EUGENE – Arkansas alum Taliyah Brooks finished as the silver medalist in the heptathlon at the USATF Championships with 6,319 points and potentially will represent Team USA in the World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, later this summer.
A trio of Razorbacks advanced to separate finals of the 400m. Britton Wilson, 50.59, and Rosey Effiong, 51.00, earned automatic qualifiers in the women’s race while Chris Bailey advanced on time in the men’s semifinal with a 45.02.
Anna Hall won the heptathlon with 6,677 points and is the lone American to surpass the World Athletics standard of 6,480 points. Additional members of Team USA for the heptathlon will be determined by the world rankings system. There will be a field of 24 for the heptathlon at the World Championships.
“I’m super proud of second place,” stated Brooks. “Obviously, the last time I was here things didn’t go my way. So, I was glad to come to the meet, to finish in the top three, that was the goal.
“I was a bit disappointed in my score. I was coming into day two sitting nice and pretty score-wise for what I wanted. My day two kind of fell apart and that’s part of it. We just take that back home and try to work on it.”
Brooks opened the second day by leading the field in the long jump with a distance of 21-4.75 (6.52) for 1,014 points over a 21-0 (6.40) effort by Hall that picked up 975 points. In the javelin, a toss of 112-10 (42.21) for Brooks ranked 12th among the field and scored 534 points.
Heading into the 800m, Brooks needed a 2:06.50 in order to score 1,016 points to reach the qualifying standard of 6,480. Brooks clocked 2:17.71 for 855 points as she placed sixth in the event.
“It was a relief to finish the heptathlon in the top three,” stated Brooks. “I knew going into the 800m I just really needed to finish it. I was going for a personal best. As you saw I stuck on to Anna, and I died a miserable death. It’s a process and I’m working through it.”
The gap to third and fourth place was 200+ points with Chari Hawkins third at 6,053 and 6,049 for Annie Kunz.
“Hopefully, I’ll get to go to the World Championships based off of world rankings,” noted Brooks. “It sounds right now as a yes. So, we’ll see.
“I think the way we approached the season this year I very much operated like a hept. I didn’t do a lot of open track meets and normally I do, and I’d use those track meets to sharpen up what I’m good at. I woke up today feeling really good.”