University of Arkansas junior Ayden Owens-Delerme is on top of the world halfway through the decathlon.
Owens-Delerme, competing for Puerto Rico, leads the decathlon through five events Saturday night at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships with 4,606 points.
Competing at Oregon’s Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., where Owens-Delerme won the NCAA title in June by matching the meet record with 8,457 points, he took the first-day lead by running a personal-best 45.07 seconds in the 400 meters.
Canada’s Pierce LePage is second with 4,486 points — 121 behind Owens-Delerme. U.S. athletes are third and fourth with Zachery Ziemek (4,469 points) and Kyle Garland (4,413).
Owens-Delerme also had personal-best marks of 25 feet, 3/4 inch in the long jump and 6-7 1/2 in the high jump. He ran 10.52 in the 100 meters and had a best effort of 49-11 1/2 the shot put.
The decathlon concludes today with the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500.
Arkansas junior Yovienny Mota, competing for Venezuela, ran 13.114 in the 100-meter hurdles and missed advancing to the semifinals by .001 seconds.
Cindy Sember, an All-American at Michigan who competes for Great Britain and trains in Fayetteville with Razorbacks assistant coach Chris Johnson, ran 12.67 to advance to the 100 hurdles semifinals.
The semifinals and final will be Sunday.
Shamier Little and Britton Wilson, training partners at Arkansas, helped the U.S. take four of the top five places in the women’s 400-meter hurdles final on Friday night.
Little, a three-time NCAA champion for Texas A&M and 2015 World Championships silver medalist, finished fourth in 53.76 seconds. She has trained in Fayetteville since 2018.
Wilson, a sophomore at Arkansas who transferred from Tennessee and won SEC and NCAA titles this season, ran 54.02 to take fifth.
Sydney McLaughlin, an NCAA champion at Kentucky and gold medalist at the 2020 Olympics for the U.S., won in 50.68 to break her own world record and claim her first World Championships title
Femke Bol of the Netherlands finished second in 52.27 with American Dalialh Muhammad, the 2020 Olympic silver medalist, taking third in 53.13.
Wilson finished second at the USA Championships in 53.09 to break her own school record. She set the school record five times in the 400-meter hurdles this season and also won the 400 meters at the SEC Championships in a school-record 50.05 seconds.
Including relays, Wilson was part of 10 school recording-setting races for the Razorbacks this season.
Andrew Irwin, an NCAA pole vault champion at Arkansas from Mount Ida competing for the U.S., missed three attempts at the opening height of 17 feet, 4 1/2 inches in the qualifying round Friday night and did not advance to the final.