World Athletics Championships entries include 15 athletes with ties to Arkansas

EUGENE – With the start of the World Athletics Championships a week away, official entries were posted on Friday. More than 1,900 athletes from 192 teams will be in action at Hayward Field between July 15-24.

Among that total, there will be 15 athletes from 10 countries with ties to the Arkansas track and field program.

Four current Razorbacks in the elite field include Britton Wilson (400m hurdles, USA), Ayden Owens-Delerme (decathlon, Puerto Rico), Yoveinny Mota (100m hurdles, Venezuela), and recent transfer Wayne Pinnock (long jump, Jamaica).

A total of seven Arkansas alums are in the World Championship field. They include Sandi Morris (pole vault, USA), Tina Šutej (pole vault, Slovenia), Andrew Irwin (pole vault, USA), Dominique Scott (10,000m, South Africa), Kemar Mowatt (400m hurdles, Jamaica), LaQuan Nairn (long jump, Bahamas), and Shafiqua Maloney (800m, St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

Razorback volunteer assistants include Ryan Crouser (shot put, USA) and Shamier Little (400m hurdles, USA). Athletes training in Fayetteville with Arkansas assistant coaches include Cindy Sember (100m hurdles, Great Britain) and Jah Nhai Perinchief (triple jump, Bermuda).

Of the 43 individual winners from the 2019 World Championships, 37 will defend their titles in Eugene. Meanwhile, 42 individual gold medalists from the Tokyo Olympics will be in action as well.

Crouser enters the meet as a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and current world record holder in the shot put. However, Crouser is still chasing his first World Outdoor title. In the 2019 World Championships, he finished as a silver medalist to fellow American Joe Kovacs by one centimeter.

In leading up to last year’s Olympics, Crouser broke the world record indoors (74-10.5 | 22.82) in Fayetteville and then bettered the outdoor world record (76-8.25 | 23.37) during the Olympic Trials in Eugene.

The current world leader in 2022 with a 75-10.25 (23.12) mark, which ranks as the fourth best performance on the world all-time list, Crouser faces a familiar field. Kovacs ranks second this season at 75-0.5 (22.87) while Brazilian Darian Romani, the 2022 World Indoor champion, ranks third at 73-11 (22.53i) with Tom Walsh of New Zealand 73-2.5 (22.31), the 2018 World Indoor champion, fourth best.

Morris, who leads the women’s pole vault field of 31 athletes with a season best of 15-9.75 (4.82) from her victory at the USATF Championships, will be in contention for a medal along with her training partner Katie Nageotte (15-9|4.80i), the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist.

A two-time World Indoor champion, including the recent 2022 title, Morris has previously claimed a pair of silver medals in World Outdoor competition in 2017 and 2019.

Šutej is also in medal contention in the pole vault. She finished fifth in Tokyo last summer and was a bronze medalist in the 2022 World Indoor meet. After improving her national record during the indoor season with a 15-9 (4.80i) performance, Šutej recently won a Slovenian national title in late June with an outdoor season best of 15-5.75 (4.72).

Wilson currently ranks third on the 2022 world list in the 400m hurdles with her 53.08 performance as runner-up in the USATF Championships to world record holder Sydney McLaughlin (51.41). Femke Bol of the Netherlands ranks second globally with a 52.27.

Little’s 53.92 for third in the USATF meet ranks her ninth among the 40 entries in the 400m hurdles. A silver medalist at the 2015 World Championships, Little was also a semifinalist in 2017.

Owens-Delerme ranks fourth among the field of 23 in the decathlon with his score of 8,528 points. Leading the field is Canadian Damian Warner with a tally of 8,797 from 2022 along with a career best of 9,018 from winning the Tokyo Olympics.

American entries Kyle Garland (8,720) and Zach Ziemmek (8,530) rank second and third from scores this season. Five decathletes entered in the field with career best scores higher than Owens-Delerme have not produced a score in 2022, which includes Kevin Mayer of France, the world record holder (9,126) and a two-time Olympic silver medalist.

A season best of 31:00.10 ranks Scott 10^th among a field of 25 entered in the 10,000m. Scott will be involved in the first final among the Arkansas crew as the 10,000 will be run next Saturday, July 16. Scott has raced in this event during the past two Olympic Games and will contest her first World Championships at this distance after competing in the 5,000m in 2019.

Mowatt’s season best time of 48.53 as runner-up in the 400m hurdles at the Jamaican Championships ranks him 11th among a field of 40 entrants. Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos is the current world leader with a 46.80, followed by three Americans – Rai Benjamin (47.04), Trevor Bassitt (47.47), and Khallifah Rosser (47.65).

Norway’s Karsten Warholm, the world record holder in the 400m hurdles at 45.94 from his Tokyo Olympic victory and a two-time defending World champion, has not raced yet this season.

A wind-legal best of 12.63 ranks Sember 14th among a field of 43 in the 100m hurdles while a 12.87 for Mota ranks 26th. Maloney enters a field of 48 athletes in the 800m, having recently improved her national record to 2:01.58 during a victory in Marietta, Georgia.

Nairn and Pinnock are among a field of 34 in the long jump from 21 countries. Europeans hold the top three marks this season with Tokyo Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, leading at 28-0.75 (8.55i), followed by Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, 27-8.75 (8.45), and Sweden’s Thobias Montler, 27-6 (8.38i).

A career best of 26-11.75 (8.22), set this season at the Mt. SAC Relays, ranks Nairn ninth while a career best of 26-8.5 (8.14) to claim the Jamaican national title has Pinnock ranked 19th. Perinchief is one of 32 entries from 16 countries in the triple jump. A season best of 55-7.5 (16.95) ranks him 21st.

In the men’s pole vault, Irwin is among a field of 32 entries from 20 countries after having claimed a spot by winning a jump-off to break a tie for third place in the USATF Championships. Irwin previously competed in the 2017 World Championships.

2022 World Championships | Arkansas

World Championships | Arkansas schedule | PT listed

TV schedule and streams

Friday | July 15

Saturday | July 16

Sunday | July 17

Tuesday | July 19

Wednesday | July 20

Thursday | July 21

Friday | July 22

Saturday | July 23

Sunday | July 24