Duckworth’s Four PBs Kick Start Decathlon Day One at UGA

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tim Duckworth started his first decathlon of 2018 in red-hot form, with a quartet of personal bests to take a 274-point lead with a 4568 –point total through five of 10 events at the Georgia Spec Towns and (Bulldog) Decathlon on Friday.
 
He leads second place, Georgia’s Johannes Erm, by 274 points with five events to come on Saturday.

Duckworth is 513 points ahead of his prior day-one personal best, which he recorded a year ago at the same meet.
 
Duckworth started the day with a PB 100m time of 10.40 (+1.0). Moments later, he exploded to the best wind-legal long jump by any Division I athlete in the nation this young season, a personal best 26’4.25″/8.03m (+0.0), more than half a foot past his prior best. The mark ranks No. 4 on the TFRRs descending-order national list, which includes marks with winds slower than four meters/second.
 
Duckworth tossed another PB in the shot put scoring 711 points with a mark of 44’11.74″/13.71m.

He won the high jump – one of his best events, clearing 6’11.75″/2.13m, and then finished the day with another PB, running a 400m time of 48.92.

A year ago, Duckworth finished with a lifetime personal best decathlon score: 7973 to place second at UGA’s meet. The score moved him to No. 7 on the United Kingdom all-time list, shattered his Kentucky school and personal record by a staggering 264 points.
 
The decathlon continues Saturday at 10:45 a.m. ET.
 
Matt Peare earned second place in the men’s pole vault, clearing 16’10.75″/5.15m.
 
Sarah Crawford ran a five-second PB in the women’s 1,500m, 4:33.19 to place sixth. Caitlin Shepard turned in an eight-second PB, running 4:44.20 to finish 12th. Madisyn Peeples ran 4:53.21 to finish 17th in her collegiate track and field debut.
 
Fred Dorsey III placed sixth in the men’s long jump with a mark of 24’4.5″/7.43m (+1.5).
 
Cole Dowdy placed 11th in the men’s 1,500m.
 
Nicole Bagby placed 12th in the women’s pole vault, clearing 12’0″/3.66m.
 
Saturday action begins at 9 a.m. with the 5k races, which will feature a trio of UK underclassmen.

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