The haul of Olympic medals in athletics continued to rise for Team Arkansas on Tuesday in Paris.
Wayne Pinnock, an NCAA junior champion this year for the University of Arkansas who turned professional in June and competes for Jamaica, finished second in the men’s long jump at the Stade de France and won a silver medal.
Brittany Brown, a former All-American from Iowa who coaches in Arkansas, finished third in the women’s 200-meter dash and won the bronze medal.
Pinnock and Brown increased the total number of medals in track and field for athletes tied with the Razorbacks at the Olympics to five, with several competitions still to go.
Last Saturday, Ryan Crouser, a volunteer assistant for the Arkansas men’s team who has trained in Fayetteville and competed for the United States since 2019, became the first athlete to win a gold medal in the shot put at three consecutive Olympic Games.
Kaylyn Brown, competing for the Razorbacks for the first time this year, led the USA’s 1,600-meter mixed relay team as the closer last Saturday and won a silver medal.
Amber Anning, who was the NCAA champion for Arkansas in the 400-meter national indoor race as a senior this year, helped Great Britain to third place and a bronze medal in the mixed relay.
On Tuesday, Pinnock cleared 27 feet, 5 1/4 inches on his second attempt, which remains his best performance to date. He finished second behind Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou, who won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal with a time of 27:10.
Italian Mattia Furlani finished third with his opening score of 27-4.5 – less than an inch behind Pinnock.
“Words cannot describe the feeling,” Pinnock said in a press release from Arkansas after winning his first Olympic medal. “I’ve always wanted to be an Olympian.”
“With the silver medal my dream came true. Unfortunately I didn’t get gold, but that’s all God’s plan.”
It was the second year in a row that Pinnock won a silver medal in international competition, finishing second to Tentoglou at last summer’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
“I’m sure I’ll get it one day,” said Pinnock. “I just have to keep focusing on the right things in training and do everything perfectly.”
“Be confident and stay positive even when the competition is really tough. They are all great competitors but at the end of the day I know my abilities and I know for sure that one day I will beat this Greek.”
Pinnock is the first Razorback jumper to win an Olympic medal in the long jump.
Mike Conley, a nine-time NCAA long jump and triple jump champion for the Razorbacks from 1983 to 1985, won a gold medal in the triple jump in 1992 and a silver medal in 1984, the summer after his junior season at Arkansas.
Matt Hemingway, a four-time All-American in Arkansas from 1995 to 1996, won an Olympic silver medal in the high jump in 2004.
Carey McLeod, who also competes for Jamaica and was a two-time NCAA indoor and outdoor champion with the Razorbacks in 2023, finished 12th in Tuesday’s long jump final with a personal best of 25-8. He finished fourth at last year’s world championships.
Former Arkansas All-American Chris Bailey ran a personal best of 44.31 in Tuesday’s 400-meter semifinals to advance to Wednesday’s final.
Bailey competed as a fifth-year senior at Arkansas after transferring from Tennessee. He ran on the Razorbacks’ first-place 1,600-meter relay at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships and placed fifth in the 400-meter dash to help Arkansas to the team title.
Before the Olympics, Bailey reached 19th place in the world with his personal best of 44.41 earlier this year.
In Tennessee and Arkansas, Bailey never made it to the 400-meter final in an NCAA outdoor meet, but now he has made it at the Olympics.
“Honestly, Chris and I are probably the only ones who expected it,” said Doug Case, the Arkansas assistant who coaches sprinters and continues to coach Bailey, of his advancement to the Olympic final. “I think it’s a surprise to most people.”
“But if you were the guy training Chris, and you were Chris himself and you did all the drills and saw what he did in training, how he adapted to training, you would have thought, ‘Yeah, this guy can do it.’
“I’m just incredibly proud of him for making it this far.”
Case said Bailey had considered giving up running.
“I think he got to the point where he wasn’t even sure he was going to keep running,” Case said. “We talked about it and decided, ‘Let’s try to make the Olympics,’ and it paid off.”
Case, who was watching the Olympics from home, said he timed Bailey by 21 seconds in the first 200 meters of Tuesday’s race.
“That’s about a second faster than he normally starts,” Case said. “I think the first 200 was a little too hot for him, to be honest, but he handled it well.”
Five of the eight participants in Wednesday’s 400-mile final competed at SEC schools.
In addition to Bailey, three former SEC players from Alabama are in the running: Kirani James (Grenada), Samuel Ogazi (Nigeria) and Jereem Richards (Trinidad & Tobago), as well as Quincy Hall from the USA, an NCAA champion from South Carolina.
Case said Bailey needs to run a more balanced race in Wednesday’s final.
“He needs to back off a little bit and he’ll do better,” Case said. “He needs to control his race a little more in the first 200 meters.”
“If he runs his own race, who knows what he can accomplish? I think he can run faster than he did.”
“If he drives a little more carefully at the front in the next race, he has a chance to run faster.”
Brown was one of two Americans to medal in the 200-meter dash, along with Gabby Thomas, who took gold with a time of 21.83. Former NCAA champion Julien Alfred of Texas, competing for St. Lucia, finished second in the 200 with a time of 22.08 after winning the 100.
Tara Davis-Woodhall, who competes for the United States and trains in Arkansas, posted the best mark in the women’s long jump qualifying round on Tuesday.
Davis-Woodhall, wife of former Razorback Hunter Woodhall, scored 22-7 3/4 on her second attempt and automatically advanced to Thursday’s final.
Davis-Woodhall, who won the long jump at this year’s World Indoor Championships, is one of the favorites for the gold medal in Paris in a field that also includes reigning Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo from Germany.
Anna Cockrell, who trains in Arkansas, ran 52.90 in the semifinals of the 400-meter hurdles to advance to Thursday’s final.
Former Arkansas All-American Nikki Hiltz, competing for the United States, advanced to the first round of the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:00.42.
Hiltz, who won the 1,500 m at the US Trials, is competing in the Olympic Games for the first time.
“This is unbelievable,” Hiltz told NBC Sports after advancing to the semifinals on Thursday. “I think I can officially call myself an Olympian now.”
“Over the last month and then (Tuesday) during the race, it took a lot of patience. I kept telling myself: ‘Be patient, be patient, be patient.'”
