Okolo takes down Sanya Richards-Ross's 12 year-old record

Published by Adam Schneider/dyestatcollege.com editor on April 23rd, 2016

In her outdoor debut in the 400 meters, Courtney Okolo of Texas broke the collegiate record by running 49.71 at the LSU Alumni Gold meet. In 2014 she ran 50.03 at the Big-12 championships to set the in-season collegiate record. The out-of-season collegiate record was set by Sanya Richards-Ross at the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento (July 17th) where she ran 49.89 during her sophomore year at Texas. She finished that season by finishing sixth at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece (50.19).

Okolo told Texas SID David Wiechman after the race, "I wanted to run that fast. We've been talking about it and training has been looking like I could run that fast so it was just about executing. I was relieved. I put a lot of pressure on myself to execute my race right."

This performance is no surprise to any observer and especially to her coach Tonja Buford-Bailey. Last season she won the NCAA Indoor championships in 51.12 and came into the outdoor season as a solid favorite for the NCAA 400m title. Last season she ran relays outdoors but didn't debut in the 400m until the Michael Johnson Classic on April 18th. She ran a collegiate leading 50.99. At the Big 12 championships she contributed to 4x100m and 4x400m titles and won the 400m (51.55) and she was fourth in the 200m final (23.34w) after running 22.93 in the preliminaries. She ended up not running the West Regional meet because she had a slight tear of a calf muscle.

Buford-Bailey got her back to full health and she won NACAC title in Costa Rica in 51.57, defeating the woman that won the NCAA outdoor title in her absence, Kaia Funderburk. In the preliminaries Okolo ran a meet record 50.82.

Coming into this season Buford-Bailey knew Okolo could have a great season. In 2015 Buford-Bailey had been preparing Okolo for a run at a high placing at the US championships and a late summer running at the World Championships, but the calf tear kept her from that chance. 

Coach Buford-Bailey said, "Last year she wasn't ready by the NCAA regionals but by the NCAA meet she had started training again. The decision to not run was for the long term. When she ran 50 point at NACAC she proved she had missed nothing. "

After her injury though, coming into the season she knew what Okolo is capable of and said, "Hopefully she will show everyone." The message is that if the pros and other collegians in the U.S. don't account for her, Okolo could very well make the Olympic team.

Okolo and Buford-Bailey have followed the same plan this year and Okolo showed a burst at the finish of the NCAA indoor 400m final to get her to a win in 50.69, good for third all-time on the collegiate indoor list. Once again she has been running relays and opened on April 23rd in the 400 with 49.71, second in the world behind Shaunae Miller's 49.69, and faster than anyone last year except for Allyson Felix (49.26) and Shaunae Miller (49.67). Both ran those times at the Beijing World Championships on August 27th. If Courtney can make it through the Olympic Trials and onto the U.S. team, and if she is capable of a personal best at the Olympics in Rio, she could medal.

After her race in Baton Rouge she was asked by David Weichman if she could run faster and she said, "Definitely. Oh yeah.The last 100, it was rough."

Watch out world for the girl from Carrollton, Texas