The Road To Hayward: World Champion Hurdler & Fifteen Time State Champ Akala Garrett
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.8 • 686 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2023
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on "The Road To Hayward" is the U20 400mh World Champion Akala Garrett.
Akala is a fifteen-time individual state champion (yes, you read that right). She won the 100m hurdles and the 400m hurdles at the 2022 USATF U20 Outdoor Championships running 10.91 for the 100m hurdles and 57.47 for the 400m hurdles. She then went on to become the U20 World Champion a few weeks later. She won gold medals at the 2022 World Junior Championships in the 400 meters hurdles and the 4 × 400m relay.
At her state meet this year, she set new meet records in the 100-hurdles (13.52), 200-meter dash (24.25) and was part of the 1,600-meter relay team, which also set a new meet record (3:57.16). Garrett also ran 40.26 in the 300-hurdles, a new meet record and the fastest time in the nation this year.
Akala will return to the action at the 2023 Nike Outdoor National Meet, where she will defend her title in the 400m & 100m hurdles after winning both in dominant fashion last year.
In this conversation, Akala shares her story, journey to get to where she is today, having her mom as her coach, what her faith means to her, winning the U20 world championship in the 400mH, winning Nike Indoor Nationals, her ambitions for Nike Outdoor Nationals, and much more. If you're looking for an inspiring conversation with the top U20 hurdler in the world who is full of energy and wisdom, you'll love today's conversation.
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The podcast graphic was done by the talented: Xavier Gallo.
S H O W N O T E S
-Nike Outdoor Nationals Info: https://nikeoutdoornationals.runnerspace.com/
-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Road to Hayward is presented by the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation. |
| 0:05.0 | NSAF has put on world-class events for the next generation of athletes for over 30 years now. |
| 0:10.3 | Over 400 Olympians earning nearly 200 medals have participated in the NSAF Championship events. |
| 0:17.0 | NSAF is presenting the Nike Outdoor National Meet June 15th through 18th at Hayward Field, |
| 0:22.6 | which is the greatest track and field stadium on the planet. |
| 0:25.6 | To get more info about this world-class meet, visit Nike OutdoorNationals.com. |
| 0:34.6 | Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of The Road to Hayward, a short mini-series |
| 0:39.9 | that will document and tell the stories of many of the top athletes competing at this year's |
| 0:44.1 | Nike Outdoor National Meet. And I thought, who better to have on than defending champ in the |
| 0:49.0 | 100,400 meter hurdles? Akala Garrett. Akala is also the U-20 400-meter world champion, and she also won |
| 0:56.9 | the USATF U-20 outdoor championships last year, also in the 104-meter hurdles. She is maybe most |
| 1:03.8 | impressively a 15-time state individual champion. Yes, you heard me right. Akela is just such an |
| 1:09.8 | accomplished and storied individual who |
| 1:11.7 | has done so many incredible things in the sport. And I can't wait to see what she does at Nike this |
| 1:16.6 | year. Today's conversation was so much fun hearing about Akila's backstory in the sport, |
| 1:21.3 | what it's like having her mom as a coach winning that world title last year, the two titles |
| 1:26.3 | she won at Nike last year, Nike Indoor |
| 1:28.0 | Nationals, so many different fun subjects that I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and I'm sure |
| 1:32.5 | you'll enjoy hearing about. Before we get into today's motivating conversation, I would |
| 1:36.9 | greatly appreciate you giving us a five-star review and a follow if you have not already done so on |
| 1:41.5 | Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Hitting those two buttons greatly helps us out, |
| 1:45.4 | and it only takes between five and ten seconds of your time. |
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