The first two days of the Trials put early-2000s legends through the woodchipper. The third was much kinder to familiar faces in their 30s. 34-year-old Justin Gatlin won the men's 100, 30-year-old Allyson Felix won a stunning women's 400, LaShawn Merritt took his third straight Trials 400 a day before his 30th birthday, and 30-year-old Tianna Bartoletta was second in the women's 100. (Bartoletta also made the team in the long jump.) Behind Felix, Natasha Hastings made her first non-relay Olympic team three weeks before her 30th birthday.

Gatlin and Felix competed at the 2004 (2004!) Olympics, where Gatlin won gold, and Bartoletta won gold in the long jump at the 2005 world championships.


Veterans on the south side of 30 and young bucks still in college or just fresh out had a fine night too. One-time high school rivals Trayvon Bromell and Marvin Bracy filled out the 100m team behind Gatlin. Bromell only turns 21 next week and would be a junior in the NCAA system if he hadn't gone pro last year.

Ashton Eaton didn't break a world record like he did at the last Olympic Trials; the Eugene-based superstar did win with a world-leading 8,750 points. Jeremy Taiwo was sitting fourth heading into the 1500m, but the Washington alum ran 4:17 to leapfrog Wisconsin senior Zach Ziemek and Garrett Scantling for second. (Scantling exhausted his eligibility after competing this indoor season for Georgia.) Ziemek held on for third to make his first Olympic team.



Perhaps the two best competitions of the day took place on the infield. Good tweeter Jon Mulkeen lays out exactly how brilliant the men's long jump was

No long jump competition before today had ever seen five guys jump beyond 8.30m.

Six guys have now jumped beyond 8.30m in Eugene today.

— Jon Mulkeen (@Statman_Jon) July 4, 2016

Four years ago, 8.31m won the Olympic title.

That mark would give you seventh place at the US Trials right now.

— Jon Mulkeen (@Statman_Jon) July 4, 2016

Carl Lewis's cranky rant about the long jump "dying" and U.S. men being "pathetic" could not have been more wrong. And here's the wildest part: third-place finisher Will Claye won't be on the team, as his jumps today were all wind-aided and he came into the meet with an 8.14m best jump in the qualifying window. That's one centimeter short of the qualifying standard. Here are the full results:



Jeff Henderson's first and third jumps would have been good enough to make the team. Triple NCAA champ and new pro Jarrion Lawson was on the outside looking in before his fourth jump before he unleashed a massive 8.58m (28-1.75) for second place. That mark was wind-legal and if he jumped it at NCAAs three weeks ago, it would have been the sea level collegiate record.

Two former Florida Gators jumped the same distance and had to split the baby for the third spot. Will Claye's 5th jump had the hand of god behind it--no other jump had wind greater than 4.1 meters per second--and with a 5.0 mps wind at his back, he went 8.42m. That tied Dendy's third mark, and he was ahead of Dendy in the standings because his second jump was better. Dendy tried to take one more jump, but his ankle that he sprained at Prefontaine didn't hold up. He twisted his ankle on the runway and ran past the board for a foul.

Because Claye doesn't have the standard, though, Dendy is going to Rio. If Dendy is not healthy, then fifth-place finisher Mike Hartfield has the standard.

NFL wide receiver Marquise Goodwin jumped 8.25m for seventh place. His stint in the track world isn't quite over, as he told FloTrack after the meet that he'll be competing in London later this month.

The men's long jump wasn't even the only competition of the day that was the deepest in the history of its event. For the first time in the history of the planet, three women broke 11 seconds in a wind-legal 100 meters. The excellently named English Gardner won in 10.71 seconds, ahead of Tianna Bartoletta and Tori Bowie, who both ran 10.78 in third. Before today, 10.81 was the fourth fastest wind-legal performance in Olympic Trials history. That would have been fourth in tonight's final.

The women's high jump may hold the single most diverse collection of personalities in one event on our Olympic team. 32-year-old mother of three Chaunte Lowe jumped a world-leading 2.01m for the win, 18-year-old high school senior Vashti Cunningham took second at 1.97m, and Inika McPherson--fresh off a two-year cocaine ban--cleared 1.93m for third.


Behind Felix in the women's 400m, two notorious relay studs had the best open races of their careers. Former Oregon Duck Phyllis Francis broke 50 seconds for the first time in second place, and 2008 Olympic 4x400 and three-time 4x400 meter world champion Natasha Hastings made her first individual Olympic team.

Gil Roberts was insanely aggressive in the men's 400, and it paid off. His last 35 meters or so were the epitome of bootylock, but he had gotten enough space on the field in the first three quarters of the race that only Merritt passed him. David Verburg swooped in for third and his first Olympic spot.