Kynard stretches high jump title run to eight

Erik Kynard

London Olympic high jump runner-up Erik Kynard captured his eighth consecutive national title Saturday at the US Indoor Track and Field Championships while Gwen Berry and Noah Lyles set world bests.

Kynard, who settled for sixth last year at the Rio Olympics, cleared 2.30m to edge runner-up Allex Austin's 2.24 and add a fourth consecutive indoor national crown to a run that has seen him win four outdoor titles in a row as well.

The three-day meet concludes
Sunday at Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Olympic hammer thrower Berry won her fourth US indoor weight throw title in five years with a world-best mark of 25.60m effort, breaking the decade-old mark of 25.60 set by American Brittany Riley to beat Deanna Price by 1.30m.

Lyles, a 19-year-old Floridian who won the 200m at the 2014 Young Olympics in Nanjing, won the 300m in 31.87 seconds, trimming .01 off the world best set by Wallace Spearmon in 2006 to defeat Paul Dedewo by .05 of a second.

Both the 300 and weight throw are not on the list of events with IAAF-recognised world records, all-time top efforts instead being considered world bests.

Eric Bougard, who won the pentathlon on Friday, captured her second title in the long jump with a leap of 6.44m.

Phyllis Francis, a member of the Rio Olympic US women's gold medal 4x400 relay, captured the women's 300 in 36.15 seconds, edging Joanna Atkins by .03.

Sam Kendricks won his fourth consecutive men's indoor pole vault crown by clearing 5.85m while Darien Moore took the shot put with a heave of 20.78m.

Ajee Wilson, the US indoor 800m champion in three of the past four years, led 600m finals qualifiers in 1:26.57 with Courtney Okolo, a member of the US Rio 4x400 relay winner, second on 1:27.10.

Erik Sowinski, last year's world 800m indoor runner-up, was the fastest men's 600 finalist in 1:15.51.
Japheth Cato captured the heptathlon crown Saturday after winning the pole vault by clearing 5.05m and taking the 60m hurdles in 8.04 seconds to seize command.

In the final event, the 1 000m, Cato placed ninth in 3:01.40 but that was enough to finish first on 5 738 points, 98 points ahead of Austin Bahner with Thomas Hopkins winning the 1 000 in 2:37.56 to finish third on 5 417.