ATHENS – What an incredible weekend for Georgia track and field – and Matthew Boling in particular.
Highlighted by Boling’s dramatic finish to win the 200-meter national title at the NCAA Indoor championships in Fayetteville, Ark., the Bulldogs’ No. 6-ranked men’s team finished a program best third and their women’s team finished fifth.
It was the third time in the last four national meets that Georgia combined for top-five finishes under coach Petros Kyprianou.
Boling, a sophomore from Houston, was one of two Bulldogs to come home Sunday as individual national champions. His feat came a day after Karel Tilga and Kyle Garland made NCAA indoor history with a 1-2 finish in the heptathlon, both logging with record-breaking performances.
But no finish at the meet was as scintillating as Boling’s 200 final. Famous for his quarter-track comeback in the 4x400-meter state championship in high school, Boling led all the way in the 200-meter NCAA finals. But this time his win was a major upset and it took everything Boling had to hold off LSU’s Terrance Laird at the end.
Boling’s time of 20.19 seconds shattered the UGA school record and bested Laird by 1-100th of a second. It was the proverbial photo finish.
“My main focus was to keep my form the whole race and run my own race,” Boling said after the meet. “I tried to let the nature of the competition help me run faster.”
It did. For some perspective, Laird had smoked Boling — who actually was disqualified for a lane violation — at the recent SEC championships. But here’s the real tipper – Boling’s time made him the fastest athlete IN THE WORLD this year.
And Laird literally was neck-and-neck with him. They currently are fifth and sixth on the list of all-time collegiate indoor performances in the 200.
And, remember, thanks to the pandemic, this is an Olympic year. The 2020 Olympics were delayed until July in Tokyo. But we’re likely to see more from the Boling-Laird rivalry between now and then. They should meet again at the SEC’s outdoor championships in College Station, Texas, in April and the NCAA outdoor meet in Eugene, Ore., in June.
Either way, looks like the Bulldogs could have some strong rooting interest in Tokyo.
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