The very best of America’s track & field made their way into the spotlight last week for the U.S. Olympic team trials, multiple days of competition to not only show how their ability, but in the end, decide who’d move on to compete in the Paris Olympics.
By the time it was all said and done, Jones County’s Shareez Hamm showed that he could run and compete with the best, making it through the first round and into the semifinals where he’d finish 17th overall in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 51:02.
Although that finish was not quite enough to move on the event’s final round, Hamm came away from the festivities as one of the top-20 runners in the country in the 400-meter event.
In an event that was broadcast across the NBC family of networks, Hamm made it past Thursday’s opening round that consisted of five separate heats, with the top-five finishers from each plus the next two fastest overall moving on to the semifinal round.
Hamm did just that, running a 50.92 that was good enough to move to the semifinals via one of the final two transfer spots.
Hamm’s top-20 showing comes following the end of his college career earlier this year in which he was an eighttime All-American, nine-time conference champion, two-time conference athlete of the year and a national champion in the 400-meter hurdles.
