The United States Track and Field Outdoor Championships are set to kick off Thursday in Eugene, Oregon.
The four day contest will determine who will compete in the 2023 World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary scheduled for Aug. 19-27. The top three athletes in each event will advance to the championships.
Fourteen current Gators and nine former Gators are looking to advance and represent Team USA.
The path to Budapest begins today π€©
π USATF Outdoor Championships
β° 1st Event – W's Hep – 100mH, 2:25 p.m. ET
π https://t.co/xofa72bPUA
π» https://t.co/WOz9tRH3AL ($)#GoGators π pic.twitter.com/btPwlJQhxP— Gators Track and Field & Cross Country (@GatorsTF) July 6, 2023
Current Gators
Jasmine Moore is looking to advance to the championships for the second year in a row. Along with three NCAA titles in 2023, she had a record breaking year in the Outdoor Triple Jump, Indoor Long Jump and Indoor Triple Jump. Moore is the first woman to qualify to the same World Championships in both the Long Jump and Triple Jump in 2022.
πππππ πππππππ
Jasmine Moore of @GatorsTF set 3 collegiate records in 2023.
Indoor LJ – 7.03m (23-0ΒΎ)
Indoor TJ – 15.12m (49-7ΒΌ)
Outdoor TJ – 14.78m (48-6)That was 36.93m (121-2) of record-setting jumping for Florida's 3rd female finalist.https://t.co/DJcSrpXDUR pic.twitter.com/P9DdxGmcfl
— The Bowerman (@thebowerman) June 27, 2023
Clare Bryant will be joining Moore in the Long Jump this year. Bryant goes in to the contest with a season best 6.75 meters.
Talitha Diggs also represented the U.S. in 2022 and is looking to defend her gold medal in the 400m.
Among the Gator male sprinters are Robert Gregory and Pjai Austin. Gregory will be competing in the 200m dash and enters with the sixth best time in the event. Austin holds the program outdoor record for the 100m with a time of 9.89 seconds.
Jumping for the Gators will be Malcolm Clemons, Sean Dixon-Bodie and Corvell Todd. Clemons will represent the Gators in the long jump after coming in fourth place in the NCAA Championship. Dixon Bodie also came in fourth in the NCAA Championship in the Triple Jump.
Former Gators
Alongside current Gators, there are nine former Gators competing as well.
Grant Holloway, the 2022 100m hurdles world champion, will compete. Holloway has already secured a spot in Germany for the championship weekend, but he won’t be taking the competition off. Holloway has elected to compete in the preliminary competition in the 110m hurdles to make sure he hits the ground running in Germany.
Former Olympic Gold Medalist Christian Taylor will be attempting to qualify for his seventh world championship appearance. Taylor failed to make it to the championship round in 2022 when he came in 18th place in the Triple Jump. Taylor is looking for a bounce back year and a return to his dominant form that won four gold medals in the championship.