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- 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships: Event-By-Event Sprints & Hurdles Preview
2025 USATF Outdoor Championships: Event-By-Event Sprints & Hurdles Preview
Breaking down the top athletes and matchups to follow across each sprint event at the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships.
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Buckle up track and field fans. The most high-octane four-day stretch of sprinting and hurdling imaginable is set to get underway Thursday at increasingly historic New Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. We’ve broken down each event in obscene detail below, and highlighted when and how to watch each race.
And if you just can’t get enough track and field coverage, there’s plenty more where that came from:
Each day before the meet begins, tune in to Good Morning Track and Field (presented by Beekeeper Coffee), where Eric Jenkins and Aisha Praught-Leer give their takes on the action and happenings in Eugene. (Also available on the Off The Rails Podcast feed.)
After each day at the track, tune in for CHAMPS CHATS—Chris Chavez, Eric, Aisha, Anderson Emerole, and Paul Hof-Mahoney will break down all of the results and offer up their analysis from each day’s competition. (Also available on the CITIUS MAG Podcast feed.)
The CITIUS MAG Newsletter will be hitting your inbox daily with a recap of results and a round-up of the best content from the day.
And for those in Eugene, we’ll be hosting two group runs with New Balance, Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. PT, meeting in front of Agate Alley on 1461 E. 19th Avenue. There will be coffee, treats, free “I Love Track and Field” t-shirts and the chance to try out the new FuelCell Rebel v5 and FuelCell SuperComp Elite v5. It’s going to be a great time!
Without further ado, here’s your full preview of the top storylines and athletes to watch in each sprint and hurdle event at the U.S. Championships.
By David Melly
Women’s 100m

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Thursday, July 31st at 3:47 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 1st at 4:20 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Friday, Aug. 1st at 6:36 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Last year's Olympic team: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Sha’Carri Richardson, and TeeTee Terry
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has a whopping 28 women who have run under the World Championships standard of 11.07, one more in the World Rankings quota, and Richardson has already qualified via the defending World champ wild card.
Top Contenders: After the way this spring has gone, all signs point to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden winning her second—and possibly third—national title this weekend. Jefferson-Wooden, the 2022 U.S. 100m champ, has only gotten better in the three years since, following up an Olympic bronze in 2024 with a stellar start to 2025, running PBs in both the 100m and 200m, winning five of her six Grand Slam Track races, and defeating Olympic champ Julien Alfred at the Prefontaine Classic. She’s the fastest woman in the world this year, and the fastest American by over a tenth of a second as she enters with a 10.73 SB, well ahead of Tee Tee Terry and Jacious Sears, both at 10.85. Her biggest threat would likely come from a top-form Sha’Carri Richardson, but we haven’t seen that yet this season. Richardson has only run two races and didn’t run faster than 11.19 or finish higher than fourth in either. Plus, given she has a bye into Worlds, Richardson may not even contest the event and may choose to focus on just the 200m instead.
The other two spots will likely come from some combination of Sears, Terry, Aleia Hobbs, and Tamari Davis. Sears and Hobbs both have the talent to make the team but have occasionally struggled with injuries, so for them the biggest challenge may be getting to the finish line healthy, three rounds in a row. Terry and Davis have a great record of performing well at U.S. Championships: Davis finished fourth, third, and fourth at the last three USAs, and Terry has finished third, sixth, and third.
Dark Horses: In some sense, it feels wrong to call the top two finishers from NCAAs “dark horses,” but USC’s Samirah Moody is only ninth on the entry list and South Carolina’s JaMeesia Ford has a stronger resume as a 200m runner. But either has a shot to make the team if not too burned out by a long collegiate season.
The other name you shouldn’t sleep on in both the 100m and 200m is Anavia Battle. Battle doesn’t have the shiniest SBs of anyone on the list (10.98 and 22.27), but she has done nothing but win so far this year, going undefeated in all seven of her individual races, including four Diamond League victories.
One Good Stat: 2011. That was the last time the U.S. Championships didn’t feature either Jenna Prandini, English Gardner, or both. Gardner, 33, will be contesting her 12th USAs and Prandini, 32, is at her 11th, an incredible string of consistency from the beloved former Oregon Ducks, who are sure to get enormous cheers from the Hayward faithful.
Men’s 100m

Fred Kerley, Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Thursday, July 31st at 4:13 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 1st at 3:58 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Friday, Aug. 1st at 6:50 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Last year's Olympic team: Kenny Bednarek, Fred Kerley, and Noah Lyles
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has nine men who have run under the World Championships standard of 10.00, four men in the World Rankings quota, and Lyles has already qualified via the defending World champ wildcard.
Top Contenders: Noah Lyles has declared for this event, but he told CITIUS MAG in London he’d only be contesting the 200m. The reigning World Champ will make the team either way via his wild card, but if he does opt to double, he’ll have his hands full with Trayvon Bromell and Kenny Bednarek, the two men who’ve been the most consistently great this year. Bromell enters with the fastest wind-legal time at 9.84 and Bednarek ran a wind-aided 9.79 at GST Miami. Bednarek is 0-4 against Bromell in career 100m finals, but they haven’t raced head-to-head in the event since 2022 and Bednarek is inarguably a better 100-meter runner now than he was three years ago.
Speaking of head-to-head rivalries, Kerley is 7-5 against Bromell in their careers and 5-2 against Bednarek. Even though the 2022 World champion hasn’t quite performed up to his potential thus far this season, he’s got a stellar track record of peaking when the stakes are high and can’t be counted out. Similarly to Kerley, Christian Coleman only has a wind-legal season’s best of 10.06 and hasn’t won a single individual race in nine attempts this year, but his fourth-place finish in 2024 was his lowest he’s finished at a U.S. championships since 2016 (although he didn’t compete in 2018 and 2021 and skipped the final in 2022).
Dark Horses: Brand new pro Jordan Anthony (formerly of Arkansas) and T’Mars McCallum (still at Tennessee) have both shown flashes of brilliance this year. Anthony won NCAA titles over 60m and 100m, running a slightly wind-aided 9.75 (+2.1), and McCallum ran 9.87 (+2.1) in the 100m and 19.73 in the 200m at the Ed Murphey Classic. How they’ll fare over three rounds of professional competition remains to be seen, however.
Others who can’t be counted out include Brandon Hicklin, who finished fourth (second American) at both the Pre Classic and Rome Diamond League, and Courtney Lindsey, who’s stronger over 200m but finished sixth in the 100m last year and should be right there if one of the presumptive favorites falters.
One Good Stat: The last five U.S. 100m finals have produced five different champions: Lyles in 2024, Cravont Charleston in 2023, Kerley in 2022, Bromell in 2021, and Coleman in 2019. Lyles is the only active sprinter with multiple titles in the event (he won in 2018 as well)—will a fellow former champ join him this year?
Women’s 200m

Brittany Brown | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Saturday, Aug. 1st at 11:48 a.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 12:32 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 2:13 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Brittany Brown, McKenzie Long, and Gabby Thomas
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 23 women who have run under the World Championships standard of 22.57 and five women in the World Rankings quota.
Top Contenders: Bet against Olympic champ Gabby Thomas at your own peril… BUT Thomas has lost to two other women in this field in the last year: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden at the Philly GST meet, and Brittany Brown at last year’s Athlos NYC event. Brown has been ramping back up throughout the season after undergoing laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis this winter, but the Olympic bronze medalist is rounding into form nicely with a season’s best 22.17 in her most recent race at the Ed Murphey Classic.
McKenzie Long won that race in 21.93, and she also seems to be finding her best form of the year at just the right time. But the women’s 200m is a crowded field this year, with four Americans under 22 seconds already in 2025, plus Sha’Carri Richardson, who finished fourth in this event after winning the 100m at last year’s Trials. Will racing the 200m fresh be what she needs to land on the podium?
Dark Horses: JaMeesia Ford has a better shot at making her first U.S. team in this event than the 100m, but unfortunately for her and NCAA runner-up Madison Whyte, the competition is way stiffer here than the last time they came to Eugene.
And much like in the 100m, Anavia Battle could surprise a lot of people. She also could make the team for Tokyo without finishing top three. This is one of the events where the U.S. doesn’t have a reigning World champion but Battle has a legitimate shot of winning the Diamond League final to secure a wildcard entry that way.
One Good Stat: Eight out of 10 of the fastest 200m runners in the world this year are American. The sole exceptions are Julien Alfred and Favour Ofili, who both came through the NCAA system and still train in the U.S.
Men’s 200m

Noah Lyles | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Saturday, Aug. 1st at 11:22 a.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 12:05 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 2:22 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Kenny Bednarek, Erriyon Knighton, and Noah Lyles
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 11 men who have run under the World Championships standard of 20.16, one more in the World Rankings quota, and Lyles has already qualified in this event via the defending World champ wildcard, too.
Top Contenders: If Noah Lyles runs all three rounds of the 200m, as he previously indicated he plans to, he’ll be the heavy favorite to win his fifth national title in the event. But he will have to fend off a strong challenge from Bednarek, who as you may remember, has beaten Lyles in two of the last four global 200m finals.
Knighton is a bigger question mark, as he’s only raced one 200m (indoors) this year and hasn’t raced at all since April 19. At his best, he’s certainly capable of finishing top four (as Lyles finishing top three unlocks another spot on Team USA), but who knows what cards he’s holding at the moment. That could open the door for 21-year-old T’Mars McCallum—who’s the second seed at 19.73 but is largely an unproven commodity at this level of competition—or Courtney Lindsey, who made the 200m team with a third-place finish at USAs in 2023.
Dark Horses: The men’s 200m is a fairly static event, all things considered, and one that hasn’t presented many surprises at USAs over the last few years. Their respective performances in the 100m will tell us how realistic a chance Fred Kerley and Christian Coleman have to make the team in the 200m—if they’re not contending for spots in the final of the shorter distance, it’s not likely they will fare any better two days later.
One name to keep an eye on is Robert Gregory. The Florida alum finished fourth in the 200m at Pre (second American) in a season’s best 20.04, and should one or more of the major players falter, getting back to his 19.89 PB could be enough to land on the team this year.
One Good Stat: With McCallum in the mix, it’s likely there will be at least one collegiate athlete who makes the 200m final here—something that’s happened in every U.S. Championship dating back to 2016. That year, however, featured two high school standouts in the eight-man race: Michael Norman and Noah Lyles.
Women’s 400m

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Thursday, July. 31st at 4:39 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 1st at 6:03 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 1:03 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Aaliyah Butler, Kendall Ellis, and Alexis Holmes
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 15 women who have run under the World Championships standard of 50.75.
Top Contenders: This very well may be the most highly-anticipated event of the whole championships, as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is all-in on the 400m. The last time she contested the flat 400m at USAs, two years ago, she ended up running 48.74 to just barely miss Sanya Richards-Ross’s American record of 48.70. Unlike in 2023, however, SML no longer has the fallback option of a wild card in the 400m hurdles—she’s either making the team in this event or she’s not running Worlds. The hope of sprint fans everywhere is that an all-in McLaughlin-Levrone will yield something truly special in the final.
Behind McLaughlin-Levrone are a few big questions. It’s possible that the remaining two spots will both be occupied by NCAA champions: Outdoor champ Aaliyah Butler followed up her victory in Eugene with a stellar 49.09 run in Monaco, taking Olympic champ Marileidy Paulino to the line in the process, and indoor champ Bella Whittaker has looked strong on the DL circuit since setting the 49.24 American record indoors. But they’ve both been going hard since January, and the long season can start to catch up with NCAA stars around this time of year.
The comeback narratives of the year will come in the forms of Lynna Irby-Jackson, who ran her first sub-50 since 2018 earlier this spring, and Britton Wilson, who’s back after an injury-plagued 2024. Wilson finished second behind McLaughlin-Levrone in 2023, but she’s only run 50.54 thus far this season so we’ll have to wait and see if she’s back in top form.
Finally, we haven’t seen Alexis Holmes in action since GST Philly. While the World Indoor silver medalist is capable of making the team at her best, Holmes hasn’t dipped back under 50 seconds yet in 2025.
Dark Horses: If Talitha Diggs can return to her 2023 form, she should be able to mix it up with the top three. But Diggs only had a season’s best of 51.49. Her former SEC rival Rosey Effiong may be a better bet this time around, as the Arkansas runner finished third at NCAAs in 50.51 and is only a year removed from her 49.72 PB.
One Good Stat: 15 years—that’s the age gap between 33-year-old Quanera Hayes and 18-year-old HS star Sydney Sutton, who are both entered here with a shot to make the final and, potentially, the relay pool for Team USA.
Men’s 400m

Quincy Wilson | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Thursday, July. 31st at 5:05 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 1st at 5:41 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 1:11 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Christopher Bailey, Quincy Hall, and Michael Norman
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 13 men who have run under the World Championships standard of 44.85 and two men in the World Rankings quota.
Top Contenders: Could 2025 be the year we see “U.S. senior champion Quincy Wilson”? It’s more likely than you think. With Olympic champ Quincy Hall and 2022 World champ Michael Norman out with injuries, the list of athletes Wilson would have to beat is not nearly as long as it could be: the 17-year-old is the third fastest American on the year.
The U.S. leader is Kaleb McRae, who took a huge jump forward with a 43.91 at a somewhat-random meet in Canada in June. You can’t entirely dismiss that performance as an outlier, but his previous PB was 44.68 and his next race was a 44.45 at Pre, where he finished behind Jacory Patterson and Chris Bailey.
Maybe McRae will prove the doubters wrong, but based on resumes alone it’s more likely that Patterson or Bailey will be the strongest contenders for the win in Eugene. Bailey is the reigning World Indoor champ and has gotten better and better this season, most recently running a 44.15 PB at Pre for second behind Olympic silver medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith. Patterson is the only other sub-44 American this year alongside McRae, running 43.98 at the Miami GST, but he’s been more consistent, winning four of his five outdoor 400m races after a World Indoor bronze, including a Diamond League win.
Wilson, of course, has only gotten higher expectations since picking up an Olympic gold medal in the 4x400m last summer. Most recently, he broke his own U18 world record with a 44.10 victory over a pro field at the Ed Murphey Classic, placing him third on the entry list for USAs.
Dark Horses: Tied with Wilson on the entry list is fan-favorite Vernon Norwood, a veteran racer who’s been a stalwart relay leg on many a U.S. team. Most recently, he’s coming off a 44.34 fourth place finish (top American) at the London DL and should he recapture his 44.10 form from last summer he should have a decent shot at the team.
One Good Stat: 0 for 4. Being the fastest guy in the U.S. in the 400m has been something of a curse the last few years. None of the four fastest men on the year successfully competed at the following USAs: Hall, the fastest man of 2024, is out, Norman (2022) was injured all of 2023, and Randolph Ross (2021) had his USA result from 2022 disqualified for a WADA violation. Of course, the one exception is Rai Benjamin, the fastest American of 2023 in the event who simply didn’t contest the flat 400m because he’s an Olympic champion hurdler.
Women’s 100mH

Women’s 100m hurdles final - 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Friday, Aug. 1st at 2:36 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 12:41 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 2:25 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Alaysha Johnson, Masai Russell, and Grace Stark
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 11 women who have run under the World Championships standard of 12.73 and one more in the World Rankings quota.
Top Contenders: This very well may be the toughest team in the U.S. to make, as Americans are historically fast and deep at the 100H. Both Masai Russell and Tia Jones ran faster than Keni Harrison’s now-former American record of 12.20 earlier this season, and when you throw in Grace Stark right on their heels at 12.21, this event has gotten historically fast this season. Jones, unfortunately, picked up an injury at the Pre Classic that will keep her out of USAs, but don’t think that either Russell and Stark will cruise to an easy 1-2 finish. Alaysha Johnson, their fellow Paris Olympian, is trending the right way after a slow start to the season, along with Harrison, a 5x U.S. champ, and Tonea Marshall both entering with marks under 12.40.
Dark Horses: 35-year-old Christina Clemons always seems to put herself in the mix at national championships, finishing seventh in the final last year and making the World Indoor team in the 60m hurdles this past March.
Gabbi Cunningham hasn’t made a U.S. team since the 2021 Olympics, but she’s still only 27 years old and ran her fastest wind-legal 100H in three years just two weeks ago, a 12.80 at the Ed Murphey Classic.
One Good Stat: Four NCAA champions are entered in this event: Harrison, Clemons, Stark, and Alia Armstrong. But despite owning the NCAA record and Olympic gold, Masai Russell never won an NCAA title while at the University of Kentucky, finishing second four times (once in the 100H, once in the 400H, and twice in the 60H).
Men’s 110mH

Grant Holloway | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 12:14 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 12:55 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 2:54 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Freddie Crittenden, Grant Holloway, and Daniel Roberts
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: The U.S. has 12 men who have run under the World Championships standard of 13.27, two more in the World Rankings quota, and Holloway has already qualified via the defending World champ wildcard.
Top Contenders: All eyes will be on Grant Holloway, but not for the usual reason. Normally, the World/Olympic champ is a constant threat to the all-time lists, and on a fast track like Hayward Field, a world record performance is rarely out of the cards. But Holloway has dealt with ups and downs this season, taking a seven-week break from racing and getting beaten in the two races he clocked in June. He ran 13.11 and 13.13 in those races—a perfectly respectable pair of performances for anyone else in the world, but not up to his normal standard.
As the defending World champion, Holloway will end up on Team USA no matter what, but this weekend will be a greater test than he’s faced in recent memory. Don’t be surprised if he skips out on the final. He’s done that a few times since winning his first global title in 2019, but it would be comforting to see Holloway get through the rounds looking like himself again. If he falters, the door would open for Cordell Tinch, the 2025 world leader at 12.87, or Trey Cunningham to pick up their first national titles. Cunningham, the World silver medalist from 2022, is also in desperate search of his first career sub-13: he’s run 13.00 on three separate occasions.
Four other men enter with sub-13.10 season’s bests: Dylan Beard (13.02), Ja’Kobe Tharp (13.05), Jamal Britt (13.08), and Freddie Crittenden (13.09). Crittenden has the strongest championship resume of that group, but Beard has also picked up some impressive wins in the last few seasons and clocked his lifetime best behind Cunningham at the Paris Diamond League in June. Tharp already ran well here en route to an NCAA title for Auburn as well, and honestly it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of this group sneak into a qualifying spot.
Dark Horses: It’s strange to think of the reigning Olympic silver medalist as a “dark horse,” but Daniel Roberts hasn’t had a great start to the year either, finishing no higher than fourth in six 110mH races and running no faster than 13.30 thus far. But there’s a reason why Roberts has made every U.S. team going back to 2019; discount him at your own peril.
One Good Stat: 13 athletes—that’s how many more men are contesting the 110H than women in the 100H, which only has 19 entrants total.
Women’s 400mH

Dalilah Muhammad | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Friday, Aug. 1st at 3:03 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 1:19 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 1:34 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: Anna Cockrell, Jasmine Jones, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: McLaughlin-Levrone, Cockrell, Jones, Dalilah Muhammad, Rachel Glenn, Akala Garrett, Shamier Little, and Anna Hall have run under the World Championships standard of 54.65; Cassandra Tate and Bianca Stubler are in the World Rankings quota.
Top Contenders: This year’s 400H is an event defined by who is—and isn’t—competing. Notably absent, of course, is world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, as well as three of the other seven women with the standard, as Shamier Little, Rachel Glenn, and Anna Hall are no-shows (Hall is the favorite in the heptathlon).
But on the bright side, 35-year-old Dalilah Muhammad is singing one helluva swan song in her final professional season, running her fastest times in years. She’s actually the fastest American entered by season’s best at 52.58. It would be quite the feel-good story to see Muhammad make one last team, and now it looks like she might even win one last national title, which would be her fifth total but first since 2019.
Olympic silver medalist Anna Cockrell will put up a good challenge, however, as the only other sub-53 woman of 2025, and as Jasmine Jones comes back into form after an early-season injury, she’ll have the firepower to take the win as well.
Dark Horses: 20-year-old Akala Garrett was the NCAA runner-up behind Canadian Savannah Sutherland, and she’s one of only four entrants under 54 seconds this season.
At the other end of the experience spectrum, 34-year-old Cassandra Tate hasn’t run quite up to her past standards this year with only a 55.59 season’s best, but the 2015 World bronze medalist has plenty of championship experience under her belt and could be saving her best stuff for August.
One Good Stat: An American has medaled at every World or Olympic final in this event going back to 2007, so even in the absence of SML, statistically speaking someone from the top three in Eugene will be very likely standing on the podium in Tokyo as well.
Men’s 400mH

Rai Benjamin | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Schedule + How To Watch
Heats: Friday, Aug. 1st at 3:30 p.m. PT (Watch it on USATF.TV)
Semifinals: Saturday, Aug. 2nd at 1:41 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Final: Sunday, Aug. 3rd at 1:43 p.m. PT (Watch it on NBC, Peacock)
Last year's Olympic team: CJ Allen, Trevor Bassitt, and Rai Benjamin
Who has the World Championship qualifying standard or is in the World Rankings quota: Benjamin, Chris Robinson, Caleb Dean, Allen, Bassitt, and Ja’Qualon Scott have run under the World Championships standard of 48.50.
Top Contenders: When it comes to domestic 400m hurdling these days, it’s Rai Benjamin’s world and we’re all just living in it. Benjamin hasn’t ever lost a U.S. championship he’s contested, winning every edition going back to 2019. Given the Olympic champion is also the world leader, it would take a small act of God to knock him off the top step of the podium for the first time this year.
That’s not to say this event is boring, however. Although they’re over a second behind Benjamin, only 0.09 seconds separates the season’s bests of Chris Robinson (48.05), Caleb Dean (48.08), CJ Allen (48.10), and Trevor Bassitt (48.14). Because Benjamin is only the reigning Olympic champ and not the World champ, those four will likely be fighting over only two spots, and while Bassitt has the best resume, including a World medal in 2022, Robinson and Dean, both 24 years old, have plenty of upside.
Dark Horses: Texas A&M’s Ja’Qualon Scott set a PB of 48.29 to finish second in the NCAA final, and if he continues to elevate his game to match the level of competition, he could find himself in the mix as well.
One Good Stat: Among active American hurdlers, Rai Benjamin has the 18 fastest marks in history. The next fastest behind him is Caleb Dean’s 47.23 from last year’s NCAA championship.
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