Kentucky hurdlers win Olympic gold
Aug. 5—University of Kentucky track and field athletes have been finding themselves in primetime coverage of the Tokyo Olympics over the last few days.
And the former Wildcat hurdlers have responded with primetime performances.
Sydney McLaughlin was in the 400-meter hurdle finals around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night, and she ran a magnificent race.
The former UK track and field star the only year she ran there, McLaughlin won gold in the Olympic 400-meter hurdles with a new world record of 51.46.
The previous world record also belonged to McLaughlin of Team USA after she ran 51.90 at U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
McLaughlin ran for UK in the 2017-18 season before becoming a professional. In one season at UK, she was the 2018 NCAA champion in the 400m hurdles and SEC champion in the 400m dash (indoor), 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay.
She was also a five-time All-American and collegiate record-holder in the 400m hurdles (52.75).
Prior to running for UK, McLaughlin ran in the Rio 2016 Olympics.
A novel one-and-done UK athlete only because it isn't men's basketball, it could easily be argued that McLaughlin is one of the greatest athletes in the history of the school.
McLaughlin's gold medal-winning performance joined two more UK track & field former stars that have won medals in Tokyo: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Keni Harrison.
Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico ran an Olympic record in the 100m hurdles for the gold medal, closely followed by Team USA's Harrison for silver.
Camacho-Quinn earned the gold with a time of 12.37 but broke the Olympic record in semifinals with a time of 12.26.
Camacho-Quinn trained with UKTF for three years until becoming a professional runner following the 2017-18 season.
Harrison, the world record-holder in the 100m hurdles, ran for silver with a time of 12.52.
"It's just one of those things you dream about every single night. I knew that I was definitely capable." Harrison told the Team USA website.
Harrison's silver medal closed the chapter on a difficult summer in 2016, when she came into the Olympic trials as the favorite and wound up sixth. Two weeks later, Harrison broke the 28-year-old world record in the 100 hurdles with a time of 12.20 seconds, but she had to watch on television as Team USA swept the medals at the Rio Olympics.
Harrison and Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico both ran hurdles for Kentucky. Harrison is 28 and Camacho-Quinn is 24.
They both were the embodiment of what had become known as Hurdle U. under former coach Edrick Floreal.
Floreal literally built the UK hurdles program into a elite national force that helped the forging of these gold medalist we have seen early this week.
He is now leading the University of Texas track and field program.
UK took full advantage of the marketing opportunity the potential for success held by having both Camacho-Quinn and McLaughlin talking and appearing in UK gear in Twitter messages geared toward these Olympics.
And why not? It's tough to imagine more primetime performances than those put on by these former UK track and field stars.
