Oregon wide receiver Devon Allen has flown away from the Ducks for the first part of training camp, but for a very good reason: he’s running in the Olympics.
Allen won the 110-meter hurdles at the Olympic Trails last month on his home track in Eugene, and continued his summer on Monday by running a 13.41 second split, good enough to push him into tomorrow’s semifinals.
Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said Monday the Ducks would watch Allen run as part of a team meeting.
On to the #Olympics semifinals for @DevonAllen13 as his teammates rejoice #GoDucks #RioDucks https://t.co/ZHb7OF9d4T
— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) August 16, 2016
.@DevonAllen13 takes 2nd place in his 110m Hurdles heat! He's moving on to the semis. #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/qLvoMLDZqB
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 16, 2016
🔑 qualifiers for the 110m Hurdles Semifinal. #Athletics pic.twitter.com/0XpnAWeTpX
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 16, 2016
A key player on the Ducks’ football team, Allen’s path to Rio is all the more impressive considering he missed the 2015 track season after tearing his ACL in Oregon’s win over Florida State in the Rose Bowl. He returned to catch nine passes for 94 yards last season. Allen snagged 41 balls for 684 yards and seven touchdowns in his season before the injury.
Allen is still deciding between whether to pursue football or track full-time.
“It’s funny to me that people think Devon can only do one, track or football, long-term,” former track All-American Jordan Kent told Sports Illustrated. There’s no guarantee that if he stopped playing football, he’d be a better hurdler, or if he stopped hurdling, he’d be a better football player. All we know for sure is that right now, doing both is working out well for him.”
Allen will run in the semifinals at 7:40 p.m. ET tomorrow.