Terrance Laird: The Future of Track?
Terrance Laird is special. Whether you have an interest in track or just watch it at the Olympics when Usain Bolt's running, you have to respect pure speed and dominance at the level of someone like Laird. He has thrown down stunning race after stunning race this year, showing just how special he might be. Until the 2021 Olympics, it's likely his name stays tucked away in track communities, but with a breakout performance there or later on down the road, he could easily be thrust into the global spotlight. To understand why this is such a distinct possibility, we must look at Laird's masterful 2021 season, both indoors and outdoors.
Indoor Season
Laird's 2021 indoor season started with a very strong 20.61. This won the meet but was not a personal record because of the 20.43 he had run the year before. The time would rank him top ten in the world (in the 2020-21 season) today, but was nothing compared to what was to come. A week later, Laird ran his only 60-meter dash of the year, a semi-surprising development because he had made the SEC championships in the event the year prior. His time of 6.75 is outside of the top 200 this season. His first notable result of the year (and his first race on available video) came at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The track he ran at is what is known as a banked track. As indoor tracks are generally 200 meters long instead of 400, the race indoors involves a full lap and two turns. Beyond that, the turns are tighter due to the size of the track. To overcome this disadvantage, many indoor tracks are banked, raising the turns to make them more natural so runners can more naturally overcome the inertia pulling them straight forward. This particular track is actually where Laird ran all six of his 200-meter races in the 2021 indoor track season, so any improvements can be attributed to more than the quirky features of some indoor tracks.
The season before, at the very same Tyson Invitational, Terrance Laird ran a time that would rank first in the world that season: a 20.43. Anything faster would be a personal best. Laird started the race off very well, bursting off the line and keeping that speed to lead after 150 meters. However, Laird's lead shrank in the final 100 meters, and he was able to fend off star Florida sprinter Joseph Fahnbulleh by one-hundredth of a second. What jumped off the page, though, was the time: 20.41. It was, already, the fastest time in the world in 2021 and the fastest since March 2019. Laird showed that he should probably be considered the favorite against an absolutely loaded field at the SEC championships two weeks later.
In qualifications, Laird finished second as one of three athletes to break the 20.5 barrier. Finishing three-hundredths of a second slower than Laird, Joseph Fahnbulleh once again showed that he was a contender to become SEC champion. With a great run or some mistakes from the two contenders who finished in front of him, Fahnbulleh could easily win the race. However, other than Laird, there was one more extremely strong competitor: Georgia sophomore Matthew Boling. Boling went viral in 2019 for running one hundred meters in under ten seconds. Though the run was aided by strong winds and not legal, it was still the fastest all-conditions time ever for a high schooler. Boling would go on to become the Gatorade Track and Field National Player of the Year as a senior. Following this preliminary race, these three athletes were first, second, and third in the world in the indoor 200 meters.
The final was broken into two separate heats. In the first, Fahnbulleh set a new world best with an astounding time of 20.32. To hold him off, both Boling and Laird would have to run a personal best in the second heat. This was, so far, the defining moment of the season for both Laird and Boling. Until the national championships, this would be the race to separate the two stars. If one or both could beat Fahnbulleh's time, it would be a simple race between the two young sprinters to decide the conference championship. This is what happened:
While Matthew Boling had one of the roughest races of his life, Laird shined, edging out Joseph Fahnbulleh once again to become the SEC Champion in the event. From the start, it was clear that this was a two-horse race, but Laird did what he does so well. Right when Matthew Boling starts to look visibly gassed, causing him to sloppily cut inside and be disqualified, Laird sped up while maintaining his silky-smooth running form. It was just enough to beat Joseph Fahnbulleh's time. In one conference championship, Laird, Fahnbulleh, and Boling combined to post the three fastest times of the season. For all three, there was just one more chance to prove their worth.
The national championships began for 200-meter runners on March 12th with preliminary heats. Five of the eight runners to qualify for the finals were, unsurprisingly, SEC runners, including Laird, Boling, and Fahnbulleh. Almost poetically, Laird and Boling's times tied in the prelims, with both runners clocking in at 20.49. Once again, Fahnbulleh found himself in section one of the race with Laird and Boling in the second section. This time, Fahnbulleh started off the meet with a significantly slower time of 20.38. Of course, this was still very speedy and his second-fastest time of the season, but it seemed unlikely it would challenge after what Laird did at the SEC championships and what speed Boling possesses.
Finally, after over a month of racing, this is the moment the track and field world has been waiting for. Two extremely special athletes with 20 seconds to prove who is best. They know that they will likely need a brilliant race to beat the other as well as Fahnbulleh and the rest of the field and become NCAA champion. Laird could prove his dominance, Boling could show that he's doing more than playing second fiddle, or another runner could come out of nowhere to win the national championship. This is how it went down:
The announcer sums this one up perfectly: "Boling is gonna hold him (Laird) off... nnnnn—yes!" Matthew Boling had the performance he needed. With a start good enough to give him a small lead nearing the halfway point of the race, Boling had a better turn than Laird at the 150-meter mark and was able to resist Laird's late burst to hold on and become the national champion while also setting a new world best. But, despite being (just barely) held off by Boling, Laird set a new personal record with a very, very good race. Boling's incredible performance shouldn't overshadow what Laird managed to do, and both athletes were set up for a great outdoor season. And that was when Laird finally put some figurative—and literal—distance between himself and Boling.
Outdoor Season
Terrence Laird's year indoors might have had an underwhelming start, but the complete opposite was true of his outdoor season. In the preliminary round of the 93rd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, Laird showed he wasn't messing around this outdoor season with a 20.43, the second-fastest time in the world at that point in the season. While video isn't widely available, we can imagine that, given his indoor times as well as his future outdoor times, Laird's 20.43 was fairly comfortable. It was the fastest qualifying time and set him up for the possibility of a great final day of the meet.
Along with the 200, Laird was anchoring LSU's 4x100 team. It is perhaps the perfect event for Laird given how he finishes his 200s. Unlike a standard 100-meter dash, a 4x100 allows three of the athletes a running start while the handoff is occurring. This means Laird can flash his top-end speed on the fly. Beyond that, he often receives more competition in the events as he can be put in a position where he has to chase down another sprinter. Unfortunately, LSU set Laird up terribly, with the team in fourth place entering their anchor leg. This is how Laird (in yellow) dealt with it:
Laird ran out of track before he could even challenge Houston's team, but this performance is still incredible. He didn't just flash top-end speed, he maintained it for the full hundred, something that is far easier said than done. To have an athlete that can turn a race destined for a fourth-place finish into second place is simply amazing, and I am very excited to watch Laird run this event with the United States Olympic team once he reaches that point. Laird still had the 200 to race that day, though.
While Laird might have eased off the gas in the prelims, this was our chance to see him at full speed on the outdoor oval, a chance to see whether his speed truly translated to the wider track. What we saw was beyond remarkable. After a seemingly average start, Laird absolutely turned on the jets, leaving the rest of the field in the dust. The time? 19.81. That finish is just two-tenths of a second slower than the NCAA record and a full four-tenths faster than any other race up to that date in 2021. This race, a race that was a three-way tie at the halfway mark, made Laird the third-fastest collegian ever. Think about that for a second.
Before we finish at the SEC outdoor track and field championships, we must analyze one more meet, a meet where he didn't even run his best event, the 200-meter dash: the LSU Boots Garland Invitational. Instead, he showed how his second-half speed applies to more than that single event. That day, he won the meet with a hundred-meter dash of just 10.06 seconds, a personal best which puts him in the world's top 40 this season. What makes it really crazy, though, is that Laird practically stumbled out of the blocks before an incredible second half of the race. What he did one hour earlier, though, will go down in history as one of the greatest finishes to a 4x100 of all time.
Because of the running start, 4x100 times can sometimes sound unreal. According to the YouTube account Total Running Productions, the fastest anchor leg split ever of a 4x100 was run by Usain Bolt at the World Championships in just 8.65 seconds, nearly a second faster than his 100-meter world record. That speed differential shouldn't take away from what Terrance Laird did, though. His final hundred-meter split for the race was 8.87 seconds. That is the kind of speed that doesn't come around very often. Oh, and he used it to reel in Houston and win the 4x100 for LSU. His reaction is priceless.
That is just mean. Imagine being blown past by someone running one of the fastest splits in history. Then you look over and, instead of the pain of exertion you expect, you see a man coolly looking ahead without a hint of effort and the look of a man thinking, "Yeah, that just happened. What are you gonna do about it?" This was an incredible meet from Laird that showed what he can do outside of the 200-meter dash. And, after one more meet, which featured a personal best for LSU as a team in the 4x100 and a wind-assisted 19.82 in the 200, Laird was ready for a crack at redemption against Matthew Boling at the SEC Championships in College Station, Texas.
If there were any doubts about Terrance Laird's speed, he proved each and every one wrong at the SEC Championships. Laird ran three events at the championships: the 100m dash, the 200m dash, and the 4x100m relay. With a good weekend and a decent setup on the 4x100, it was clear that Laird was challenging for the triple. This was further proven by his 100-meter and 200-meter qualifying times. Not only did he lead all sprinters in the qualifying stage of both events, but his 200-meter time was also sixth in the world at that point this season.
Outside of Laird, 155 athletes have ever run 200 meters this fast. With electronic timing available starting in the late 1960s, about four athletes have been born that can run this quickly over this distance each year. Laird did it effortlessly. He shut it off over the last 20+ meters (equivalent to nearly a half-lap for milers) and still ran an elite time not just for his age or for the world right now, but historically. This time could have easily been faster than 20 seconds or maybe even better if Laird hadn't turned off the jets.
Before we get to the 4x100 and the 200-meter final, his performance in the 100 cannot be overlooked. In the prelims, Laird ran a 10.17, one tenth of a second away from his personal record. This set him up for a great run in the finals. Unfortunately, the winds were blowing too hard on his back for the time to count. Still, the time pops off the page. Winning the meet, Laird ran a 9.80. If wind-legal, this would lead the world. Even taking the wind and altitude into account, Laird likely would have broken the ten-second barrier given normal conditions. It's clear that Laird has speed and promise in multiple events.
In the 4x100, Laird once again anchored what is a good-but-not-great relay team without him. At the time of the baton pass, Laird found himself in a familiar position: third place with two others within striking distance. Ryan Martin of Texas A&M never stood a chance. Surprisingly, neither did Georgia's Matthew Boling. While Boling secured second, Laird looked like he was in a completely different class from Boling and every other runner on the track. It was clear that an even competition at the indoor championships was being replaced by an absolute clinic from Terrance Laird.
Laird was given a wonderful opportunity to finish strong with the 200-meter dash. A race doesn't have to smash a record to be an achievement, and while this one didn't, it proved a strong boost to his resume. Laird finished his day as the SEC champion in the 200-meter dash (along with the 100-meter dash and the 4x100 relay) with a 19.82, the second-fastest time in the world this season. Behind, of course, his own race. The three times Laird beat rank the sprinters who ran them as the fifth, sixth, and seventh-best in the world in 2020. But they weren't even within sniffing distance of Laird. And, because Laird seemingly can't avoid it, he set a new meet record.
Laird could still flame out or underperform at the National Championships, but it would hardly tarnish what a wonderful season he's had. This is history in the making, and I wouldn't be surprised if we look back in twenty years and remember one of the greatest seasons in collegiate sprinting history. Not only that, but we could simultaneously be watching the future of track and field, someone who flashes speed we almost never see. The past, present, and future of track, coinciding. Terrance Laird, ladies and gentlemen.