Twenty-six Florida athletes – 11 current and 15 former Gators – traveled to Eugene, Oregon, for the USA Track and Field Olympic Trials. The ten day competition starts today with the men’s 100-meter decathlon.
US athletes must meet entry requirements and automatic minimum standard times. Entry requirements include being a U.S. citizen and a member of USA Track and Field.
Athletes must also meet automatic or minimum standard times during the 11-month qualifying window between July 2023 and June 2024. For the 10,000 meters, 20,000 race walk and combined events, the qualifying deadline was extended between December 2022 and June 2024.
Among current Florida athletes, seven men and four women will compete in Eugene. On Friday, senior Jenoah McKiver and freshman Rios Prude Jr. tried to earn a spot representing the U.S. on the world stage. The minimum qualifying standard in the men’s 400 meters is 46.00 seconds.
McKiver’s fastest time of the season came during the Florida Relays with a 45.33. Prude Jr. ran his fastest time of 45.51 during the NCAA East Preliminaries in May. McKiver automatically progressed to the semifinals in the trials with a season-best time of 45.26.
Graduate student Abraham Sargent participated in the men’s javelin throw. He automatically qualified for the trials during the SEC Championships where he placed second with a distance of 246-5 feet.
Sargent advanced after earning one of the 12 spots in the finals. He placed sixth overall with a distance of 71.45 meters.
Later this week, Florida’s senior Robert Gregory Jr. will compete against Olympic superstars Noah Lyles and Kenneth Bednarek. Gregory Jr. met the men’s 200-meter automatic qualifying standard time of 20.30 seconds in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In the finals, he ran a season-best time of 20.08 seconds.
In the women’s 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters, junior Parker Valby will try to continue her dominance. The automatic qualifying standard is 15:10.00 and 31:30.00, respectively.
In April, Valby ran a new collegiate record time in the 10k of 30:50.43. Then during the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she set new collegiate and meet records in the women’s 5k with her time of 14:52.18.
In the first round of the women’s 5,000 meters at the trials, Valby placed third. She advanced to the finals Monday.
Graduate students Grace Stark and Vanessa Watson will run the women’s hurdles at the trials.
Stark won her first Outdoor Championship title in the 100-meter hurdles earlier this month. Her personal best 12.47 time would have automatically qualified her for the trials. But, in March, her 12.70 time stood as a 2024 Olympic qualifying mark.
At that point, Stark became the first woman to run the hurdles in less than 12.80 seconds.
Watson didn’t compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. However, she met the women’s 400-meter hurdles automatic qualifying standards of 56.20 seconds at the SEC Championships. Watson placed third with a time of 55.59 seconds.
After their season-best performances in the Outdoor Championships, junior Malcolm Clemons and senior Claire Bryant will represent the Gators in the long jump. Clemons automatically qualified with a distance of 26-5 feet, and Bryant surpassed the automatic standard in her distance of 22-1 1/2 feet.
Senior Caleb Foster’s season-best performance of 26-3 in the SEC Indoor Championships qualified him in the men’s long jump.
In the men’s triple jump, senior Sean Dixon-Bodie earned a spot at the trials after his 54-8 3/4 feet jump in the Florida Relays.
Men’s World Championship gold medalists like Champion Allison, Grant Holloway and Ryan Willie will also compete in the trials.
The 2024 Olympics is the next step after the trials conclude. Athletes who qualify will fly to Paris at the end of July to compete for the U.S. internationally.
Contact Liana Handler at lhandler@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @handlerliana.
