McLaughlin – who turns 17 on August 7 – becomes the youngest US track and field Olympian since, well, since a week ago, when 18-year-old Vashti Cunninghamearned her spot in the high jump. She took gold in the women’s 200, 4×100 and 4×400 at the 2012 Olympics in London.
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The last 16 year old to compete in the Olympics for the USA was 100m hurdler Rhonda Brady in the Montreal Games in 1976. Running for the University of Texas, she set an NCAA record of 50.05 seconds at the 2014 Big 12 Outdoor Championships and went on to win the individual 400-meter and 4×400 relay at the 2015 NCAA outdoor championships.
“I’ve been waiting four years to call myself an Olympian”, said Bowie. “My coach told me it was gonna be a fast time, I didn’t know it was gonna be that fast”.
Ashley Spencer was second in 54.02sec while high school student Sydney McLaughlin was third in 54.15. It made McLaughlin the youngest athlete to make the U.S. Olympic track team since 1972.
►Johnny Dutch dominated for 340 meters in the 400 hurdles, but he faded after clearing the final hurdle as Kerron Clement (48.50), Bryon Robinson (48.79) and Michael Tinsley (48.82) sprinted past. He was disqualified, however, in his first race in Beijing, which has served as added motivation to make it back to the world stage in this Olympic year with a winning performance in the U.S. Trials.
In the women’s 5,000 meters, it wouldn’t have mattered if Molly Huddle celebrated this one early as she finished well ahead of the pack.
Sydney McLaughlin is already turning 17 when she competes in the Rio Olympics.
Olympic champion Jenn Suhr won her 10th national pole vault with a clearance of 4.80 metres with Sandi Morris the runner-up at 4.75 metres. He is the fastest man of 2016 in the 100, and the second fastest in the 200m.
Merritt, the world record holder in the event, finished fourth just.01 seconds behind Porter. Ben Blankenship held off Leo Manzano for third and the last Rio place – 3:36.18 to 3:36.62.
Tori Bowie captured her first Olympic trials win on Sunday, when she finished in 22.25 in the women’s 200 meters final. “I knew that Allyson was coming, but I just wanted to get to that finish line and do whatever it took to get on this team”.
“Honestly, disappointed”, Felix said in an AP report. “I’m here just for fun”.
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France completes basketball field: Led by the Spurs’ Tony Parker, France earned the final men’s spot in the Olympics, beating Canada 83-74 in the championship game of the qualifying tournament in Manila, Philippines.
