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Jenna Prandini said it was time to get a medal. And she did just that at the World Track and Field Championships.
Prandini, a Clovis High product and five-time CIF-State champion in the sprints and jumps, didn't medal in her individual 200 meters, but she did with a blistering third leg on the winning U.S. women's 4x100-meter relay team.
The team of Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Prandini, and Twanisha Terry ran 41.14 to beat Jamaica (41.18) for the gold medal.
"It's really special," Prandini, the former University of Oregon star, said in an article posted by GoDucks.com. "Not only is it U.S. soil, it's Hayward Field - and Hayward Field is home for me. I love coming back for any race, but to be able to have the World Championships, the biggest race of the whole year, it's definitely really special.
"The 'Hayward Magic' was real tonight."
Prandini won her third major championships medal with the U.S. 4x100 team, and her first gold. Previously she won silver at the 2015 World Championships and the 2021 Summer Olympics.
"Many experts had already handed Team USATF the silver before the gun was fired, given the all-star quartet from Jamaica they faced. Experts were wrong. The youthful Americans executed almost flawless handoffs and ran away with gold in a world-leading 41.14, the fifth fastest time in history and .04 in front of the vaunted Jamaican squad that featured the gold, silver, and bronze medalists from the 100m.
"USATF 100m champion Melissa Jefferson (Georgetown, South Carolina) made up the stagger on Spain to her outside before passing to Abby Steiner (Dublin, Ohio). Steiner had by far the fastest split down the backstretch and then Jenna Prandini rocketed around the final bend. Handing off with a lead to TeeTee Terry (Miami, Florida), the U.S. was in good hands as Terry held off Jamaica's 200m champion, Shericka Jackson, to seal the eighth World Championships 4x100m relay title for Team USATF."
"Abby brought me the baton and she put me in a good spot," Prandini said in an article posted by the Bend Bulletin. "My job is just to catch people on the curve, and that's what I did. I was just trying to give (Terry) the baton in the lead, and let her take it home."
Earlier in the meet, Prandini reached the semifinals in the 200m but her 22.08 placed fourth in her heat where only the top two were auto-qualifiers into the final. There were three heats and then two others would advance on time. Prandini's time was actually the eighth fastest among the heats but Steiner's 22.15 was an auto-qualifier.
Prandini, 29, had run her 200m PR of 21.89 (1.3) on the same Hayward Field track in Eugene 13 months before.
Prior to the 200m semis, she spoke about her goal of earning a medal, running back on the familiar track at UofO (where she was an NCAA champion in both the 100m and long jump), and the strong support she had on hand for these championships.
Prandini is a two-time national champion for 200m, a two-time Olympian, and a 2020 Olympic silver medalist, who, at Clovis High, won five medals over two years at the CIF-State Track and Field Championships.
As a sophomore in 2010, she won the State title in both the long jump (20-5.75) and triple jump (42-7.25). As a senior in 2011, Prandini took home gold in the 100m (11.69), 200m (23.81), and long jump (19-11.75).
Her 11.34 for 100m from the 2010 State Prelims ranks No. 11 all-time in state history and her 41-9.25 triple jump from 2010 ranks among the top 20 on CA's all-time list.
All photos by USA Today
