Matthew Boling blasted to an outstanding 19.92 seconds personal best to win the men’s 200 meters at the 2022 Georgia Tech Invitational here at Griffin Track on Saturday, 23 April.
The Georgia junior standout was dipping under the 20-seconds barrier for the first time in his career and he did so despite being pushed back by a slight -0.9 m/s headwind. The time is also a Bulldogs program record, while it tied the No. 3 quickest on the world top list. He joined Christian Coleman, who recorded the same time at the 2022 Kentucky Invitational on Friday (22).
It was only recently he smashed his 100m personal best with a time of 9.98 seconds to go below 10-seconds with legal wind for the first time in his career at the 2022 Tom Jones Memorial Classic at Florida’s Percy Beard Track in Gainesville, FL, earlier this month.
The winning time by Boling this weekend bettered the previous long-time facility record of 20.13 secs by Walter Dix of Florida State back in 2007.
Boling had also been entered in the men’s 400m and long jump events, but he opted to side-step those events to focus on competing in just the 200m today.
Alaba Akintola of Middle Tennessee State finished second with a personal best time of 20.34 secs, while third place went to Phemelo Matlhabe of Life University in 20.50.
Haley Bishop of Vanderbilt took the women’s 200m title with a personal best time of 23.20 seconds (+1.2 m/s), and she defeated Georgia Southern’s Scovia Ayikoru who ran 23.84.
