Dalilah Muhammad

Dalilah Muhammad
Medal record
Women's athletics
Competitor for the  United States
World Championships
Silver 2013 Moscow 400 m hurdles

Dalilah Muhammad (born February 7, 1990) is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 400-meter hurdles. She has a personal record of 53.83 seconds for the event and was the 2013 American national champion.

She was a gold medallist at the 2007 World Youth Championships in Athletics and also took silver at the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships. Collegiately she ran for the USC Trojans and was a four-time All-American at the NCAA Outdoor Championship.

Career

Early life and college

Born in Jamaica, Queens, in New York City, she competed in various track and field events at high school, including the hurdles, sprints and high jump. While at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School she won the New York State title in the 400 m hurdles.[1] During that period she also gained her first international experience. At the 2007 World Youth Championships in Athletics she took the 400 m hurdles gold medal.[2]

In 2008 she enrolled at the University of Southern California on a sports scholarship, majoring in business. Joining the USC Trojans track team she competed extensively in her first season. At the Pacific-10 Conference meet she was runner-up in the 400 m hurdles, fourth in the 4×400-meter relay, and also set a personal record of 13.79 seconds as a finalist in the 100-meter hurdles.[3] The NCAA Outdoor Championship saw her set a 400 m hurdles best of 56.49 seconds and reach third place in the final. She won the national junior title that year and was the silver medallist at the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships.[4] In her second year at USC she was a runner-up at the Pac-10 championships, but narrowly missed out on the NCAA final. The 2011 outdoor season saw her repeat her Pac-10 second place and a personal record of 56.04 seconds in the NCAA semi-finals led to a sixth place finish in the 400 m hurdles final.[1]

In 2012 she set personal records in the sprint hurdles events, running 8.23 seconds for the 60-meter hurdles and 13.33 seconds for the 100 m hurdles. She ranked fifth in the latter event at the Pac-12 meet, where she placed third in the 400 m hurdles. She was again an NCAA finalist in her speciality, coming fifth, and she also participated in the heats at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials.[3] She ended her career as a USC Trojan athlete as the school's third fastest ever 400 m hurdler and a four-time NCAA All-American.[1]

Professional

After graduating from college Muhammed chose to compete professionally in the 400 m hurdles. She began to revise her personal record early on in the 2013 season with bests of 55.97 then 54.94 seconds in California. On her IAAF Diamond League debut she placed fourth at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix with a time of 54.74 seconds. She knocked another eight hundredths off to win at the Memorial Primo Nebiolo in Italy, then placed in the top three at the Bislett Games in Norway with a run of 54.33 seconds.[3]

At the 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships she improved her personal record by half a second with a run of 53.83 in the final to win her first national title in the 400 m hurdles.[5]

At the 2014 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Muhammad earned a spot in the finals only 400 m hurdles on 23 June @ 1544 PST and represents Nike.[6]

Personal bests

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dalilah Muhammad. USC Trojans. Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  2. ↑ Girls 400m Hurdles Final. IAAF (2007-07-13). Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dalilah Muhammad. Tilastopaja. Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  4. ↑ Pan American Junior Championships 2009. World Junior Athletics History. Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  5. ↑ Upsets and Breakthroughs on Final Day of USA Outdoor Championships. USATF (2013-06-23). Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  6. ↑ http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2013/USATFCS/Events/USA-Outdoor-Track---Field-Championships/Start-Lists.aspx

External links