The U.S., already boasting its greatest bevy of young sprint talent in more than a decade, should anticipate another pair of new names on the international scene this summer.
LSU’s Sha’Carri Richardson and Florida’s Grant Holloway posted record-breaking performances at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Austin over the weekend.
Richardson, a 19-year-old freshman, won Saturday’s 100m in 10.75 seconds, making her the ninth-fastest woman in history. About 45 minutes later, Richardson broke Allyson Felix‘s 14-year-old world junior record in the 200m, finishing second in 22.17.
Richardson, MileSplit’s No. 1 high school female sprint recruit last year, took a half-second off her 100m personal best since May 24. She’s now the fastest woman in the world this year and the second-fastest for this Olympic cycle, trailing only Jamaican Olympic champion Elaine Thompson.
In the 200m, Richardson ranks second in the world this year behind the woman who beat her at NCAAs — USC junior Anglerne Annelus.
Richardson didn’t commit to racing at next month’s USATF Outdoor Championships in a Saturday night media session. But should she compete in Des Moines, she would be favored to make the world championships team in the 100m, if not both the 100m and the 200m.
Come next summer, Richardson will still be younger than any previous U.S. Olympic 100m sprinter since 1976.
The emergence of not only Richardson, but also 2018 NCAA 100m champion Aleia Hobbs (also of LSU) puts 2017 World champion Tori Bowie on notice. Bowie has a bye into this year’s world championships as defending champion, which is all the more key as she returns from a torn quad.
Holloway, the son of a retired Naval officer and school teacher, came to NCAAs already sharing the fastest 110m hurdles time in the world this year with Kentucky rival Daniel Roberts. But Holloway, who swept the 60m and 110m NCAA titles in 2017 and 2018, had his best night ever on Friday.
In a 150-minute span, Holloway was part of a collegiate-record-breaking 4x100m, broke Renaldo Nehemiah‘s 40-year-old NCAA record in the 110m hurdles (12.98) and posted the only sub-44 split in the 4x400m (43.75).
“Grant has become kind of the face of the sport,” distant cousin and Florida coach Mike Holloway told media afterward, adding that it was time for his pupil to turn pro.
Holloway became the first American to break 13 seconds in the hurdles in nearly four years, ending the once-dominant hurdles nation’s longest drought since 1995. Remember, the U.S. failed to earn a 110m hurdles medal in 2016 for the first time in Olympic history (boycotted 1980 Games aside).
Holloway also became the third man worldwide to break 13 in this Olympic cycle. The others are Rio gold medalist Omar McLeod of Jamaica and 2015 World champion Sergey Shubenkov of Russia.
Holloway and Roberts (who tied Nehemiah’s old record) will make it all the more challenging for 2012 Olympic champion and world-record holder Aries Merritt to make another Olympic or world team.
Merritt, 33, missed the Rio Games by .01 at trials, 10 months after a kidney transplant. Merritt was the fastest American in 2017 but dropped to seventh last year and has raced just once since last July 22 due to knee surgery.
One other sprinter dazzled at NCAAs: Nigerian Divine Oduduru clocked 9.86 in the 100m and 19.73 in the 200m in a 45-minute span. Only Justin Gatlin has run faster 100m and 200m times on the same day.
Oduduru, the youngest of 10 children from a rural village, tied two of those young U.S. sprint stars, Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman, for the fastest 100m in the world this year. His 200m ranks behind only American Michael Norman and Lyles (who are both college age but turned pro).
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
MORE: Russia’s top track and field athlete slams ‘never-ending disgrace’
Follow @nbcolympictalk
