Aleia Hobbs became the second best performer of all time in the women’s 60m, which she won on Saturday, in 6 sec 94/100th, at the United States indoor championships in Albuquerque, where Noah Lyles retired , injured, in the men’s 60m final.
Hobbs, 26, a member of the outdoor world champion 4 x 100m relay last year, had the best performance in American history in the 60m.
“Amazing. It’s been a long time coming,” Hobbs said in tears. “I’m so grateful.”
She failed to break the record of 6 sec 92/100th set by the Russian Irina Privalova in Madrid in 1993, but she beat the former American mark signed Gail Devers by 1/100th in Toronto the same year.
“I knew to get the record I had to get out of the blocks,” Hobbs said. “In the preliminaries my start from the block wasn’t that good so I knew I just had to go out and finish like I usually do.”
On the men’s side, reigning double world champion in the 200m, Noah Lyles, bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, withdrew from the 60m final due to a left hip injury.
Lyles, who won the Boston Indoor Grand Prix two weeks ago with a personal best 6s 51/100th, had won his semi-final in 6s 56/100th, but then felt pain.
“I went to get dressed and realized I was having a really hard time getting up. I started to realize my hip flexor was strained,” said Lyles, 25.
“We spent about 30 minutes working on it, trying to do some exercises, but it never completely went away,” he added. “I don’t want to take any chances with such a great outdoor season looming on the horizon.”
JT Smith won the men’s 60m final in 6sec 53/100e and Kendal Williams finished second in 6sec 59/100e.
These championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, gave the Americans an opportunity to prepare for the August world championships in Budapest and the Paris Olympics next year.
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