3. Women’s 100m Hurdles/Kendra Harrison
We saw so many races of Kendra Harrison in 2016 to be optimistic about her matching or breaking her World Record (WR) in 2017. Fast, elegant and possessing good technique in a very technical event, the American is undoubtedly the best at the moment.
Having set the world alight when she stormed to victory at the Eugene Diamond League with an American Record of 12.24s, everybody started anticipating her next races. The race was so fast that she clocked the second fastest time in history behind Yordanka Donkova’s then WR of 12.21s.
However, shock and disbelief reigned supreme when Harrison who had won at all DL meets she had competed in, failed to make the ever competitive US national team to the Olympics, finishing a disappointing 6th at the Trials. Even Harrison couldn’t offer an explanation as to what made her fail to secure any of the three automatic qualification spots.
Not deterred by that, she picked herself up and went on to shock the world with a performance befitting of an Olympic Games.
Harrison at the London Anniversary Games, ran with venom, like someone out to prove a point, storming to an astonishing new WR of 12.20s to break Donkova’s 28-year old record. Interestingly, the clock didn’t stop when she crossed the line, and she only realized she had broken the WR upon the announcement from the Public Address system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8anuMyJU2k
We may not have seen the best of Harrison, as she could still be out to tell us that last year’s feat was not a fluke. Can she go lower than 12.20s and run a 12.15 or even 12.10s? It is definitely possible for Harrison who holds 8 of the Top 10 times in the world in 2016.
Having already qualified for the World Championships by virtue of winning the Diamond Race competition last year, Harrison will not be worried about qualification, but would rather focus on doing very well in August. This could spur her to even break her own record.
Do you know that the London Stadium, hosting the 2017 World Championships, was the stadium Harrison broke the 100m Hurdles WR in 2016?
