Justin Gatlin, Grant Holloway, and Steven Gardiner all secured victories at the 2021 Tom Jones Memorial Invitational on Saturday. Multiple global championships gold medalist Justin Gatlin won the men’s Olympic Development 100 meters, while Canadian Andre De Grasse opened his outdoor campaign with a sub-10 seconds performance.
Another Sub-10 For Gatlin At Tom Jones Invitational
After getting pipped on the line at last weekend’s 2021 Miramar Invitational, Gatlin returned this weekend to snatch victory away from De Grasse – posting a time of 9.98 seconds (1.4 m/s) to match his season-best and tied the fifth quickest time in the world this season.
De Grasse, the Rio Olympic 100m bronze medalist and silver medalist in the 200m, clocked 9.99 seconds in his first 100m for 2021. Kenny Bednarek of the USA improved his personal best when he finished third with a time of 10.03, while world 200m champion Noah Lyles opened his outdoor term with a fourth-place 10.08 performance.
World-Lead Matching For Martin
In the university men’s 100m race, JoVaughn Martin of Florida State smashed his personal best with a world-lead matching time of 9.94 secs (1.6 m/s). Entering this weekend, Martin’s lifetime best was 10.40, set in 2019.
Cravont Charleston of NC State, the winner of the first section in 10.15 (0.7 m/s), was second overall, while Georgia’s Matthew Boling who was second to Charleston in the first heat in 10.21, finished third overall. Taylor Banks of Florida State ran 10.23 for fourth place and Arkansas’ Roman Turner who ran 10.25 for second place behind Martin in the first section rounded out the top five overall.
Meanwhile, world champion Steven Gardiner from the Bahamas ran 44.71 seconds to take the men’s 400m dash with the fourth-fastest time in the world this season. Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain was second in 45.53 and American Nathan Strother (45.64) took third overall.
The university race was secured by Georgia’s Elija Godwin who clocked 45.34 for the No. 2 fastest time in UGA history and No. 7 best time in the NCAA this year.
Holloway Flashes To World-Leading Time
World champion Grant Holloway continued his impressive form this season after posting a world-leading time of 13.07 seconds (1.3 m/s) to win the men’s 110m hurdles. The time posted by the American at the 2021 Tom Jones Memorial Invitational improved the 13.15 seconds previous world-lead by Jamaica’s Rasheed Broadbell, who ran his time earlier in the day at the Velocity Fest 9 track and field meeting in Kingston.
Florida State’s Trey Cunningham ran 13.28 for second place and Nicholas Anderson posted 13.52 for third.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico clocked a blistering 12.32 (1.7 m/s) to set a new personal best and world-leading time en route to the top podium place in the women’s 100m hurdles, easily defeating Great Britain’s European Championships 60m hurdles bronze medalist Tiffany Porter (12.62) and her sister Cindy Sember (12.61) the silver medalist at the Euro indoors.
In Other Events…
Amber Tanner of Georgia ran the second-fastest 800m time on the NCAA list this season to win the women’s race with 2:01.36 and beat Gabrielle Wilkinson of Florida with 2:01.45, which is the third quickest in the NCAA this term.
In other results on the day, Olympic champion Christian Taylor of USA opened his season with a 16.19m display to take the top honor in the men’s triple jump, edging Florida and Jamaica’s Clayton Brown who did 16.16m.
Florida’s Thomas Mardal improved his hammer throw NCAA lead for the season with a measure of 76.18m, bettering his previous personal best from 75.77m.
Complete Results From the Meeting
