EUGENE, Ore. — Taliyah Brooks will begin her quest for a place on Team USA in the women’s Heptathlon on Day 9 at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials here at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, starting on Saturday, June 26.
Brooks, who is hoping to secure a place on her first Olympic team, will come up against Kendell Williams, Erica Bougard, and Ashtin Mahler in the push to win three places to the Tokyo Games later this summer.
After missing out in the open 100m hurdles events earlier at the championships, Brooks will now turn her attention to achieving the Olympic qualifying standard of 6420 points in the heptathlon. So far this season, she has tallied a personal best of 6252 points when finishing second at the 2021 Texas Relays in March, but she is confident about achieving the Olympic qualifying standard this weekend and finish in the top three.
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Brooks has been able to set a number of personal bests in open events, including a 23.45s in the 200m, 2:16.39 for the 800m, 12.61s in the 100m hurdles,12.36m throw for the Shot Put, and 38.63m effort for the Javelin Throw, and she will hope to use those achievements to boost her confidence over the next two days.
In the meantime, Bougard, the world championships fourth-place finisher from Doha 2019, has not contested a heptathlon this season, but like Brooks, she also has dissected the multi-event and worked on different parts of the competition by competing in open events throughout the season.
Bougard, the 2018 and 2019 national champion, owns a personal best of 6725pts and has already tallied the Olympic qualifying standard.
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Kendell Williams the 2017 U.S. champion in 2017, is the fifth-place finisher from the 2019 world championships and she owns a personal best of 6610pts. So far this season, the former Georgia three-time NCAA champion has a year best tally of 6383pts, done when finishing third at the 2021 Hypo-Meeting at the Mösle-Stadium, Gotzis, Austria, on May 30.
Also seeking a place on the Olympic team to Tokyo are Ashtin Mahler, Annie Kunz, Chari Hawkins, Anna Hall, and the NCAA silver medalist.
The women’s heptathlon at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials on Saturday will begin at 4:15 p.m. ET. and conclude on Sunday’s last day.
