Track & Field's Abdul-Rashid keeps rolling at World Junior Championships

AUSTIN, Texas – After taking more than half a second off her best time of the year during preliminaries, Texas hurdler Mariam Abdul-Rashid almost ran a full second faster in the semifinals at the IAAF World Junior Championships.

Abdul-Rashid crossed the finish line in 57.69 seconds to finish second in her semifinal heat of the women's 400 meter hurdles in Bydgoszcz, Poland. She ran 58.65 during the first round on Wednesday to surpass her then-season best of 59.10.

The time ranked Abdul-Rashid sixth in the semifinals as she prepares to try and win a medal for Team Canada in the final at 1:45 p.m. CT Friday.

Two other Longhorns were in action for Team USA on Thursday.

Future Longhorn Elena Bruckner was competing in her second final of the meet and came away with another seventh-place finish.

Bruckner posted a distance of 52.04 meters (170-9) in the discus to take seventh place. This comes a day after also finishing seventh in the shot put. She found herself in second place after the first round of throws in the discus and was bumped down the list during the next two rounds. She missed making the top six and advancing to the final round of throws by just under two feet.

Representing the distance crew for Texas was rising sophomore Alex Rogers. He finished in 17^th place Wednesday morning in the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase. Rogers finished in 8:59.00.

Friday will be a busy day for the Longhorns in the hurdles. Abdul-Rashid will run the first round of the 100 meter hurdles at 2:35 a.m. CT (9:35 a.m. local time in Poland). She will see future teammate Alexis Duncan in the event for Team USA as well. Abdul-Rashid will then run the final of the 400 hurdles at 1:45 p.m. CT. She could potentially also run on Canada's 4x100 relay squad in the prelims of that event.

Fans can keep up with the action from Poland with live results provided at iaff.org. The IAAF will also be running a live blog and have radio broadcast during the meet on its website. Updates from the meet can be found on the IAAF's official Twitter account @iaaforg. Texas Track & Field will have updates on its athlete on its Twitter account as well, @utexastrack.

Texas Longhorns at 2016 IAAF World Junior Championships

Team USA
Elena Bruckner: Shot Put (7^th place), Discus (7^th)
Alexis Duncan: 100m Hurdles
Alex Rogers: 3,000m Steeplechase (17^th)
Destiny Collins: alternate for 3,000m

Team Canada
Mariam Abdul-Rashid: 400m Hurdles (Advanced to Final), 100m Hurdles, 4x100m Relay, 4x400m Relay

Team Jamaica
Obrien Wasome: Long Jump (Foul during Qualifying Rd.)

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

Track & Field's Abdul-Rashid keeps rolling at World Junior Championships

Players Mentioned

Mariam Abdul-Rashid

Alex Rogers