ATHLETICS Panorama: Ochocinco must have missed the Shanghai 100 m!

U.S. sprint superstar Noah Lyles

Seeing stupid posts on Twitter is no surprise, but former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson – a.k.a. “Ochocinco” – posted a doozy on Friday … and Noah Lyles – he of the co-world-leading 9.86 100 m after his rocket finish at the Shanghai Diamond League – tweeted right back:

The announced “40 Yards of Gold” competition, an elimination-style “tournament” to supposedly determine the fastest player in football, is another slap at track & field.

The event is supposed to take place on 29 June and feature as many as 24 players. But where’s the challenge to the guys who actually run for a living?

New Orleans Saints receiver Ted Ginn, Jr. is one of the listed competitors; he told Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe on “The Lefkoe Show” that he’s race anyone “pole to pole” – on a football field, that’s 120 yards or about 110 m – for $10,000.

He got a quick answer in a tweet back from Texas high school sprint star Matthew Boling (10.13):

The only problem with all of this is the NCAA would be pretty unhappy with Boling: such a stunt would likely cost him his eligibility at Georgia. But how about Lyles or co-world leader Christian Coleman? The $10,000 is first-prize money in a Diamond League meet!

Highlights from the Thursday and Friday events at the NCAA Division I regionals at Jacksonville (East) and Sacramento (West):

Men/200 m:
OK, it was wind-aided – +2.5 m/s – but Texas Tech’s Divine Oduduru (NGR) romped through his West Regional heat in 19.93. His quarterfinal is on Saturday.

Men/400 m:
North Carolina A&T junior Trevor Stewart ran away with the East Regional 400 m heats in 44.55 and his quarterfinal in 44.77. In the West quarterfinals, Houston senior Kahmari Montgomery – the reigning USA Track & Field national champ – ran 44.78 to win heat two of the quarters.

Men/110 m hurdles:
Florida’s Grant Holloway dominated the East Regional heats, winning heat six in 13.19 (wind: +1.7 m/s). Kentucky’s Daniel Roberts won heat three in 13.67. The quarterfinals are on Saturday.

Men/400 m hurdles:
Impressive 48.54 in the East Regional quarterfinals for South Carolina junior Quincy Hall.

Women/100 m:
LSU frosh Sha’Carri Richardson continues to show that she’s for real, winning her East Regional quarterfinal in 10.99 (+0.7), moving her to no. 2 on the world list for 2019. That’s a huge PR for Richardson, who had run windy times of 10.91 and 11.00 earlier, but had a legal best of just 11.25.

She was joined a few hours later by Texas senior Teahna Daniels, who won heat three of the West Regionals in 10.99 (+1.4). That’s a lifetime best, improving on her 11.06 from 2017.

They are the 107th and 108th women to ever run under 11 seconds with legal wind!

Agence France Presse reported that South Africa’s Caster Semenya will run next on 11 June in Montreuil (FRA) in a 2,000 m race, ahead of a 3,000 m at the Pre Classic at Stanford on 30 June. She can run at distances over the mile without any change to her testosterone levels under the IAAF’s eligibility rules, and won the South African title earlier this year at 5,000 m.

In case you missed it, the Athletics Integrity Unit issued a “Notice of Allegation” for doping against Bahrain’s Eunice Kirwa, the former Kenyan runner who won the Olympic silver medal in the marathon in 2016.

She was caught for using EPO (erythropoietin), commonly used for blood doping. Now 35, her last recorded race was a marathon win in Macau (CHN) on 3 December 2017. She was sixth in the 2017 World Championships marathon.