Former Renton resident Devon Allen gets fourth in Olympic 110 HH finals...

TOKYO--Former Renton resident Devon Allen (photo courtesy Oregon Athletics) improved one spot from his fifth place finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics, as he finished fourth in the 110 hurdles to close out Thursday's morning session at the Olympic track and field competition.

Running in lane 6, Allen had one of the quicker starts of the field, and was in contention coming off the final hurdle for a bronze, but Jamaica's Ronald Levy got him on the run-in, with Levy finishing third in 13.10 to Allen's 13.14.

In a minor upset, Jamaica's Hansle Parchment made a late charge to deny reigning world champion and US Olympic Trials champ Grant Holloway the victory, as Parchment won in a season best 13.04, while Holloway settled for the silver medal in 13.09.

In other finals contested Thursday morning, Oregon native Ryan Crouser won his second Olympic gold medal, as the current world record holder tied or broke the Olympic record in each of his six throws, finishing with a best of 76-5.5 (23.30m).

Reigning world champion Joe Kovacs of Team USATF finished second with a throw of 74-3.75 (22.65m), and New Zealand's Tom Walsh was third in a season best 73-8.75 (22.47m).

The men's triple jump saw Portugal's Pedro Pichardo take the gold medal with a national record leap of 59-0 (17.98m), with China's Zhu Yaming second at 57-7.75 (17.57m), and Burundi's Hugues Zango third at 57-7.75 (17.47m).

In a stunning development, the US men's 4 x 100 relay team failed to qualify for the finals, as the team of Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker & Cravon Gillespie finished sixth in the second heat, running 38.10, as China (37.92), Canada (37.92), Italy (37.95), Germany (38.06), and Ghana (38.08) finished ahead of the American squad.

That result had Olympic legend Carl Lewis questioning the leadership of the US track & field staff with this tweet after the race:

The USA team did everything wrong in the men's relay. The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw .

— Carl Lewis (@Carl_Lewis) August 5, 2021

Thursday night's session will see former Pullman resident and 2018-19 Washington State volunteer coach Katie Nageotte compete in the women's pole vault at 7:20 pm Tokyo time/3:20 am Seattle time, as she contends for a medal.

Finally, Josh Kerr of Great Britain and Seattle's Brooks Beasts, along with defending Olympic champion and 2018-19 University of Washington volunteer coach Matthew Centrowitz, will run in the second heat of the men's 1500 meter semifinals at 8:10 pm local time/4:10 am Seattle time, as they look to advance to Saturday night's finals.

Results and start lists are available through the home page of the World Athletics Tokyo Olympics microsite.

NOTE: The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, the University of Oregon sports information office, USA Track & Field, & World Athletics contributed to this report.

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