Thomas, Benjamin among big stars at U.S. track championships

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EUGENE, Ore. — Late Sunday afternoon, a few minutes after Gabby Thomas ran this year’s fastest 200-meter time in the world during the semifinals at the U.S. track and field championships, she was scrolling through her phone when she realized her time already had been eclipsed.

Thomas read that in Kingston, Jamaica, Shericka Jackson had just wrested away the world lead with a time of 21.71 seconds, 15-hundredths faster than the American.

“I was like, they can’t let us have anything!” Thomas said.

By night’s end, motivated by Jackson’s race, Thomas reclaimed that mark by winning the U.S. title in 21.60 seconds. It was a personal record and the fourth-fastest wind-legal performance in history. And Thomas did so with command, pulling away from runner-up Sha’Carri Richardson over the final 100 meters.

The rivalry between Thomas and Jackson sets up one of the most anticipated races of the world championships, which will be held in Hungary from Aug. 19 to 27. Jackson was undoubted entering this season, having run history’s second-fastest time to win the 2022 world 200-meter championship in 21.45, while her top challengers all carried question marks. Thomas, the Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, was coming off a hamstring injury that derailed her 2022 season. Richardson’s performances for the last two seasons had ranged from world class to not fast enough to advance out of the preliminaries at the U.S. championships.

Yet in Eugene, Thomas reestablished her standing as one of the top sprinters while Richardson, in winning the 100 and finishing second to Thomas in the 200, also navigated six rounds without incident. The last U.S. woman to win gold in the 200 at the world championships was Allyson Felix in 2009. Since then, three Jamaican women have won gold.

The 200-meter final at the world championships is Aug. 25. It could be the race of the meet.

Here’s what else was talked about at the U.S. championships:

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Rai Benjamin believes he finally can win global gold

Rai Benjamin clears a hurdle during the 400-meter hurdles semifinals at the U.S. track and field championships.

Benjamin’s performance under adverse conditions backed up his confidence. The former UCLA and USC star who trains in Los Angeles has been the most consistent 400-meter hurdler at a time when the event has been run faster than ever.

Yet by finishing second at the Tokyo Olympics to Norway’s Karsten Warholm in the fastest race in the event’s history and second to Brazil’s Alison dos Santos at last year’s world championships, Benjamin has the odd standing of owning history’s second-fastest time while not having a global gold medal to show for it. Benjamin said Sunday that has led him to feel disrespected.

Winning the U.S. title in 46.62 seconds showed he is again capable of threatening for a gold in August. Only Warholm has run faster this year. Benjamin’s time was all the more remarkable because he had not raced since May 5 because of a quad issue that eventually led him to seek treatment in Germany and barely train for the eight weeks preceding the U.S. championships.

Yet he still dipped under the rare sub-47 threshold, something only five men in history have done. Benjamin feels he is the fastest man in the race. In August he has another opportunity to prove it.

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Will champs double up at worlds?

Noah Lyles, left, races ahead of Trayvon Bromell in the 100-meter dash semifinals at the U.S. track and field championships.

Gold medalists from last year’s world championships in Oregon earned an automatic bye into this year’s edition in Hungary, which left several attempting to qualify in a second event, as well. Last year’s 100-meter champion Fred Kerley finished one spot, and just one-hundredth of a second, out of qualifying in the 200, too.

The three who were successful:

—400-meter world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the open 400.

—Noah Lyles, the 200-meter champion, qualified in the 100 by finishing third.

—Athing Mu, the reigning Olympic and world champion at 800 meters, qualified in the 1,500 by finishing second.

Will they actually compete in two events at the worlds? Lyles said he will. Mu has scratched from the 1,500, according to a social media post from U.S. fourth-place finisher Sinclaire Johnson, who wrote that because of the scratch she was given a world-championships berth. McLaughlin-Levrone’s decision is expected soon.

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A sprint showdown is secured

Inside track and field, the dearth of head-to-head races between the best sprinters has been called an ongoing concern by officials, agents and athletes. But next month’s world championships will see a reprise of Lyles, the U.S. record-holder, against Erriyon Knighton, the 19-year-old seen as a potential heir apparent in the 200 meters.

Knighton cruised to his third spot on a U.S. team at either the Olympics or world championships, but first national title, in 19.72 seconds. The U.S. swept the top three places at last year’s world championships and is in position to do so again.

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The (high school) kids are all right

Teenager Hana Moll launches herself over the bar in the women's pole vault at the U.S. track and field championships.

Six weeks ago Hana Moll, an 18-year-old pole vaulter from Olympia, Wash., was beating her teenage contemporaries at her state meet. On Sunday, she set a national high school record of 15 feet, 1 ½ inches while competing against professionals and finished a remarkable third at the U.S. championships. That would normally qualify an athlete for worlds, but she is four inches shy of meeting the world-championship standard. She is still in contention to advance based on world rankings.

Meanwhile, Mia Brahe-Pedersen entered the meet only weeks removed from her junior year at Lake Oswego (Ore.) High owning a slew of top-10 times in the 100 and 200 in the prep record books but scant experience facing the country’s best professional sprinters. She intended to treat it as practice ahead of the 2024 U.S. Olympic team trials. Then she ran well enough to last through six rounds and advance to both the 100 and 200 finals.

“I’m way more confident in my abilities to go up against these athletes who I’ve been looking up to these girls since I was just starting track like five years ago,” she said. “The fact that I know that they’re not that much better than me, I’m right up there with them and I, if anything, can just learn from them.

“And I’m so grateful for that because I have a whole nother year until I have to compete against them again. And hopefully next time I’m going to come back and I’m going to give them a run for their money.”

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Back here next year?

This marked the third consecutive year Eugene and Hayward Field have hosted the U.S. championships, and some athletes have critiqued the high cost of airfare and lodging in track’s unofficial domestic capital city of 150,000 some two hours south of Portland. Only 12 months remain until the U.S. Olympic track and field team trials will determine which athletes represent the country at the Paris Olympics, but USA Track & Field has yet to announce which city will host the 2024 trials.

Eugene has hosted the last four Olympic team trials, dating to 2008.