Indeed, multiple Olympic medal-caliber hurdlers will not make Team USA, or perhaps even make it out of Friday’s afternoon semi-finals.
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Five Americans combined to clock the 15 fastest 100m hurdles times in the world past year, the kind of grip over one track and field event that no other nation can boast.
Two other events saw their finals on Friday: the men’s discus throw and the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Pearson tore a hamstring tendon. She ran 13.01 seconds in her semifinal heat, missing a spot in the finals by.01 seconds. Unfortunately, 2008 Olympic champion and 2012 silver medalist Dawn Harper-Nelson came up short in her bid to make a third Olympics. Harrison won her first high school race despite wearing tennis shoes. At the US Championships on Friday (July 8), Brianna Rollins stormed to victory in 12.34 to just miss Gail Devers’ meet record of 12.33 set in 2000, while American record-holder Keni Harrison was among those to miss out. Despite not advancing to the finals, both Ducks were pleased with the performances they delivered on their home track.”I learned this isn’t a game, this isn’t fun”, Johnson said of rubbing shoulders with numerous best hurdles in the world. “I’m more motivated than ever”.
He made the 2014 U.S. championships, taking 10th in the final. Seven of the nine fastest women on the planet in 2016 are from the U.S. Twenty-one U.S. women have dipped under the Olympic qualifying standard of 13.00.
“I can’t remember someone from another country finishing in front of me”, Castlin said.
He’s now just one of 12 left.
“Didn’t feel like myself, but luckily got on, so we’ll get some sleep over the next two nights and I’m really looking forward to Sunday”, Avila said.
“It was really hard to grasp the discus with the weather”, he said. “Our coach was really preparing us for this moment”.
Competing in his first trials, he finally went to sleep about 2:30 a.m. Friday. “A great experience”, he said.
Rollins, Castlin and Ali are all aware of what happened at the 2015 World Championships. At the Prefontaine Classic in May 28, Harrison broke the American record with a 12.24, equaling the second-fastest time in history, just three-hundredths of a second off Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria’s 1988 world record. “I think it’s awesome”. “You kind of see it (the rain) for your first few steps, but once you get over a hurdle, you get over it (the rain)”. She coasted into the semifinal round with a preliminary-round best 12.56 on Thursday. Little came into this meet a career 14-0 in races at Hayward Field. Harper-Nelson was the silver medalist in London.
Michael Tinsley ran 49.15 and Johnny Dutch 49.20 to win the two men’s 400m hurdles semi-finals.
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“That was a lifetime chance”, he said later. Finley finished in first with a throw of 63.42 meters, Bailey in second with a throw of 61.57 meters and Evans in third at 61.22 meters. Jared Schuurmans, the 2015 USA champion, was seventh.
