“To watch him run is wonderful”. The fearless athlete (Merritt also played wide receiver and safety at Wilson) accepted the challenge.
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Campbell, a volunteer coach at Coastal Carolina University, earned her third Olympic berth. Both in the 400m, of course. And like Merritt, she is an expert at pacing herself through the rounds in multiple races.
Despite the outcome, White realized a dream by showcasing himself in college football and track and field, along with competing at the Olympic Trials in the same school year, just like former Texas star and Buffalo Bills receiver Marquise Goodwin. “Bailey finished second with a throw of 202′ 0″ (61.57 meters), and Evans placed third, with a throw 200′ 10” (61.22 meters).
Amber Campbell broke her own mark in the women’s hammer final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials on Wednesday.
“On my way here, I kept telling myself, “You are going to try out for an Olympic team”, and that kind of blows your mind”, said Thornton in a phone interview from OR last week.
Winkler was second at the NCAA Championships, so this is a step forward. That was an adjustment.
Finley, who had a series of 203-6, 208-1, foul, foul, 204-1 and 207-4, seemed to handle the adversity the best, though he wasn’t quite up to his PR of 218-11 set in qualifying the previous day.
It appears the extra work benefited Merritt, who sank his teeth into this season with 200m races in March, April and May. By the time he landed, he learned that he’d been scratched from the field by a few late entrants who ranked higher than he did.
Earlier preliminary action today included the first round of the men’s 200M dash.
English Gardner, 24, has posted the second-fastest time in the world this year in the women’s 100.
“I was waiting for it to land”, he said. But then he started taking it more seriously. He says his focus is the 400m and, specifically, the 400m world record. That belongs to Johnson, of course, at 43.18 seconds.
Russia’s drug-fuelled race walking team didn’t compete at last year’s world championships, and coach Viktor Chegin was banned for life in March after more than 25 doping cases by Russian walkers. But it is not medals that motivates Merritt. “It is mind blowing coming from not doing track at all to having a chance to go to the Olympics and jump for my country”. I was looking to PR, but unfortunately time wasn’t on my side.
“Just trying to see how it does on the curve, and all that”, she said, as she moved ahead in her quest for the 200-400 double at the Rio Games. (Twenty more events will be contested in Eugene before the full team is decided this weekend.) No American squad has been younger than 26 years old since the 1988 Games in Seoul.
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“It’s not as if I would be training any harder if I knew that Russian Federation was going to be there or not, it doesn’t change anything in my leadup, in my training, so whether they’re there on that day or not, my goal is unchanged”, Drouin said.
