Fabrice Lapierre advances to long jump final at World Championships

LONDON – Texas A&M alum Fabrice Lapierre advanced to the final of the long jump during the qualifying round held on the first evening of the 16^th IAAF World Championships at London Stadium.
 
Prior to the start of the evening session, Aggie alum Jessica Beard was part of a medal ceremony for the United States 4x400 relay team that received an upgrade from their 2013 World Championships silver medal as they were elevated to a gold medal.
 
A mark of 25-11 ½ (7.91) by Lapierre in the second round of his qualifying group placed the Australian 12^th overall with the top 12 advancing to Saturday's final. He bettered two other jumpers by three-quarters of an inch as Tyrone Smith of Bermuda and Australia's Henry Frayne both produced marks of 25-10 ¼ (7.88).
 
"It's a great feeling, especially how it happened," said 33-year-old Lapierre, who is competing in his fifth outdoor World Championships. "I had to wait forever, and I thought there was no chance. It was nerve-wracking and hard to watch others jumping when you're relying on them to do bad."
 
Opening with a 25-2 (7.67), Lapierre moved himself into contention for the final with a second attempt leap of 25-11 ½. Then he closed with a 25-8 ¾ (7.84) on his third and final attempt.
 
"I was really happy with the 25-11 jump," stated Lapierre. "I didn't hit the board once today, so I need to fix that tomorrow. If I can get on the board, then I feel like I can get a medal. I need to get that in tomorrow and get a rebound off the take-off board."
 
Eight jumpers managed to better the automatic qualifying mark of 26-5 (8.05), with the crew heading to the final lead by a 27-0 ½ (8.24) from Radek Juska of the Czech Republic.
 
Waiting for the rest of the field of 32 jumpers to complete their attempts to see if he would advance to the final, Lapierre's position was in jeopardy with 2016 Olympic champion Jeff Henderson of the United States taking the final jump.
 
Henderson produced his best effort of the day, but the measurement of 25-8 ¾ (7.84) left him in 17^th place overall.
 
"When I saw Jeff Henderson going last, I thought there was no way in the world I'm going to make it to the final," noted Lapierre. "I thought the big champ was going to beat me. Somehow, I snuck in there."
 
Past experience in the World Championships and Olympic Games gives Lapierre hope of being able to produce a medal performance in the final.
 
"Qualifying is the hardest," said Lapierre. "The last World Champs I snuck into the final as well, in 11^th place, and then I earned a silver medal. Tomorrow is a new day."
 
The long jump final starts at 8:05 p.m. on Saturday (2:05 p.m. CT) for Lapierre. The morning session on Saturday will include three other Aggies in action with the trio of Fred Kerley (400m), Simone Facey (100m) and Donavan Brazier (800m).
 
Kerley races in the first heat of the men's 400m, starting at 10:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m. CT), from lane seven. Simone Facey occupies lane three in heat five of the women's 100m, while Brazier is in the last of six heats of the men's 800m. In each of those events the top three finishers in each heat and next six fastest times will advance to the semifinal.
 
Saturday's coverage starts at 4 a.m. (CT) on NBC Sports Network and the evening session coverage begins at 3 p.m. (CT) on NBC.
 
2017 IAAF World Championships – Schedule for Texas A&M Athletes
(London time listed first, followed by Central time)
 
Saturday, August 5
    10:45 a.m.      4:45.a.m.            M 400m    Heats            Fred Kerley (Heat 1, Lane 7)
    11:45 a.m.      5:45 a.m.           W 100m    Heats            Simone Facey (Heat 5, Lane 3)
    12:45 p.m.      6:45 a.m.            M 800m    Heats            Donavan Brazier (Heat 6, Lane 6)
 
      8:05 p.m.      2:05 p.m.   M Long Jump    FINAL            Fabrice Lapierre