The indoor track & field season concluded over the weekend with the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, with a four world-leading marks:
● Men’s 400 m: 44.82, Tyrell Richard (USA/South Carolina State)
● Men’s 60 m Hurdles: 7.35, Grant Holloway (USA/Florida)
● Women’s 200 m: 22.66, Kayla White (USA/North Carolina A&T)
● Women’s 400 m: 51.50, Kaelin Roberts (USA/USC)
Holloway won a rare double, taking the 60 m in 6.50, making him the no. 2 performer on the 2019 world list, and the 60 m hurdles in a sensational 7.35, the world leader for 2019 and moving him to no. 3 on the all-time list. The hurdles time is also an American Record, removing the 7.36 mark by Greg Foster in 1987, and tied by Allen Johnson in 2004 and Terrence Trammell in 2010.
He also long jumped 7.95 m (26-1) for third, so he scored 26 points for the national champion Gators by himself! His 60/60 Hurdles double was the first since Trammell did it for South Carolina back in 2000.
Also impressive was 400 m winner Richard, whose goal was to try to set the world record (44.52 by Michael Norman in 2018), but his 44.82 did place him as the no. 4 performer in indoor history! He’s run 44.70 outdoors, at the NCAA meet in Eugene last year.
Not world leaders, but still impressive were wins by Mondo Duplantis (LSU/Sweden) in the pole vault at 5.83 m (19-1 1/2) and American Payton Otterdahl’s win for North Dakota State in the shot put at 21.71 m (71-2 3/4).
The team titles were won by Florida for the men and Arkansas for the women.
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It’s impossible to know if the tweet is completely accurate, but DeporCuba reported that long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarria recorded a wind-aided 8.92 m performance – that’s 29-3 1/4 – with a 3.3 m/s aiding wind.
If true, it would be the fourth-longest jump in history, behind three jumps by Mike Powell: 8.99w (29-6w) in 1992, his world record of 8.95 (29-4 1/2) in 1991 and 8.95 m (29-4 1/2w) again in 1994.
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China’s national race walk championships in Huangshan yielded an important breakthrough for women in the 50 km walk: the first-ever sub-4:00 time.
Hong Liu won the race in 3:59:15, more than four minutes ahead of Maocuo Li (4:03.51) and shattering the existing mark of 4:04:36 by China’s Rui Liang from 2018.
Of course, the IAAF is also considering doing away with the 50 km distance and replacing the 20 and 50 with 10 km and 30 km races.
