Week in Review: Young duo stun with performances
Morales Williams and Dehning drop huge personal bests in 400 meters and javelin
One of them is a quarter-miler from Canada.
The other is a javelin thrower from Germany.
Both are 19 years of age and last weekend Canuck Christopher Morales Williams and German Max Dehning turned in a pair of stunning performances that belied their youth and inexperience at the world-class level.
Morales Williams, a sophomore at the University of Georgia, got the ball rolling on Saturday when he ran 44.49 seconds — the fastest indoor time ever — to win the men’s 400 meters in the SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center.
Dehning followed on Sunday when his throw of 90.20 meters (295 feet 11 inches) in the javelin topped his previous best by more than 11 meters in the German Winter Throwing Championships in Halle, Germany, and added his name to the growing — but still prestigious — list of men who have thrown 90 meters or farther in the event.
“Honestly, it leaves me in shock, still. It still surprises me that that happened,” Morales Williams said of his performance in a post on the University of Georgia’s Athletics site. “But it also motivates me to continue pushing forward. It lets me know that I'm on the right track, and there's still a lot more that I think I could leave on the track.”
Morales Williams’ time was thought to be a world indoor record when he ran it, but by Tuesday, word began circulating that World Athletics had informed Caryl Smith Gilbert, Georgia’s director of track & field, that the mark would not be considered for world record ratification because a false start detection system — such as one called a Start Information System (SIS) — was not in use at the meet.
The system measures competitors’ reaction time — down to a thousandth of a second — to the starting device. And individuals can be disqualified for a false start if the system determines that they reacted faster than what is believed to be humanely possible.
There was zero evidence that Morales Williams had jumped the gun, as they say in track and field parlance, in his race on Saturday. But the lack of a false start detection system at the meet, which is a typical scenario at most collegiate indoor meets outside of the NCAA Championships, meant that his “world record” is now simply the fastest time ever run.
The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association is still counting the mark as a collegiate indoor record that bettered the previous best of 44.52 that USC sophomore Michael Norman had set in winning the 2018 NCAA indoor championships in College Station, Texas.
Norman’s time was never ratified as a world record because there was no performance enhancing drug testing conducted at that meet, leaving the official world record as the 44.57 clocking that sophomore Kerron Clement of the University of Florida ran in the 2005 NCAA meet at the Randal Tyson Center.
While taking in all of the above information can be challenging, the improvement of Morales Williams this season is much more straight forward and easy to process.
First off, he began the year with an outdoor personal best of 45.48 seconds in the 400 meters. He ran that time in winning the Canadian championships last July after not advancing to the NCAA meet in early June.
His indoor best in the 400 was only 47.42 at the start of the year, but after running a notable 32.47 to win the 300 meters in the Clemson Invitational on Jan. 13, he ran 46.05 to win the 400 in The TRACK at New Balance Collegiate Showdown in Boston on Jan. 20 and bettered that mark two races later when he clocked 45.39 to win the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational on Feb. 9.
He ran 45.58 to win his qualifying heat of the SEC meet last Friday before his 44.49 clocking in the second section of the final obliterated the field.
Running in the outside lane of the six-lane, 200-meter track, Morales Williams trailed JeVaughn Powell of Florida for the first 130 meters of the race. But he had pulled even with Powell as the field entered the home straightaway for the first time and he was in the lead when he came through the first 200 in 21.10 seconds.
Powell was not far behind Morales Williams at that point in the race as he split 21.28 for the first lap, but he could not hang with the Canadian during the second lap as Morales Williams picked up nearly a second on him during the final 200 meters while on the way to his stunning clocking that left him well in front of second-place Powell in 45.61.
Although Morales Williams’ form broke down some during the last 100 meters of the race, he continued to widen his lead all the way through the finish line, despite the fact that he had been laid low by stomach issues earlier in the day.
“I think being sick made me, I wasn't worried about the race or the results of the race," he was quoted as saying on Monday in the UGA Athletics post. “It took my mind off of it. All I kept thinking about was, am I able to run?”
Smith Gilbert, who was the head coach at USC when Norman set his collegiate record, figured Morales Williams might be on the verge of something special when she saw his 200-meter split.
“His finish was very strong,” she said. “How he came through the 200, in 21.1, 21.09, when I saw that I said, Oh, he’s going to run 44 today if he hangs on. I knew it would be 44, but I didn’t figure 44.4, so that last 100 meters in 11.9, it was pretty outstanding.”
For his part, Morales Williams didn’t seem upset about the fact that his time would not be considered for world record ratification.
“It doesn't change the fact that I still ran the time. It's still the fastest time in the world, so it really doesn't bother me at all,” he said. “It's not ratified, but it's still there. It really doesn't make too much of a difference. It doesn't bother me."
Although Dehning’s gargantuan javelin throw in Germany did not have world record implications like Morales Williams’ 400 clocking, it might have been more shocking in terms of how much he improved upon his previous best.
While comparing improvement in the 400 to improvement in the javelin is admittedly not a apples-to-apples proposition for a variety of reasons, it is interesting to note that Morales Williams improved his personal best in the 400 by just under two percent when he ran 44.49.
Conversely, Dehning’s 90.20 (295-11) heave in the javelin improved his previous best of 79.13 (259-7) by a little more than 12 percent.
Dehning, the runner-up in the 2022 World Athletics U20 (under 20) Championships in Cali, Colombia, and in last year’s European U20 meet in Jerusalem, had registered his previous best of 79.13 while finishing third in a meet in Leverkusen, Germany, in August of 2022.
He had thrown a season best of 78.07 (256-1) in winning the silver medal in the European U20 Championships last year so his performance on Sunday seemingly came out of nowhere. The 90.20 mark was the best in the world this year by more than six meters and moved him to 22nd on the all-time performer list with the current style of javelin that has been in use since the 1986 season.
It also made him the sixth-longest German thrower in history, with the top two — Johannes Vetter and Thomas Rohler — ranking second and third, respectively, on the all-time performer list with bests of 97.76 (320-9) from 2020 and 93.90 (308-1) from 2017.
“I was sick last week and couldn’t train properly,” Dehning was quoted as saying on the leichtathletik.de website. “I really wanted to take part in the competition here, but the fact that it went so far so well surprised me too.”
Dehning’s 90.20 throw came on his first attempt of the competition and he followed it with an effort of 85.45 (280-4) in the second round. But he either passed or fouled his remaining four attempts.
While Dehning’s improvement has been celebrated on numerous internet sites, he will now face the unreasonable expectations from some quarters that he will only get better in the future and that 90-meter throws will become an every-meet occurrence for him.
I know that in the days since his immense improvement, more than one site has all but guaranteed him a spot on Germany’s Olympic team for Paris in August, as well as labeled him as the No. 1 threat to Indian Neeraj Chopra’s chances of defending the Olympic title he won in Tokyo in 2021.
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big and shooting for the stars, but it might be more realistic — and productive — for Dehning if he strives to become a competitor who can consistently produce throws of 85 to 87 meters, which will put in the running for a lot of top-three finishes in meets involving the world’s top javelin performers.
Dual record performance: Lamarra Distin of Texas A&M set collegiate and Jamaican indoor records in the women’s high jump when she cleared 2.00 (6-6¾) in winning her third consecutive SEC indoor title in the meet at the University of Arkansas on Saturday.
Distin’s 2.00 clearance broke the previous collegiate record of 1.98 (6-6) that was first set by Destinee Hooker of Texas in 2009 and tied by Akela Jones of Kansas State in 2016. Her clearance also bettered the national indoor record of 1.97 that she had set in winning the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational two weeks earlier.
The two-time defending NCAA indoor champion, Distin cleared 1.80 (5-10¾), 1.85 (6-0¾), 1.88 (6-2), 1.91 (6-3¼), 1.94 (6-4¼), and 1.97 (6-5½) on her first attempts before making 2.00 (6-6¾) on her third — and final — try. She did not attempt any higher heights.
Distin, who placed fifth in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last August, first cleared 1.97 during the 2022 outdoor season and she had equaled that height in winning the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational last year before doing it again this year.
Stellar season continues: Michaela Rose of LSU turned in her third superb performance of the indoor season when she won the women’s 800 meters in 1:59.25 in the SEC indoor championships at the University of Arkansas last Saturday.
The Tiger junior’s time gave her a comfortable margin of victory over second-place Sanu Jallow of Arkansas (2:02.76) in a high-quality race in which the top four finishers ran under 2:03. It also strengthened her hold on second on the all-time collegiate list behind the 1:58.40 clocking that Athing Mu had run in 2021 during her freshman — and only — season at Texas A&M.
Rose had run 1:59.49 two weeks earlier in winning the Boston University David Hemery Invitational and she had lowered the collegiate record to 1:16.76 in the infrequently-contested 600-yard run in the Texas Tech Corky Classic on Jan. 20.
The defending NCAA outdoor champion had a small lead over second-place Jallow when she came through the first 200 in 28.44 seconds and the 400 in 57.81 on Saturday. But she had widened her lead to more than a second and a half when she came through the 600-meter mark in 1:28.08 and her advantage was more than three seconds at the finish.
Stellar season continues II: Parker Valby of Florida was another junior who performed very well in the SEC indoor meet at the University of Arkansas last weekend.
First, she teamed up with Flomena Asekol, Laila Owens, and Elise Thorner to set a meet record of 10:53.29 in the women’s distance medley relay on Friday.
Then she set a personal best and meet record of 8:42.29 in the 3,000 meters on Saturday.
Valby, who won the NCAA cross country title in November before lowering the collegiate indoor record in the 5,000 to 14:56.11 in early December, ran 4:31.45 on her 1,600-meter anchor leg in the distance medley relay. Asekol had put Florida in second place with a 3:24.20 split on the opening 1,200-meter leg of the race and the Gators were in the lead at the second exchange after Owens had run 52.12 on her 400-meter leg.
Thorner followed with an 800-meter leg of 2:05.54 to give Florida a commanding seven-second lead at the final exchange and Valdy extended the Gators’ advantage to nearly 11 seconds at the finish as Alabama placed second in 11:04.27.
Although the Alabama duo of Doris Lemngole and Hilda Olemomoi had finished second and fourth in the NCAA cross country championships, they ran in a different section than Valby in the 3,000, as her 8:42.29 clocking moved her to fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Lemngole and Olemomoi finished second and third in the combined overall standings with times of 9:06.21 and 9:06.39.
Strength in numbers: Arkansas displayed impressive depth in the women’s 400 meters in the SEC indoor championships on its home track last Saturday.
The defending NCAA indoor team champion Razorbacks posted the top four overall times in the event as senior Amber Anning placed first in 50.43 seconds, with teammates Nickisha Pryce and Kaylyn Brown also recording personal bests with times of 50.83. Rosey Effiong rounded out Arkansas’ top four with a season best of 51.00.
Anning, a senior from Great Britain, moved to sixth on the all-time collegiate performer list with her time and Pryce and Brown moved into a tie for 17th.
Anning, Pryce, Brown, and Effiong are the top four entrants in the women’s 400 meters for the NCAA indoor championships that will be held at The TRACK at New Balance in Boston from March 7-9.
Nice double: Senior Jalani Davis of Mississippi recorded a pair of personal bests while winning the women’s 20-pound weight throw and the shot put in the SEC indoor championships at the University of Arkansas last weekend.
Davis won the weight throw with a second-round effort of 25.09 (82-3¾) on Friday before winning the shot put with a fifth-round effort of 18.61 (61-0¾) on Saturday.
She moved to third on the all-time collegiate performer list with her effort in the weight throw and her best in the shot put placed her 12th on the all-time collegiate performer list while giving her a come-from-behind victory over Alida Van Daalen of Florida, who placed second at 18.59 (61-0).
Four for five: Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas continued her dynamite indoor season in the women’s 60-meter hurdles when she clocked a winning 7.68 seconds in the World Indoor Tour gold meet in Madrid last Friday.
Her time left her well in front of second-place Nadine Visser of the Netherlands (7.78) and third-place Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland (7.83) and was only a hundredth of a second off the world record of 7.67 that she had set in the Millrose Games on Feb. 11 and that Tia Jones of the U.S. had tied in a qualifying heat of the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, five days later.
Running in a brightly-colored orange, pink, and yellow kit and wearing black socks, the 28-year-old Charlton got off to a good start and then gradually pulled away from Visser as she won her fourth race in five finals this season.
Charlton and Jones were expected to meet in this weekend’s World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, at the conclusion of the meet in Madrid. But that highly-anticipated clash between the co-world record holders fell by the wayside the following day when Jones was not listed as the Team USA roster released by USA Track & Field for the World Championships. No reason was given for why Jones was not on the roster.
Upward trajectory: Catalin Tecuceanu of Italy set a national indoor record of 1:45.00 when he won the men’s 800 meters in the World Indoor Tour gold meet in Madrid last Friday.
The time was the fastest in the world this year for Tecuceanu, who had placed second and third in his two previous races this season.
After a pace setter had come through the first 400 meters in 49.96 seconds, the 24-year-old Tecuceanu was in the lead after he came through the 600 mark in 1:17.19. He then ran the final lap in 27.81 while lowering the previous Italian indoor record of 1:45.44 set by Giuseppe D’Urso in 1993.
Spaniards Mohamed Attaoui and Adrian Ben placed second and third in times of 1:45.67 and 1:45.72, respectively.
Tecuceanu ran a personal best of 1:44.79 outdoors last year when he placed fourth in his semifinal of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Come-from-behind victory: Rajindra Campbell of Jamaica set a national indoor record of 22.16 (72-8½) in the men’s shot put while winning the World Indoor Tour gold meet in Madrid last Friday.
The left-handed Campbell was in second place through the first five rounds of the competition with a best of 21.75 (71-4¼). But his 22.16 effort on his sixth put overtook first-place Tom Walsh of New Zealand, whose best effort of 22.03 (72-3½) came on the final put of the competition.
Riding a hot streak: Molly Caudery of Great Britain will be on a personal best tear when she competes in the women’s pole vault in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Caudery, who placed fifth in the World outdoor championships last August, has raised her personal best in three of the four indoor meets in which she has competed this year.
Her latest improvement occurred last Saturday when she cleared a yearly world-leading height of 4.86 (15-11¼) in the Perche Elite Tour Rouen in Rouen, France, last Saturday.
The clearance moved her to 14th on the all-time performer list and tightened her hold on second on the all-time British list behind the 4.90 (16-0¾) best set by Holly Bradshaw in 2021.
Caudery had a interesting series as she cleared 4.53 (14-10¼) on her first attempt, but needed all three of her tries to make 4.63 (15-2¼). She then cleared 4.73 (15-6¼) on her first attempt before missing 4.80 (15-9) on her first try.
Because she was out of the lead at that point in the competition, she passed to the next height of 4.86 and made it on her first attempt. She then missed three times at what would have been a British record of 4.91 (16-1¼).
The women’s pole vault could be one of the most depth-laden events in Glasgow as it is expected to include seven competitors who have cleared 4.80 (15-9) or higher this season.
Amongst that group are Americans Sandi Morris and Katie Moon, Finn Wilma Murto, and New Zealander Eliza McCartney.
Morris is the two-time defending World indoor champion and Moon is the defending Olympic champion and has won or shared the last two World outdoor titles.
Murto was the bronze medalist in last year’s World outdoor meet in Budapest, Hungary, and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist McCartney is the No. 2-seeded entrant with a best of 4.84 (15-10½) this season.
World record ahead?: The statistics say Mondo Duplantis of Sweden has had a ho-hum — by his illustrious standards — indoor season in the men’s pole vault with winning heights of 5.80 (19-0½), 5.92 (19-5) and 6.02 (19-9). But the fact that he had a solid second try at a world-record height of 6.24 (20-5½) in the All Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand, France, on Feb. 22 makes me wonder if he will clear that height in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday.
The defending Olympic and two-time defending World outdoor champion in the pole vault, Duplantis cleared 5.72 (18-9¼) on his first attempt of the competition in Clermont-Ferrand. He then passed at the heights of 5.82 (19-1) and 5.92 (19-5) before he cleared the yearly world-leading height of 6.02 (19-9) on his first attempt.
The bar was then raised to 6.24, which was a centimeter higher than the world record of 6.23 (20-5¼) he had cleared in the Prefontaine Classic last September.
The 24-year-old Duplantis is the defending World indoor champion and he cleared a then-world record of 6.20 (20-4) when he won the 2022 title in Belgrade, Serbia.
Two liners: Freshman Amy Bunnage of Stanford University ran the fourth-fastest indoor collegiate time in history in the women’s 5,000 meters when she finished sixth in 15:11.68 in the Ken Shannon Last Chance Meet at the Dempsey Indoor Center on the University of Washington campus last Saturday. The time came in what appeared to be the 18-year-old Australian’s first indoor race at 5,000 meters, although it will not be carried on the all-time collegiate list because it was run on an oversized track that measures 307 meters per lap. . . . . Freshman JaMeesia Ford of the University of South Carolina tied her world U20 (under 20) record in the women’s 200 meters when she ran 22.36 seconds to win the event in the SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Arkansas’s Randal Tyson Track Center last Saturday. Her time was tied for seventh on the all-time collegiate performance list and came two weeks after she had run 22.36 in the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational. . . . . Victoria Bossong of Harvard ran 1:08.53 in winning the infrequently-run women’s 500 meters in the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track & Field Championships at Harvard’s Gordon Indoor Track on Sunday. The Crimson junior lowered her previous best by 1.7 seconds while moving to second on the all-time collegiate list behind the 1:08.40 clocking by Arizona’s Sage Watson in 2017. . . . . Kenneth Ikeji of Harvard moved to sixth on the collegiate all-time performer list in the men’s 35-pound weight throw when he won the event with a best of 24.39 meters (80 feet ¼ inch) in the Ivy League Heptagonal indoor championships at Harvard’s Gordon Indoor Track on Saturday. Ikeji set five personal bests during the competition in which he improved his pre-meet best of 21.92 (71-11) by nearly two and a half meters. . . . . Malaika Mihambo of Germany, the defending Olympic and a two-time World champion in the women’s long jump, spanned a season best of 6.95 (22-9¾) in winning the ISTAF Indoor meet in Berlin last Friday. Mihambo registered her best mark on her sixth — and final — attempt after she had leapt 6.78 (22-3), the second-best jump of the competition, on her first attempt. . . . . Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia opened his season in the men’s discus with a winning throw of 65.72 (215-7) in the ISTAF Indoor meet in Berlin last Friday. The 2022 World champion and 2023 silver medalist produced that mark indoors while throwing in the cavernous Mercedes Benz Arena.
Big victories: Tsigie Gebreselama of Ethiopia and Daniel Mateiko of Kenya won the women’s and men’s titles in the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in the United Arab Emirates last Saturday.
The 23-year-old Gebreselama ran 1 hour 5 minutes 14 seconds to slash 32 seconds off her previous best, finish 30 seconds in front of compatriot Ababel Yeshaneh, and add to her growing reputation as a runner who can excel on the roads, the track, and in cross country.
Mateiko’s winning time of 58:45 was tied for the fourth fastest of his career and came after he had broken away from compatriots John Korir (58:50) and Isaia Lasoi (58:55) in the final kilometer or so of the race. It was also the sixth time in his last seven half marathons that he had run under 59 minutes.
Gebreselama, the runner-up in last year’s World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, was part of a large lead pack that came through the first five kilometers of the women’s race in 15:31.
She was part of a 10-runner lead group that came through 10 kilometers in 31:09, but she and Yeshaneh were part of a four-runner lead pack when they came through 15 kilometers in 46:42.
It was down to Gebreselama and Yeshaneh shortly after they ran the 16th kilometer of the race in 3:02 and Gebreselama was well ahead of Yeshaneh when she passed the 20-kilometer mark in 1:01:56 after clocking 15:14 over the previous five kilometers.
Third place went to Jackline Sakilu of Tanzania, who slashed more than three minutes from her previous best while setting a national record of 1:06:04.
Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya, the 2021 Olympic champion in the marathon and a three-time World champion in the half marathon, finished seventh in 1:07:19 after one of her shoes came off at one point during the race and she had to stop and re-tie it.
“I am so happy to have run a personal best today,” Gebreselama was quoted as saying in a World Athletics post. “I was very worried about Peres (Jepchirchir) in this race so I was surprised when she dropped back. It’s a great win for me and, while it’s too early in my career to think about the Paris Olympics, my aim is to break the half marathon world record.”
The 25-year-old Mateiko was part of a large lead pack that passed through the first five kilometers of the men’s race in 14:01 and he was one of a dozen runners who came through 10 kilometers in 28:00.
The lead pack, which included New York City Marathon champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, still consisted of 10 runners at 14 kilometers, but it was down to Mateiko, Korir, and Lasoi after that trio ran the 15th kilometer in 2:40, the fastest 1,000-meter segment of the race at that point.
That trio was still together at 19 kilometers, but Lasoi had to let go shortly after that.
Korir managed to stay close to Mateiko through the 20-kilometer mark in 55:46, but his countryman began to draw away from him a minute or so later.
Mateiko, who had run with the late Kelvin Kiptum for the first 32 kilometers of Kiptum’s world record marathon in Chicago last October before later dropping out of the race, dedicated his victory to his countryman who had been killed — along with his coach — in a car crash on Feb. 11.
“I was the fastest man in the field and I promised myself I’d win here after finishing sixth and then second last year,” Mateiko said in a World Athletics post. “The conditions were very difficult – it was windy, humid and a little foggy – so this is definitely the best win of my career so far.”
End of the season: Thierry Ndikumwenayo of Spain and Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia won the men’ and women’s races, respectively, in the Cross Internacional das Amendoeiras em Flor in Albufeira, Portugal, on Sunday.
It was the 13th and final gold-level competition of the 2023-24 World Athletics World Cross Country Tour.
Ndikumwenayo, a 26-year-old native of Burundi who recently became eligible to represent Spain in athletics competitions, won a hotly contested men’s race when he outsprinted Oscar Chelimo of Uganda and Rodrigue Kwizera of Burundi at the end of the 9.13-kilometer course.
His time was 27:18, while 2022 World Championship 5,000-meter bronze medalist Chelimo finished second in 27:19, the same time that was given to Kwizera.
In contrast to Ndikumwenayo’s tight victory, the 26-year-old Amebaw won the women’s race by 32 seconds with a time of 30:45 over the 9.13-kilometer distance.
Amebaw ran with the large lead pack for the first three laps of the five-loop contest before she began to separate herself from her closest competitors during the fourth circuit.
She had a 15-second lead over second-place Francine Niyomukunzi of Burundi when she came through the 6.7-kilometer mark and her advantage had grown to 28 seconds by the end of the fourth lap.
She did not press things during the final loop and Niyomukunzi lost little ground to her on the final circuit while finishing second in 31:17. Ethiopian Asmarech Anley, who was born in 2005, placed third in 31:19.