Five Best From The Weekend: Miller-Uibo Shows Range, Bromell Beats Lyles

Five Best From The Weekend: Miller-Uibo Shows Range, Bromell Beats Lyles

Wind-assisted marks and bootleg race videos, this is track and field in 2020.

Jul 26, 2020
Five Best From The Weekend: Miller-Uibo Shows Range, Bromell Beats Lyles
Until the Diamond League formally returns on Aug. 14 in Monaco, finding track results is an exercise in internet sleuthing and social media stalking. Grassroots meets that are humble in appearance have been heavy on star power as the pandemic has forced athletes to compete at venues that don’t typically house a cast of world and Olympic champions. So bootleg race videos and wind-assisted marks have become the norm in a season that certainly has no precedent.

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Until the Diamond League formally returns on Aug. 14 in Monaco, finding track results is an exercise in internet sleuthing and social media stalking. Grassroots meets that are humble in appearance have been heavy on star power as the pandemic has forced athletes to compete at venues that don’t typically house a cast of world and Olympic champions. So bootleg race videos and wind-assisted marks have become the norm in a season that certainly has no precedent.

Anyway, here are the top five performances from the weekend: 

1. Shaunae Miller-Uibo's 10.98/21.98 Double

Less than a week after Michael Norman became the second man ever to join the sub-10/20/44 club, the Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller-Uibo punched her membership card to an exclusive list of her own by clocking 10.98 in Clermont, Florida, over 100m, becoming just the fourth woman to break 11 seconds for 100m, 22 for 200m and 49 for 400m, per Jon Mulkeen.

The 2016 400m Olympic champ hadn’t run the distance since 2017, but a meager 11.17 personal best suggested that her 200m/400m range didn’t extend to the straightaway event. She changed that perception on Friday with a world-leading performance, and then followed it up nicely on Saturday with a 21.98 world leader in the more familiar 200m.

2. Trayvon Bromell's 9.90 100m

25-year-old Trayvon Bromell took another massive step forward in his comeback from injuries the last few years by running a wind-legal 9.90 in Clermont on Friday, his first sub-10 100m since the 2016 Olympic Trials. Even more impressive, however, was Bromell’s defeat of 200m world champion Noah Lyles, who ran 10.04 two lanes right of Bromell. (Bromell skipped the final, which was won by Lyles in 9.93w).

Bromell, the former 60m world indoor champion, made waves three weeks ago when he ran 10.04 a year removed from a 2019 season’s best of 10.54. This weekend showed that the Olympian is close to being back to his peak level that saw him run 9.84 as a 20-year-old.

It does look like he has some more work to do in the 200m, however, as Bromell could only manage a 21.01 clocking on Saturday in that distance. Lyles won that event in a world-leading 19.94.

3. Elaine Thomspon's 10.73w 100m

2016 Olympic 100m champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica had a disappointing end to her 2019 as she missed the podium in Doha, but the 28-year-old is far from the twilight of her career as she clocked a 10.73 wind-assisted (+3.0) over the weekend in Kingston. Of course, she’s run faster in legal conditions (10.70), but to run 10.7 in a race in which no one else broke 11 seconds is a tough thing to do.


4. Cory McGee's 4:21 Mile

With a big move to pass training partner Emma Coburn at 300 meters to go, Cory McGee won Saturday’s Team Boss mile in Indiana in a huge 4:21.81 PB. The 28-year-old chopped off nearly six seconds from her outdoor best and answered back to Coburn after the steeple world champ beat her at the first edition of the Team Boss mile last month in Colorado.

Both Dani Jones (4:23.33) and Coburn (4:23.65) also notched personal bests, while McGee’s time puts her eighth on the U.S. outdoor all time list. 

5. Sha’Carri Richardson's 10.79w 100m

Even with some extra help from a +2.7 wind, Sha’Carri Richardson’s 10.79 100m on Thursday in Fort Worth was mighty impressive. Sure, it’s not quite as eye-popping since the 20-year-old ran a legal 10.75 as a college freshman, but Richardson struggled after her breakthrough performance last summer (she finished last in the U.S. final) so a strong run like this is a reminder of her huge potential internationally for years to come.