US rugby star Carlin Isles on Friday advanced to the 60m semi-finals at the US Indoor Track and Field Championships, while Olympians Ashton Eaton and Bernard Lagat faltered.
At the same Portland, Oregon, venue where the world indoor championships are to be staged next week, the first eight finals were staged and qualifying heats were conducted in several track events for yesterday’s final day of competition.
Isles, 26, says he hopes to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August with the rugby sevens and athletics squads.
Photo: Reuters
Touted as the world’s fastest rugby player, Isles could play for the US Eagles in Brazil as rugby returns to the Olympic lineup in the sevens format.
Isles placed 12th in the 60m preliminaries in 6.68 seconds, fourth in his heat, but still good enough to be among 16 semi-finalists.
Mike Rodgers, a 2010 world indoor 60m runner-up, led the men’s 60m qualifiers in 6.56 seconds, 0.01 in front of Marvin Bracy, the 2014 world indoor 60m runner-up.
Haitian-born Barbara Pierre led women’s 60m semi-finalists in 7.13 seconds.
Eaton, the reigning world and Olympic decathlon champion and the two-time reigning world indoor heptathlon champion, was sixth in the long jump at 7.6m and next-to-last among 23 60m preliminary runners in 6.8 seconds as he conducted early work toward his bid to defend Olympic gold at Rio.
Millrose Games champion Ryan Hill won the men’s 3,000m in 7:38.60 with Paul Chelimo 0.4 seconds behind.
Three-time world indoor 3,000m champion Lagat, the Kenyan-born 41-year-old hoping to reach his fifth Olympics this year before retiring, just missed the podium, finishing fourth in 7 minutes, 41.25 seconds, 0.06 seconds behind third-placed Eric Jenkins.
Two-time Olympian Galen Rupp finished eighth and South Sudan-born two-time Olympian Lopez Lomong did not finish.
Natasha Hastings, a three-time world outdoor champion and two-time indoor champion as well as a 2008 Olympic champion on the US 4x400m relay, led women’s 400 finalists in 51.79 seconds.
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