DK Metcalf pushes himself and puts track and field back into the spotlight

DK Metcalf shifted from foot to foot, sporting a black singlet and a severe expression as he ready to run his warmth of the 100-meter sprint on the Golden Games at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

His steely focus was like that of the sinewy sprinters beside him on Sunday, however his 6-foot-4, 229-pound body gave away that he was completely different. A large receiver with the Seattle Seahawks who ran the 40 in 4.33 seconds on the NFL mix, Metcalf took on near-legendary standing along with his spectacular, touchdown-saving rundown of Arizona’s Budda Baker after Baker had intercepted a Russell Wilson move final October. That blazing pace meant he needs to be competing within the Olympics, proper?

Maintain on a second — a minimum of. Being quick in soccer isn’t the identical as being quick on the monitor, and the 100 requires mastering fast, tough phases. However USA Monitor and Subject officers, seeing an opportunity to carry consideration to a sport that has misplaced favor amongst spectators, invited him to run on Sunday at renovated Hilmer Lodge Stadium. Metcalf, who was a hurdler in highschool however hadn’t run the 100, gladly accepted.

Why do it? “Why not?” he mentioned. “Simply one other approach to check my physique, check myself towards completely different athletes apart from simply doing soccer coaching all day.”

Though sprinter Noah Lyles had mentioned Metcalf ought to “be ready to get your butt kicked,” Metcalf didn’t embarrass himself. His response time of 0.181 wasn’t the worst however he struggled within the again half of the race and completed the final of 9 in his warmth in 10.363 seconds, lacking the Olympic trials automated qualifying time of 10.05 seconds. He didn’t advance to the ultimate, which was gained by Pasadena native Cravon Gillespie in 9.96 seconds.

However on no account was Metcalf a loser. He pushed himself past acquainted turf and put monitor and discipline in a highlight it hasn’t loved for some time. “These are world-class athletes. They do that for a residing,” Metcalf mentioned. “It’s very completely different from soccer pace, from what I simply realized.

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“Personally, it was a great expertise. Anyone else who has a special opinion, you’re entitled to your individual opinion. However I feel I did very effectively for myself.”

Gillespie agreed. “He really competed very effectively,” Gillespie mentioned. “It’s good for the game. All people’s speaking about it. It offers monitor and discipline an even bigger platform. I used to be getting tagged on Twitter. It’s undoubtedly good having him round. I really feel prefer it helped the game tremendously.”

Metcalf is making ready to get again to soccer however left open the likelihood he’ll strive once more to get the usual for the Olympic trials in June in Eugene, Ore. “One purpose I got here out right here was I actually do assume and thought I actually had — have — a great probability of qualifying,” he mentioned. It will be attention-grabbing to see how shut he may come if he works intensely at it.

Those that have the Olympics in thoughts reasonably than NFL mini-camps placed on a present throughout a day that started chilly and overcast however warmed as much as produce some notable performances.

Blue-haired Sha’Carri Richardson, 21, affirmed that she’s somebody to look at when she gained the ladies’s 100-meter sprint in 10.77 seconds whereas operating right into a headwind of 1.2 meters per second. She ran 10.74 in her warmth on Sunday and owns three of the highest 4 occasions within the occasion this season. Traditionally, solely Florence Griffith-Joyner, Marion Jones and Carmelita Jeter have run the 100 quicker than 10.7 seconds. Her energy and poise have been gorgeous.

“I’m grateful as a monitor athlete to have a season and simply am capable of present individuals within the skilled world I’m right here and I’m a pressure to be reckoned with,” Richardson mentioned. “I undoubtedly need to get into the sub-10.7 vary and from there proceed to execute and get quicker.”

Lyles, the 2019 world champion within the 200, handed Kenny Bednarek down the stretch to win his occasion in 19.90 seconds. Bednarek’s time was 19.94 seconds.

“To be trustworthy I used to be coming in right here with some fairly low expectations. I excelled all of them,” mentioned Lyles, who ran in Lane 7. Rai Benjamin, who ran in school for UCLA and USC, was timed in a world-leading 47.13 seconds within the males’s 400-meter hurdles, his first competitors within the occasion since 2019. “The 400 hurdles is like muscle reminiscence,” he mentioned. “I believed I got here out and competed effectively immediately and ran the race to the perfect of my capacity.”

Michael Norman, a four-time NCAA champion at USC, ran a season’s finest 44.43 within the 400. “I had no expectations coming into this race. We have been simply specializing in executing the race,” he mentioned after recording the second-fastest time on the planet this season. “Don’t know the way I did, truthfully, but till I rewatch the video. It’s a terrific feeling simply to be out right here competing. I all the time love competing in California.”

Keni Harrison, the world document holder within the ladies’s 100-meter hurdles, gained her occasion in 12.48 seconds and Sydney McLaughlin, who trains in Los Angeles, ran a personal-best 12.65. Shamier Little ran the ladies’s 400-meter hurdles in a world-leading time of 53.65 seconds, her first competitors in that race since 2019. “By no means content material, by no means happy. I do know I can go quicker,” Little mentioned.

Allyson Felix of Los Angeles, a nine-time Olympic medalist who’s making an attempt to qualify for her fifth Summer season Video games, made a late cost to complete second within the ladies’s 200 in 22.26 seconds. Gabby Thomas gained in 22.12 seconds.

“I’m working my approach,” mentioned Felix, who opened her season by operating the 100 two weeks in the past. “I haven’t run too many 200s of late. Sort of a starting-out level.”

Felix mentioned she’s planning to subsequent run the 400. “Simply engaged on getting races beneath my belt and placing races collectively earlier than the trials,” she mentioned.

Chances are high Metcalf might be a spectator on the Olympic trials, not a competitor. However on Sunday he introduced a welcome factor of pleasure, and if his presence drew some followers who will come again to look at Richardson, Norman, Felix and others, he scored an even bigger victory than he may have imagined.

This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.