Woodruff Takes Seventh In Olympic Final

Huskies at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Sam Tanner, Sophomore, New Zealand | Follow on Instagram
1,500-meters - 35th overall

Izzi Batt-Doyle, 2019 grad, Australia | Follow on Instagram
5,000-meters - 28th overall

Amy-Eloise Markovc, 2018 grad, Great Britain | Follow on Instagram
5,000-meters - 20th overall

Gianna Woodruff, 2015 grad, Panama | Follow on Instagram
400m Hurdles - 7th overall

TOKYO, Japan – The first Husky alumni in an Olympic running event final since 1984, Gianna Woodruff took part in the fastest women's 400-meter hurdles race ever run tonight. The 2015 Husky grad, representing Panama in her first Olympic Games, took seventh overall as the World Record was broken by the top two finishers.
 
Woodruff, a two-time NCAA semifinalist at UW, has worked her way to one of the world's elite. She was the first Husky in an Olympic final on the track since Canadian sprinter Sterling Hinds won bronze on the 4x100-meter relay in 1984. In an individual track event, Woodruff is the first finalist since Jim Seymour took fourth in the 400m hurdles in Munich in 1972.
 
In the semifinals, Woodruff lowered the Panamanian National Record with a lifetime-best of 54.22 seconds. Running out of the outside lane nine today, she wasn't able to get the same rhythm in the final today, coming across in 55.84 seconds for seventh.
 
The USA's Sydney McLaughlin broke her own World Record to win gold in 51.46 seconds and Dalilah Muhammad, who trains with Woodruff, won silver in 51.58, also under the previous record.