The final day of the Toyota USA Track and Field Outdoor and Para National Championships produced an array of head-turning results.
- Noah Lyles pulled up with a cramp in the 200m final.
- Cooper Lutkenhaus added to his incredible teenage story in the 800m.
- Tara Davis-Woodhall appeared to extend her long jump win streak on her last leap, only for it to be ruled a foul many minutes later.
- Cordell Tinch closed the four-day meet in New York City with a photo finish victory in the 110m hurdles.
Lyles, the four-time world champion in the 200m, was expected to cruise to a record-breaking sixth U.S. title in the event at New York City’s Icahn Stadium.
But Lyles pulled up with what he called “somewhat of a cramp” in his hamstring about halfway through the final, which was won by Garrett Kaalund in 20.04 seconds.
“Everything was going fine,” Lyles told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson. “I came off the turn, and I just felt the grabbing sensation. I was like, yeah, this is the time to stop. There’s no reason to push this. It was somewhat of a cramp. I’m fine. I just need to be stretched out, get some electrolytes in my system, but I’ll be good.”
Lyles could afford to ease up given this is the only year in the four-year cycle without an Olympics or World Outdoor Championships. He can still race the 100m and 200m at this season’s biggest international meet, the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September.
He’ll be joined there by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who won the women’s 200m on Sunday in 21.69, just one hundredth off her winning time from the 2025 Worlds.
Jefferson-Wooden is due for 100m and 200m showdowns at World Ultimates with Olympic 100m gold medalist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia, plus 2023 World 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson.
Also Sunday, 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus completed a historic last 12 months by winning the U.S. 800m title.
Lutkenhaus, a rising Texas high school senior, won going away in 1:43.48 -- his margin of victory of 1.07 seconds over Wes Ferguson was the largest in a U.S. men’s outdoor 800m final since 2014.
“With this being my last race for basically six months until next indoor season, I really want to end it on a bang,” he said.
Last August, Lutkenhaus was second at nationals and became the youngest American to compete at a World Track and Field Championships.
He followed that by becoming the youngest individual world champion in the sport at March’s World Indoor Championships. Then he beat Olympic gold and silver medalists Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Marco Arop of Canada in Diamond League races in June.
Lutkenhaus said nationals is his last meet of this season. Rather than compete at World Ultimates, he’ll go back to Justin, Texas, to start his final year of high school.
He rated his first season as a pro as a 9.5, but wouldn’t divulge what was missing from making it a 10.
“When you run 1:42 at 16 years old (at 2025 Nationals), you’re expecting that there’s going to be a lot of pressure,” Lutkenhaus said. “There’s people thinking you should run this, run that. I’m not really focused on that.”
Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall appeared to extend her long jump win streak to 19 consecutive meets.
But her 7.16-meter last jump — which vaulted her from third place to first place — was later ruled a foul after a protest. That made Alyssa Jones the winner with a 6.96-meter jump, handing Davis-Woodhall her first defeat since the 2023 World Championships.
Davis-Woodhall appealed the foul ruling, but it was unsuccessful.
Tara Davis-Woodhall’s Instagram
Finally, world champion Cordell Tinch earned his first U.S. title by four thousandths of a second. Tinch, who considered skipping the final, rallied in the last stride to outlean Bradley Franklin — 12.993 seconds to 12.997.
“I was just waiting for them to show my name; I knew I won,” Tinch said. “Obviously, it’s a very close race. It’s a photo finish. But there’s some races where you can feel and you know.”
Read on below for updates on other finals from Icahn Stadium.
Add another chapter to the Cooper Lutkenhaus’ incredible teenage story.
Lutkenhaus, a 17-year-old Texas high schooler, ran away with the 800m title, clocking 1:43.48 and winning by a massive 1.07 seconds over Wes Ferguson. It’s the largest margin of victory in the event in 12 years.
COOPER LUTKENHAUS CLAIMS HIS FIRST U.S. OUTDOOR TITLE 🤯
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2026
The 17-year-old CRUISES to the finish line at 1:43.48 in the 800M!
📺 USATF National Championships on NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/M46ie2kawS
Lutkenhaus accomplished his preseason goal of sweeping the U.S. indoor and outdoor 800m titles.
Earlier this year, Lutkenhaus became the youngest individual world track and field champion, winning the World Indoor 800m title in March. He also beat the reigning Olympic gold and silver medalists in Diamond League races in June.
More on Lutkenhaus’ story below:
Noah Lyles’ bid for a record-breaking sixth U.S. 200m title ended prematurely as he pulled up with “somewhat of a cramp” coming around the curve of a close race.
Garrett Kaalund ended up winning in 20.04 seconds.
Lyles, whose best time this season is 19.91 seconds, was beaten in an outdoor 200m for just the fourth time in a decade as a pro.
“Everything was going fine,” he told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson. “I came off the turn, and I just felt the grabbing sensation. I was like, yeah, this is the time to stop. There’s no reason to push this. It was somewhat of a cramp. I’m fine. I just need to be stretched out, get some electrolytes in my system, but I’ll be good.”
World champion Cordell Tinch closed out the championships by outleaning Bradley Franklin to win the 110m hurdles by four thousandths of a second.
Both men clocked 13.00 seconds, but taken to the thousandth, it was 12.993 to 12.997 in Tinch’s favor.
Tinch won his first national title, 10 months after becoming world champion.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden made quick work of the 200m, clocking 21.69 seconds to win by 53 hundredths of a second over Cambrea Sturgis.
Jefferson-Wooden, who swept 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the 2025 World Championships, is now the first woman to own multiple U.S. titles in both the 100m and 200m since 2000.
Her time was one hundredth off her personal best from the 2025 Worlds.
She’s the world’s third-fastest woman this year behind Olympic 100m gold medalist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia (21.51) and Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands (21.68).
Expect Jefferson-Wooden and Alfred to go head-to-head in the 100m and 200m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in September.
Vincent Ciattei earned his first U.S. outdoor title by taking the 5000m, one day after missing the 1500m title by five hundredths of a second.
Ciattei, 31, ran 13:46.75 to hold off Cooper Teare by 13 hundredths and Sam Prakel by 18 hundredths.
Olympians Grant Fisher and Woody Kincaid were late scratches.
Chris Nilsen, the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, won his fourth U.S. title in the pole vault by outdueling Paris Olympic silver medalist Sam Kendricks.
Both men had a best clearance of 5.82 meters, but Nilsen did so on his first jump, while Kendricks, a seven-time U.S. outdoor champion, had a miss.
The field featured the top three Americans in history. American record holder KC Lightfoot, seeking his first national title, ended up fourth.
Vashti Cunningham won the women’s high jump on countback for her 17th career national title between indoors and outdoors.
Cunningham, the daughter of former NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham, and Charity Hufnagel both cleared 1.92 meters, but Cunningham had zero missed at lower heights, unlike Hufnagel.
This was Cunningham’s eighth U.S. outdoor title to go along with nine indoor titles.
Hufnagel is the only woman to beat Cunningham at an outdoor nationals in the last decade, doing so at the 2024 Olympic Trials.
Tara Davis-Woodhall summoned a sixth and final jump of 7.16 meters to leap from third to first for her 19th consecutive win overall and fourth U.S. outdoor title in a row.
Davis-Woodhall, the reigning Olympic and world champion, moved ahead of Alyssa Jones (6.96) and Monae Nichols (6.92).
Davis-Woodhall’ last loss came at the 2023 World Championships, where she took silver.
We’re used to seeing dominating performances in the women’s 400m hurdles, but for the first time it came from Anna Cockrell.
Cockrell, the 2024 Olympic silver medalist, prevailed in 52.94 seconds for her first national title, winning by 1.01 over Deonca Bookman.
Cockrell was second to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at the 2024 Olympic Trials, then second to Dalilah Muhammad at the 2025 U.S. Championships.
McLaughlin-Levrone is on baby leave. Muhammad did race Sunday, but hit a hurdle late and finished ninth.
With Olympic gold medalist Rai Benjamin sitting out, Chris Robinson seized the opportunity by running a personal best to win the 400m hurdles.
Robinson, who missed the 2024 Olympic team by one spot, clocked 47.61 seconds and won going away by 92 hundredths over James Smith II.
Benjamin, who won the last six U.S. titles, switched over to the flat 400m this season, but expect him to go back to the hurdles in 2027, a World Championships year.
One day after Emily Mackay finished third in a thrilling 1500m, she left no doubt in winning the 5000m.
Mackay, a 2024 Olympic 1500m semifinalist, won her first U.S. outdoor title by clocking 14:55.82.
She overtook Shelby Houlihan over the last 200 meters and distanced Houlihan by 2.06 seconds in the end.
Parker Valby, a 2024 Olympian, led most of the way through 4,500 meters before fading to third.
Nia Akins went from eighth place with 200 meters to go to win her third national title in the 800m.
Akins, eliminated in the Paris Olympic semifinals, prevailed in 1:59.40, overtaking Addy Wiley by 15 hundredths. On Saturday, Wiley was overtaken by Nikki Hiltz by four hundredths in the 1500m.
Akins rebounded after placing fourth at the 2025 Nationals, missing the World Championships team by one spot.
800M IN UNDER 2 MINS! 👏
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2026
Nia Akins turned on the JETS in the final stretch for the 800m U.S. National Title!
📺 USATF National Championships on NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/TxNIjPMGYQ
Cordell Tinch won his first world title in the 110m hurdles last September. The former cellphone salesman is now one race from his first U.S. title.
Tinch was first in his 110m hurdles first-round heat in 13.12 seconds, advancing to the final at 5:53 p.m. ET.
Jamal Britt, who was expected to be Tinch’s biggest threat, scratched before the first round.
Freddie Crittenden, sixth at the Paris Olympics, was eliminated in the heats in his final nationals before retiring after this season.
Valarie Sion won her eighth consecutive U.S. title in the discus, and her first since marrying her coach, Zeb Sion.
Sion (nee Allman), a two-time Olympic gold medalist, had the three best throws of the competition, led by a 69.54-meter effort.
Sion bounced back after a surprise defeat at a Diamond League meet in London last week. Cierra Jackson, who beat Sion in London, finished second on Sunday.
Tara Davis-Woodhall won her last 18 long jump competitions — every one since taking silver at the 2023 World Championships.
The streak includes a 2024 Olympic gold medal, a 2025 World title and the last two national titles.
It’s the longest win streak in the event since at least 2002, according to NBC Sports research.
The great Jackie Joyner-Kersee won three major titles in a row — 1987 Worlds, 1988 Olympics, 1991 Worlds — but also lost in that stretch to German rival Heike Drechsler at least once, at a meet in 1990.
Davis-Woodhall’s streak nearly came to an end at her most recent meet, the Prefontaine Classic on July 4. There, Davis-Woodhall edged Italian Larisa Iapachino by one centimeter.
The favorite in the men’s 110m hurdles is Jamal Britt, a 27-year-old who has never made an Olympic or World Championships team.
It was just two years ago that Britt, who has worked multiple side jobs, was struggling to pay bills, lived without power briefly and was almost evicted from his apartment.
But this year, Britt has put up personal best after personal best, becoming the fifth-fastest man in history in the event.
Part of the reason is the coach he turned to in late 2024 — 1996 Olympic gold medalist Allen Johnson.
More on Britt below:
On Saturday, Sandi Morris won the pole vault, then took three unsuccessful attempts at an American record height.
We could be on American record watch again in the men’s pole vault today.
The top three Americans in history are entered: American record holder KC Lightfoot, seeking his first national title, plus the last two Olympic silver medalists — Sam Kendricks (a seven-time U.S. outdoor champion) and Chris Nilsen (three-time U.S. outdoor champion).
The first final of Sunday is one of the most intriguing.
Two-time Olympic women’s discus gold medalist Valarie Sion (nee Allman) won the last seven U.S. titles.
But last weekend, 23-year-old Cierra Jackson beat Sion in London by launching the farthest throw in Diamond League history (71.72 meters). Jackson was ninth at nationals in 2025.
Some of the highlights of the first three days of nationals at Icahn Stadium in New York City:
Thursday: Woody Kincaid used his patented kick to beat Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher in the men’s 10,000m. In the women’s 10,000m, Sydney Vaught won in her first career outdoor nationals race.
Friday: Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson each won their third U.S. 100m title. Each did so with a statement time, showing they overcame injury setbacks from 2025.
Saturday: Nikki Hiltz won a women’s 1500m thriller where the top three finished within one tenth of a second. Hiltz became the first runner to win eight consecutive U.S. indoor or outdoor titles in the 1500m or mile, then looked ahead to a big goal come September.
