An American blockbuster
Slew of Tokyo-bound Olympians produce top performances at US athletics trials
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Grant Holloway en route to winning his 110m hurdles semi-final in 12.81sec during the US Olympic trials at Hayward Field in Oregon. That time was just 0.01sec off compatriot Aries Merritt's 2012 world record. The meet also produced jaw-dropping performances in the 200m, 400m hurdles and hammer throw.
PHOTO: REUTERS
EUGENE (Oregon) • Grant Holloway narrowly missed the 110m hurdles world record on a blockbuster day at the United States Olympic track and field trials.
The reigning world champion won the final in 12.96 seconds, after coming just a hundredth of a second short of Aries Merritt's 2012 world record 12.80sec in his semi-final earlier on Saturday.
"I just think at this point (a world record is) definitely possible," Holloway, 23, said.
"A lot of people said I could never run 12.9 again… just continuing to figure out ways to get better."
Also en route to Tokyo in the 110m hurdles are 2016 Olympian Devon Allen and 2019 national champion Daniel Roberts, who finished second and third in 13.10sec and 13.11sec respectively at Hayward Field.
Gabby Thomas won the women's 200m in 21.61sec, the third-best time ever recorded in the event and the fastest in more than three decades.
Only the late Florence Griffith-Joyner - whose world record of 21.34sec from the drug-tarnished 1988 Olympic Games remains intact - has ever run faster.
"I have yet to process it. It means so much to me," said Thomas, 24, ahead of her first Games, with Rio Olympian Jenna Prandini second in 21.89sec and Anavia Battle fighting her way to third in 21.95sec.
It was a bittersweet farewell for nine-time Olympic medallist Allyson Felix, 35, who had already punched her ticket to Tokyo in the 400m but came up short in the 200m, finishing fifth in her last US trials, 17 years after she made her Olympic debut.
"I just wanted to take it all in and do the best that I could just to say thank you to everyone who has supported me," said Felix, her legacy already cemented in the pantheon of athletics greats as the most decorated American woman in the history of the sport.
In the men's 400m hurdles, Rai Benjamin, 23, won the final in 46.83sec, the second-fastest time ever in the event, just 0.05sec behind the world record set by Kevin Young in 1992.
"It hurts a little bit that it was right there and I couldn't grab it, but it's just more fuel for the fire," said the son of famed West Indies cricketer Winston Benjamin.
He and his fellow qualifiers are all first-time Olympians, with Kenny Selmon, 24, finishing second in 48.08sec and 26-year-old David Kendziera coming in third in 48.38sec.
Off the track, reigning world champion DeAnna Price extended her own American record in the hammer throw with an 80.31m toss, which only two-time Olympic gold medallist Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland has exceeded.
"Me throwing over 80m, this is pretty crazy. Being in that territory is a true honour," said Price, with Brooke Andersen (77.72m) and Gwendolyn Berry (73.50m) set to join her in Tokyo.
In the pole vault, Katie Nageotte, 30, cleared a world-leading 4.95m, with only two women having jumped higher.
Emily Sisson won the rescheduled 10,000m in a meet record 31min 3.82sec despite scorching temperatures.
Karissa Schweizer, who earlier in the week had made the 5,000m team, finished second in 31:16.52. Alicia Monson was third in 31:18.55.
"It was a grind," said Sisson, who overcame the disappointment of crashing out of the marathon trials.
In a day of jaw-dropping performances, high school student Erriyon Knighton, 17, still managed to claim a bit of the spotlight himself, hurtling to a 19.88sec personal best to win the men's 200m semi-finals, ahead of Kenny Bednarek (19.90sec) and world champion Noah Lyles (19.91sec).
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
