media_artricles :: 2013

Lendore sprints to double gold in Texas Meet

OLYMPIAN Deon Lendore powered to double-gold at his school’s Texas A&M Triangular Meet in College Station, Texas on Saturday.

Lendore, who competed in his first 400m event for the new season, raced to gold in a blistering time of 45.91 seconds. He defeated silver medallist Caleb Williams of LSU (46.98s) and bronze receiver Aldrich Bailey Jr (47.28s) also of Texas A&M.

The 20-year-old now holds the meet record and a world leading time. Lendore removed Bahamian Demetrius Pinder’s 46.03s record, which was set in 2010. His golden performance also went down in the school’s history books as the third fastest indoor time ever.

Following this, the sophomore athlete then hauled his college team to gold in the Men’s 4x400m.

The quartet of Lendore, Bailey, Carlyle Roudette and Ricky Babineaux clocked 3:07.21, just missing the school record of 3:06.25, set by the same team one week earlier. The Texas A&M team overpowered LSU runners-up (3.07.74) Cyril Grayson, Quincy Downing, Caleb Williams, Darrell Bush and third-placed Texas A&M ‘B’ team (3.17.60) of Kenneth Minkah, Hector Hernandez, Nick Rollo and Josh Hernandez.

Speaking after his double-golden performance, Lendore was pleased with his successful start to the season, “In my mind I really wanted to go 45 (seconds) in my first meet. Even before the race I told myself I needed to try my best to run 45 today. Before I walked out to the track, coach told me to do what I said I was going to do. After I finished the race and saw it was 45 I was pretty happy.”

He added, “My fastest split last year was 46.0 at the NCAA. So, after I split 45 low last weekend, I started thinking I could do the same in the open 400, if I try my best. I at least wanted to get the meet record, which I did.”

At Saturday’s meet, Texas A&M athlete Wayne Davis II grasped bronze in the Men’s 60m hurdles. He clocked 8.0 flat and was beaten by eventual gold medallist Caleb Cross (7.89s) of Arkansas and silver medallist Joshua Thompson of LSU (7.95s).

Another Texas A&M student, Janiel Bellille missed out on medalling in the Women’s 400m. Bellille had to settle for fourth place in 54.92s.

The 2008 World Junior 400m hurdles silver medallist is competing in her first season for Texas A&M. Additionally, LSU’s Shermund Allsop held on to seventh in the Men’s 200m (21.63s) and 12th in the 60m (7.02s).

Texas A&M school-mate, Wayne Davis II bagged bronze in the Men’s 60m hurdles in 8.00. Davis was conquered by Caleb Cross of Arkansas (7.89s) and LSU’s Joshua Thompson (7.95s) respectively.

The youngster currently holds the national indoor 60m hurdles (7.70s) and outdoor 110m hurdles (13.37s) records and was a semi-finalist at the London Olympics.

At the Iowa State Open in Ames, Iowa on Friday and Saturday, Dan-Neil Telesford (Iowa Central) and his team copped gold in the Men’s 4x400m event. They won in a time of 3:15.42. Telesford also recorded a fourth place finish in the Men’s 200m (21.82s) and 23rd in the men’s 600 yards (1:15.03).

Telesford’s schoolmate, Jessica James and her team also picked up silver in the Women’s 4x400m in 3:50.28.

Other results for TT athletes

on the US circuit:

Jessica James (Iowa Central) – seventh Women’s 600 yards; Samantha Shukla (Wichita State) – fourth Women’s 3000m; Carissa Leacock (Iowa Central) – sixth Women’s long-jump; Aaron Leung Woo-Gabriel (Wichita State) – ninth Men’s 60m; Kai Selvon (Auburn) – seventh Women’s 60m

Top