Week in Review: Bromell back in the mix
American runs world-leading time in 100 in Rome after two injury-marred seasons
The up and down career of Trayvon Bromell looks to be on an upswing as the 29-year-old sprinter from the U.S. ran a yearly world-leading time of 9.84 seconds in the men’s 100 meters in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League meet in Rome last Friday.
Competing in the second-to-last race on the program, Bromell got off to one of his typically good starts and was never seriously challenged for first place as Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon finished second in 9.99 and Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya placed third in 10.01.
Brandon Hicklin of the U.S. finished fourth in 10.04 and he was followed by compatriot Fred Kerley in 10.06.
According to stats on the meet website, Bromell was four hundredths of a second ahead of second-place Hicklin when he came through 30 meters in 3.75 seconds and his advantage had grown to seven hundredths of a second over second-place Omanyala when he passed the 60-meter mark in 6.36.
It was then up to .13 seconds over Eseme when he was credited with a split of 8.90 at 90 meters and it appeared that his final margin of victory of .15 seconds could have been a bit larger had he dipped at the finish line and not eased up during his last two of strides of the race.
“It is a blessing to come out here and put that first,” Bromell said in quotes on the meet website. “I am glad how I executed the race, it was a great feeling. I have been away for a while now. To be able to compete on a high level. I was definitely nervous, I did not know what to expect.
“You know I ran 9.91 and everybody had these [expectations]. But I just needed to be the person I am and I do not expect anything but fast times and execution.”
After a brief indoor season in which he had a less-than-stellar best of 6.59 seconds for 60 meters and finished first, fifth, and second in three finals, Bromell ran a wind-aided 20.85 and a 20.55 in a pair of 200-meter races in April.
The came the PURE Athletics Global Invitational in Clermont, Florida, on May 24 when he clocked 9.91 to win the 100 and 21.03 to place third in the 200 in the meet at the National Training Center.
That 9.91 effort was his fastest clocking since he had run 9.88 to win the bronze medal in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in which Kerley placed first in 9.86 and fellow American Marvin Bracy finished second in 9.88, two thousandths of a second ahead of Bromell.
Bromell ran 9.95 or faster in eight races that year and he did the same thing in 2021, the year in which he was clearly the best 100-meter performer in the world through the end of June before an injury slowed him enough that he went from winning the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in 9.80 on June 20 to being eliminated in the semifinals of the Olympic Games in Tokyo when he clocked 10.00 while placing third in his heat.
Although he capped his season in September of that year with a personal best of 9.76 to win the Kip Keino Classic — while running at the sprint-friendly elevation of roughly 5,400 feet (1,645 meters) — in Nairobi, Kenya, Bromell knew that his shot at winning an Olympic gold medal had been hurt by his injury, and perhaps some overconfidence.
“To be honest, 2021, that was me - nobody was going to beat me, I was the fastest guy,” Bromell said in his post-race comments in Rome. “But I am never going to have that attitude in the race again because you never know how somebody is feeling that day. So my big thing is to execute. 2021 taught me a lot.”
In addition to never knowing how an opponent might feel, Bromell has learned through the years that nothing is guaranteed when it pertains to his health. For he is a sprinter who tied for third place in the 100 in the 2015 World championships in Beijing when he was 20 before he placed a disappointing eighth in the Olympic final in Rio de Janeiro after an injury had cost him valuable training time heading into the Games.
He then ran in a grand total of three meets from 2017-19 while dealing with injuries and he only raced in three outdoor meets in 2023, as well as last year when his season best of 10.14 was his slowest since 2019.
Now the question is can he stay healthy enough to make the U.S. team that will compete in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo from Sept. 13-21? If he can, he will get a chance to race at the same venue that was the site of his Olympic disappointment in 2021.
Crushing her goal: Beatrice Chebet of Kenya moved to second on the all-time world list in the women’s 5,000 meters in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet last Friday when she won the race by nearly 16 seconds with a time of 14:03.69.
“I just said, ‘Let’s run my own race today,’ ” Chebet said in quotes on the meet website. “I was planning to run 14:15, but I felt like my body was moving and I decided to go.”
Chebet’s time was a little more than three seconds off the world record of 14:00.21 set by Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in September of 2023, bettered Faith Kipyegon’s Kenyan record of 14:05.20 run in June of that year, and lowered Chebet’s previous best of 14:05.92 that she had run while finishing second to Tsegay in her global-record effort.
It also paced a particularly deep race as eight women broke 14:30 and 14 bettered 14:50.
Pacesetter Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda led the field through the first kilometer and Kenyan Margaret Akidor was in the lead when she came through the two kilometers in 5:41.45.
Akidor, who would finish 15th in 14:52.00, led the race for one more lap, but Chebet took over after that and she came through 3,000 meters in 8:32.20 while being followed by an Ethiopian quartet of Tsegay, Freweyni Hailu, Birke Haylom, and Asayech Ayichew.
However, she was three-plus seconds ahead of second-place Haylom at 3,600 meters and her lead over Hailu was eight and a half seconds when she went through 4,000 meters in 11:19.01.
Chebet had run the previous kilometer in 2:46.81 at that point in the race, but the sub-14 performance that the announcers were hoping for seemed out of reach as it would have required her to run the last 1,000 meters in 2:40.98 or faster. Nonetheless, her 2:44.68 split left her a straightaway ahead of second-place Hailu’s personal best of 14:19.33.
Nadia Battocletti of Italy, the runner-up to Chebet in the 10,000 in the Olympic Games in Paris, closed well to finish third in 14:23.15 and move to second on the all-time European performer list.
Haylom finished fourth in 14:24.20, followed by Tsegay in 14:24.20, and Josette Andrews of the U.S. in a personal best of 14:25.37.
“Today, I wanted to try and see how fast I can go when I push a lot,” Chebet said after winning her eighth consecutive track race and 10th in her last 11 meets. “After running a meeting record and a personal best, I am so impressed. Soon, I am going for the time under 14. I can say I also helped the others to achieve their personal bests and national records today. It helped a lot. I just have to congratulate the others as well because without them, it would not be possible to run that race.”
Stronger finish: Azzedine Habz of France won a deep men’s 1,500-meter race in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome after he had faded from first place to fourth in the home straightaway of a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, twelve days earlier.
Habz’ 3:29.72 clocking in Rome was the fastest outdoor time in the world this year and the second fastest of his career as he finished just ahead of Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, who placed second in 3:29.75.
Anass Essayi of Morocco finished third in 3:30.74, with Robert Farken of Germany fourth in a national record of 3:30.80, Samuel Philstrom of Sweden fifth in a national record of 3:30.87, and Reynold Cheruiyot of Kenya sixth in 3:30.94 in a race in which a record 12 runners ran 3:31.69 or faster.
Farken’s time made him the fastest German ever as it topped the 3:31.58 clocking that had been run by Thomas Wessinghage of West Germany in 1980 when he finished second to the 3:31.36 world record of Great Britain’s Steve Ovett.
Pacesetter Zan Rudolf of Slovenia had led the field through the first jap in 56.31 and the second in 1:52.65 before Farken moved into the lead after Rudolf dropped out about a kilometer into the race.
Farken was still in front when he came through 1,200 meters in 2:49.57, but he was soon passed by 2021 Olympic silver medalist Cheruiyot, Habz, and Essayi.
The race for first place was down to Cheruiyot and Habz entering the home stretch, but the Frenchman edged past the Kenyan with about 20 meters to go to win by a small margin.
“I am really happy to win this race after a disappointing fourth place in Rabat,” Habz said in quotes on the meet website. “The race there was not like I wanted it to be. The pacemaker did not do his job there. Then I told myself to race with pleasure and fun today. I thought that 3:30 or 3:31 would be possible.”
Bouncing back: After having to postpone the start of his season due to an injury, Olympic 400-meter champion Quincy Hall of the U.S. posted his first victory of the year in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet.
Running in his third race of the season, the 26-year-old Hall ran 44.22 seconds to edge Zakithi Nene of South Africa by a hundredth of a second. Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana finished third in 44.51, followed by Charlie Dobson of Great Britain in 44.64.
Nene had run a personal best and yearly world-leading time of 43.76 in winning the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 31, but he was not able to hold off Hall in the home straightaway last Friday.
Nene had a small lead over Hall entering the final 100 meters of the race, but the American had drawn even with him midway down the homestretch. However, the Botswanan inched ahead with about 30 meters left in the race, only to have Hall battle back and retake the lead just before crossing the finish line.
Hall had run 45.99 while finishing eighth in his season-opening race in a Diamond League meet in Shaoxing/Keqiao on May 3 before clocking 44.90 while placing third in a Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, on May 25.
Three for three: Although Anavia Battle of the U.S. ranks 13th on the yearly world performer list in the women’s 200 meters, she won her third Diamond League meet of the season when she ran 22.53 seconds in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet.
The 26-year-old Battle trailed Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of Cote d’Ivoire coming off the turn, but no one in the race could keep pace with her in the homestretch as she ended up finishing comfortably ahead of second-place Amy Hunt of Great Britain, who ran 22.67. Hunt was followed by Ta-Lou Smith in 22.75 and McKenzie Long of the U.S. in 22.81.
Battle had previously posted times of 22.41 and a season best of 22.38, respectively, while winning the first two Diamond League meets of the season that were held in Xiamen, China, on April 26, and in Shaoxing/Keqiao, China, on May 3.
“The race did not hurt that bad, but it hurt,” Battle said in quotes on the meet website. “In the blocks I told myself to stay calm, not to freak out, to run my pace. So I concentrated on myself and on how to become the best athlete I can be. I ran in lane six with Ta Lou in front of me, so I had to run my race and not to look at her.”
A win in the books: Kishane Thompson of Jamaica posted his first victory of the season when he won the men’s 100 meters in 9.88 seconds in the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Jamaica, last Saturday.
The 23-year-old Olympic silver medalist got off to a solid start and then moved away from the field in the second half of the race in which compatriot Oblique Seville finished second in 9.97. He was followed by the South African duo of Gift Leotlela and Bayanda Walaza, who clocked 10.04 and 10.06, respectively, while placing third and fourth.
It was the second 100-meter final of the year for Thompson, who had run 9.99 while finishing a hundredth of a second behind Akani Simbine of South Africa in a Diamond League meet in Shaoxing/Keqiao, China, on May 3.
“Today, I put together a decent race,” Thompson said in a worldathletics.org post. “I went through my phases as best as I could, and I’m super grateful for finishing injury-free. I want everyone to be patient because great things are going to happen.”
Promising return: Donavan Brazier of the U.S., the 2019 World champion in the men’s 800 meters, ran 1:44.70 in winning the third section of that event in the Toad Fest meet in Brentwood, Tennessee, last Saturday.
It was the first race in nearly three years for the 28-year-old Brazier, who had been sidelined with a series of injuries since he had run 1:46.72 to finish a non-qualifying sixth in a first-round heat of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Brazier was being closely pursued by compatriot Shane Streich of the U.S. when he came through the first 400 meters in 52.09 seconds in the meet at the Brentwood Academy on Saturday, but his lead had grown to two and a half seconds at the finish as Streich placed second in 1:47.20.
Will Sumner, the 2023 NCAA champion for the University of Georgia, placed fifth in 1:49.80.
Brazier had capped his 2019 season with a runaway victory in the World championships when he set a U.S. record of 1:42.34 while finishing more than a second in front of silver medalist Amel Tuka of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who ran 1:43.47.
He had then posted winning times of 1:43.15, 1:43.76, and 1:43.84 during a 2020 season that was very short and compacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he finished eighth in 1:47.88 in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in 2021 after having run a U.S. record of 1:44.21 in winning New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in New York City in February.
Injuries hampered his training in 2022 and his outdoor season only included three races and a yearly best of 1:46.49.
Sensational double: Jane Hedengren, who graduated from Timpview High School in Provo, Utah, last month, set a pair of national prep and U.S. U20 records in the girls’ mile and two mile in two separate meets last week.
Her first record run came in the HOKA Festival of Miles meet in St. Louis when she ran 4:23.50 last Thursday and her second occurred three days later when she clocked 9:17.75 in the two mile in the Brooks PR Invitational in Renton, Washington, on Sunday.
The BYU-bound Hedengren’s time in the mile crushed the previous outdoor record of 4:28.46 set by Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura, California, last year, and it was also substantially quicker than the short track record of 4:26.14 that she had run in the Nike Indoor Nationals in New York City in March.
In addition, her split of 4:04.68 at the 1,500-meter mark just missed the national prep record of 4:04.62 set by Mary Cain of Bronxville, New York, in 2017.
While Hedengren’s time in the mile would make her the second fastest runner in collegiate history, either indoors or outdoors, her performance in the two mile was even more impressive as her 9:17.75 clocking obliterated the previous prep record of 9:34.12 that she had run in the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High in California in early April.
It also moved her to seventh on the all-time U.S. outdoor performer list for women in an event that is not contested that often at the senior level.
In addition, her split of 8:40.99 for 3,000 meters in the Brooks meet crushed her record of 8:54.6 from earlier this season.
Hedengren covered the first mile of her record two mile in an eye-opening 4:41.17 before running an even-faster second mile in 4:36.58.
In the battle for second place behind Hedengren, Rylee Blade of Santiago High in Corona, California, ran 9:57.10 to turn back Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery in Santa Rosa, California, who timed 10:00.41.
Thomsen had defeated Blade for the 3,200-meter title in the CIF State championships in Clovis on May 31 when she ran a meet record of 9:48.98 to Blade’s 9:50.51.
A second national record: Senior Jane Hedengren set the U.S. national prep record in the girls’ two mile in the Brooks PR Invitational about 75 minutes before sophomore Cooper Lutkenhaus of Northwest High in Justin, Texas, lowered the best in the boys’ 800 meters to 1:46.26.
While Hedengren’s time slashed more than 16 seconds off her own record that she had set in April, Lutkenhaus’ effort trimmed .19 seconds off the previous record of 1:46.45 that had been set by Michael Granville of Bell Gardens High in California in 1996. It also came in a highly-competitive race in which Owen Powell of Mercer Island, Washington, finished second in 1:46.63 — to move to sixth on the all-time performer list — and fellow senior Joseph Socarras of Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami placed third in a Florida state record of 1:47.60 to move to 11th.
Granville’s mark had been seriously threatened in 2022 when Cade Flatt of Marshall County High in Benton, Kentucky, ran 1:46.48, and Will Sumner of Woodstock, Georgia, clocked 1:46.53. But it was Lutkenhaus who broke it after having set a national high school indoor record of 1:46.86 while finishing sixth in the men’s race of the Millrose Games in New York City in February.
Granville, who lives in Redwood City, California, with his wife, Marie, and their three children, figured that Lutkenhaus could break his record this year because he had run 1:47.58 as a freshman.
He was in the midst of a nap on Sunday afternoon when his phone started buzzing.
At first, he tried to continue to get some sleep. But once he was unable to do that, he checked his phone and saw that Obea Moore, a longtime friend and a former California state champion for Muir High in Pasadena, had tagged him in a post about Lutkenhaus’ record.
Then he saw that Brandon Thomas, the boys’ coach at Servite High in Anaheim and a former teammate of Granville’s at UCLA, had reached out to him.
Thomas was at the Brooks Invitational because Servite sprinters Benjamin Harris and Jaelen Hunter were competing in it. And he had tried to contact Granville to see if he wanted to FaceTime while the boys’ 800 was being run.
When they did connect not long after his mark had fallen, Thomas was able to put Lutkenhaus on the phone and Granville got to congratulate him.
Granville and Lutkenhaus had first communicated with one another via Instagram last year and that had led to them taking part in a Texas MileSplit podcast.
“It was just a way to metaphorically give him my blessing and give him some inspiration, and say, ‘Hey. You got this,’ ” Granville said of the podcast. “He was just a cool kid and we had a really good conversation. We got a chance to get to know each other. And at that point, just seeing how cool he was, I was like, ‘Man. This is the right guy for the record.’ ”
Briefs: Valarie Allman of the U.S. won her eighth discus competition of the season without a loss in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League meet in Rome last Friday when her best throw of 69.21 meters (227 feet) left her well ahead of runner-up Yaime Perez of Cuba, who had a top mark of 66.63 (218-7). Allman, the two-time Olympic champion, has won 23 consecutive meets dating back to her silver medal-winning performance in the 2023 World Athletics Championships. . . . . . . Liam Adcock of Australia set a personal best of 8.34 (27-4½) in winning the men’s long jump on his final leap of the competition in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet. The bronze medalist in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, in March moved into a tie for fourth on the all-time Australian performer list with his effort. . . . . . . Christopher Bailey of the U.S. posted his sixth victory in seven 400-meter races this season when he ran 44.74 seconds in the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Jamaica, last Saturday. The World indoor champion has now run under 45 seconds in 12 consecutive outdoor races, including first-round and semifinal heats. . . . . . . Jiale Zhang of China set a world U20 record of 75.14 (246-6) in the women’s hammer throw while finishing second in a meet in Frankisch-Crumbach, Germany, last Sunday. The 18-year-old’s throw bettered her previous best of 72.30 (237-2) from earlier this season and topped the former U20 record of 73.43 (240-11) set by Silja Kosonen of Finland in 2021. . . . . . . Freshman Jaelen Hunter of Servite High in Anaheim, California, won the boys’ 400 in 46.62 in the Brooks PR Invitational in Renton, Washington, last Sunday. It was the second-fastest time of Hunter’s career as he had run 46.32 in the Trinity League championships on May 2 before clocking 46.65 to place second in the CIF State championships on May 31.
Wins for dynamic duo: Toshikazu Yamanishi of Japan and Maria Perez of Spain were victorious in the men’s and women’s 20-kilometer races of the Gran Premio Cantones race walking event in La Coruna, Spain, last Saturday.
The 29-year-old Yamanishi won the men’s race in 1:18:15 after lowering the world record to 1:16:10 in the Japanese 20-kilometer championships in Kobe in February.
The 29-year-old Garcia, winner of the 20- and 35-kilometer events in the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, placed first in the women’s race in 1:27:22.
Yamanishi was part of a large chase pack that was five seconds behind David Hurtado of Ecuador when he went through 10 kilometers in 39:57. But he had caught Hurtado before the 13k mark and he was at the front of a five-walker pack when he went through 15 kilometers in 59:14.
Massimo Stano of Italy, the 2021 Olympic champion, soon began to fall back, and Qian Haifeng of China and Diego Garcia of Spain eventually dropped off as well.
Ricardo Ortiz of Mexico managed to stay with Yamanishi through the 18-kilometer mark, but the Japanese walker broke away from him with about 1,300 meters left in the race while on his way to his winning time of 1:18:15 and a 38:13 split for the second half of the race.
Masatora Kawano of Japan eventually passed Ortiz to place second in 1:18:19, and he was followed by Ortiz in 1:18:21, Stano in 1:18:25, and Garcia in 1:18:28.
“I felt strong but decided to wait until the last laps to attack,” Yamanishi said in a worldathletics.org post. “I’m not planning more competitions before the World Championships in Tokyo but I’ll likely do a training stint in altitude in Italy next month.”
The tempo for the first half of the women’s race was quite comfortable for the top competitors as defending champion and 2022 double World champion Kimberly Garcia of Peru was in front when she went through the midway point in 45:05.
Perez had moved to the front by 13 kilometers and the lead group was down to her, Mexico’s Alegna Gonzalez and China’s Li Peng and Quanming Wu with about four and a half kilometers left in the race.
The battle for first place was down to Perez and Gonzalez with 3.5 kilometers to go, but Perez broke away when she covered the second-to-last kilometer of the race in a brisk 4:05.
She then crossed the finish line in 1:27:22 after covering the second half of the race in 42:19.
Gonzalez placed second in 1:27:32, and she was followed by Peng in 1:27:45, Wu in 1:28:04, and Garcia in 1:28:11.
It was the first victory in Coruna for Perez, who won the silver medal in the 20k walk in the Olympic Games in Paris last year before teaming up with Alvaro Martin to win the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay.
“I had already won Olympic and world titles but I had never succeeded here so this win is a dream come true,” Perez said. “I suffered a minor traffic accident last Monday in Madrid and had some niggles in my neck so I’m very proud to have overcome that setback and win today.”