FIREWORKS AT US TRIALS

ATHLETES BATTLE FOR RIO OLYMPIC PLACES DURING DRAMA-FILLED FIRST FEW DAYS

AS EXPECTED, competition for Rio Olympic places on Team USA has been fierce and while numerous world-leading marks have been set and PBs bettered, favourites have also fallen and goodbyes said.

The top three athletes in each event secure automatic selection for the Olympics, provided they have also achieved the qualification standard, and with no chasing of the standards permitted after the trials, top performances were even more important at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

Allyson Felix: returned to top form to take the 400m title in a world-leading 49.68

VICTAH SAILER

SUPER SUNDAY

ON ONE day alone, six world leads were set. On a super Sunday, Allyson Felix and Ashton Eaton were among the winners, while in one of the best ever long jump contests, Jeff Henderson led a windy competition which incredibly saw six athletes over 8.30m. His windassisted leap of 8.59m (+2.9) saw him take the title as he beat Jarrion Lawson by just a single centimetre, Lawson’s wind-legal 8.58m (+1.8) a PB by 24cm.

Impressively, Lawson had also run 10.01 in his 100m semi-final prior to his worldleading long jump, before he returned to the track to clock 10.07 in the final.

Will Claye and Marquis Dendy both leapt a best of 8.42m. Claye’s was wind-assisted (+5.0), and he took third place on countback, while Dendy’s was wind-legal (+1.6) and secured him the third spot on the US Olympic team for Rio. Former world-leader Marquise Goodwin, who had been seen as one of the favourites for Olympic gold, placed just seventh with 8.25m.

“I knew people were out there jumping far,” said Henderson. “That’s the case in the US and particularly at the Olympic trials. If I’m confident in myself, it doesn’t matter what other people are doing.”

Three athletes legally went sub-10.8 for the first time in one race in the women’s 100m as English Gardner took the title in a 10.74 (+1.0) PB ahead of Tianna Bartoletta and Tori Bowie, both with 10.78 PBs. A total of five women have now dipped under 10.8 so far in 2016, with Jamaica’s Elaine

Thompson and Murielle Ahoure of Ivory Coast also having achieved the feat.

Having leapt a wind-assisted 7.02m (+2.3) in between qualifying for the sprint event the day before, Bartoletta qualified for both the 100m and long jump in Rio.