Norman, Oklahoma
- Darold Williamson of Baylor University showed that he’s
ready for the NCAA championships and perhaps a good deal
more as yesterday (28 May) he ripped off a couple of
excellent 400s at the NCAA Midwest Regionals, a qualifying
meet for the real NCAA championships in Sacramento (8 – 11
June).
Williamson
first won the individual 400m in 44.76, to the great delight
of his (and Michael Johnson’s and Jeremy Wariner’s) coach,
Clyde Hart, who said, “he executed perfectly. I told him if
he executed, he’d run 44. He went through the 200 in 21.6,
exactly what we wanted, and the rest of the race perfectly.”
Even though the
next two finishers Andrae Williams and Dirk Homewood, ran
impressively (45.29 and 45.34 respectively), Williamson made
everyone else look like they were running in sand.
A little over
two hours later, Williamson took the baton trailing by a few
metres as the 4x400 went into is final lap. He made his 43.9
look easy.
The other top
performer was Shauna Smith of the University of Wyoming.
She won the women’s 400m Hurdles by 25 metres in a PB of
54.37, and then pulled a double similar to Williamson’s by
coming back to lead off her 4x400 relay team in 52.2.
Other
noteworthy performances included: rising sprint star
Marshavet Hooker, who won the women’s Long Jump Friday
with 6.45, took the women’s 100 metres today with a quick
11.13; Canadian Priscilla Lopes won the 100m Hurdles in
12.94; and Latvian Dmitrijs Milkevics upset 1:44.77 man and
U.S. Olympian Jonathan Johnson, winning in 1:46.48 to
runner-up Jeremy Mims (1:46.51) and Johnson 1:47.27).
reprinted from the IAAF, written by James Dunaway, photo by
Victah Sailer
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