Solomon Qualifies for Final
EUGENE, Oregon—USC’s DUANE SOLOMON advanced to the men's 800m finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials held at Hayward Field Saturday.
Solomon, who finished third in the 800m race at the 2008 NCAA Championships, had the second-fastest time in his heat and on the day at 1.45.82 to advance to Monday's finals.
Among the people Solomon beat in his heat was Jacob Hernandez, who won the 2008 NCAA title while running for Texas. Solomon finished third at the 2007 U.S. Track and Field Championships to make America's team for the 2007 World Championships.
In the first heat, the University of Oregon's Andrew Wheating moved from off-pace, in fifth, to second place in the final few meters (1:46.23) and advance. Defending national champion Khadevis Robinson led from wire-to-wire to win in 1:46.14. In the second semifinal, Oregon Track Club's Nick Symmonds moved up on the inside for the final 200m of the race to overtake Solomon and win in 1:45.61.
Solomon knows all his competitors. Robinson was #1 on the U.S. team last year with Symmonds #2. Wheating, just a sophomore at Oregon, nipped Solomon in the Pac-10 championships. Both Wheating and Symmonds specialize in coming from behind while Robinson and Solomon like to run in front.
The rest of the eight-man field Monday consists of Jonathan Johnson and Jebreh Harris of Reebok, Lopez Lomong of Nike and Christian Smith of the Oregon Track Club.
The final is scheduled to be broadcast by Channel USA starting at 11 p.m. Monday evening.
-0-
Church Returns
RYAN CHURCH returned to the New York Mets lineup Sunday just as he left it—hot. He went 2-for-4 to lift his batting average to .304. He missed 27 games after sustaining his second concussion of the season on May 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment