So close.
Christian Miller, fresh out of high school, put on a dazzling showing at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Sunday night, but missed out on qualifying for the Games by the blink of an eye.
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The Creekside High School graduate and St. Johns Striders sprinter ran a time of 9.98 to finish fifth in the 100-meter final at Hayward Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. Noah Lyles (9.83), Kenny Bednarek (9.87) and Fred Kerley (9.88) earned the Olympic qualifying spots. Miller was .10 of a second away, roughly the time it takes to blink, from third place.
Stanton College Prep graduate Kendal Williams finished eighth in the final with a 10.04.
No area sprinter has qualified in the 100 since Bob Hayes in 1964. Hayes, who went to Matthew Gilbert and later, Florida A&M, ran a 10.06 to win gold.
While only the top three qualify for the 100, there’s a good chance for finishers outside of that to go for a relay team as long as they’ve met the Olympic standard time of 10 seconds. Both Miller and Williams have met that threshold.
Miller and Williams both made it through the semis in different fashion. Unlike his start in Saturday’s heats where he was slow out of the blocks, Miller had an excellent start and went on to clock a wind-aided 9.94, the second-lowest time of his career. Miller qualified for the Trials by running a time of 9.93 at the Pure Athletics Spring Invitational in Clermont last April. It is the third-fastest time by an athlete under 20.
Williams qualified for the final by four one-thousandths of a second. His time of 9.962 was enough to edge out Kyree King (9.966) for the ninth and final position. Williams, 28, has been one of the best area sprinters in area history, a six-time high school state champion who went on to become a two-time World U20 champ.
Miller is also competing in the 200. The first round for that is 10:33 p.m. on Thursday.