Hurdle crew all advance at World Championships

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Three hurdlers with ties to the Arkansas program all advanced to the next round of the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles on Tuesday evening at the National Athletics Center amid a hot and humid environment.

Arkansas volunteer assistant Shamier Little posted the fastest time among the 400m hurdle semifinal field with a 52.81, which is her season best and third best in her career. It’s the second fastest semifinal time in the history of the World Championships, trailing only a 52.17 set by Sydney McLaughlin in the 2022 World Championships.

Razorback Ackera Nugent, representing Jamaica, raced first on the evening, winning the initial prelim heat of the 100m hurdles in 12.60 seconds with a 0.1 assisting wind. Recording the same time in second place was SEC rival in American Masai Russell from Kentucky. The difference in separating the pair was just 0.005 (.594 to .599).

Also racing in the 100m hurdles was Cindy Sember, who trains with Arkansas women’s head coach Chris Johnson. She finished fourth in the third prelim heat with a season best time of 12.83 to earn an automatic advancement to the semifinal, which will be held on Wednesday.

The top times posted in the opening round of the 100m hurdles included a 12.24 by American Kendra Harrison, a 12.44 for Bahamian Devynne Charlton and 12.48 by Nigerian Tobi Amusan.

Little, who finished fourth a year ago and was a silver medalist in 2015, finished well ahead of the field racing in the third semifinal heat, which produced the pair of time qualifiers as well. Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya set an area record with a 53.39 as runner-up to Little. The time qualifiers were Jamaican Janieve Russell (53.69) and Italian Ayomide Folorunso (53.89).

2022 World silver medalist Femke Bol of the Netherlands won the second heat in 52.95 while Rushell Clayton of Jamaica claimed the first heat in 53.30.

Wednesday’s scheduled includes men’s long jump qualifying in the morning session with four Razorbacks involved. Jarrion Lawson (US) and Wayne Pinnock (Jamaica) are in group A while Carey McLeod (Jamaica) and LaQuan Nairn (Bahamas) are in group B.

The top 12 jumpers advance to the final with a mark of 26-9 (8.15) earning automatic advancement to the final.

The evening session opens with the women’s pole vault final featuring Arkansas alums Sandi Morris and Tina Šutej. Then Krissy Gear races in the prelims of the 3,000m steeplechase while Nugent and Sember contest the 100m hurdles semifinal.