2017 USATF Outdoor ChampionshipsJun 24, 2017 by Dennis Young
Keni Harrison Wins First U.S. Title Ahead Of Ali, Manning, Harper-Nelson
Keni Harrison Wins First U.S. Title Ahead Of Ali, Manning, Harper-Nelson
Keni Harrison Wins First U.S. Title Ahead Of Ali, Manning, Harper-Nelson
Kendra Harrison won her first U.S. outdoor title less than a year after breaking the world record and less than two months after breaking her hand on a race. Nia Ali, Christina Manning, and Dawn Harper-Nelson filled out the U.S. team headed to worlds behind her. (Harrison has a bye to worlds as the 2016 Diamond League champion.)
100 meter hurdling is so competitive in the United States that the hierarchy is perpetually shuffling. With Manning making her first team, nine different women have made world/Olympic outdoor teams since 2013. Or look at it another way: just last August, Brianna Rollins, Ali, and Kristi Castlin swept the medals in the Olympic final. Out of those three, only Ali is even back on the team this summer. Castlin was sixth in the final today and Rollins is serving a one-year suspension for missing three drug tests.
Harper-Nelson, the 2008 Olympic champ, was suspended for three months earlier this year for medicine she took in an emergency room visit for hypertension. The 33-year-old has now made world/Olympic teams in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015.
​Dawn Harper-Nelson talks to the media after making her sixth major Team USA squad:
The win was a major redemption for Harrison, who is the fastest hurdler in world history at 12.20 seconds but struggled in major finals last year. She ran the fastest semifinal time at world indoors and finished eighth in the final there; she finished sixth at the Olympic Trials just fourteen days before breaking the world record. She seems to have solved whatever was plaguing her last year, as she's won U.S. titles indoors and out in 2017.
And the WR holder Keni Harrison takes her (very) deserved #USATFOutdoors title! after missing out on Rio last year https://t.co/YXGtWD99RA pic.twitter.com/YwO67wr2hh
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) June 24, 2017
100 meter hurdling is so competitive in the United States that the hierarchy is perpetually shuffling. With Manning making her first team, nine different women have made world/Olympic outdoor teams since 2013. Or look at it another way: just last August, Brianna Rollins, Ali, and Kristi Castlin swept the medals in the Olympic final. Out of those three, only Ali is even back on the team this summer. Castlin was sixth in the final today and Rollins is serving a one-year suspension for missing three drug tests.
Harper-Nelson, the 2008 Olympic champ, was suspended for three months earlier this year for medicine she took in an emergency room visit for hypertension. The 33-year-old has now made world/Olympic teams in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015.
​Dawn Harper-Nelson talks to the media after making her sixth major Team USA squad:
The win was a major redemption for Harrison, who is the fastest hurdler in world history at 12.20 seconds but struggled in major finals last year. She ran the fastest semifinal time at world indoors and finished eighth in the final there; she finished sixth at the Olympic Trials just fourteen days before breaking the world record. She seems to have solved whatever was plaguing her last year, as she's won U.S. titles indoors and out in 2017.