Romaine Beckford sets indoor best, attempts Olympic standard
FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas high jumper Romaine Beckford, the defending NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion, improved his indoor career best to 7 feet, 5.25 inches (2.27) with his victory at the Razorback Invitational on Friday evening.
The winning height moves Beckford to No. 4 on the UA all-time list and No. 3 on the Jamaican all-time indoor list with the equal No. 4 performance.
“It’s very special knowing how we’ve been training very hard,” said Beckford. “My body is still heavy, and I didn’t feel good pretty much before the competition. I just competed.
“I think what I did better than normal, I just tried to stay focused and tried to stay warm. My approach is way better and pretty much dialed in where I know every step of it. I feel comfortable with my approach and I don’t need to double think it.”
Having won the competition, Beckford opted for the Olympic standard of 7-7.75 (2.33) as his next height and had three attempts with his last try coming closest to clearing.
“So, my dream is to always to get the national record, just to put my name up there,” said Beckford, who would have broken the Arkansas school record of 7-7.25 (2.32) with a 7-7.75 clearance.
“Tonight, though, was just to let my coach decide the next height and he went for the Olympic standard. While I had a great attempt at it, I’m going to move on from it. It’s going to take a lot, because that attempt was crazy, going from 2.27 to 2.33.”
Following Beckford in the competition were Razorback teammates Kason O’Riley, who placed seventh at 6-11.5 (2.12) and Tomas Ferrari, 10th at 6-9.5 (2.07).
The first day of the heptathlon has a Razorback foursome currently in 2-3-4-5 positions with the following scores – Jack Turner (3,304), Yariel Soto Torrado (3,189), Marcus Weaver (3,184), and Daniel Spejcher (3,096).
Mississippi State’s Peyton Bair leads the competition with a score of 3,374 points.
Tevijon Williams set an indoor career best of 20.85 to place fifth in the 200m while Steven McElroy established a career best of 21.02 in finishing eighth.
