BOSTON -- For the second year in a row, LSU great Lolo Jones walked away from the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center as the U.S. indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles after winning her second career title Sunday at the AT&T USA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Jones, who entered the meet with the fastest time by an American this season at 7.77 seconds, matched her effort from a season ago as she crossed the finish line in 7.88 to successfully defend her crown over runner-up Candice Davis (7.90).
With the win, Jones not only earned the right to represent the United States at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, but she also won the Visa Championship title and the $25,000 bonus that goes along with it.
“I felt really good going into the race. I felt that it was a sloppy race overall, but I was still able to pull ahead and win out,” said Jones following her sprint to the finish line. “I knew what I needed to do and just kept on with my speed at the end of the race. There was a lot of focus on technique instead of time, because as a runner you shouldn’t focus on time.”
Jones earned 1,194 points on the IAAF scoring tables to take the women’s Visa Championship title as she edged sprinter Angela Williams for the $25,000 prize. Williams received 1,183 points for her victory in the Visa women’s 60-meter dash on Sunday evening.
Jones has enjoyed a successful indoor season in 2008 as she established her new personal record of 7.77 in a runner-up finish at the BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Feb. 10.
She also won the title at the PSD Bank Meeting in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Feb. 8 where she set a new meet record of 7.87 in the final. In addition, Jones finished runner-up at the Samsung Galan in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Jan. 29 and the Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, on Feb. 2.
This marks the first time in her illustrious career that Jones has won the Visa Championship title. The Visa Championship Series is a prestigious series of nationally televised USA Track & Field competitions that features the very best athletes from Team USA and honors the No. 1 American male and female performer each year during the indoor and outdoor seasons.