Steiner progressing on schedule
Kentucky sprinter shows no signs of slowing down in national championships
Any concerns that Abby Steiner had peaked at the NCAA Championships earlier this month should have been laid to rest on Sunday afternoon during the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
That’s when Steiner tied her personal best in the 200 meters with a 21.80-second clocking in a semifinal race before later coming from behind to win the final in 21.77. That time was the fastest in the world this year and moved her into a tie for sixth on the all-time U.S. performer list.
It came 15 days after she had set a collegiate record of 21.80 in the women’s 200 while leading the University of Kentucky to a third-place finish in the team standings in the NCAA Championships, which were also held at Hayward Field.
Steiner told Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports in a post-race interview that winning her first USATF title meant “everything” to her, and quickly added that “coming off of the collegiate season, a lot of people want to put limitations on you. That you’re going to be burned out. But me and my coaches trust the process. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Unlike the NCAA meet, where she had the lead coming out of the turn, Steiner trailed both Jenna Prandini and Tamara Clark after the first 100 meters of the race Sunday. But she began to make up ground on both of them with 80 meters left, catching Prandini with 30 meters remaining and moving past Clark 10 meters later.
Clark placed second in a personal best of 21.92 and Prandini finished third in 22.01 in a race that was run into a slight headwind of 0.3 meters per second.
Olympic bronze medalist Gabby Thomas, who had run a sizzling 21.61 in winning the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field last year, finished eighth in 22.47 while slowed by a strained hamstring.
Sha’Carri Richardson failed to advance to the final after placing fifth in 22.47 in her semifinal earlier in the day.
When Steiner was asked about the second half of her race, she said that “the important thing is just maintaining form on the [homestretch] and just digging deep to get to that finish line.”
Steiner’s latest performances came a year after severe tendonitis in her left Achilles’ wiped out the second half of her outdoor track season. However, she had a superb indoor season last winter that included a collegiate record in the 300 (35.80), a U.S record in the 200 (22.09), and her second consecutive NCAA title in the event.
Although she began her outdoor season in late March, she has not run a ton of races and her training has been designed to have her in peak shape for when the World Championships will be held at Hayward Field from July 15-24.
Noah Lyles knows something about being in optimum condition for the global title meet as he won the men’s 200 in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, after pulling away from the field in the final 50 meters of the race.
On Sunday, he faced a field that was more talented than the one he defeated in Doha.
It included Erriyon Knighton, the 18-year-old wunderkind who had run a yearly world-leading time of 19.49 on April 30; Fred Kerley, who had won the final of the men’s 100 in 9.77 on Friday; and Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek.
The smooth-striding Knighton, who ranks fourth on the all-time world performer list, appeared to have the race well in hand coming off the turn as he had made up the stagger on Lyles in the first 60 meters of the race. But Lyles began to cut into his lead midway down the home straightaway and he really made up ground in the final 30 meters of the race as he passed Knighton with seven or eight meters left in the race before smiling and pointing his right index finger toward the video timing display on the infield.
Lyles ran 19.67 to Knighton’s 19.69, with Kerley third in 19.83, Bednarek fourth in 19.89, and Josephus Lyles, Noah’s younger brother, fifth in a personal best of 19.93.
Ato Boldon, one of the commentators for NBC Sports, said Knighton had been “posterized” by Lyles’ finger pointing, and the recent graduate of Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida, did not seem happy about what had transpired during a post-race interview with Johnson.
The interview began with Lyles saying Knighton got the best of him on the turn, but he wasn’t worried about that because he knew his top-end speed was better than Knighton’s.
“I said, ‘I’m going to catch him. It’s just going to take the whole rest of the 100.’ That’s what I did.”
Johnson then asked Knighton about his goals for the World Championships.
“Just come back and win,” he said. “Job’s not finished. It’s never finished.”
He then quickly walked away, with Lyles shouting, “Never finished!”
With Noah Lyles being granted an automatic berth in the World Championships as the defending champion, the top four finishers in the race qualified for the meet that will be held in the U.S. for the first time since it began in 1983 in Helsinki.
The men’s 110-meter high hurdles was the final event of the four-day meet, but it did not turn out like a lot of people expected it would. Daniel Roberts won the final ahead of second-place Trey Cunningham and third-place Devon Allen.
Defending World champion Grant Holloway, recently-crowned NCAA champion Cunningham, and two-time Olympian Allen had posted the fastest times in the semifinals earlier in the day when they ran 13.03, 13.09, and 13.14, respectively.
When Holloway decided not to run in the final because he had an automatic berth in the World Championships, the race for first was expected to be a duel between Cunningham, who has a personal best of 13.00, and Allen, who ran a scintillating 12.84 two weeks earlier.
However, Roberts took the lead after the second flight of the 10-hurdle race and never lost it as he crossed the finish line in a season best of 13.03, followed by Cunningham in 13.08, and Allen and Jamal Britt in 13.09.
Allen and Britt were so close at the finish that it was determined that Allen had finished three thousandths of a second ahead of Britt to grab the final U.S. qualifying spot for the World Championships.
“It’s just one of those things when you’re a competitor,” Roberts said when asked how everything came together for him. “You know you got great competition. It’s a few different things like this. You just put it together when it matters.”
Ajee Wilson fell just short of upsetting defending Olympic champion and heavily favored Athing Mu in the women’s 800 meters.
Mu, who had burst onto the world scene last year as a 19-year-old freshman at Texas A&M before turning professional, led the field through 200 meters in 27.21 seconds, through 400 in 57.25, and through 600 in 1 minute 27.91 seconds.
She still held the lead entering the home straightaway, but could not shake World indoor champion Wilson, who inched slightly ahead of her in the final 25 meters of the race before Mu was able to retake the lead just before crossing the finish line with a 1:57.16 to 1:57.23 victory. Olympic bronze medalist Raevyn Rogers finished third in 1:57.96.
“The goal of the race was just to go after the win,” Wilson said. “I know I had to be closer than I was in the prelims and this time that last part was a little…better.”
Rai Benjamin, Chase Ealey, and Grant Fisher had some of the other top performances on Sunday.
Olympic silver medalist Benjamin won the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 47.04, the fastest time in the world this year, despite running a technically sloppy race. Trevor Bassitt and Khallifah Rosser broke 48 seconds for the first time in their careers with times of 47.47 and 47.65, respectively.
Ealey won the women’s shot put with a personal best of 20.51 meters (67 feet 3½ inches) to set a meet record and move to the top of the yearly world list. She also moved to second on the all-time U.S. performer list.
Adelaide Aquilla of Ohio State finished second at 19.45 (63-9¾), with Jessica Woodard third at 19.40 (63-7¾). Olympic silver medalist Raven Saunders was a non-qualifying fourth at 18.95 (62-2¼).
Fisher, who had previously qualified for the U.S. team in the men’s 10,000 meters in late May, set a meet record of 13:03.86 in the 5,000.
The U.S. record holder in the 10,000 ran his first 1,000 meters in 2:37.36, and his last four kilometer splits were 2:39.00, 2:40.47, 2:38.73, and 2:28.31.
Woody Kincaid finished second in 13:06.70 and Abdihamid Nur of Northern Arizona placed third in 13:08.63.
Other track event finals were contested in the men’s 800, women’s 3,000 steeplechase, and women’s 5,000.
Bryce Hoppel won the men’s 800 in a season best of 1:44.60, followed by Jonah Koech (personal best of 1:44.74) and Brandon Miller of Texas A&M (1:45.19). Miller grabbed the third – and last – qualifying spot just ahead of Olympic Trials champion Clayton Murphy (1:45.23).
Emma Coburn, the silver medalist in the 2019 World Championships, won the women’s steeplechase in 9:10.63. Courtney Wayment, who won the NCAA title for BYU, ran a personal best of 9:12.10 to finish second. She was followed by Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs, who ran 9:16.18 to place third.
Unlike the men’s race, the women’s 5,000 was a very tactical affair which was won by Elise Cranny in 15:49.15. Karissa Schweizer, who had previously won the 10,000, finished second in 15:49.32, followed by Emily Infeld in 15:49.42.
Schweizer also finished fourth in the women’s 1,500 on Saturday with a time of 4:05.40.
The other field events contested on Sunday were the men’s high jump, triple jump, and javelin throw.
Shelby McEwen cleared 2.33 (7-7¾) to win the men’s high jump. He was followed by JuVaugh Harrison at 2.30 (7-6½) and Dontavious Hill of Auburn at 2.22 (7-3¼).
World indoor bronze medalist Donald Scott won the men’s triple jump with a leap of 17.07 (56-0). He was followed by Will Claye at 16.93 (55-6½) and Chris Benard at 16.83 (55-2¾).
Christian Taylor, who sustained a season-ending ruptured Achilles’ tendon last year, finished fifth at 16.54 (54-3¼). He is a two-time Olympic and four-time World champion who is eligible for an automatic berth in the World Championships.
Ethan Dabbs of the University of Virginia won the men’s javelin with a throw of 81.29 (266-8). Curtis Thompson finished second at 80.49 (264-1), and NCAA champion Marc Anthony Minichello of Penn placed third at 79.05 (259-4).