Olympics-US athletes primed for gold in Tokyo after thrilling trials
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[June 28, 2021]
By Amy Tennery
(Reuters) - With world records broken
and season's best marks posted, U.S. athletes showed they are
peaking at just the right time for the Tokyo Games as their Olympic
trials came to a thrilling end in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday.
Along with Ryan Crouser's record-breaking heave in the shot put
(23.37 metres) and Sydney McLaughlin's new mark in the women's 400m
hurdles (51.90), hurdlers Rai Benjamin (400m) and Grant Holloway
(110m) also came close to getting their names in the record books
after eight days of competition.
U.S. sprinters have had to play second fiddle to Jamaican speedsters
at recent Olympics but there was plenty to suggest they can turn the
tables in Tokyo.
Gabby Thomas delivered a 200m time not seen since Florence Griffith
Joyner in the 1988 Games while 21-year-old Sha'Carri Richardson
cruised to victory in the women's 100m final in 10.86.
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She will face a showdown with Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the
fastest woman alive, who won her country's national athletics
championships on Friday.
"I would tell my younger self that it would all pay off when you
least expect it," said Richardson, reflecting on her early Olympic
ambitions. "Continue to be who you are."
With Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt no longer in the picture,
Trayvon Bromell will have his eyes on the top of the podium after
winning the men's 100m final in 9.81 seconds, just a hundredth of a
second slower than Bolt's gold medal performance in Rio.
And after the U.S. was left off the podium in the men's 200m at the
last two Games, 23-year-old world champion Noah Lyles offers genuine
hope of a medal after posting a world-leading 19.74 in the final
night of competition.
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![](../images/062821PIX/sports21.jpg)
Grant Holloway reacts after winning the
110m hurdles during the US Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field.
Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Six-time Olympic gold medallist
Allyson Felix, 35, will have one last shot at some hardware after
clinching a spot in the 400m for her fifth Games.
The United States has topped the track and field medal table at
every Games since 1984 but never won a medal in the women's hammer.
That drought could be coming to an end in Tokyo, with DeAnna Price
extending her own U.S. record with an 80.31m throw -- a distance
only double Olympic champion Anita Włodarczyk has bettered.
New Zealand's 1,500m runner Nick Willis, who won a silver in Beijing
and bronze in Rio, was impressed by the talent on show in Oregon.
"Wow, this has got to be one of the best US teams heading to the
Olympics ever. Incredible 10 days in Eugene," he tweeted.
For some athletes, though, the dream of Tokyo is at an end.
World champion and U.S. record-holder Donavan Brazier saw his hopes
dashed in the 800m, while 39-year-old Justin Gatlin, who won 100m
gold in Athens in 2004, failed to make an impact in his race, his
career appearing all but over.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery, additional reporting by Gene Cherry;
Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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