Aug. 13, 2009
Berlin, Germany - NOTE - Live daily coverage of the meet will be online at www.universalsports.com as well as via television on NBC during the weekends and Versus during the week. A link to the broadcast schedule is available below. A pdf is available showing what days and times Texas A&M athletes will be competing.
With the 12th edition of the IAAF World Outdoor Championships starting on Saturday in the Olympic Stadium, 10 athletes with ties to the Texas A&M track and field program, representing six countries, will be involved in the meet that spans nine days from Aug. 15-23. In addition four members of the Aggie coaching staff will be at the championships as well.
Four of the 10 athletes include three current athletes in Simone Facey (Jamaica) and Fabrice Lapierre (Australia). There are also three Aggie volunteer assistant coaches competing for the United States in Muna Lee, Aries Merritt and Wallace Spearmon.
Members of the Texas A&M coaching staff in Berlin include assistants Vince Anderson, Jim VanHootegem and Alleyne Francique along with volunteer assistant Andreas Behm.
Beard, a three-time U.S. junior 400 champion, will make her first senior trip as the youngest member of the women's U.S. squad. She holds the Aggie school record in the 400 with a 50.56 she set as the NCAA silver medalist this season. In competing at her first USATF Championship, Beard placed third in 50.81 to earn a berth on the team and also be among the relay pool for the 4 x 400.
The 20-year-old Aggie junior has been part of three U.S. junior international teams that traveled to Beijing, China (2006), Sao Paulo, Brazil (2007) and Bydgoszcz, Poland (2008) for a pair of World Junior Championships and the Pan Am Juniors. Beard earned a silver medal in the 400 at the World Juniors last summer and has been part of three 4 x 400 relays that have claimed gold.
In Berlin the United States 1,600-meter relay is expected to battle for gold along with Russia and Jamaica. The Americans claimed gold at the 2007 World Championships as well as the 2008 Olympics. Jamaica earned silver in 2007 and bronze in 2008 behind the Russians, who last won the world title in 2005.
Phiri and Reid also embark on their initial trips to a senior level World Championships with their respective countries. Phiri will contest the 100 and 200 for Zambia while Reid is entered in the triple jump for Jamaica.
Reid, a NCAA silver medalist in the triple jump, represented Jamaica at the Pan Am Juniors in 2007, placing second in the long jump. At the CAC Games last summer Reid finished fourth in the long jump. During the Jamaica Championships, Reid has won the triple jump title the past two years. He holds the Texas A&M school record in the event with a best of 55-8.5.
Phiri enters the World Championships as the national record holder for Zambia with career best times of 10.13 in the 100 and 20.29 in the 200. Phiri has fared well while at A&M in running both sprints. For the past two seasons he is the only male sprinter to win the 100 and 200 titles during the Big 12 Championships. He repeated the feat at the Midwest Region this season prior to placing third in the 100 and fourth in the 200 at the NCAA Championships.
Henry, meanwhile, represented the U.S. Virgin Islands at the 2008 Olympics, where he was a semifinalist in the 400. He recorded a national record best of 45.19 in Beijing and has since lowered that time three times during the 2009 season, reaching a national record of 44.77 seconds as the runner-up at the NJCAA Championships. Henry is slated to place eighth in Berlin among the form charts created by Track & Field News.
Among the three A&M grads, who have each had previous Olympic or World Championship experience, Lapierre is predicted to finish the highest. Projections by Track & Field News have Lapierre finishing fourth in the men's long jump while they tabbed Facey for eighth in the women's 200 final.
Lapierre is predicted to place behind the trio of Dwight Phillips (US), Irving Saladino of Panama and South Africa's Godfrey Mokoena. With four wins this summer, Lapierre has finished fourth or higher in each of his competitions.
Phillips, the 2004 Olympic champ, has won two world titles in 2003 and 2005 while Saladino enters the meet as the defending world champion from 2007 and the 2008 Olympic champion. Mokoena, the silver medalist from Beijing, set an African record of 27-10.75 this summer in placing second to Lapierre's wind-aided career best of 28-1.5 in Madrid.
Edgar and Facey are also in the 4 x 100 relay pool for their respective countries. The Jamaican women are predicted for silver, of which they have attained those medals in 2005 and 2007, behind the Americans. Facey was a member of the Jamaican squad that finished second in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
Great Britain, third in the past two World Championships, is tabbed for fourth place this time behind the trio of Jamaica, United States and Trinidad & Tobago. Edgar was a semifinalist in the 100 during the Beijing Olympics and has a season best time of 10.09 seconds in 2009.
Among the Aggie volunteer assistants Spearmon is predicted for a bronze medal in the 200 meters, Lee is tabbed for eighth in the 100 and fifth in the 200, while Merritt is slated for seventh in the 110 hurdles.
Spearmon has a pair of medals in the 200 from previous World Championships, earning silver in 2005 and bronze in 2007. With a personal best of 19.65 seconds from 2006, Spearmon has the fifth fastest time ever in the history of the event and is the fourth fastest American. Lee placed fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100 during the Olympic Games last summer.
Both Lee and Spearmon are among the relay pool for the American's 400-meter relay. The US women are the choice for gold while the US men are expected to place second behind Jamaica.
Lee recently ran the third leg of an American foursome that set a world leading time of 41.58 seconds in Cottbus, Germany, during a tune-up for the World Championships. It was the fastest sprint relay time in 12 years and equaled the eighth fastest time ever in the world while equaling the fifth fastest mark by an American squad. It also claimed the 2009 world lead away from the 42.36 mark set by Texas A&M in winning the NCAA title back in June.
Texas A&M Breakdown by Country - World Championships
United States - Jessica Beard (400, 4x4 relay), Muna Lee (100, 200, 4x1 relay), Aries Merritt (110 hurdles), Wallace Spearmon (200, 4x1 relay)
Jamaica - Simone Facey (200, 4x1 relay), Julian Reid (triple jump)
Australia - Fabrice Lapierre (long jump)
Great Britain - Tyrone Edgar (100, 4x1 relay)
U.S. Virgin Islands - Tabarie Henry (400)
Zambia - Gerald Phiri (100, 200)
TV / Internet coverage Daily coverage can be seen at www.universalsports.com. Morning sessions air at 3 a.m. local time while evening sessions normally begin at 11:30 a.m. A full schedule of times for each day is located at the following site: World Championships Media Coverage
NBC will air coverage on the weekends, starting at noon this Saturday, Aug. 15, and 1 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 16. They follow the same pattern the following weekend on Aug. 22 and 23. During the week the television coverage is located on the Versus channel, airing at noon on Monday, Aug. 17 and Tuesday, Aug. 18, and then changing to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday, Aug. 19-21. Replays will be available on the Versus channel.