Jamaica double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah put away a top-quality field to massively improve an already impressive personal best, at the Prefontaine Classic, Wanda Diamond League meet in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday.
Fresh off an impressive triumph at the Tokyo Games, Thompson-Herah was in no mood to slow down, and in fact, went considerably faster. The Jamaican pulled away from compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the final metres of the race to stop the clock at 10.54, just .05 second outside of the world record set by the United States' Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.
In almost identical fashion to Tokyo, Fraser-Pryce was second in 10.73, with Shericka Jackson third in 10.76.
Prior to the race, a lot of the attention was focussed on the return of flamboyant United States sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson who missed out on a match-up with the Jamaica trio at the Olympics, after serving a brief suspension for testing positive for marijuana.
Expectations had been heightened for the sprinter’s return after emphatically winning the US trials before the Games. In Eugene, however, she was nowhere to be found. Richardson got away slowly and never got into the race, ending at the back of the field in a pedestrian 11.14. Thompson-Herah now has the two fastest times outside of the longstanding world record set by Griffith-Joyner.
Texas's Julien Alfred (10.83) secures spot in 100m field at NCAA Championships; Arkansas's Ackera Nugent (12.69), Texas Tech's Roswell (12.77) advance in the sprint hurdles
Texas’s Julien Alfred will have a chance to defend her NCAA Outdoor 100m title after securing her spot in the field on the final day of the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento on Saturday.
The 21-year-old St. Lucian, who won the NCAA Indoor 60m and 200m double earlier this season, sped to a meet record and collegiate leading time of 10.83 to comfortably be the fastest qualifier to the Championships set for June 7-10 on her home track at the University of Texas's Mike A. Myers stadium.
Her Jamaican teammate, Kevona Davis, also made it through the preliminaries with an 11.06 effort.
The Texas duo also made it through in the 200m with Davis running a season’s best 22.33 and Alfred running 22.45.
Arkansas’s Ackera Nugent, a two-time NCAA Indoor Champion, ran 12.69, a new meet record to advance fastest in the sprint hurdles. Her countrywoman, Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell, also made it through with a season’s best 12.77.
Arkansas’s Nickisha Price and Joanne Reid both advanced in the one-lap event with personal best times of 50.49 and 51.49, respectively.
In the field, defending NCAA high jump champion, Lamara Distin of Texas A&M, easily cleared 1.85m to secure her opportunity to defend her title. Texas’s Ackelia Smith, world leader in the long jump, also booked her spot in the field for the triple jump with 13.96m.
Meanwhile, at the East Regionals in Jacksonville, Ohio State’s Yanique Dayle and Kentucky’s Anthaya Charlton made it through in the 100m.
Dayle, the Jamaican Senior, produced a big personal best 11.05 while Charlton, the Bahamian Freshman, produced 11.08 (2.3 m/s) to advance.
Dayle also advanced in the 200m with a season’s best 22.58 while LSU’s Brianna Lyston also made it through with 22.92.
In the field, Georgia’s Vincentian Junior, Mikeisha Welcome, jumped 13.50m to make it through in the triple jump.
Budapest gold is ‘pipe dream’ as Eilish McColgan bids to break 30-minute barrier
Eilish McColgan says winning gold at this summer’s World Championships is a “pipe dream” and she is instead focusing on breaking the 30-minute barrier in the 10,000 metres.
The 32-year-old Scot is recovering from the knee injury which forced her to pull out of the London Marathon last month just days before the race.
She returned to light training at the weekend with the August event in Budapest in her sights but admits that her time on the sidelines has severely hampered her chances of topping the podium.
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McColgan has had incredible success in the 10,000 metres over recent years, winning gold in the European Championships in 2021 and then at the Commonwealth Games 12 months later before creating history in March of this year by setting a new British record of 30:00.86.
And now she wants to become the first non-African-born woman to go under 30 minutes.
On her chances of winning gold in Budapest she told the PA news agency: “That would exceed my goals right now because of the setbacks I have had. I think it would be a pipe dream right now, but I am not going to set myself any real limits.
“To be in Budapest and be at the start and healthy would be a big achievement to be honest.
“But my big thing this year would be to break the 30 minutes in the 10k. I think there are only 12 women in the world who have done that, it would be a big achievement for me.
“Earlier in the year I had no doubt I could break 30 minutes, now there is a little bit of a doubt because I haven’t been able to train for the last so many weeks.
“It does put a little bit of a question mark over whether I can do it and perhaps that is one for next season, but it would be really nice to be in Budapest and be competitive.
“To be in the top six fastest women in the world… that would be a great achievement.”
It has been a frustrating few weeks for McColgan, having to rehab her knee problem, which fortunately did not need surgery.
And she cites recovering from injuries as one of the main triggers of stress in her job, especially as she says that her method of dealing with it is to go out and run.
“It’s a very privileged job that I have, it is not quite the same pressures as other people may have but we are still humans, we are not robots at the end of the day, so we do have pressures,” McColgan added.
“The biggest pressure is coming back from injury but we go through the same stresses as everyone else because with regards injury and illness, if we don’t race or compete that is how we pay our bills.
“It is the biggest pressure, coming back from injury and making sure you’re healthy.
“It is maybe more challenging for myself, running is ultimately what can cause my stress but it is what I use as a stress release. That is difficult if I am injured and I can’t do the thing I love.
“You train hard for years of your career for months and months on end to race. That lends itself to pressure, you build yourself up to that one event.
“Usually it’s the World Championships or Olympic Games because it is one day every four years where you have to be ready. It is quite big stakes when it is one day in four years.
“You think, ‘s***, that is not easy’. It is challenging to get the right balance of really enjoying your sport without it becoming too intense.”
A recent study has revealed that 85 per cent of people say sweating can increase stress levels, even though it is proven to have health benefits.
McColgan is part of deodorant brand Bionsen’s ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ campaign, which aims to remove the stigma of sweating and offer tips on how to manage stress.
McColgan added: “I don’t think people should be afraid to sweat. A few years ago it was almost like women didn’t want to be seen to be sweating, but now it is more of a confidence thing. Being active and keeping fit and being afraid to sweat is hard work, but that is what it takes.”
:: Bionsen’s full deodorant range is available from £2.69 at a variety of retailers including Boots, Amazon and Bionsen’s website: https://bionsen.uk/
Katarina Johnson-Thompson finishes second on return to heptathlon in Gotzis
Katarina Johnson-Thompson marked her competitive return to heptathlon with a second-place finish at the Hypomeeting in Gotzis, Austria.
Johnson-Thompson, in her first outing since winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in August last year, finished runner-up to American Anna Hall, who topped the podium with a personal-best 6,988 points.
However, the 30-year-old, who has endured an injury-hit past couple of years, recorded a tally of 6,556 points, marking the Liverpudlian’s best haul since winning the world title in 2019.
A throw of 13.92 metres represented a lifetime best in the shot put while her 1.89m high jump was her highest clearance in four years.
Fellow Briton Jade O’Dowda finished 10th in the two-day meet.
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