Much like she did in the 200 meters (m) last month, Bahamian sprint superstar Shaunae Miller-Uibo cruised to victory in the 400 meters (m) on Saturday, setting a new Bahamian national record indoors, a new North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) record, and tying for the eighth fastest of all-time, in an event she hadn’t run in seven years.
Miller-Uibo, 26, continued to rack up the national honors and move up the world’s all-time lists, running a stunning 50.21 seconds at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Meet at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island, New York, on Saturday. A trio of Americans followed Miller-Uibo to the finish line. Wadeline Jonathas was second in a season’s best time of 51.95 seconds, Jessica Beard finished third in 52.60 seconds, and former World Champion Phyllis Francis was a distant fourth in 54.86 seconds.
On posting the world-lead on Saturday, Miller-Uibo said she feels great about the race, just wishing that she had attacked a bit better from the start. That’s a scary sign for her opponents seeing that she blasted out of the blocks for a 23.92 first 200m and appeared to go into cruise control about midway through the second lap. By the end of the first lap, the race was already a foregone conclusion.
Miller-Uibo now owns national records in the 200, 300 and 400m indoors, and the 150, 200, 200 straight, 300 and 400m outdoors. Also, the top two times in the 400m indoors in the region belong to Bahamians as Miller-Uibo took down Christine Amertil’s national and area record of 50.34 seconds on Saturday. Amertil’s run of 50.34 seconds was done for the bronze medal at the 11th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Indoor Championships in Moscow, Russia, in 2006. Now rebranded as Worlds Athletics (WA), that organization’s next world indoors is set for March 11-13, 2022, in Belgrade, Serbia.
Miller-Uibo herself is a former world indoor bronze medalist, circling the track twice in 52.06 seconds in Sopot, Poland, in 2014. Coincidentally, that was the last time she ran the 400m indoors.
Despite not running much indoors, Miller-Uibo showed that she is quite capable of dominating in that sphere with her fantastic run on Saturday. She is only about six tenths of a second off the world record, and given the way she won comfortable on Saturday, it’s a mark that is quite achievable should she decide to put more focus on running indoors. The world record is 49.59 seconds, ran by Jarmila Kratochvílová, of Czechoslovakia, in Milan, Italy, in 1982.
Be that as it may, the immediate focus for Miller-Uibo is the postponed Olympic, still on the table for this summer in Tokyo, Japan. She has already stated her intention of going after Olympic gold in the 200m and not defending her title in the 400m given the conflict in schedule of the two events. The Olympics is set for July 23 to August 8.
“I just give God all the thanks and praise. Nothing is possible without Him,” said Miller-Uibo to NBC Sports on Saturday. “Overall, it was a great race. I feel real strong right now, with a lot of energy. I just want to go out there and attack each year well and see where we land.”
Miller-Uibo’s time on Saturday was a new world lead, more than three tenths of a second faster than the previous world lead of 50.52 seconds which was ran 18-year-old American Athing Mu about a week ago, and it was also the fastest time in the world in 14 years. She came within 21 hundredths of a second of becoming just the fourth woman in history to run under 50 seconds in the 400m indoors.
In the 200m indoors in January, she nan a new national record of 22.40 seconds at the American Track League Meet #2 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, taking down Pauline Davis’ former national mark of 22.68 seconds. In just two races, Miller-Uibo now has the world-leading time in both the 200 and 400m indoors this season.
The only other Bahamian competing at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on Saturday was Donald Thomas in the men’s high jump. Trying to leap himself back in shape after a subdued 2020, the former World Champion leapt a modest 2.15m (7’ 0-1/2”) to finish sixth. The other six competitors in the men’s high on Saturday were all Americans.
Trey Culver won with a world-leading leap of 2.33m (7’ 7-3/4”), matching his personal best, Jeron Robinson was second with a leap of 2.25m (7’ 4-1/2”), and former Olympic silver medalist Erik Kynard rounded out the top three with a leap of 2.20m (7’ 2-1/2”).
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