University of Alabama student-athletes earned medals during the recent 2026 Toyota USA Track and Field Outdoor and Para National Championships held July 23-26 at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City.
Dani Kanas earned gold in the F46 Javelin National Championship with a season-best throw of 29.77 meters. She also earned a silver medal in shot put. Talan Smith rounded out the medal wins with a bronze in the T37 100-meter race.
Incoming freshman Daniel Figueroa placed fourth in the 100m and 200m events in his first time representing UA. The events concluded UA’s Adapted Athletics track and field season.
“After some of the setbacks from last season, this season I was working my way back up by going back to the core parts of the technique and the fundamentals,” said Kanas. “Through this process, I was reminded why I love to throw, which helped to get my spark back and motivate me to continue to train hard.”
Smith also reflected on the path to medaling to end the 2025-2026 season.
“This year was tough on me mentally — from battling to stay healthy to having only six weeks to prepare for the biggest meet of the season,” he said. “But it was such a blessing from God to be able to go out there and compete. I was simply happy to be there and go out and perform the way I did.”
Looking ahead
Head Coach Evan Williams said he was excited to see how the season ended but is looking forward even more to the upcoming season.
“This season has been really great. We saw a lot of big improvements from all our athletes throughout the year. To have those capped off with some of them medaling at the national level demonstrates all the work they have put in during the year,” he said.
“We are bringing in a lot of new athletes for this next year, and a lot of talent in them. So I’m really looking forward to having the program grow and hopefully having an even bigger presence at para nationals next year.”
Read more about para track and field and the University’s other adapted sports on the Adapted Athletics website.
