Daniel Haugh Credits Better Sleep, Nutrition For Success In Hammer; Aggressive Start Pays Off For FDU's Salif Mane In Triple Jump; Shelby McEwen Soars Above Competition In High Jump

By Lori Shontz for DyeStat

John Nepolitan and Tim Healy photos

EUGENE, Ore. – Last summer, hammer thrower Daniel Haugh would wake up from eight or nine hours of sleep and still be exhausted.

“I’d feel hungover, essentially,” he said.

He had a sleep study done before the 2023 World Athletics Championships, and he discovered he had severe sleep apnea; he was waking up as many as 26 times. An hour.

So, he got a CPAP machine, and now he’s waking up feeling great.

Next up, Haugh decided to listen more closely to his nutritionist.

“This is the cleanest my diet’s every been,” he said. “I’m eating the same foods every day. The same meals every time, the same time every day.”

All that consistency paid off for Haugh on Sunday at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, when he won his second national title in the hammer throw with a season’s best mark of 260-10 (79.51m).

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“There’s power in being able to show up every day,” Haugh said. “If you can compound your technique, compound your work without having to take breaks because you’re injured, you can have special moments.”

Second place went to Rudy Winkler, who threw 258-10 (78.89), and third place went to Justin Stafford, who threw a personal-best 252-10 (77.07). It was the third time all three medalists threw more than 77 meters; it also happened in 1992 and 2021.

Haugh said he loves to compete, but what he really loves is training. Each year, he picks an area of his program and tries to level it up, and 2024 has been the year of sleep and nutrition.

Breakfast used to be seven whole eggs, plus a bagel with cream cheese. He ate a steak or ground beef every night. “I wasn’t eating bad,” he said. “It wasn’t bad foods, but I was eating a lot that inflamed my gut.”

Now breakfast is four egg whites, three whole eggs and a bagel with almond butter. He’s eating more chicken. Salmon. Asparagus. “I’m crushing the air fryer,” he said.

He’s also been crushing it in practice; he said he has eclipsed all of his numbers from 2022, when he threw a personal best 80.18m. “I know there’s a huge throw in there,” he said. “We’ve got four weeks to get it out.”

NCAA Champion Wins Triple jump

As he prepared for his first attempt of the triple jump competition, Salif Mane felt the wind blowing at him. So, he knew he would need to run a little harder, and he decided to try that out on the first jump.

The result? A personal best of 56-8.50 (17.28m) – and more important, the Olympic standard.

“It was just aggression,” Mane said. “To get the test and jump 17.28, that’s amazing, that’s what it was.”

And that was just the start. On his final jump, with his spot on the Olympic team secured, Mane leaped even farther – 57-5.75 (15.52) to win his second major competition of the month at Hayward Field.

“I’ve been training for it all season,” he said. “I always knew I had it in me – I just had to have the right time, the right place.”

Mane also won the NCAA Division 1 triple jump title June 7 for Fairleigh Dickinson University at Hayward Field with what was at the time a PR: 56-2.75 (17.14m). He said he worked on his last phase over the past couple of weeks, and he’s got more work to do on it before Paris.

Russell Robinson of the University of Miami (Florida), the top qualifier, earned silver with a mark of 55-9.75 (17.01m); he does not have the Olympic standard. Bronze medalist Donald Scott, who does have the standard, jumped 55-4.25 (16.87m).

McEwen Building On World Indoor Silver

Shelby McEwen showed up at Hayward Field with one primary goal on his vision board. “The goal always was to come in and get the win,” he said.  

He achieved that easily with a mark of 7-6.50 (2.30m); he passed at one height, but cleared the other four with one jump. He then took three attempts at 7-8.75 (2.36m), which would have been a meet record, but missed them all.

McEwen secured a silver medal in March at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, which he said boosted his confidence. He followed that up with his first Diamond League victory in Xiamen in April.

“Ever since then I’ve been locked in,” he said. “It’s only the beginning. I’m looking forward to Paris and bringing some hardware home. That’s the goal.”

Caleb Snowden of Arkansas-Pine Bluff finished second with a personal best of 7-5.25 (2.27m), and Tyus Wilson of Nebraska finished third at 7-4.25 (2.24m). Neither jumper, however, has the Olympic standard.

JuVaughn Harrison, the 2023 U.S. champion who finished second at the World Championships in Budapest, finished fourth missing all three attempts at 7-5.25. But he does have the Olympic standard, so he’ll likely be going to Paris.