World leader Matthew Boling will not race in the men’s 200 meters at the 2022 SEC Indoor Championships at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on the Texas A&M campus and will be held on Friday and Saturday, February 25-26.
Boling, who leads the world list this season in the 200m, would have been expected to start as the favorite to win the event this weekend, but coach Caryl Gilbert Smith has decided to lighten his schedule with only two individual events at the championships.
READ MORE: Day 1 Start lists: 2022 SEC indoor track and field championships
The junior star is slated to compete in the men’s long jump and the 60m sprint. Boling will feature first on day one in the long jump, starting at 6:15 p.m. ET before stepping into the blocks at 7:06 p.m. for the heats of the 60m.
He leads the 2022 world list in the 200m with a time of 20.27 seconds, set at the Razorback Invitational at the end of January.
Boling is currently the national leader in the long jump with a personal best of 8.25m (27-0¾) achieved earlier this season at the Clemson Invitational. On Friday, the Georgia standout, who is only ranked behind Swiss jumper Simon Ehammer (8.26m) on the world list for 2022, will start in the second flight of the event at the conference championship.
READ MORE: Matthew Boling opened the season with an 8.25m long jump attempt at Clemson Invitational
He is set to face off with silver medalist from last year and the conference outdoor champion, Carey McLeod of his Tennessee and Jamaican Wayne Pinnock who are ranked No. 3 and No. 5 in the NCAA this season.
Boling will be aiming to become the first Georgia athlete, since Lester Benjamin in1985, to win an SEC Indoor Championships men’s long jump title.
