Week in Review: Making a name for himself and his country
Triple jumper Hibbert excelling in event in which Jamaican men have struggled internationally
As someone who turned 18 in January, University of Arkansas freshman Jaydon Hibbert is at an age when most students in the U.S. are seniors in high school. Yet the first-year Razorback is unique for at least one other reason, other than putting up monster marks in the men’s triple jump.
Hibbert is a Jamaican who is excelling in an event in which his country has accomplished very little at the global championship level.
While Hibbert bounded a collegiate and world U20 (under 20) record of 17.87 meters (58 feet 7½ inches) to win the men’s triple jump in the Southeastern Conference Championships at LSU last Saturday, Jamaicans have had almost no impact historically in the event in either the Olympics or World Athletics Championships.
Looking for proof?
Consider the following: Since Jamaica first competed in the Olympics for the first time in the 1948 Games in London, its athletes have combined to win 28 medals — including 12 gold medals — in the men’s 100, 200, and 400 meters, as well as in the 400 and 1,600 relays, during the past 19 Olympiads.
In the 18 editions of the World Championships that began in Helsinki in 1983, the men’s sprint numbers are 39 total medals, including 13 gold.
Yet when it comes to the men’s triple jump, James Beckford is the only Jamaican who has placed among the top six finishers in either the Olympic Games or the World Championships.
Beckford was the No. 2- or 3-ranked long jumper in the world by Track & Field News from 1995-2000, but his sixth-place finish in the triple jump in the 1995 World Championships in Goteborg, Sweden is the only time a Jamaican has finished among the top six finishers in a global championship in that event. In fact, outside of Beckford, only six other Jamaicans have competed in the men’s triple jump in the World Championships or Olympics and none of them advanced out of the qualifying round.
I did a double-take when my research came up with the above statistics. I also double-checked my figures to make sure they were correct.
I don’t know why Jamaica has produced so few top-flight men’s triple jumpers over the decades, when it has had plenty of high-quality long jumpers. But I do wonder what would have happened if Beckford had chosen to focus on the triple jump — rather than the long jump — after the 1995 season.
Although Beckford was born in Saint Mary Parish in Jamaica, he spent many of his formative years in the U.S. and had personal bests of 24 feet 8½ inches (7.53 meters) in the long jump and 51-6 (15.70) in the triple jump when he graduated from William R. Boone High School in Orlando, Florida in 1993.
He moved on to Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, for the next two years, raising his personal best in the long jump to 8.13 (26-8¼) and in the triple jump to a national junior college record of 17.92 (58-9½) which still stands as the Jamaican record.
Following the conclusion of his second season at Blinn in 1995, Beckford placed sixth in the triple jump final in the World Championships on Aug. 7 with a wind-aided 17.13 (56-2½) effort in the same competition in which Jonathan Edwards of Great Britain set consecutive world records of 18.16 (59-7) in the first round and 18.29 (60-0¼) in the second.
Four days later, Beckford won the silver medal in the long jump with a best of 8.30 (27-2¾). For whatever reason/s, he competed very little in the triple jump after the 1995 season, although he would be ranked amongst the top 10 long jumpers in the world 11 times during his career.
For his part, the easy-to-smile Hibbert is only in his third season as a triple jumper.
Despite his inexperience, he placed second in the event in the World U20 (under 20) Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in 2021 with a then-personal best of 16.05 (52-8) and he won the event in Cali, Colombia last year with another personal best — and meet record — of 17.27 (56-8).
That remained his best-ever jump until the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 5 when his 17.54 (57-6½) effort in the first round topped the 37-year-old collegiate indoor record of 17.50 (57-5) set by Charlie Simpkins of Baptist College — now Charleston Southern — in 1986.
It also crushed the Jamaican indoor record of 17.19 (56-4¾) set by Clive Pullen in 2017 and the world U20 indoor record of 17.20 (56-5¼) set by Melvin Raffin of France the same year.
Hibbert’s next competition after the NCAA indoor meet was the CARIFTA Games in Nassau, Bahamas on April 10 and his winning mark of 16.11 (52-10¼) at the U20 level was a bit of let-down.
He then won the LSU Invitational on April 29 with a best of 17.17 (56-4) before exploding to his 17.87 (58-7½) effort in the second round of the SEC meet while again competing at Bernie Moore Stadium in Baton Rouge.
“Jaydon is just a phenomenal competitor,” Arkansas men’s coach Chris Bucknam said in an interview with the SEC Network. “He’s unbelievably talented and works really hard.”
In sound bites posted on nationwideradiojm.com, Hibbert said the following: The mark I came out here with was probably [17.40/17/50] at max. But after I saw the [17.80], I just said, Okay, that’s it for me today.”
In an interview posted on the University of Arkansas’ Twitter account, Hibbert said he doesn’t “think there’s any [other] 18-year-old that does the stuff I do. Honestly, I’m so proud of myself… I knew that [jump] was a big one because I was all the way at the back of the pit.”
Now that Hibbert has leaped to the top of the yearly world list, added nearly a foot to the collegiate outdoor record of 17.57 (57-7¾) set by Keith Connor of SMU and Great Britain in 1982, and moved into a three-way tie for 13th on the all-time world performer list, a big question is how will he fare in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary from August 19-27?
Afterall, it’s one thing to unload a huge jump in a meet in which you are the overwhelming favorite and significantly more talented than anyone else in the field. It is quite another to produce a big mark when you are competing in the high-pressure environment of the World Championships against a seasoned veteran such as Pedro Pichardo of Portugal, the defending Olympic and World champion who has leaped 17 meters or longer in more than six dozen competitions during his career, including just under four dozen times in which he has jumped 57 feet (17.37 meters) or better.
Five and counting: Britton Wilson of the University of Arkansas continued her scintillating junior season with two more collegiate records in the women’s 400 meters in the SEC meet at LSU last weekend.
Wilson won the final of the 400 in 49.13 seconds on Saturday after clocking a collegiate record of 49.40 in her qualifying heat last Friday. That mark lowered the previous collegiate best of 49.51 that she had run in the Tom Jones Memorial meet in Gainesville, Florida four weeks earlier.
In addition, the 49.13 clocking made her the fourth fastest American in history and moved her into 17th on the all-time world performer list.
Her heroics in the 400 overshadowed a pair of fine performances in the 400 hurdles as she ran 53.28 to win the final of that event on Saturday after running 53.76 in her qualifying heat two days earlier.
This marked the second year in a row that Wilson had won the 400 and 400 hurdles in the SEC meet, although unlike last year, she did not run a leg on Arkansas’s 1,600 relay team as the Razorbacks had already clinched their seventh team title in the last nine years well before that event was run.
Last year’s SEC meet had been a coming-out party of sorts for Wilson as she ran then-personal bests of 50.05 in the 400 and 53.75 in the 400 hurdles — to become the first person to have won both those events in the same year — before running a 48.60-second anchor leg on an Arkansas quartet that finished third in 3 minutes 22.55 seconds, then the fourth-fastest time in collegiate history.
Wilson, fifth in 400 hurdles in the World Championships last July, has now had a hand in five collegiate records this year.
Prior to her three collegiate bests in the 400 outdoors, she lowered the indoor record in the event with an American record of 49.48 to win the NCAA title in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 5 before running a 49.19-second anchor leg on an Arkansas team that set a world best of 3:21.75 while clinching the team title for the Razorbacks.
Although the time was fastest ever run by a women’s team indoors, it did not count as a world record because the Arkansas quartet was a multi-national squad that included Wilson and fellow American Rosey Effiong, Amber Anning of Great Britain, and Joanne Reid of Jamaica.
Welcome to the sub-38 club: After getting progressively faster throughout the season, LSU’s men’s 400-meter relay team shaved seven hundredths of a second off the collegiate record when the Tigers clocked a winning 37.90 to win the SEC title on their home track last Saturday.
The LSU squad, which was anchored by Nigerian Godson Oghenebrume, lowered the previous collegiate record of 37.97 set by Florida in 2019, and that mark was also bettered in Saturday’s race by a Florida quartet that ran 37.93.
Oghenebrume, who would later win the 100 in a personal best of 10.04, had a solid lead when he received the baton from teammate Da’Marcus Fleming on the final exchange. But Florida anchor runner Robert Gregory, who would later win the 200 in a personal best of 20.12, ate into Oghenebrume’s advantage during the last 20 meters of the race.
Brandon Hicklin ran the first leg for LSU and he was followed by Dorian Camel, who would finish third in the 100 in 10.19.
LSU had run a season best of 38.53 on April 1 before clocking 38.36 on April 22 and 38.26 on April 29.
Another collegiate record: Ryan Willie of the University of Florida ran a scintillating 43.32-second anchor leg in the men’s 1,600-meter relay in the SEC meet at LSU last Saturday to give the Gators a come-from-behind victory with a collegiate record of 2:57.76.
The Florida junior had begun his day by running the opening leg on a Florida team that finished second in the 400 relay in 37.93 — the second fastest time in collegiate history — before winning the 400 in a personal best of 44.27, a huge improvement over his previous outdoor best of 44.93 from earlier this season.
Florida trailed first-place Alabama and second-place Georgia after the first two legs of the race. But Jacory Patterson ran a 43.97 third leg to move the Gators into second place behind Alabama at the final exchange.
Although Willie was a good 7-8 meters behind Alabama’s Corde Long as he began his anchor leg, he did not panic and had reduced Florida’s deficit by more than half with 200 meters to go. He had further whittled down the deficit to half a stride entering the home straightaway before he passed Long with about 40 meters left in the race and won going away.
Florida’s time bettered the previous collegiate record of 2:58.53 set by a Florida foursome — that included Willie on the second leg — last year. Alabama also bettered the previous mark with a 2:58.01 clocking in second place. Georgia finished third in 2:59.53.
One that got away: Kyle Garland of Georgia produced the second-best collegiate score in history in the decathlon when he won the men’s multi-event competition in the SEC Championships at LSU last week with 8,589 points.
Although his point total was the highest in the world this year, the Bulldog senior was on pace to break the collegiate record of 8,720 points that he had set in finishing second in the decathlon in the USA Track & Field Combined Events Championships last May. However, his efforts in the javelin and the 1,500 meters, the final two events of the decathlon, fell a combined 161 points short of what he had scored in the USATF meet.
After totaling 4,626 points on the first day of the SEC meet, Garland was 34 points behind his first-day total from the USATF championships. But after producing marks of 13.66 in the 110-meter high hurdles, 46.78 (153-6) in the discus, and 5.00 (16-4¾) in the pole vault on the second day of the SEC meet, he was 30 points up on what he had scored during the first eight events of his collegiate record.
However, his best javelin mark of 53.43 (175-3) in the SEC meet was more than six meters less than what he threw in the USATF competition, and his 1,500 time of 4:54.59 was more than 11 seconds slower.
Nonetheless, Garland seemed pleased with his performance as it had come a month after he had withdrawn from the decathlon in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, California after failing to clear a height in the pole vault.
A post on his Instagram account was as follows:
Great weekend at the office.
2023 SEC Champ🥇Ready for my last Decathlon brawl, as a collegiate, next month!
8️⃣5️⃣8️⃣9️⃣🚂
‘23 World Lead🌎
#2 in NCAA History (behind myself😉)
Olympic Standard✅
SEC Meet Record✅
Decathlete wins 400 hurdles: Ayden Owens-Delerme of the University of Arkansas did not compete in his specialty, the decathlon, in the SEC meet at LSU last week. But he did turn in a standout performance in the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles when he won the event in 48.26 seconds last Saturday.
The time was the fastest in the NCAA this year and moved him to 12th on the all-time collegiate performer list while giving him a hard-fought victory over Chris Robinson of Alabama, who finished second in a personal best of 48.36.
As far as I know, Owens-Delerme had never run the intermediate hurdles as a collegian until this year. But the 400 and the 110 high hurdles are two of his best events in the decathlon, in which he finished fourth for Puerto Rico in the World Championships last year.
He ran 50.28 to finish second in his inaugural intermediate hurdles race in the LSU Invitational on April 29 before running 49.12 to win his qualifying heat of the SEC meet two days before the final.
He was a narrow second to Robinson over the ninth and 10th set of barriers on Saturday, but he edged past him with about 15 meters left in the race.
Summit meeting: In a race featuring the three top 100-meter hurdlers in the NCAA, Alia Armstrong of LSU defeated Ackera Nugent of Arkansas and Masai Russell of Kentucky for the SEC title on Saturday.
Competing on her home track, defending NCAA champion Armstrong was running just ahead of Russell for the first four flights of hurdles before separating from her after Russell hit her fifth barrier. Jamaican Nugent overtook Russell for second place by the seventh barrier and was making up ground on Armstrong over the final 25 meters of the race, but Armstrong crossed the finish line in 12.40, followed by Nugent at 12.43 and Russell at 12.47.
Armstrong, fourth in the World Championships last year, moved into a three-way tie for third on the all-time collegiate performer list with her personal best, and Nugent now ranks sixth.
Russell had lowered the collegiate record to 12.36 in winning the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on April 1.
Welcome to the sub-42 club: The University of Texas became the first team to break 42 seconds in the women’s 400-meter relay when the Longhorns ran 41.89 seconds in winning the Big 12 Conference title at the University of Oklahoma on Sunday.
The Texas quartet of Julien Alfred, Ezzine Abba, Rhasidat Adeleke, and Kevona Davis finished nearly two seconds in front of second-place Baylor’s 43.75 while lowering the previous collegiate record of 42.00 that they had set in winning the collegiate division of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on April 1.
Alfred, a senior from St. Lucia also won the 100 meters in 10.84 and the 200 in 22.28, with Irishwoman Adeleke taking the 400 in 50.58 for team champion Texas.
Big improvement: Ackelia Smith of the University of Texas got her first 7-meter and 23-foot performance of her life in winning the women’s long jump in the Big 12 Conference Championships at the University of Oklahoma last Saturday.
The NCAA indoor runner-up upped her outdoor personal best to 6.74 (22-1½) in the first round and leaped 6.61 (21-8 ¼) on her second attempt before exploding to a mark of 7.08 (23-2¾) a round later. The Jamaican then passed her final three attempts as the triple jump — which she would win with a best of 13.75 (45-1½) — was scheduled for Sunday.
Smith’s 7.08 effort was the longest outdoor jump in the world this year and moved her to second on the all-time collegiate performer list behind the 7.14 (23-5¼) best turned in by Tara Davis of Texas in 2021. She also moved to second on the all-time Jamaican list behind Elva Goulbourne, who set the national record of 7.16 (23-6) in 2004 while competing in a meet in Mexico City, whose elevation of more than 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) aids the performances of sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers.
Big series: Mykolas Alekna of UC Berkeley had the best series of his career in winning the men’s discus on the final day of the Pac-12 Conference Championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California on Sunday.
The World Championship silver medalist won the event at 70.40 (231-0), the second-best throw of his career. However, the average distance of his five fair throws was 68.88 (226-0), with all five of his throws being farther than his second-best throw of 67.25 (220-7) when he raised his collegiate record to 71.00 (232-11) in a dual meet against Stanford on April 29.
Big tests on the horizon: Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya proved once again last Saturday that he can run notable times while racing at altitude, particularly when he is competing in front of a partisan crowd in his country’s capital of Nairobi. But it will be interesting to see how he fares in upcoming Diamond League meets in Rabat, Morocco on May 28, and in Florence, Italy on June 2.
In last Saturday’s Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, the 27-year-old Omanyala got off to one of his typically good starts before taking charge of the race with about 40 meters remaining.
He crossed the finish line in 9.84, well ahead of Americans Kenny Bednarek and Marvin Bracy-Williams, who placed second and third in 9.98 and 10.03, respectively. Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon finished fourth in 10.03 while lowering his national record by five-hundredths of a second.
Omanyala’s time, which was run into a breeze of 0.5 meters per second, was the fastest in the world this year and the second-fastest of his career behind his African record of 9.77 which he set in 2021 while finishing a hundredth of a second behind Trayvon Bromell of the U.S. in the Kip Keino Classic.
When it comes to the upcoming Diamond League meets in Rabat and Florence, Omanyala is expected to race against both defending World champion Fred Kerley of the U.S. and defending Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy.
The field in Rabat is also expected to include World Championship bronze medalist Bromell and Akani Simbine of South Africa, who has placed fourth or fifth in the 100 in the last three World Championships and the last two Olympic Games.
Youth must be served: Kenyan teenagers Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot posted yearly world-leading times while winning the men’s 800 and 1,500 meters, respectively, in the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya last Saturday.
In the 800, pacesetter Khaled Benmahdi of Algeria came through the first lap in 49.38. But the chase pack was a good 12 meters behind him at that point and when Benmahdi dropped out 100 meters later, Kenyan Aaron Kemei found himself well clear of the field as he headed down the backstretch.
He still had a lead of four to five meters heading into the final turn but the chase pack, led by fellow Kenyan Wyclife Kinyamal, was closing in on him. Kinyamal swept by Kemei with 120 meters to go and Wanyonyi was not far behind him.
Kinyamal launched his final kick entering the home straightaway, but he could not shake Wanyonyi, who sped past him with about at 25 meters left in the race.
Wanyonyi, who placed fourth in the World Championships last year, finished in 1:43.32, followed by Kinyamal in 1:43.66. Olympic 1,500 silver medalist Timothy Cheruiyot finished third in 1:44.99. Kemei ended up seventh in 1:46.20.
Like Wanyonyi in the 800, Reynold Cheruiyot had used a big finishing kick to win the 1,500 earlier in the meet.
After the pacesetter came through the first lap in 55.82 and the second lap in 1:54.04, race favorite Abel Kipsang of Kenya was in the lead when he came through 1,200 meters in 2:51.64.
He had a two- to three-meter lead on 18-year-old Cheruiyot entering the final turn and he still held that advantage entering the home straightaway, but World U20 (under 20) champion Cheruiyot was simply too strong for him in the final 30 meters of the race.
Cheruiyot’s winning time of 3:32.01 bettered his previous best of 3:33.65 that he set in winning the African U20 title in Ndola, Zambia 13 days earlier.
Kipsang placed second in 3:32.70 and there was a large gap back to Kenyan Vincent Kibet Keter, who finished third in 3:36.92.
What might have been: Statistically speaking, Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. has run faster for 200 meters than her winning time of 22.07 in the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya last Saturday. But she has never looked as dominant in the half-lap event as she did in the Kenyan capital.
Eight days removed from her yearly world-leading performance of 10.76 in the 100 in the Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar, Richardson was heavily favored while running against a field in which she was clearly the most talented entrant.
As such, it was not a surprise when she was in the lead 50 meters in the race. But her advantage was large enough over Americans Kyra Jefferson and Shannon Ray coming off the turn that I wondered if we were in for something spectacular.
Although Richardson continued to expand her lead for the next 50 meters of the race, she was not lifting her knees as high as she had been. And then, with about 20 meters left, she threw up her arms wide and ran that way or the remainder of the race, letting out a celebratory yell just after she crossed the finish line.
I’m not an expert when it comes to sprint mechanics and I cannot tell you exactly when Richardson began to step off the accelerator during her race. But it seems realistic to figure that Richardson would have bettered her personal best of 22.00 — possibly by a substantial margin — had she run all the way through the finish line.
Despite her slowing at the end, Richardson still finished well clear of second-place Jefferson (22.77) and third-place Ray (22.82).
Back in action: Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, the 2019 World Champion in the women’s 400 meters, won the 200 in a wind-aided 23.10 seconds and the 400 in 50.88 in the Bobcats Last Chance meet in Miramar, Florida last Saturday while racing for the first time after a two-year suspension for a whereabouts violation.
Naser’s winning time of 48.14 in the women’s 400 in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar on October 3 of that year moved her to third on the all-time performer list behind Marita Koch of East Germany (47.60 in 1985) and Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia (47.99 in 1983). However, she was provisionally suspended from competition from June 4-October 14, 2020 after being charged with missing four anti-doping tests between January 1, 2019 and January 24, 2020.
It was later determined that one of those missed tests occurred on April 12, 2019 when the doping control officer went to the wrong address.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport eventually found Naser guilty of a violation of Article 2.4 of the IAAF — now World Athletics — anti-doping rules.
Naser was issued a two-year suspension by the CAS. The suspension began on June 30, 2021, with her receiving credit for the provisional suspension she had already served.
In a statement, CAS further wrote the following: "All competitive results obtained by Naser from 25 Nov 2019, through to the date of notification of this award shall be disqualified, with all of the resulting consequences, including forfeiture of any medals, titles, ranking points and prize and appearance money.”
World record watch: Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania broke the world record in the 100- kilometer run last Sunday while competing in the Nord Security World’s Fastest Run in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
His time of 6 hours 5 minutes 35 seconds lowered the previous world record of 6:09:14 set by Nao Kazami of Japan in 2018.
Sorokin had been credited with a time of 6:05:41 in a 100-kilometer race last year in a race that was contested on a track, but it was not ratified as a world record.
Competing on a course in which each lap was 1.644 kilometers in length, the 41-year-old Sorokin covered his first marathon — 42.195 kilometers — of the race in 2:32:30 and came through the halfway point in 3:02.
“I am extremely happy that I managed to break a world record and that I did so in my native city,” Sorokin was quoted as saying in a World Athletics post. “Vilnius is the city where I started running and it’s my great pleasure to thank it by making history right here.”
Sixth time is the charm: Jamaican sprint great Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was honored as the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year for 2022 at the 2023 World Sports Awards in Paris last Monday.
The 36-year-old Fraser-Pryce won her record fifth World title in the women’s 100 meters last year and she also ran an unprecedented seven races in which she finished in under 10.70 seconds in the event. In addition, she was the silver medalist in the 200 in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Soccer great Lionel Messi won the World Sportsman of the Year Award for 2022 after leading Argentina to its third World Cup title and first since 1986.
This was the sixth time Fraser-Pryce had been nominated for the award, and she was quoted as saying the following in a World Athletics post.
“I was thrilled to be nominated alongside such inspiring women athletes, and to win this award, voted for by some of the greatest sportsmen and women of all time, is just amazing. This is the sixth time I’ve been nominated in this category, so to finally hold the Laureus statuette in my hands is one of the greatest honours of my career.”
Two liners: Roje Stona of the University of Arkansas moved to second on the all-time collegiate performer list in the men’s discus with a winning throw of 68.64 meters (225 feet 2 inches) in the Southeastern Conference Championships at LSU last Saturday. That throw also moved Stona to second on the all-time Jamaican performer list behind Fedrick Dacres, who threw 70.78 (232-3) in 2019. . . . Long jumper Wayne Pinnock was another Jamaican who performed extremely well for the University of Arkansas in the SEC Championships. The defending NCAA champion leaped a personal best of 8.37 (27-5½) to move to the top of the yearly collegiate list, to second on the yearly world outdoor performer list, and to third on the all-time Jamaican performer list. . . . Udodi Onwuzurike of Stanford crushed his personal best in the men’s 200 meters when he ran 19.91 to win the Pac-12 Conference Championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California on Sunday. Onwuzurike, who had finished a hundredth of a second behind first-place Micah Williams of Oregon in the 100 with a 10.23 clocking, tightened his hold on third on the all-time Nigerian list with his performance in the 200. . . . The University of Washington won its first men’s team title in the Pac-12 Conference Championships with a 151-137 victory over second-place USC. The Huskies won all five races ranging in distances from 800 to 10,000 meters, with Irishman Brian Fay taking the 5,000 in 14:08.03 and the 10,000 in 28:24.90. . . . Muzala Samukanga of Zambia remained unbeaten in the men’s 400 meters this season when he ran 44.25 to win the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya last Saturday. The Commonwealth Games champion had run a yearly world-leading time of 43.91 to win the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone, Botswana on April 29. . . . Wojciech Nowicki of Poland won the men’ hammer throw with a best of 79.78 (261-9) in the Kip Keino Classic. The Olympic champion and World championship silver medalist had the top four throws in the competition, including a second-best effort of 79.59 (261-1). . . . Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine cleared a yearly world outdoor-leading height of 2.00 (6-6¾) in the women’s high jump in the Kip Keino Classic. The World Championship silver medalist cleared 1.90 (6-2¾) and 1.93 (6-4) on her first attempts before clearing 1.96 (6-5) and 2.00 on her second efforts. . . . Beatrice Chebet of Kenya ran 15:15.82 to win the women’s 5,000 meters in the Kip Keino Classic. It was the first outdoor track race of the season for the woman who won the World cross country title in February and was the silver medalist in the 5,000 in the World Championships last year. . . . Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast won the women’s 100 meters in 10.78 and the 200 in 22.31 in the Pure Athletics Sprint Elite Meet in Clermont, Florida last Saturday. Her time in the 100 was the second fastest in the world this year behind the 10.76 that Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. ran in winning the Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar on May 5.