The 2017 Camel City Elite Races will be held on Saturday, February 4, 2017.  

2017 Field

Spencer Adams | Basic TC | Finalist at 2016 World Indoor Championships | 60m Hurdles PR of 7.58 | @cu3step

Jarret Eaton | Basic TC | Fourth place at 2016 World Indoor Championships | 60m Hurdles PR of 7.49 | @BigJ_E

David Oliver | Nike | 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist at 110m Hurdles | 2013 IAAF World Champion | 60m Hurdles PR of 7.37 | @doliversub13 

2016

For 2016, we were able to increase the prize money for the 60m Hurdles race to $4k/$2k/$1k/$500 thanks to our friends at Visit Winston-Salem and their sponsorship of this year's event.

2016 Camel City Hurdles Race Video

This year’s men’s hurdles race was setting up to be quite the battle.  On Thursday, though, David Oliver pulled up in practice with a tight calf muscle that would pull him from the competition.  That still left Jason Richardson, Ashton Eaton and defending champ Aleec Harris to battle for the first place prize of $4000.

Prior to the finals, though, each of the athletes had a chance to warm-up with a preliminary round.  In the first heat, Spencer Adams would just nip Jason Richardson to win, with Ashton Eaton taking heat two, Aleec Harris taking heat three, and Milan Ristic taking the final heat.

Coming into the finals, all eyes were on Ashton Eaton.  The world record holder in the decathlon was easily the most anticipated track athlete to compete at JDL Fast Track in this event, so expectations were high.  But for the second year in a row, with all eyes pointed elsewhere, Aleec Harris came through.  He didn’t match his facility record of 7.55, but his 7.65 was 0.08 better than Spencer Adams’ second place time.  Dondre Echols of South Carolina can tell his grandkids that he beat the world’s greatest athlete, as he took third as the top collegian.  

The race wasn’t without some drama, though, as Michael Dickson of NC A&T was DQ’d for running out of his lane, as he clearly impeded Milan Ristic in the lane next to him, who finished in only 8.59 after running 7.92 in the prelims.

 photo credit by Phil Bond

2015

Camel City Hurdles FINALS Video

Semi-Final #1 - Richardson Wins

Semi-Final #2 - MacNeill Wins

Semi-Final #3 - Harris Wins

Semi-Final #4 - Adams Wins

Semi-Final #5 - Oliver Wins

The only prize money that was available was a $1500 first place prize and a $500 bonus for breaking the facility record of 7.73.  Based on the entrants in the meet, we figured that was sure to go down.

When word got out that David Oliver and Jason Richardson were racing at JDL, other hurdlers wanted to compete in that race.  This led to Ty Akins and Aleec Harris being added to the fields.

On Friday, 56 athletes lined up for one of the 24 slots in Saturday’s semi-finals.  On Saturday, though, the fireworks started.  In the first semi-final heat, Jason Richardson ran 7.68 to break the facility record and set the tone.  In heat two, University of Toronto’s Gregory MacNeill won his heat and beat Ty Akins of Nigeria to advance to the finals.

In the third heat, though, Aleec Harris would run 7.55 to set the new facility record and become the top qualifier to the finals.  In the fourth heat, Spencer Adams of Nike would win in 7.75 and would be followed by fifth heat winner David Oliver, who ran 7.60 in the semi-finals.

About two hours later, the finals were run in front of a packed crowd that was on its feet.  After the gun went off and the dust settled Aleec Harris would be crowned the victor over Richardson, Oliver, et al. in what was at the time deemed an upset, but would later be the start of a great indoor season for Harris.

2015 Results