Allen’s next race will take place at the USATF Outdoor Championships, scheduled for July 6-9 at the University of Oregon — the 28-year-old’s alma mater.
Should he qualify for the U.S. team with a top-three placement there, Allen would then be slated to race at the World Athletics Championships, where he was disqualified for a false start in the 110-meter hurdles final in 2022.
Only there’s an extra hurdle in the way of Allen’s hopeful redemption.
The World Athletics Championships take place from Aug. 18-27, during the heart of Eagles training camp. That’s crunch time for a player who has never taken a regular-season snap and has set his sights on making Philly’s practice squad or better.
“Yeah, I still don’t have a plan of what I’m gonna do with Worlds being, you know, during training camp,” Allen told KPIC 4 in an interview last week preceding Saturday’s Grand Prix. “Obviously, it’d be nice to compete at Worlds and also it would be nice to be at training camp so I can make the 53-man roster. So, obviously it’s gonna be a little bit of a decision, but I’m not going to worry about that, like I said, until I make the world championship team. USA is a competitive meet. Just got to focus on doing that first.”
The predicament Allen might find himself in with another top-tier performance a couple weeks from now is an unenviable one. His decision could ultimately play a factor in what the Eagles decide to do with him.