Judo

Kayla Harrison Makes it Two American Golds in Two Days at Judo World Masters

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Kayla Harrison joined Travis Stevens on Sunday by winning a gold medal and giving the US two champions at the World Masters in Guadalajara. Both followed a similar path as Harrison needed to win a shido penalties in her opener but then scored ippons in the quarterfinals, semifinals (over Great Britain’s Natalie Powell), and final (over Brazil’s Mayra Aguiar) to grab gold. There’s no doubt that Harrison will be favored to win back-to-back golds when she heads to Rio.

The other American competing on Sunday, Colton Brown in the men’s -90kg division, saw his competition end quickly. Brown lost to Switzerland’s Ciril Grossklaus in a match that featured only shido penalties. Brown picked up one more, 3-2, so he was knocked out in his first match.

The next major judo event is the grand prix stop in Budapest, Hungary starting June 25th.

Previous Judo Masters Coverage:
Preview
Friday Update
Saturday Update

BMX, Cycling

Alise Post and Nicholas Long Win Bronze at UCI BMX World Championships

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For the second straight day Nicholas Long and Alise Post both finished in the same place at the UCI BMX World Championships in Medellin, Colombia. Thankfully on Sunday that place was third and not fourth as they grabbed medals. Long didn’t come close to moving up the standings in this race, finishing over a second and a half behind the second place rider while Post was a half a second behind silver in the women’s race. The third place finishes were season best marks for the two Americans who have been consistent finalists but yet to medal.

Post and Long were the only two Americans to reach the finals though Corben Sharrah and Felicia Stancil both were eliminated in the semifinals after crashes knocked them behind the pack. Additional quarter finalists from the US were Tanner Sebesta and Danielle George.

The top riders return to the UCI BMK Supercross World Cup way after the Olympics when the next event is held in Rock Hill, South Carolina from September 29th to October 1st. In the meantime the US riders will have the BMX Olympic Trials on June 11th in Chula Vista, California.

Previous UCI BMX World Championship Coverage:
Preview
Saturday Update

Fencing, Fencing World Cup

Silver for Mariel Zagunis on Moscow

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A fantastic Sunday for Mariel Zagunis brought the two-time Olympic gold medalist to the brink of the championship this weekend but she had to settle for second in a rematch of the 2012 Olympic bronze medal match. Zagunis cruised with 15-10, 15-5, 15-11, and 15-7 to reach the semifinals. There she faced a tough battle with Italy’s Irene Vecchi but emerged victorious 15-13. Facing off against Ukraine’s Olga Kharlan, the woman who beat her for bronze in London, Zagunis lost by that same 15-13 scoreline. Two of the other Americans advanced from the first round before losing their second match. Monica Aksamit had a big 15-4 win to open but lost 15-10 to Italy’s Rossella Gregorio while Dagmara Wozniak lost 15-5 to Zagunis’ semfinal opponent, Irene Vecchi. The only American who failed to record a win in the table of 64 this weekend was Ibtihaj Muhammad who lost 15-12 to Olena Kravatska of Ukraine.

Previous Fencing World Cup Coverage:
Moscow Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update

Archery, Olympic Trials, Rio 2016 Olympic Trials

Favorites Consolidate Lead at US Olympic Archery Trials

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The competition on Sunday in the Olympic Archery Trials helped some of the contenders lock down their Olympic spot and for others it put it in peril. The first part of the competition, a qualifying round, didn’t change the order of the standings at all but did allow those currently in Olympic positions to solidify their leads. Brady Ellison and Zachary Garrett went 1-2 on the men’s side as Garrett’s lead over third grew from 12 points to 22. Colin Klimitchek was the third best in qualifying and closed to within a half point of third place where Jake Kaminski sits. On the women’s side Mackenzie Brown added six points to her lead over Hye Youn Park. Park was then 15 points clear of fourth place Ariel Gibilaro. Lanola Pritchard still sat in third but Khatuna Lorig moved two points closer to third.

In the second portion elimination round Ellison and Garrett again went 1-2, this time with Garrett winning, and opened up even larger leads on third place. The gap grew to 28 points over Kaminski who finished ahead of Klimitchek and grew his lead over third to 2.5 points. The other four competitors were over 15 points back. Lorig pulled off a big win in the women’s competition and with the other two main contenders for third finishing outside the top four. This gave her a 12-point gain over them and she vaulted from fifth to third and a 4.25 point lead over fourth. With Park and Brown finishing second and third they continued to pull away.

Finally in the team simulation Ellison and Garrett again went 1-2 so the focus was all on the race for third. Kaminski finished ahead of Klimitchek and holds a 4.5 point lead for the final spot going into the final day of the trials. Brown won the women’s simulation and has a big 13.5 point lead for the only guaranteed Olympic spot on the women’s side. Park seems locked into one of the two spots that will try to qualify after finishing third and the real contest is for the third spot. Lorig has the inside track after finishing second in the simulation and now leads Pritchard by 10.25 points.

Monday will wrap the competition up with head-to-head matches three points to the winner of each match means everyone has the shot at earning 21 points there and an additional 16 depending on the ranking of their average scores.

Previous Olympic Archery Trials Coverage:
Preview

Diamond League, Track and Field

Kendra Harrison Sets American 100m Hurdles Record on Second Day of Prefontaine Classic

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A strong second day of the Diamond League event in Eugene, Oregon featured seven more Americans winning events and giving the US nine overall winners in the two day event. Several of the winners, including Christian Taylor in the triple jump, won for the second time this season. Taylor’s jump of 17.76m was a world leading mark and also a meet record. Will Claye’s season best 17.56m and Omar Craddock made it an American sweep of the top three spots. Michael Tinsley in the 400m hurdles was another one winning for the second straight event. Followed closely by Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson all three registered season best marks in another American sweep of the top three spots. The final American to win his second event of the year was Justin Gatlin in the 100m. Gatlin was the only one to break 9.9 and beat Asafa Powell of Jamaica by 0.06 seconds with a time of 9.88. Tyson Gay finished third in his first Diamond League race of the year. Michael Rodgers was fourth, just 0.01 seconds behind Gay, to follow up his third place finish from Shanghai.

The highlight of the day though was probably Kendra Harrison dominating the 100m hurdles and setting a new American and Diamond League record of 12.24. Harrison led five Americans who topped the event (six of the eight in the field were Americans). Season best times led to second, third, and fourth place finishes for Brianna Rollins, Jasmin Stowers, and Nia Ali. Shakira Nelvis was the fifth American in the top five. It was the same six-of-eight-are-Americans story in the 200m and Tori Bowie won with a world leading time for her first win of the year. Jenna Prandini had a season best time in fourth while Joanna Atkins rounded out the top five.

Also grabbing his first win, in the 800m, was Borris Berian who posted a season best time as he held off three competitors less than a second behind him. The final winner was Chaunte Lowe who grabbed her first win of the year in the high jump as the only one to clear 1.95m. Vashti Cunningham was fifth as part of a group of five jumpers who cleared 1.92m but no higher.

Francena McCorory took second in the 400m with a season best time and Natasha Hastings posted a season best of her own to finish third. In the 3000m steeplechase Emma Coburn set a new American record of 9:10.76 but finished third as Ruth Jebet of Bahrain set a new Diamond League record at 8:59.57. Leah O’Connor put up a personal best time to finish sixth. Sam Kendricks was unable to follow up on his pole vault win from Shanghai with another first place finish but did manage to finish third in the event.

The other events failed to provide top three American finishers but still had some good results. Jenny Simpson had a season best time and a season best finish of fourth in the 1500m. It was fifth in the javelin throw for Cyrus Hostetler and sixth in the 5000m for Hassan Mead.

The next Diamond League event will be Thursday in Rome.

Previous Diamond League Coverage:
Eugene Preview
Eugene Day One Update

Canoeing, ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup

Timothy Hornsby Eliminated in Semifinals at ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Racice

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Timothy Hornsby advanced to the semifinals of the K1 200m on Saturday at the ICF Canoe Sprint World in Racice, Czech Republic but was unable to secure a spot in any of the three finals. Hornsby finished sixth of the seven participants in his heat, grabbing the last spot to move into the semifinals. Hornsby finished his heat in 36.528, just about a second ahead of the seventh place finisher. In the semifinals Hornsby finished eighth of the nine competitors in 39.139 and was eliminated. He would have needed to have one of the three best times of the competitors who finished outside the top six in the four semifinals but was about 0.7 seconds short of that mark.

The ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup season wraps up in Montemor, Portugal next weekend starting on Friday.

Previous ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup Coverage:
Racice Preview
Friday Update

Cycling, Road

Megan Guarnier and Greg Daniel Win Pro Time Trial National Championships

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Megan Guarnier didn’t compete in the time trial on Friday but she sure showed why she is the top American road racer right now with a national title on Saturday. Guarnier held off Cory Rivera, Mandy Heintz, and Brianna Walle to win the title in a time of 3:48:20. The other three all finished a second behind Guarnier in a race where the top 14 all finished within five seconds. Heintz was a bit of a surprise to find in the top four after posting an 82nd place finish in the Amgen Tour of California last week. Both Rivera and Walle finished in the top 15 in that event. Friday’s time trial winner, Carmen Small, finished seventh, two seconds back, runner-up Amber Neben was 21st, 14 seconds back, and Kristin Armstrong was 16th, seven seconds back.

On the men’s side Gregory Daniel took the top spot in a race that saw more riders drop out than finish.Daniel led the 25 riders who finished the race holding off Alex Howes, Travis McCabe, and Chad Beyer by five seconds.  Howes was 21st recently in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race which speaks well for the young 21-year-old Daniel. Yesterday’s time trial winner, Taylor Phinney, didn’t take part in the race while runner-up Thomas Zirbel did not finish. Bronze medalist Alexey Vermeulen finished 15th, 48 seconds back.

USA Cycling will host the Mountain Bike National Championships in Mammoth Mountain, California July 13th-17th. The next UCI World Tour event is in France, the Criterium du Dauphine from June 5th-12th. The women will stay stateside for the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic on June 5th.

Previous USA Cycling Pro Road & Time Trial National Championships Coverage:
Preview
Friday Update

Fencing, Fencing World Cup

Eli Dershwitz and Daryl Homer Both Eliminated in Round of 16 in Moscow

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Things went a lot better for the American men competing on Saturday as all three won at least once and while no one reached the quarterfinals they had a combined 5-3 record. Jeff Spear was the first knocked out as he 15-11 to Aliaksandr Buikevich of Belarus. Eli Dershwitz and Daryl Homer both lost in the round of 16 to semifinalists. Dershwitz lost 15-9 to China’s Yingming Xu, who went on to finish second. Homer lost to Russia’s Nikolay Kovalev 15-14.

In the women’s preliminaries only one of the six American women advanced to the table of 64. Monica Aksamit went a perfect 6-0 in pool play and earned one of the 16 spots straight to the table of 64 from pool play. On the other extreme only one was knocked out in pool play, Celina Merza after going 1-5. All four of the US women who got into the preliminary knockout round lost their match. Francesca Russo 15-9 to Ukraine’s Olena Kravatska, Sarah Merza 15-8 to Italy’s Chiara Mormile, Sage Palmedo 15-14 to China’s Xueqian Zhang, and Kamali Thompson 15-9 to France’s Caroline Queroli. Aksamit joins Mariel Zagunis, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Dagmara Wozniak in the table of 64 for Sunday’s competition.

Previous Fencing World Cup Coverage:
Moscow Preview
Day 1 Update

Judo

Gold for Travis Stevens at Judo World Masters

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Travis Stevens is peaking at the right time. The two-time Olympian won the World Masters on Saturday and is poised to challenge for a medal in Rio later this summer. Stevens path to gold in Guadalajara was not devoid of drama. He won his opening match when it was decided on shido penalties and he had one less, 3-2. He was down in shidos 3-0 in the quarterfinals before a late ippon overturned that to give him the win. Ultimately though Stevens came through when it counted and scored ippons in the quarterfinals, semifinals (over Greece’s Roman Moustopoulos), and final (over Belgium’s Joachim Bottieau) to grab gold.

The US certainly has another shot at gold on Sunday as 2012 gold medalist Kayla Harrison competes in the women’s -78kg division. The final US competitor is Colton Brown in the men’s -90kg division. Brown just finished seventh in the judo grand prix event in Almaty last weekend.

Previous Judo Masters Coverage:
Preview
Friday Update

BMX, Cycling

Alise Post and Nicholas Long Finish Fourth in Time Trial at UCI BMX World Championships

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Both Nicholas Long and Alise Post came within a second of medaling in the time trial at the UCI BMX World Championships in Medellin, Colombia on Saturday night but both ended up in fourth place. Long’s margin of defeat was an incredible .081 seconds behind bronze and just .323 seconds from a world title. Long was one of two US riders to reach the final as Corben Sharrah finished ninth, though within a second of the world title.

Post was 0.307 seconds behind the bronze, an eternity compared to Post’s margin, but was over a second faster than fifth place as the leaders really showed their talent. Felicia Stancil was the second US woman in the final and finished 11th.

Sunday will be the World Championship Races with men’s and women’s competitions working their way through motos, 1/8 finals, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.

Previous UCI BMX World Championship Coverage:
Preview

Covering America's Athletes