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LSU TRACK STARS LEAD TRINIDAD IN RELAY FINALS AT WORLD CHAMPS
DAEGU, South Korea – As
the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics came to a close with
Sunday’s finale at Daegu Stadium, three LSU track stars took to the
track one final time for the country of Trinidad & Tobago while
running in the finals of the 4x100-meter relay.
After
winning the World Championships bronze medal in the women’s 100-meter
dash on Aug. 29 of last week, Lady Tiger alum Kelly-Ann Baptiste joined
junior Semoy Hackett in leading Trinidad to a fourth-place finish in
the sprint relay final after stopping the clock in 42.58 seconds.
While
competing with Kai Selvon on the first leg and Michelle Lee-Ahye on the
anchor, Trinidad crossed the finish line just .07 seconds behind
Ukraine (42.51) for its spot on the medal podium as Baptiste and
Hackett came up just short in their bid to take home the bronze medal
in the final event of the meet.
The women of Trinidad
& Tobago finished more than one second behind the gold-medal
winning effort at 41.56 by the United States, while Jamaica easily won
the silver medal with its time of 41.70.
While Baptiste
and Hackett guided the women’s sprint relay team to a fourth-place
finish, past LSU Tiger great Richard Thompson anchored Trinidad &
Tobago to a sixth-place finish in the men’s relay final with a time of
39.01. Thompson, who anchored Trinidad’s relay ahead of fellow
countrymen Keston Bledman, Marc Burns and Aaron Armstrong, fell just a
half second short of winning his third relay medal in a major
competition after taking the silver at the 2008 Olympic Games and 2009
World Championships.
Jamaica’s team of Nesta Carter,
Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt set a new world record with
its winning time of 37.04 to win the gold medal in this year’s World
Championships finale.
France finished more than one second
behind the Jamaicans for the silver medal in 38.20 while Saint Kitts
& Nevis won the bronze medal with a time of 38.49. Also finishing
ahead of Trinidad & Tobago were the teams from Poland (38.50) in
fourth place and Italy (38.96) in fifth place in the sprint relay final.
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