Olympic hopeful Jehue Gordon will compete in the men’s 400m hurdles at Rome Leg of the IAAF Diamond League later today. In the Italian capital Gordon will face the world’s best one lap hurdles including the current World champion David Greene (Great Britain), former World champions Bershawn Jackson (USA), Felix Sanchez (Dominican Republic) and last year’s winner LJ Van Zyl (South Africa).
Gordon will be aiming at improving his season’s best of 48.89 set in finishing second to two-time World Championships silver Javier Culson (Puerto Rico) at the Ponce Grand Prix on May 12 where Culson won in a world leading time of 48.00. The 2010 World Junior champion will be seeking to improve on his fifth place finish in last year’s race when he clocked 49.09. The UWI Sports Management student will also be hoping to get his first win of the season after his runner up finishes to Jackson at the Jamaican Invitational on May 5 and to another Puerto Rican Eric Alejandro at the Falcon Games on March 31.
Gordon has already attained the Olympic Games A standard in the 400m hurdles of 49.50 and is expected to represented T&T at the London Olympic Games carded for July 27 to August 12. The former Belmont Boys/QRC student is one of 29 local athletes who have made Olympic qualifying marks and will all be in action at next month’s Sagicor Open National Championships which will serve as this country’s Olympic trials.
-Clayton Clarke
Source: www.guardian.co.tt