ASICS professional athlete Taliyah Brooks, an Arkansas graduate and 2018 NCAA Division 1 indoor pentathlon champion, joins DyeStat editor Erik Boal to discuss her participation Jan. 24 in the 60-meter hurdles and high jump at the first American Track League indoor event at Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville. It will mark the first meet for Brooks in her former collegiate arena and where she trains annually with coaches Chris Johnson and Mario Sategna since the 2018 Tyson Invitational. It will also be the first time she has high jumped in any competition since March 2018. Brooks participated in more events than any American professional athlete in 2020, including 19 competitions in eight countries during a 40-day stretch in August and September in Europe, which followed a one-day meet in early August where she was in the 100-meter dash and long jump at Prairie View A&M. Brooks expresses gratitude for meet organizer Paul Doyle, along with Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek and coaches Lance Harter and Chris Bucknam for bringing professional track and field to Fayetteville, in addition to her excitement for being able to compete at home after spending six weeks in Europe last summer. She also reflects on back-to-back long jump competitions in September in France and Italy where she placed in the top two, surpassing 21 feet in both events. Brooks revisits a unique final day of her European schedule Sept. 25 at the Diamond League event in Doha, Qatar, where she and teammate and fellow ASICS athlete Payton Chadwick took the top two spots in the 100-meter hurdles. Chadwick ran 12.78 seconds and Brooks clocked a wind-legal personal-best 12.86 to both rank among the top 10 in the world for the year. Chadwick went on to run the 100-meter dash, with Brooks competing the long jump later in the meet, before they both left that night to endure a 17-hour flight home to Arkansas. Brooks looks ahead to upcoming European indoor events in Germany, along with building the foundation for her return to the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June in Eugene, Ore.

DYESTAT DISCUSSIONS - EP30 - TALIYAH BROOKS