Track & Field 2k21: We are Rockin' with the Best

The month of May is a busy time in the word of track and field. Here is a look of some highlights around the sport that took place this month.

May 13

Tamara Clark of Alabama owned the 100 and 200 meters races at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Clark won the 100 meters at an NCAA leading time of 10.87. She placed third in the 100 meters in the conference championship as a freshman in 2018, while in 2019 she dropped down to 12th, but this year was different.

LSU's Symone Mason was the runner-up at 11.06. Tennessee senior Maia McCoy was third at 11.08.

In the 200 meters Clark won at 21.89 but the time was recorded at a wind assistance of 21.89. She finished in front of LSU's Favour Ofili and Mason who recorded times of 22.16 and 22.37 respectively.

Clark earned a silver medal in the 400-meter relay as she and her teammates Daija Lampkin, D'Jai Baker and Natassha McDonald crossed the finish line at 42.94.

May 14

Destiney Huven competed in her first outdoor Big Ten championship meet and scored a first place win in the 100-meter hurdles. After being a silver medalist at this year's indoor conference championship meet in the 60-meter hurdles, Huven won the outdoor title with a time of 13.02. The speedy hurdler bested Penn State's Yasmin Brooks (13.15) and Ohio State's Emma Nwofor (13.24), who placed second and third.

Huven got revenge on Nwofor, who won the 2020 indoor Big Ten 60-meter hurdles championship. Huven had the best prelim time at that meet and Nwofor had the fourth best to qualify for the conference final. In the championship round it was Nwofor who won the race as Huven missed medaling with a fourth place finish.

May 16

Hiwot Gebrekidan of Ethiopia won the Generali Milano Marathon in Milano, Italy. Five days after her 26th birthday, the runner won at at a time of 2:19:35. It was Gebrekidan's first marathon race of 2021.

Twenty-eight of the 33 competitors finished the race. Racheal Mutgaa of Kenya, 32, placed second at 2:22:50 and Eunice Chebichii Chumba of Bahrain, was third at 2:23:10.

May 18

Ese Brume of Nigeria took first in the long jump at the USATF Open with a jump of 6.45. Brume, 25, beat a field of 21 competitors. Brume is an Olympian who finished fifth in the long jump at the 2016 games. At the 2019 World Championships, Brume placed third. She is a three time African champion, winning titles in the long jump in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Brume also has three Nigerian national championships in the long jump. She won those in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Canadian Christabel Nettey, of Canada was the runner-up at 6.37. The United States' Tiffany Flynn placed third at 6.29.

May 19

Age is a good thing! At 32, Marie-Josee Ta Lou dominated the 100 meters at the XI International Meeting of Castiglione Della Pescaia. There were eight other competitors ranging from the age of 17-27 who came no where close to topping Ta Lou's time of 10.96.

Kristina Marie Knott of the Phillippines, 25, was the runner-up at 11.30 and French sprinter Cynthia Leduc was third at 11.39.

Ta Lou just missed medaling at the 2016 Olympic games where she placed fourth in both the 100 and 200 meters. She won two silver medals at the 2017 World Championships in the 100 and 200 meters. At the 2019 World Championships she won a bronze in the 100 meters. She also captured a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in the 60 meters, in 2018.