World junior record for 400m hurdler Sean Burrell and world 400m lead for Randolph Ross at US national collegiate championships

The NCAA men’s finals at Eugene on Friday saw more athletes make their mark and put their name forward as potential Tokyo medal winners with Sean Burrell and Randolph Ross particularly impressive.

For a report of Wednesday’s action which saw a British win and records set at 10,000m click here

Burrell provided the biggest headline with a world under-20 record at 400m hurdles of 47.85 which took a second off of his PB. Running in lane eight, he entered the straight with a narrow lead which he stretched to over five as he won from Isaiah Levingston’s 48.49.

Burrell, who took up the event this summer, started with a 50.83 world under-20 lead back in April. Thereafter he improved to 50.64 to 50.15 then 49.12 in successive weeks.

In May he improved his world junior lead to 48.92 and then to 48.86 before his staggering breakthrough in Eugene which puts him a line for an US Olympic team place.

The previous world junior mark belonged to former world and Olympic medallist Danny Harris, who ran 48.02 in 1984. Burrell has run 45.42 for the flat 400m which is also a world under-20 lead.

The 400m had previously been disappointing worldwide in 2021 but that all changed in the one lap final. Randolph Ross improved his PB from 44.60 to a world-leading 43.85 in one big swoop which moves him to 13th world all-time.

Bryce Deadmon set a PB 44.44 in second but was over five metres in arrears.

Terrance Laird won the 100m in 10.05 with Joseph Fahnbulleh only seventh in 10.26 and for much of the 200m it looked like Laird was on for another victory but an amazing finish from Fahnbulleh who had been way back as he entered the straight, gave victory to the latter in a PB 19.91 to Laird’s 19.94 into a mild headwind of -0.4m/sec.

Look at that last 50m ?

Joseph Fahnbulleh with a mesmerising stride length in the last quarter of the men's 200m at the #NCAATF champs. He won with 19.91. pic.twitter.com/p04cowBkjS

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) June 12, 2021

JuVaughn Harrison followed up his world class long jump win on Wednesday with a just as classy 2.33m high jump which won him gold by an astonishing 10 centimetres while Turner Washington completed the shot and discus double with his 63.42m win in the longer throw.

They were not the only double attempters. In the NCAA Indoor Championships, Cole Hocker won an unprecedented mile and 3000m double and he attempted a harder outdoor 1500m and 5000m here with just 100 minutes between the two races and though superb in both, he had to settle for just the one win.

The early pace in the 1500m was slow (300m in 43.94 and 700m in 1:46.33) before 2019 champion Yared Neguse accelerated with a 56.61 penultimate circuit which Hocker covered and then during a searing last lap, Hocker’s 52.23 got him past Neguse in the straight and his reward was a two-metre win in a PB 3:35.35. He had turned 20 a few days earlier.

Cooper Teare, who was a close second to Hocker in the NCAA indoor 3000m and ran a 3:50.39 mile indoors, gained his revenge over his Oregon team-mate with his best ever outdoor run as he smashed the championship record.

Robert Brandt did much of the donkey work leading through 1000m in 2:36.04 and 3000m in 8:02.22 but Teare with a 61.92 penultimate circuit was ahead at the bell but the real damage was done on the last lap which he covered in 54.92 to win in 13:12.27 from Luis Grijalva’s Guatamalan record 13:13.14.

Hocker, who also beaten Teare the previous two times over 5000m, just couldn’t quite go with the acceleration after the 3000m mark, but his 56.38 last lap moved him from tenth to fourth and a 13:18.95 PB suggests he should go sub-13 if fresh later in the season. He ran 1:48.87 for his last 800m in the earlier 1500m.

The 10,000m winner Patrick Dever was not able to add to his medal collection but he did set an eight-second PB to go second in the UK rankings with his 13:19.85 moving him into the UK all-time top 30 and past the Olympic medallists Steve Ovett, Ian Stewart and Mike McLeod.

Dever was in contact through 3000m in 8:03.81 but lost ground on the penultimate lap which he covered in 63.93 and he finished with a 58.54 to squeeze inside 13:20.

Back in 15th, Charles Hicks, who set a UK teenage record in the 10,000m, improved his PB to 13:33.89 to strengthen his hold on third place in the British teenage all-time list behind Steve Binns (13:27.00) and David Black (13:27.85).

Hicks, who said he felt tired after a few laps, was still close at 3000m (8:05.00) but he lost considerable ground over the closing laps as he paid for his 25-lap effort. His next major race will be the Müller British Championships at Manchester in a fortnight.

Robert Dunning impressed with a 13.25 110m hurdles which gave him a clear one metre victory with Britain’s Tade Ojora sixth in a legal PB of 13.57.

Isiah Jewett won the 800m in a US Collegiate lead of 1:44.68 after Brandon Miller had led through the bell in 50.94. European under-20 bronze medallist Finley Mclear just out missed on bronze with fourth place in a PB 1:45.80. Fellow Brit Yusuf Bizimana also set a PB in seventh in 1:46.76.

Emmanuel Ihemeje won the triple jump with a 17.14m PB while Estonian Karel Tilga won the decathlon with 8261 points which gave the pair NCAA indoor and outdoor doubles.

LSU’s 38.48 won a keenly contested 4x100m with four teams at 38.60 or faster while North Carolina won the 4x400m in 3:00.92 as LSU, who had Harrison and Laird among their scorers easily won the overall team title scoring 84 to Hocker and Teare’s Oregon who scored 53.

The women’s finals are held on Saturday.

For detailed men’s results in the clubhouse click here