McLaughlin Makes Finals at World Junior Championships
7/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track & Field
» Representing Team USA, McLaughlin earned the bid to Poland this week by winning the U.S. Junior Championship one month ago (June 26).
» McLaughlin was second in his heat during Friday's semifinal round and will race at 1:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
• Results
BYDGOSZCZ, Poland -- Rising sophomore Taylor McLaughlin of the University of Michigan men's track and field team advanced to the finals of the 400-meter hurdles at the IAAF World Under-20 Junior Championships on Friday (July 22), running at Zawisza Station in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
McLaughlin timed 50.25 seconds running in the third heat today to finish second and entered this week's events ranked No. 3 in the world with his season-best race of 49.73. In this afternoon's semifinal, he lined up against the only two under-20 athletes in the world ranked faster than he was: Jaheel Hyde of Jamaica (48.81) and Mikael de Jesús of Brazil (49.62).
McLaughlin bested the Brazilian and five other athletes to take second in the race, timing the second-fastest finish in the field to this point. He came in just a quarter-second shy of his fifth sub-50-second race of the season.
McLaughlin earned his semifinal appearance by virtue of a 51.28-second performance during Thursday's (July 21) opening round. He was second in his heat at the time, earning an automatic place in today's race.
Tomorrow's (Saturday, July 23) 400-meter finals are scheduled for 1:15 p.m. ET at Zawisza Station in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Taylor McLauglin advances to tomorrow's final with his 2nd place finish in SF2 #goblue… https://t.co/5qqEdEVgbU
— Kevin Sullivan (@ksully330) July 22, 2016
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
