Kendra Harrison

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"Keni Harrison" redirects here. Not to be confused with Kenny Harrison.

Kendra Harrison
Eugene, OR 2015)
  • Indoors
  • 60 m hurdles: 7.70 AR (Birmingham
    • 2018)
    Medal record
    Women's athletics
    Representing the  United States
    Olympic Games
    Silver medal – second place 2020 Tokyo 100 m hurdles
    World Championships
    Silver medal – second place 2019 Doha 100 m hurdles
    Bronze medal – third place 2023 Budapest 100 m hurdles
    World Indoor Championships
    Gold medal – first place 2018 Birmingham 60 m hurdles
    NACAC Championships
    Gold medal – first place 2018 Toronto 100 m hurdles
    Representing Americas
    Continental Cup
    Silver medal – second place 2018 Ostrava 100 m hurdles

    Kendra "Keni" Harrison (born September 18, 1992) is an American

    London Müller Anniversary Games, breaking the previous world record of 12.21 seconds achieved nearly 28 years earlier by Bulgarian athlete Yordanka Donkova
    .

    In college, she competed for the

    2016 Olympic Trials she placed sixth because she tripped, and missed qualifying for the Olympics. Between the US trials and the Olympic Games, she broke the 28 year-old world record. Harrison won the 60 m hurdles at the 2018 World Indoor Championship and the 100 m hurdles at the 2018 NACAC Championships. She placed second in the 100 m hurdles at the 2019 World Championship, and at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
    held in 2021.

    Career

    Early life

    Kendra Harrison was born in

    soccer; she took up track and field at Clayton High School in Clayton, North Carolina.[3] She soon became a leading scholastic hurdler, winning state championship titles at the 2010 and 2011 North Carolina Class 4A state meets; in 2011 she also won the 100 m hurdles at the New Balance Nationals and was named Gatorade North Carolina Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.[4]

    College athletics

    After graduating from Clayton High in 2011 Harrison went to

    2012 Olympic Trials in the 100 m hurdles but was eliminated in the heats.[5] In 2013, she placed fifth in the 100 m hurdles (12.88) and fourth in the 400 m hurdles (55.75) at the NCAA outdoor championships.[5][6]

    Harrison transferred from Clemson to the University of Kentucky after the 2013 season, together with sprinter Dezerea Bryant and coach Tim Hall.[3] She continued to develop, winning both the 100 m hurdles (12.86) and the 400 m hurdles (54.76) at the 2014 Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships; she was the first athlete to win both events since 1999.[3] She entered the NCAA outdoor championships as the leading favorite and collegiate leader in the 400 m hurdles, but failed to match her personal best and lost to Texas A&M's Shamier Little; in the 100 m hurdles she placed fifth for the second consecutive year.[3][5][7]

    Harrison injured her

    60 m hurdles at the SEC and NCAA indoor championships, setting personal bests in both meets; her time in the NCAA meet (7.87 seconds) ranked her fourth in the world that indoor season.[5] Harrison also won her first outdoor NCAA title in 2015, winning the 100 m hurdles in 12.55; in the 400 m hurdles she placed second to Little in a personal best 54.09, at that point the second-fastest in the world that year.[5][9]

    In November 2015, Harrison was named as a 2016 recipient of the NCAA's Today's Top 10 Award, presented annually to 10 individuals who completed their athletic eligibility in the previous school year "for successes on the field, in the classroom and in the community."[10]

    Professional

    Following her graduation, University of Kentucky coach Edrick Floréal continued to train her.[11] At the 2015 United States championships, which doubled as trials for the World Championships in Beijing, Harrison decided to concentrate on the 100 m hurdles only; she set a personal all-conditions best of 12.46w in the heats and ran a wind-legal 12.56 in the final, placing a close second to 2008 Olympic Champion Dawn Harper-Nelson and qualifying for the American team.[9] The Americans were heavy favorites for the world championships, but underperformed; Harrison had a false start in the semi-finals and was disqualified.[12]

    Harrison opened her 2016 indoor season winning the

    Brianna Rollins, setting a personal record of 7.77 seconds and moving herself into 13th place on the all-time lists.[14] At the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships one week later, Harrison led the qualifying with 7.81 seconds. However, in the final she hit the first hurdle heavily and never recovered, ending in eighth while Nia Ali (the least favoured American) took the title.[15][16]

    She began the outdoor season in April with the fastest opener recorded by a hurdler, 12.36 seconds, to go up to ninth on the all-time lists.

    2016 United States Olympic Trials in early July, but only placed sixth in 12.62 and missed qualifying for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro; the three spots on the American Olympic team went to Rollins, Kristi Castlin and Ali.[19]

    Harrison broke the 100 m world record on July 22, 2016 at the

    London Müller Anniversary Games, running 12.20 (+0.3 m/s) to lower Donkova's mark by one one-hundredth of a second; Rollins, Castlin and Ali placed second, third and fourth in the race.[20][21] The trackside clock in the record race initially stopped at 12.58, the unadjusted time of runner-up Rollins, as Harrison ducked under the timing beam at the finish line.[22]

    In 2021, Harrison finally qualified for her first Olympics. On August 2, 2021, she won the silver medal in the 100 meter hurdles at the 2020 Tokyo Games.[23]

    Achievements

    Harrison (R) celebrates her 60 m hurdles victory at the 2018 World Indoor Championships held in Birmingham.

    Personal bests

    International competitions

    Representing the  United States
    Year Competition Venue Position Event Time
    2015 World Championships Beijing, China – (sf) 100 m hurdles DQ
    2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, United States 8th 60 m hurdles 8.87
    2017 World Championships London, United Kingdom 4th 100 m hurdles 12.74
    2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 1st 60 m hurdles 7.70
    NACAC Championships Toronto, Canada 1st 100 m hurdles 12.55
    IAAF Continental Cup Ostrava, Czech Republic 2nd 100 m hurdles 12.52
    2019 World Championships Doha, Qatar 2nd 100 m hurdles 12.46
    2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 2nd 100 m hurdles 12.52
    2022 World Championships Eugene, OR, United States 2nd (sf) 100 m hurdles 12.271
    2023 World Championships
    Budapest, Hungary
    		 3rd 100 m hurdles 12.46

    1Disqualified in the final

    National titles

    References

    1. ^ "Kendra Harrison: A Passion for the Hurdles". The Hurdle Magazine. May 2014.
    2. ^ "Olympic reject Harrison out to make a point". Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
    3. ^ a b c d e Story, Mark (May 2, 2015). "Mark Story: From a superhero, UK track star Kendra Harrison finds her winning edge". Lexington Herald-Leader. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
    4. ^ "Harrison, Winfrey Named Gatorade NC Track Athletes of the Year". MileSplit. June 23, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
    5. ^ a b c d e f Kendra Harrison at Tilastopaja (registration required)
    6. ^ Kendra Harrison Archived September 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Clemson Tigers. Retrieved on May 30, 2016.
    7. ^ Pfeifer, Jack (June 9, 2014). "NCAA FORMCHART—Women". Track & Field News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
    8. ^ Most, Jake (June 12, 2015). "Hurdles 'nerd' Kendra Harrison an ideal fit at UK". UKAthletics.com. Archived from the original on June 13, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
    9. ^ a b Terwillegar, Kyle (June 27, 2015). "Seven More Collegians Qualify For IAAF World Championships at USATF Outdoors". U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
    10. ^ "Top college athletes to be honored by NCAA" (Press release). NCAA. November 12, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
    11. ^ UKTF Alum Kendra Harrison Betters World-Lead in Germany Archived August 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. UKAthletics (February 6, 2016). Retrieved on 2016-05-30.
    12. International Association of Athletics Federations
      (IAAF). Retrieved November 3, 2015.
    13. ^ Minshull, Phil (February 6, 2016). World-leading times in sprints and hurdles in Karlsruhe. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-05-30.
    14. ^ metres-hurdles/indoor/women/senior Senior Indoor 60 Metres Hurdles women All Time Best. IAAF (2016). Retrieved on May 29, 2016.
    15. ^ Kendra Harrison 12.63 Women's 100mH | Zurich Diamond League. Retrieved on September 10, 2016.
    16. ^ Dennehy, Cathal (March 19, 2016). Report: women's 60m hurdles final – IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-05-29.
    17. ^ Minshull, Phil (April 9, 2016). Harrison flies to 12.36 in first 100m hurdles race of the year. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-05-30.
    18. ^ Sully, Kevin (May 28, 2016). Harrison and Jebet scare world records in Eugene – IAAF Diamond League. IAAF. Retrieved on 2016-05-30.
    19. ^ O'Neill, Patrick (July 9, 2016). "Keni Harrison sees Olympic dreams drift away in tough final". The News & Observer. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
    20. ^ "Kendra Harrison New WR 12.20s Women's 100mH | london Diamond League 2016". Archived from the original on February 10, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
    21. ^ Zaccardi, Nick (July 22, 2016). "Keni Harrison breaks 100m hurdles world record after missing Olympic team". NBC Sports. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
    22. ^ Brown, Matthew (July 22, 2016). "Harrison hurdles to world record in London – IAAF Diamond League". IAAF. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
    23. ^ Schad, Tom. "American Keni Harrison wins silver medal in 100-meter hurdles at Tokyo Games". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved August 1, 2021.

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kendra Harrison.
    Records
    Preceded by Women's 100 m hurdles world record holder
    July 22, 2016 – July 24, 2022     		Succeeded by
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kendra_Harrison&oldid=1220987060"