FAYETTEVILLE — If Razorback Nation was a country, it would be ahead of 126 others in the number of track and field athletes competing at the World Championships.
Current or former Razorbacks as well as those athletes who now train at the University of Arkansas total 15 among the 1,912 entries at the World Championships, which begin today and run through July 24 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
The Razorbacks’ contingent would rank 66th among the 192 countries represented.
“That’s crazy,” said Ayden Owens-Delerme, who as an Arkansas junior won the NCAA decathlon title this year. “It speaks to the program that we have here.”
Athletes with ties to the UA will compete for 10 countries in 11 events.
“Arkansas has really made me feel at home and one of them,” said 400-meter hurdler Shamier Little, who competed at Texas A&M but has trained in Fayetteville since 2018. “So I’m excited to go represent for Arkansas and America and have fun.”
Owens-Delerme, who will compete for Puerto Rico, is among four current Razorbacks at the World Championships along with American Britton Wilson (400-meter hurdles), Venezuelan Yoveinny Mota (100-meter hurdles) and Jamaican newcomer Wayne Pinnock (long jump), this year’s NCAA outdoor long jump champion and a transfer from Tennessee.
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Arkansas alumni are Sandi Morris (pole vault, U.S.), Tina Sutej (pole vault, Slovenia), Andrew Irwin (pole vault, U.S.), Dominique Scott (10,000 meters, South Africa), Kemar Mowatt (400-meter hurdles, Jamaica), LaQuan Nairn (long jump, Bahamas) and Shafiqua Maloney (800 meters, St. Vincent and the Grenadines).
Little is an Arkansas volunteer assistant along with Ryan Crouser (shot put, U.S.). Also training in Fayetteville are Cindy Sember (100-meter hurdles, Great Britain) and Jah Nhai Perinchief (triple jump, Bermuda).
“It’s confirmation that the athletes have a lot of faith in the way the program works here and the setting that we have the luxury of being a part of,” said Lance Harter, head coach of Arkansas’ women’s cross country and track and field teams. “Fayetteville is a nice place to train, a nice place to live, and we’re having more and more professional athletes that have opportunities to go anywhere they want in the world, and they have selected Fayetteville.”
Arkansas State University assistant coach Will Williams will compete today in the long jump qualifying rounds with Nirin and Pinnocok. Morris and Sutej will compete in the qualifying round in the pole vault and Crouser in the shot put.
“Obviously Arkansas is a powerhouse, and that’s our expectation, to make teams,” said Chris Johnson, an assistant coach for the Razorbacks’ women’s team who coaches sprinters and hurdlers. “Whether that’s NCAA teams, World Championship teams, Olympic teams, Commonwealth teams. Whatever the case may be, that’s what we’re looking to have.
“I just think everyone rises up to that expectation and they understand what track is about in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“We want to be our very best, and if we can be our very best at the appropriate time, I think we can be successful on any level.”
Morris, an NCAA champion for the Razorbacks and silver medalist at the 2016 Olympics, has the world’s top pole vault mark this season at 15 feet, 9 3/4 inches, which she cleared in winning at the USA Championships. She is a two-time World Indoor champion and twice won the silver medal outdoors.
“Sandi will probably go in as the prohibitive favorite,” Harter said. “She’s very competitive and seasoned at this level, so I think she’ll be as tough to beat as anybody.
“But the caliber of competition is so difficult. She’s going to have to hold them off.”
Crouser won the gold medal in the shot put at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics and is the world-record holder at 76-8 1/4, but he’s never won at the World Championships. He finished second in 2019.
Wilson, who capped her sophomore season by winning the NCAA title in the 400-meter hurdles, finished second at the USA Championships in a school-record 53.09 seconds, which ranks third in the world this season.
“Coming here everyone knows what’s expected,” said Wilson, a transfer from Tennessee. “We all hold each other accountable. I definitely got that vibe right when I got here.
“Even on my recruiting visit, looking at the facilities and watching practice and seeing how everyone acted around each other, I knew this is a winning school and they have a winning mentality.
“Then when you walk in the doors every day, you see all these pictures of people and all their accomplishments.
“You just want to be like them. So you know it’s a legacy everyone wants to uphold.”
Little won the silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2015 World Championships.
Sutej finished fifth in the pole vault at the 2020 Olympics and ranks third in the world this season with a clearance of 15-5 3/4.
Owens-Delerme’s 8,528 points at the Mountain San Antonio College Relays this season ranks fourth in the World Championships field.
“We’re approaching it to go out and give it my best effort, to execute what we’ve been working on all year and to win,” Owens-Delerme said. “They say the decathlon is a grown man’s event, and I’m now a grown man. So I’m ready to go out there and get in the ring with some of these guys.”