Davis-Woodhall has another golden moment taken away after review
· Yahoo Sports
It was a strange ending to a national championship for one of track and field’s brightest stars.
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Tara Davis-Woodhall’s leap of 23 feet, 4.75 inches in the sixth and final round of the women’s long jump at the 2026 U.S. Track and Field Championships on July 26 in New York City earned the Agoura High graduate the fifth national long jump title of her illustrious career.
She celebrated in front of fans. She was interviewed about the victory live on the NBC broadcast. Then, just as suddenly as Davis-Woodhall had won the title, she hadn’t.
A protest filed by a Stanford University coach on behalf of fellow competitor Alyssa Jones led to Davis-Woodhall’s big last-round jump being voided for being over the board, per DyeStat, and Jones was declared the winner.
Davis-Woodhall placed third with her next-best leap of 22-7.75. It was the first time since 2022 that the four-time national champion in the event did not win the U.S. title outdoors.
She posted about the ruling in a TikTok on July 27.
Even amidst the disappointing result, Davis-Woodhall had elite finishes in both the long jump and the 100-meter hurdles — an event she had competed in just twice since college.
She ran 12.57 seconds in the final of the short hurdles, just one-tenth of a second off of her personal-best 12.47 set at the USATF LA Grand Prix last month.
“I have always been inspired to double up,” Davis-Woodhall told reporters in the mixed zone. “It just gives me a different time to challenge a new, inner Tara. Today was just that. For hurdles, I have to lock into a different part of my brain.”
The multi-time national long jump champion’s coming-out party in the hurdles wasn’t the only breakout performance of the meet. Two collegians hailing from Ventura County made waves in their U.S. championship debuts.
Ventura High graduate and UCLA sophomore Valentina Fakrogha battled to a fourth-place finish in the women’s high jump with a clearance of 1.89 meters, or 6 feet, 2.25 inches. She cleared 1.74 meters, 1.79 meters and 1.84 meters before making it over 1.89 on her third and final attempt.
The 19-year-old, who finished behind winner Vashti Cunningham (1.92), Charity Hufnagel (1.92 meters) and Sanaa Barnes (1.89), was the top collegiate finisher in the event.
“I never expected to have come this far,” Fakrogha told The Star. “Winning Big 10 (Championships), placing at nationals, this — it’s making me realize, ‘Wow, things can happen. Hard work pays off.’ ”
Fakrogha said she and her coach, Nick Newman, made the call to adjust from her usual eight-step approach to a 10-step for nationals.
She weathered a miss at 1.84 before clearing the bar, but was unable to get over 1.89 with her first two attempts. Facing elimination, Fakrogha needed to put it all together.
“It was kind of like, ‘Whatever happens, happens now,’ ” Fakrogha said. “I don’t even remember my approach, it’s like I just blacked out in that moment. Once I flipped over and I saw the bar was still on there, I fell off the mat, so relieved.”
Oaks Christian School graduate and recent Baylor graduate Tenly Kuhn tied for sixth place in the women’s pole vault with a clearance of 4.35 meters, or 14 feet, 3.25 inches. She was one of only nine athletes in the field of 15 to clear the opening height.
Like Fakrogha, Kuhn began her track and field career as a junior before taking Ventura County by storm over her final two years of high school competition.
The final meet after seven continuous months of competition, Kuhn said her performance was a pleasant surprise.
“I started pole vaulting my junior year of high school, so even going to college for pole vault was a reach for me,” Kuhn told The Star. “It’s just insane to see how much progress has been made. It (was) only my sixth season of track and field ever, and I was able to compete on that sort of level? It honestly blows me away.”
Kuhn plans to continue to train under Baylor pole vault coach Brandon Richards as a professional next season, while Fakrogha will return for her junior year at UCLA.
St. Bonaventure High graduate Celera Barnes finished 14th in the women’s 100 with a time of 11.20 seconds in the semifinals. She was the fifth runner out of the final. Barnes ran 11.18 seconds in the preliminary heats on July 23, the eighth-fastest time in the field.
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at [email protected]. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Davis-Woodhall has another golden moment taken away after review