Nia Akins of the Brooks Beasts advances to finals in women's 800 meters in Budapest...
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| Nia Akins tucks in behind Keely Hodgkinson (c). Paul Merca photo |
BUDAPEST, Hungary--Nia Akins of the Brooks Beasts continued her roll on day 7 of the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre with a second place finish in the first of three semifinals in the women's 800 meter run Friday night.
The San Diego native and Penn alum, who has been a part of the Seattle based track club for the last several years, ran a controlled race, going with Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson as she took the win in 1:58.48, while Akins set a personal best of 1:58.61, and more importantly in the run up to next year's Olympic Trials, has the Olympic standard of 1:59.30 in her pocket.
Her previous personal best was 1:59.32, set in Rovereto, Italy last year.
Akins becomes the second member of the Beasts to advance to a world championship final, coming off the heels of teammate Josh Kerr of Great Britain's win in the men's 1500 earlier in the week.
Brooks Beasts head coach Danny Mackey said afterwards, “We went through a few race scenarios this morning and her being in the front was the most scary but we knew it was an option. Nia managed it so well."
"When it gets to this level and they succeed, I’m very very happy for Nia and I’m super excited for her final”
She will run in the finals on Sunday evening at 8:45 pm (11:45 am Pacific) along with fellow Americans Raevyn Rogers, and defending world and Olympic champion Athing Mu.
În finals contested Friday night, Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas successfully defended her world title in the triple jump, leaping 49-5.75 (15.08m).
Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi won the women's javelin with a throw of 218-11 (66.73m).
Jamaica's Shericka Jackson won the women's 200 in a championship record 21.41, ahead of Americans Gabby Thomas (21.81) and Sha'Carri Richardson (21.92 PB).
Noah Lyles got the individual double he was looking for, running 19.52 to win the men's 200, ahead of Erriyon Knighton's 19.75.
At the halfway mark of the decathlon, Leo Neugebauer of Germany and the University of Texas, leads with 4640 points, ahead of Canadians Pierce LePage's 4610 points, and Damian Warner's 4578.
Saturday morning, Washington alums Izzi Batt-Doyle of Australia and Lindsay Flanagan of Team USATF will run in the women's marathon starting at 7 am local time (10 pm Friday night Pacific time).
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NOTE: World Athletics, the WABudapest 23 Organizing Committee, and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.
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