Aug. 21, 2009
BERLIN, GERMANY - A pair of fourth place finishes highlighted action for Texas A&M athletes during the seventh day of the IAAF World Championships, which was delayed with heavy rains. Muna Lee in the 200 and Tabarie Henry in the 400 both placed fourth in their respective finals while Simone Facey added a sixth place effort in the 200.
Meanwhile, Tyrone Edgar ran the second leg of Great Britain's 4 x 100 relay during the qualifying round. The British clocked 38.11 to finish second behind the American's winning mark of 37.97 while Canada (38.60) also advanced in third place from that heat.
Following the relay a protest from Great Britain led to the disqualification of the United States team for passing the baton on the final exchange outside of the 20-meter zone. Officials with USATF appealed the decision.
Texas A&M volunteer assistant Wallace Spearmon will be added to the United States relay line-up if they are in the finals. During the prelim the foursome included Terrance Trammell, Michael Rodgers, Shawn Crawford and Darvis Patton.
Other qualifiers for Saturday's 4 x 100 final include Trinidad & Tobago (38.47), Japan (38.53), France (38.59) out of heat one, with Italy (38.52) and Jamaica (38.60) qualifying from heat three. If the U.S. disqualification holds, then Brazil (38.72) will move into the final.
As American Allison Felix cruised to a 22.02 winning time for her third consecutive World Championship gold medal in the women's 200 final, Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown (22.35) secured silver while the Bahamas' Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (22.41) moved past Lee (22.48) late for the bronze medal.
Facey, the NCAA 200 champion in 2008, was also closing strong on fellow Jamaican Anneisha McLaughlin for fifth place. McLaughlin held the advantage in the final meters to finish in 22.62 ahead of 22.80 for Facey.
In the men's 400 final LaShawn Merritt repeated his Olympic victory over fellow American Jeremy Wariner with a world-leading 44.06 to Wariner's 44.60. Renny Quow of Trinidad & Tobago charged to finish along with Henry, running for the U.S. Virgin Islands. Quow, the 2006 World Junior champ, was able to claim bronze in 45.02 over a 45.42 for Henry, who finished ahead of Bahamas' Chris Brown (45.47).
As the 12th edition of the World Championships wrap up over the weekend live coverage will switch to NBC while also remaining available on www.universalsports.com.
The men's long jump final will have A&M's Fabrice Lapierre as the second jumper in a field of 12.
Facey will likely see relay duty on the Jamaican 4 x 100 as they run in lane 4 in the first of three semifinal heats. They are in a heat with the Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and Belgium. The United States team, in which Lee is part of the relay pool, runs in heat three from lane 5 with Japan, Poland, Brazil and Russia.
Jessica Beard, who reached the 400 semifinals in Berlin, will be part of the relay pool for the United States 4 x 400 relay. The prelims on Saturday have the Americans in the first of two heats with Italy, Bahamas, Australia, Nigeria, France, Brazil and Mexico.