DK Metcalf‘s entry brought buzz into Sunday’s USATF Golden Games and Distance Open, but otherwise it’s arguably the deepest track and field meet so far this year — one month before the U.S. Olympic Trials.
NBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app air live coverage from Mt. SAC in Walnut, California, on Sunday from 4:30-6 p.m. ET. Peacock streams live coverage from 3:15-6. USATF.TV streams coverage from 2-4:30 and resuming at 10.
Headline track stars include Allyson Felix, Shaunae-Miller Uibo, Noah Lyles, Michael Norman and Keni Harrison.
Eyes will be on Metcalf, the Seattle Seahawks wide receiver who may be trying to qualify for Trials in the 100m. A 10.05 would automatically do it, but anything under 10.20 would give him a realistic chance.
Metcalf didn’t compete in track in college and was primarily a hurdler and triple jumper in high school. He hasn’t commented publicly on how much sprint training he has undertaken since the NFL season ended.
So he is very much an unknown aside from his incredible interception return tackle last season. Given that, getting close to 10.20 — an NCAA Championships final-worthy time — would be a heck of an accomplishment.
Elsewhere, potential Olympic Trials previews are most evident in the women’s 100m and women’s triple jump.
Here are the entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Eastern):
2 p.m. — Women’s Hammer
2 — Men’s Discus
2:30 — Men’s Pole Vault
3:05 — Men’s Shot Put
3:05 — Women’s 200m (B)
3:11 — Men’s 200m (B)
3:15 — Women’s Triple Jump
3:18 — Women’s 100m (heats)
3:32 — Men’s 100m (heats)
3:48 — Women’s 100m Hurdles (heats)
4:02 — Men’s 800m (B)
4:08 — Women’s 800m (B)
4:14 — Women’s 800m (C)
4:20 — Men’s 400m (B)
4:26 — Women’s 400m Hurdles
4:33 — Men’s 400m
4:40 — Women’s Pole Vault
4:40 — Women’s 1500m
4:50 — Men’s 800m
4:55 — Men’s Triple Jump
4:57 — Women’s 100m
5:03 — Men’s 100m
5:05 — Women’s Shot Put
5:11 — Women’s 110m Hurdles
5:18 — Men’s 1500m
5:28 — Women’s 800m
5:42 — Men’s 400m Hurdles
5:49 — Women’s 200m
5:56 — Men’s 200m
10 — Men’s 1500m (B)
10:08 — Women’s 1500m (B)
10:17 — Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
10:31 — Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
10:45 — Women’s 5000m
11:05 — Men’s 5000m
Here are five races to watch:
Women’s 100m — 3:18 p.m. (heats)/4:57 p.m. (final)
Sha’Carri Richardson, who last month ran 10.72 to become the sixth-fastest woman in history, will take on her fellow Olympic medal favorites in a Diamond League meet on May 23, but first she gets a chance to confirm she’s the Olympic Trials favorite. The top four from 2019 Nationals, where Richardson placed eighth after a long NCAA season, are in this field. But at 2019 Worlds, no Americans made the top four for the first time in history. Richardson is right now the only candidate to become the first American woman to win an Olympic 100m since Gail Devers in 1996.
Men’s 100m — 3:32 p.m. (heats)/5:03 p.m. (final)
Can Metcalf make the final? He will likely have to beat a man with a personal best under 10 flat to do so. Two weeks ago, it took 10.44 to advance out of the heats at the USATF Grand Prix at Oregon Relays from a field of similar strength. This field lacks the Olympic Trials favorites — Trayvon Bromell, Justin Gatlin and Lyles — but includes others expected to make the Trials final, led by Rio Olympian Mike Rodgers.
Men’s 800m — 4:50 p.m.
Field includes three of the four Americans from the 2019 Worlds — Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy, worlds fourth-place finisher Bryce Hoppel and Brannon Kidder, plus Isaiah Harris, who was fourth at 2019 Nationals but didn’t have the worlds standard. Donovan Brazier (world champion who scratched out of the meet on Friday), Murphy and Hoppel are considered the favorites to grab the three Olympic spots come June’s Trials, but this is a chance for somebody to change the status quo.
Women’s 200m — 5:49 p.m.
Felix and the Bahamian Miller-Uibo are entered here, though their most memorable clashes have come in the 400m. In Rio, Miller-Uibo took gold by .07 over Felix, diving across the finish line. Felix has said she plans to race both the 400m and the 200m at the Olympic Trials, where the schedule makes it desirable given her primary event in recent years, the 400m, comes first. Miller-Uibo plans to race strictly the 200m in Tokyo as the 200m and 400m overlap on the Olympic schedule.
Men’s 200m — 5:56 p.m.
In 2016, a promising teenager named Noah Lyles nearly became the youngest U.S. male sprinter to make an Olympic team in 28 years. Lyles was fourth at Trials out of high school. This year, Erriyon Knighton, who was born in 2004 and turned pro in January, is reminding some of Lyles. Last Sunday, Knighton ran 9.99 for 100m, though it came with 2.7 meter/second tailwind (wind-legal times can’t have more than 2 m/s tailwind). The world champion Lyles and Knighton are both in this field, and so is Kenny Bednarek, the second-fastest American since the start of 2019 among those expected to race the event at Trials.
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