EUGENE, Oregon — The women’s 100m semi-final heats on Day 2 at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships here at Hayward Field in Oregon, are expected to provide some early fireworks with Julien Alfred, Melissa Jefferson, Kevona Davis, Abby Steiner, Kemba Nelson, Favour Ofili and Celera Barnes all in action on Thursday (9).
Semi-final one at the championships will feature NCAA leader and the third-fastest woman in the world this season, Alfred, who will go head-to-head with NCAA Indoor 60m champion Jefferson, who is the fifth-fastest in the world this year. Read more: Day 2: Order of events and how to watch 2022 NCAA outdoor championships?
Texas standout sophomore Alfred owns a personal best of 10.81 secs, set in Lubbock, TX, at the Big 12 Championships last month, while Coastal Carolina star Jefferson posted a 10.88 PB at the Sun Belt Championships in Lafayette, LA, on 14 May.
The heat on Thursday will also include the likes of Anavia Battle of Ohio State, Ezinne Abba of California and North Carolina State A&T’s Grace Nwokocha.
Meanwhile, semi-final two at the championships is also loaded with talents and we will see no fewer than four women with sub-11 seconds clockings this season going head-to-head. Read more: How to watch the Portland Track Festival High-Performance meeting?
Steiner of Kentucky will start as the one to beat in this race, but she is expected to be pushed by Texas’ Kevona Davis, who posted a wind-aided 10.83 seconds earlier this year and has also done 10.95 secs with legal wind-reading, which is just .03 seconds off Steiner’s PB.
Rosemary Chukwuma of Texas Tech and Arkansas’ senior Jada Baylark are also in this semis and will be hoping to secure places into the final.
In the meantime, Kemba Nelson, Favour Ofili, and Celera Barnes will all race from the third semi-final heat with the hopes of securing passages to the final.
Kynnedy Flannel of Texas who has been showing better form this season over the 200m recently, is still a very good talent and she too will also race in the third semis along with Symone Mason of LSU and Jadyn Mays of Oregon.
The top two finishers in each heat will earn spots in Saturday’s final with the next three fastest times outside the top two finishers also getting a spot in the medal race.
