World champion Grant Holloway opened his outdoor season in the 110m hurdles on a winning note after clocking 13.34 seconds (-0.4 m/s) to copped the event at the 2022 LSU Invitational on Saturday (30).
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Holloway, the World Athletics champion in Doha in 2019, was finally making his season debut in his specialty after pulling out of the 2022 USATF Bermuda Games because of strong windy conditions at Flora Duffy Stadium earlier this month.
The American Olympic silver medalist is coming off a fruitful indoor campaign where he wrapped the winter season up with a gold medal performance over 60m hurdles at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Serbia, last month.
On Saturday at the 2022 LSU Invitational, Holloway finished ahead of LSU and NCAA star hurdler Eric Edwards Jr. who was second in 13.57 secs, while Joey Daniels of Athletics Canada ran 13.78 for third place.
Devon Allen set Penn Relays record, beats Omar McLeod
Meanwhile, another American sprint hurdle star, Devon Allen posted a championships record of 13.11 to beat 2016 Olympic champion Omar McLeod of Jamaica at Penn Relays 2022.
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Allen, a two-time Olympic finalist, got away quickly before holding off McLeod to win at the tape.
“To get a win over Omar McLeod, one of the best in the world is definitely a good feeling this early in the season,” Allen, who improved his season’s best from 13.12 secs, said after his victory on Saturday.
McLeod took second place with a time of 13.22 seconds.
Also today at Penn Relays 2022, Olympic 400m hurdles champion and world record holder in the event, Sydney McLaughlin of USA opened her outdoor season with a victory in the women’s 100m hurdles.
McLaughlin, who revealed that her aim today was just to dust off some of the rust and get to see where she is in her preparations, broke the tape at 12.75 secs to finish ahead of Canada’s Mariam Abdul-Rashid (13.17) and USA’s Evonne Britton (13.23).
In the meantime, in another fast sprint hurdles race this weekend, Florida State’s Trey Cunningham ran 13.15 seconds in the heats and then bettered that time with 13.10 secs to lower Devon Allen’s world leading mark in 2022.
Cunningham’s performance came at the University of North Florida Invitational at Hodges Stadium.
Elsewhere, at the 2022 LSU Invitational, Lady Tigers standout Alia Armstrong won the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 12.72, defeating Florida’s Grace Stark, who ran 12.83 and Ackera Nugent of Baylor, the third place finisher with 12.99.
At the Drake Relays 2022 meeting, Tokyo Olympic Games 110m hurdles champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica clocked 13.47 secs for the win, while running against a strong -2.5 m/s headwind.
Tokyo Olympic 100m hurdles gold medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico didn’t finish the women’s race, which was won by Tia Jones (12.84), just head of Tonea Marshall (12.85).
