Florida teenager Erriyon Knighton toppled Usain Bolt’s 200m mark for athletes under 18 at an American Track League meet on Monday, while world champion Grant Holloway dominated a quality 110m hurdles field. Knighton, who turned 17 in January, ran down Olympic 100m favorite Trayvon Bromell to win the 200m in 20.11, shaving 0.02 seconds off Bolt’s 2003 time. Knighton chose to turn professional while a junior at Tampa Hillsborough High School. Bromell, the year’s fastest at 9.88 in the 100m, finished second in 20.20, his best since 2015. The field also included a pair of Britons: Zharnel Hughes (who took gold at the 2018 European championships) and Adam Gemili (fourth at the 2016 Olympics and 2019 worlds). Knighton is qualified to race at the US Olympic trials that start in two weeks at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. He is younger than any US Olympic male track and field athlete since miler Jim Ryun in 1964, according to Olympedia.org. Knighton, who ranks seventh among Americans in the 200m since the start of this year, will face stiff competition to crack the top three and make the US Olympic team with Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek and Terrance Laird (who have each run 19.81 or faster) having separated themselves from the pack. Knighton took up sprinting in his freshman year of high school after his football coach asked him to join the track team, according to his high school’s newspaper. As a wide receiver, he reportedly received offers to play for college football powers Alabama, Florida and Florida State. Holloway, the reigning world champion in the 110m hurdles who is among the hot favorites in Tokyo, clocked 13.10 seconds ahead of Olympian Devon Allen (13.22) and fellow American Daniel Roberts (13.23) as they tuned up for next month’s US trials. Jamaica’s reigning Olympic champion Omar McLeod did not start the final after winning his heat in 13.16, with Holloway a hundredth of a second faster in the second heat. American Ronnie Baker won the men’s 100m in 9.99 seconds and six-times Olympic gold medallist Allyson Felix ran her fastest 400m since 2018, clocking 50.66.
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