New day, new PR set by South Carolina's Nyck Harbor
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. South Carolina two-sport athlete Nyck Harbor has set a new personal best time on the track.
Late on Wednesday night at the NCAA East Regionals, running into a headwind, Harbor ran a personal best in the 200-meter with a time of 20.36. His performance earned him a spot in Friday’s 200m quarterfinal. Harbor’s strong showing comes less than two weeks after running a then personal best 20.47 in the 200-meter. That showing placed him in the SEC Outdoor finals for the event.
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Harbor’s performance also puts him that much closer to earning an automatic qualifier for the 2024 US Olympic Trials. According to USA Track & Field, the automatic-qualifying time for the 200m is 20.30. For the 100m, the automatic-qualifying time is 10.05. Harbor’s personal best in the 100m is 10.12, which he set last month at the USC Open — third fastest 100m in South Carolina program history. On Wednesday, he ran a 10.33, while also running into a headwind. His time was the tenth fastest and earned him a spot in Friday’s quarterfinal 100m sprint.
“It would be really, really cool for our university, for our football program, for our track program, but most importantly, for Nyck,” Beamer said during a recent Welcome Home tour event on the possibility of Harbor competing in the Olympic Games. “I know how passionate he is about track. He’s a great young man (and) so humble as well, so I’m hoping it happens.”
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While Harbor is still on the outside looking in on earning an automatic qualifier for the Olympic Trials, for those keeping an eye on the calendar, South Carolina football is tentatively scheduled to report for fall camp on August 1. Practice No.1 is set to begin on August 2. The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is set to begin on July 26 and run through August 11.
“It wouldn’t be great from a football standpoint because of the amount of time that he would miss with football. But he and I have talked about it,” added Beamer. “We met in my office at the end of spring practice, and I told him that, ‘If you could get a chance to run in the Olympics, that is so cool and something that would be really, really awesome for him and our entire university.”
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The dual-sport athlete caught 12 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown as a true freshman for Beamer’s football program in 2023. He was the highest-ranked prospect for the Gamecocks’ 2023 recruiting class and returns as one of South Carolina’s most product wide receivers. The On3 Industry Ranking – a weighted average of all four major recruiting services – rated Harbor as the 21st-best football prospect in the country and as the nation’s number-one athlete.
