve, but he began to reel in the three runners ahead of them with 70 meters to go and he surged into the lead with about 20 meters left in the race.
His winning time of 1:43.68 was the second fastest of his career and left him comfortably in front of fellow American Isaiah Jewett, who closed well to place second in 1:44.02.
Wightman placed third in 1:44.10, followed by Miller in 1:44.24, American Isaiah Harris in 1:44.58, and Kibet in a personal best of 1:44.83.
“I’m finally feeling like myself on another level,” he said to Johnson of NBC Sports. “I’m just so thankful to have the guys around me that are pushing me to these times.”
He then added that he was excited “to be running that fast this early” in an Olympic year.
Norman had won the 400 in the 2022 World Championships, but he decided to focus on the 100 last year and things did not go well during an injury-hampered season. He ran in a total of two 100-meter races and one 200 before calling it a wrap in August in order to regroup for this year.
He opened the season by winning the 400 in 44.21 seconds in the Oxy Invitational. And although his 44.53 clocking at UCLA was slower than what he ran two weeks earlier, his victory came against a much higher-quality field.
As he often does, Norman was not far out of the lead during the first half of the race before taking control of the contest during the second turn. He entered the home straightaway with a solid lead and then repelled the charge of anyone who tried to catch him as 2022 World silver medalist Kirani James of Grenada placed second in 44.85, followed by Americans Vernon Norwood at 44.86 and Bryce Deadmon at 44.92.
“I have to find that rhythm again and find out what areas, if any, need to be improved,” he told Johnson afterward. “Just trying to make some small adjustments while under a heavy [training] load.”
Nakaayi, the 2019 World champion, won a thrilling race in the women’s 800 as she and World indoor champion Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia were both credited with yearly world-leading times of 1:57.56.
After pacesetter Kaylin Whitney led the field through the first lap in 55.35 seconds, Duguma (55.62) and Nakaayi (55.74) had separated themselves from the rest of the field going down the backstretch.
Duguma, who had defeated Nakaayi for the African Games title in March, had a small lead over her as they turned into the home straightaway. However, she was running toward the outside of lane one and Nakaayi was eventually able to edge past her on the inside.
Duguma drew even with Nakaayi in the final 10 meters of the race and they leaned across the finish line in tandem, with Nakaayi’s 1:57.553 clocking being six thousandths of a second faster than Duguma’s 1:57.559.
The race for first place in the women’s 1,500 meters was not quite as tight as the 800, but World Championship silver medalist Welteji did not take the lead until she overtook compatriot Freweyni Hailu in the final straightaway.
After pacesetter Jazz Shukla had come through 300 meters in 46.60 and 700 in 1:49.60, Hailu had a small lead over Welteji when she passed 1,100 meters in 2:54.90.
The World indoor champion maintained her lead down the backstretch and around the final curve, but Welteji edged past her with about 60 meters left in the race while recording a 3:55.25 to 3:55.48 victory.
Kenyans Susan Ejore and Beatrice Chepkoech recorded personal bests of 3:58.63 and 3:59.73 while finishing third and fourth, respectively. They were followed by American Emily Mackay, as the World indoor bronze medalist placed fifth in 4:00.08.
Cockrell had run a personal best of 53.34 seconds while finishing fifth in the 400 hurdles in the World Championships last year and her winning time of 53.75 on Saturday was the second fastest in the world this year and gave her a comfortable margin of victory over Jamaican Andrenette Knight, who placed second in 54.69.
American Cassandra Tate finished third in 55.02, with compatriot and 2021 Olympic silver medalist Dalilah Muhammad fourth in 55.78.
Cockrell’s 53.75 clocking was a hundredth of a second faster than she had run in the Jamaica Athletics Invitational a week earlier when she had finished a close second to the home country’s Rushell Clayton, who ran 53.72.
In other men’s events contested in Saturday’s meet, American Kyree King won the 100 meters in 10.11 seconds while upsetting World Championships silver medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (10.13), Olli Hoare of Australia took the 1,500 in 3:34.73, and Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines placed first in the pole vault at 5.80 (19-0¾).
Other winners in the women’s meet were Melissa Jefferson of the U.S. in the 100 at 11.27 while running into a breeze of 2.4 meters-per-second, World champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic in the 400 at 50.27, Tonea Marshall of the U.S. in the 100 hurdles at 12.55, and World indoor champion Thea LaFond of Domenica in the triple jump at 14.37 (47-1¾).
Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico was disqualified for a false start in the 100 hurdles before finishing fourth in the race in 12.66 while running under protest.