Brown's world record, four Team USATF golds highlight day 4 at World U20 Championships

EUGENE, Oregon — There's just something about the hurdles at Hayward.
 
Le'Ezra Brown lit up the straightaway Saturday night with a 12.72 men's 110 hurdles to tie the world record set by France's Sasha Zhoya in 2021 and lead a nine-medal Team USATF haul on the penultimate day of the 21st World Athletics U20 Championships. Running a race that was far from perfect, Brown bulled through the final three barriers, clattering number nine, and outran Japan's Jeremy Koga to the line to win the fifth U.S. gold in the event in meet history.
 
The U.S. doubled its medal count to 18 total with nine on the day, including four golds, and took an unassailable lead on the team points standings with 153, 96 ahead of the nearest contender, Ethiopia.
 
With world records in the women's 100 hurdles and men's 110 hurdles also having been set on the Hayward track in the past four years, it's clearly the place to be if you like to run really fast over ten obstacles. Brown set his first American U20 record at Hayward in the heats at the USATF U20 Championships in mid-June with a 12.95 and then lowered that to 12.89 in the first round here. His wind-aided 12.82 in the semifinal was the second fastest ever in any conditions, foreshadowing what might come when he lined up against the best U20 field ever assembled.
 
Koga was out quickly with Zacchaeus Brocks not far behind, and Brown was a smidge adrift. By the fifth hurdle Brown was well into his running and he started to pass Koga, while Brocks fought to stay in medal contention. Pulling away after the final barrier, Brown sped to the line to put a lock on gold, while Koga crossed the line in 12.97 for silver and Brocks outleaned Norway's Anthony Johnsen for the bronze in 12.98, matching his lifetime best. Five national records were set in the race, as well as seven lifetime bests.
 
Completing a double-double in the men's and women's sprints for the home team, Tate Taylor dominated the men's 200 with a championships record run of 19.83, the 10th fastest U20 performance ever, and Mia Maxwell added women's 200 gold with a big PB of 22.37 to win by .31 over pre-meet favorite Shanoya Douglas of Jamaica. Taylor and Maxwell earlier this week won golds in the 100. Blake Hamilton completed the U.S. sweep of medals in the men's race with a 20.31 for silver, while Mariah Maxwell took bronze behind her twin sister in 22.77. It was the first time an American man or woman won the 100/200 double at the World U20 meet.
 
Maddi Cooper started the streak of golds with a PB-equaling 12.91 from lane two in the women's 100 hurdles, beating South Africa's Tumi Ramokgopa by .05, with Jamaica's Tiana Marshall claiming bronze in a PB of 12.97. Tori Goodson was ninth in 13.34. Cooper's gold was the seventh in the event for the U.S., but the first since 2018.
 
In the newest event on the schedule, an American quartet of Cy Lugo, Ahlayna Taylor, Nicholas Altheimer, and Ava Kitchings got the baton around safely in the mixed 4x100 relay, running the fastest time ever by a U.S. team to earn bronze in 41.39. Italy bettered the world U20 record with a 41.21 for gold, the third time that record was lowered in this meet, and silver went to Great Britain in 41.38.
 
Sailing over a PB height of 4.35 on her first attempt in the women's pole vault, Kylie Neira took the bronze over Australia's Jamison Harding, who needed all three attempts to get over that height. Neira made her first two heights of 3.95 and 4.10 without issue but took three tries to make 4.25. Gold went to Czechia's Nicole Krutilova, and Ukraine's Olha Belchenko earned silver at 4.40. Katie Blue was 12th at 3.95.
 
Just missing out on the podium, Maddox Krotzer and Quincy Isaac finished fourth in the men's high jump and long jump. Krotzer had easy clearances at 2.06 and 2.12 before going over 2.17 first time, but he couldn't navigate 2.21, the height cleared by all three medalists. Algeria's Younes Ayachi snagged the gold by making it on his first attempt, with silver going to India's mononymous Basant, who cleared second time. Britain's Otis Poole rattled the bar but made it on his third attempt to take bronze.
 
A closely fought long jump had one centimeter separating the gold and silver medalists, Daniele Inzoli of Italy and Australia's Mason McGroder. Inzoli took the lead right away with a 7.93 in round one and improved to 7.97 on his next attempt before fouling his final four jumps. McGroder came as close as one can to ripping the gold out of Inzoli's hands, but his final leap of 7.96 was just short and he settled for silver. India's Shahnavaz Khan had a best of 7.84 for bronze, and it looked like Isaac might have exceeded that on his final attempt, but it was ruled a foul and he ended up fourth at 7.79.
 
Other Americans in night session finals were Paige Sheppard, who finished eighth in the women's 800 in 2:06.94, and Chiara Dailey, who took 21st in the women's 3000 in 9:24.92. Brody Foster was eighth after nine events in the men's decathlon but dropped to 13th after a 5:29.37 in the 1500, tallying 7,374 points. Darius Jones was 28th with 5,698.
 
Drama was apparently the rule of the day in the morning session's 5000 race walk finals, where an official had to physically impede the Tunisian woman who had refused to stop after being disqualified, and the men's bronze medal was initially given to a Japanese athlete before it was taken back when officials ruled he had incurred a 30-second penalty and would drop to sixth. Team USATF's Gael Plasencia was 33rd in the men's race in 21:31.81, and Grace Wagener took 37th in the women's event in 25:39.29.
 
Three of the four U.S. relay teams safely advanced to Sunday's finals, but it was the women's 4x100 that produced heartache, largely because of the qualifying procedures. Running in the third and final heat and needing to finish in the top three to move on since there would be no time qualifiers allowed, the American foursome of Cooper, Kitchings, Sanyah Keeton, and Naija Sizemore were in a section loaded with quality. Overloaded actually, as the seeding didn't reflect the true talent level of all the teams involved. The U.S. ran 43.67 and finished fourth with the fourth fastest time overall, ending up on the outside looking in as countries that didn't break 45 seconds advanced from other heats. A blistering 9.81 anchor by Nigeria's Oluebube Ezechukwu, one of the fastest women's splits ever recorded in any competition, was the difference as her team grabbed the third slot in 43.65.
 
Team USATF's men stretched the final exchange zone to the max in the fourth heat of the 4x100 and blazed to a 38.87, the eighth fastest U20 time ever. Jayson Smith ran the leadoff leg and handed off in third to Dillon Mitchell. Mitchell obliterated his competitors down the backstretch with a 9.26 split to give the U.S. the lead. From there it was all over but the finishing. Individual 100 finalist Kyler Brown had the fastest split around the final bend and Auralleus Hicks brought it home in fine fashion for a .45-second margin of victory.
 
Both 4x400 teams topped the qualifying round standings with resounding wins in their heats. The women used a 52.77 anchor by Olivia Harris to record the fastest overall time, a 3:32.66 that put them almost a full second in front of the next nation. Ashtyn Lewis (53.09), Taylor-Nicole Overton (52.48), and Sydney Kuhn (54.32) were the other three U.S. runners who helped produce the victory.
 
The U.S. men were never behind as they won heat three in 3:04.55, the fastest U20 time in the world this year. Ade Lloyd (46.25), Cameron Tucker (46.12), Carlo Johnson (46.80), and Alexander Osayemi (45.38) stayed out of trouble at the exchanges and pieced together a very solid winning effort to set up Sunday's final.
 
Thirteen men hit the automatic qualifying standard in the discus, and USATF U20 champion Simon Rosselli was one of them. Rosselli lofted the 1.75 kilogram platter out to 60.84 on his first attempt and was done for the day. Chris Marcell was just outside the qualifying group in 15th with a best of 59.85.
 
Shi'eana Hall eked into the women's triple jump final with a best of 13.00 for 11th, but D'Anna Cotton missed out in 13th as she was tied with Brazil's Karine Martins and lost on the countback to best second effort. Martins had a 12.50 backup mark, while Cotton had only one legal attempt of her three.
 
Winning his men's 400 hurdles semifinal in runaway fashion, Miller Warme had the second fastest time overall at 49.48 to advance to Sunday's final. He will be joined by Keenen Davis, who was third in the third semi in 50.47. Neither of the U.S. women made it through to the final. Tatum Lynn was sixth in the third semi in 58.84, while Natalie Dumas crashed down at the eighth barrier in semi two and got up to finish in 1:11.76.
 
TEAM USATF MEDALS (18)
 
Gold (8)
Mixed 4x400 relay — Shelton, Overton, Hunter, Harris, 3:15.31 (World U20 Best)
Women's 100 — Mia Maxwell, 11.14
Men's 100 — Tate Taylor, 9.94
Men's 400 — Jayden Deleon, 44.47
Women's 100 Hurdles — Maddi Cooper, 12.91
Men's 110 Hurdles — Le'Ezra Brown, 12.72 (=World U20 record)
Men's 200 — Tate Taylor, 19.83 (Championships record)
Women's 200 — Mia Maxwell, 22.37
 
Silver (6)
Women's Discus — Jaslene Massey, 58.41
Men's Hammer — Kayden Hulet, 77.55
Men's Triple Jump — Miles Nesmith, 16.79
Women's 400 — Ataja Stephane-Vazquez, 51.36
Men's 400 — Quincy Wilson, 44.62
Men's 200 — Blake Hamilton, 20.31
 
Bronze (4)
Mixed 4x100 relay — Lugo, Taylor, Altheimer, Kitchings, 41.39 (best U.S. performance ever)
Women's Pole Vault — Kylie Neira, 4.35
Men's 110 Hurdles — Zacchaeus Brocks, 12.98
Women's 200 — Mariah Maxwell, 22.77