Trinidad and Tobago athletes, Deon Lendore and Sparkle McKnight will bid for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field Championship titles, in Oregon, USA, today.
On Wednesday, the opening day of the Championships, Lendore topped heat two in the men’s 400 metres preliminaries in 45.36 seconds to advance automatically to today’s final. The Texas A&M University sophomore was third fastest in the qualifying round.
McKnight, a junior at University of Arkansas, booked her lane in the women’s 400m hurdles final as a “fastest loser”, after finishing third in heat three in 56.70 seconds.
Washington State University’s Shawna Fermin finished sixth in heat three and 13th overall in the women’s 400m preliminaries in 52.76 seconds, and did not advance to the final.
Tomorrow, T&T’s Shermund Allsop is expected to be part of the Louisiana State University (LSU) team that will bid for honours in the men’s 4x100m final. On Wednesday, Allsop anchored LSU to victory in heat three in 38.94 seconds.
Another T&T sprinter, Jamol James was part of the University of Tennessee quartet that did not finish heat one.