Kendra Harrison

Kendra "Keni" Harrison (born September 18, 1992) is an American hurdler. In 2015 she won NCAA championship titles both indoors and outdoors and placed second in the 100 m hurdles at the United States championships.

Biography

Kendra Harrison was born in Tennessee on September 18, 1992, and adopted by Gary and Karon Harrison; she grew up in a large family with ten other children, eight of them also adopted.[1][2] Harrison's first sports were cheerleading and soccer; she took up track and field at Clayton High School.[2] 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.[3]

After graduating from Clayton High in 2011 Harrison went to Clemson University; as a freshman in 2012 she was Atlantic Coast Conference champion in the 400 m hurdles and the 4 × 400 m relay and qualified for the NCAA championships in both hurdles races.[4] She competed in the 2012 Olympic Trials in the 100 m hurdles, but was eliminated in the heats.[4] 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.[4]

Harrison transferred from Clemson to the University of Kentucky after the 2013 season, together with sprinter Dezerea Bryant and coach Tim Hall.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2][4][5]

Harrison injured her hamstring in the winter of 2014–15 and missed the early part of the 2015 indoor season.[6] She returned in time to win the 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.[4] 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.[4][7] 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 12.56 (-0.1) in the final, placing a close second to 2008 Olympic Champion Dawn Harper-Nelson and qualifying for the American team.[7] The Americans were heavy favorites for the world championships, but underperformed; Harrison took a false start in the semi-finals and was disqualified.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Kendra Harrison: A Passion for the Hurdles". The Hurdle Magazine. May 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Story, Mark (May 2, 2015). "Mark Story: From a superhero, UK track star Kendra Harrison finds her winning edge". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Harrison, Winfrey Named Gatorade NC Track Athletes of the Year". MileSplit. June 23, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tilastopaja profile for Kendra Harrison
  5. ↑ Pfeifer, Jack (June 9, 2014). "NCAA FORMCHART—Women". Track & Field News. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ Most, Jake (June 12, 2015). "Hurdles 'nerd' Kendra Harrison an ideal fit at UK". UKAthletics.com. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  7. 1 2 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.
  8. ↑ Rowbottom, Mike (September 15, 2015). "Williams sisters keeping up family tradition in the sprint hurdles". International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Retrieved November 3, 2015.

External links

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