Dalilah Muhammad broke the 400-meter hurdles world record for the second time this season at worlds. Photo by Getty Images for IAAF
Just about every track nerd I know had “Day Eight” of the IAAF World Outdoor Track and Field Championships marked on their calendars, and the performances lived up to the hype.
Dalilah Muhammad set a world record in the 400-meter hurdles, running 52.16 and edging her U.S. teammate Sydney McLaughlin, whose time of 52.23 was the third-fastest in history. Qatar high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim nailed a clutch third attempt and went on to win the host country’s first gold medal of the championships. Brooklynn Loiselle has the story for DyeStat. Brett Taylor has interview area videos, too, with Muhammad and McLaughlin.
The men’s 1,500-meter semifinals had a distinctly Oregon flavor, with four athletes who train in Eugene or Portland running. Three of them–Neil Gourley of OTC Elite, who runs for Great Britain; Craig Engels of the Nike Oregon Project and Matthew Centrowitz of the Bowerman Track Club–qualified for Sunday’s final. Alex Castle wrote the story for the Oregonian, and Nate Mann covered it for the Register-Guard.
And as if all that weren’t enough, SOJC Track got a chance to interview University of Oregon track royalty: two-time Olympic decathlon gold medalist Ashton Eaton and his wife, Olympic heptathlon bronze medalist Brianne Theisen-Easton, who are returning to the sport as ambassadors after a couple of years of retirement. Learn about their non-track and field jobs, their life away from the track and how they’re preparing to be parents in this piece by Alex for the Oregonian.
