Britton Wilson (© Getty Images)
US sprinter Britton Wilson and Jamaican triple jumper Jaydon Hibbert produced the standout performances at the SEC Championships in Baton Rouge, which concluded on Saturday (13).
Hurdles specialist Wilson continued her staggering progress on the flat, setting a PB of 49.40 in the 400m heats on Friday before improving to 49.13 in the final to win comfortably from Tierra Robinson-Jones (50.54).
It is Wilson’s fourth consecutive sub-50-second run – a streak that started with her North American indoor record of 49.48 set when winning the NCAA indoor title in March.
Just an hour later, Wilson contested her specialist event, the 400m hurdles, and won that by two seconds in 53.28, just 0.2 shy of her lifetime best, to achieve the best ever one-day double for the 400m hurdles and flat.
She now moves to 17th on the world all-time list for the 400m, which is higher than her ranking in the hurdles (24th).
Hibbert’s outdoor season has picked up where his indoor campaign left off. The world U20 champion, who still has another year in the age group, was contesting just his third outdoor triple jump competition of the year. Despite jumping from a 12-stride run-up, he went out to 17.02m with his opening leap and then improved to 17.87m (1.3m/s) in round two to smash the world U20 record.
Before this year, the world U20 record stood at 17.50m, set by Volker Mai back in 1985. Hibbert then jumped 17.54m indoors for an outright world U20 record, but his 17.87m jump in Baton Rouge could – pending ratification – now stand as the outdoor world U20 record.
It was a good day for Jamaican field eventers, as Wayne Pinnock won the men’s long jump with 8.37m and Roje Stona took the discus with 68.64m, his third PB of the year.
Decathletes and hurdlers impress
In a competition of many great performances, all-round talents Kyle Garland and Ayden Owens-Delerme shone.
Garland, who went to no.2 on the world indoor heptathlon all-time list earlier this year, completed his first decathlon of the season with a world-leading 8589.
Owens-Delerme, who is usually one of Garland’s big collegiate combined events rivals, opted to contest the 400m hurdles instead in Baton Rouge. In what was just his third ever competition in the discipline, he clocked a PB of 49.12 in his heat and then smashed that to win the final in 48.26 from Chris Robinson (48.36).
Alia Armstrong and Ackera Nugent, the NCAA outdoor and indoor champions respectively in the sprint hurdles, had a close duel. After winning her 100m hurdles heat in a marginally wind-assisted 12.31 (2.2m/s), Armstrong won the final in a legal PB of 12.40, just ahead of Nugent who was also rewarded with a PB (12.43).
There were speedy times in the 100m flat too, with Jacious Sears winning in 10.96 from world indoor U20 60m record-holder Kaila Jackson (11.04).
Elsewhere, Ryan Willie won the men’s 400m in a PB of 44.27 from Elija Godwin (44.55). Willie later anchored the victorious Florida team in the 4x400m, clocking a world-leading 2:57.76 from Alabama (2:58.01).
