Jamaicans Akeem Bloomfield and Nathon Allen dashed to new personal bests and school records to take silver and bronze, respectively in the men’s 400m final at the NCAA Championships, behind USC’s Michael Norman’s record run on Friday.
Both Norman and Bloomfield broke the 44-second barrier, with the two sophomores battling for the first half of the homestretch until Norman pulled away the final 35 meters.
Bloomfield ran a massive PR of 43.94(a whopping 8 tenths of a second faster than his former best of 44.72), while Allen finished in 44.13.
The collegiate record and world-leading mark of 43.61 for Norman was a shock breaking Fred Kerley’s year-old record of 43.70. It also broke the stadium record set by Michael Johnson.
Norman would later team up with the likes of Rai Benjamin, Zach Shinnick and Ricky Morgan to anchor USC to another collegiate record of 2:59.00 in the 4×400 relay.
Jamaican Ewers picked up bronze at NCAA Championships
In the 100-meter final, Jamaican Andre Ewers of FSU faced off against another Auburn Tiger and fellow Jamaican Raheem Chambers and Antiguan Cejhae Greene.
Ewers would finish in third with a time of 10.19 behind a pair of Houston sprinters (Cameron Burrell 10.13 and Elijah Hall 10.17). Chambers finished with 10.33 in fifth, Greene in 10.37 in seventh. Ewers would go on to get edged out of a 200-meter title by Texas Tech’s Divine Oduduru, 20.28-20.29.
Antigua and Barbuda rooted Benjamin would follow the example of his USC teammate to win the 400m hurdles in an NCAA record of 47.02, with the likes of Munro College alum Kemar Mowatt running 48.83 for a fourth-place finish for Arkansas.
Alabama hurdler Reuben Walters, of Trinidad & Tobago, finished sixth in 13.95 in the 110 hurdles.
In the Triple Jump, Jamaican Odaine Lewis jumped into second with a 16.73 m (54 feet).
Saturday will entail the women’s finals on the track and in the field, with coverage on ESPN beginning at 6:00 pm.
