Goodwin, Hardee, Manzano, Armstrong and Laine realize 2012 Olympic dream
July 26, 2012 AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Men's Track & Field will be represented by current Longhorn Marquise Goodwin and former student-athletes Leo Manzano, Trey Hardee, Dylan Armstrong and Samyr Laine at the upcoming 2012 Olympics. Track & Field competition at the London Games will take place Aug. 3-12 with Goodwin, Manzano, Hardee, Armstrong and Laine competing Aug. 3-9 at Olympic Stadium. Goodwin will kick off his Olympic long jump campaign after winning the event at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., last month. He leaped a career-best 8.33m (27-4.00) on the final jump of the competition to earn a spot on the Olympic Team. Goodwin's Trials victory followed his impressive junior campaign at Texas in which he won the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a then personal-best mark of 8.23m (27-0). Goodwin was the first collegian to win both the Olympic Trials and the NCAA Outdoors long jump competition in the same year since 1960. The preliminary round for the long jump will take place on Friday, Aug. 3 at 1:50 p.m. Central. The long jump final rounds will be contested on Aug. 4 at 1:55 p.m. Also competing on Aug. 3 will be Dylan Armstrong, representing Canada in the shot put. Armstrong, who missed medaling at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing by just a centimeter, won the shot put at the Canadian Olympic Trials with a mark of 21.29m (69-10.25) on his second throw of the final round. He placed second in the event at the 2011 World Indoor Championships and is the reigning Commonwealth Games and Pan American Games champion. Armstrong is also the Canadian record-holder in the event (22.21m). Both rounds of the shot put will be contested on Aug. 3. The qualification round will take place at 4:00 a.m. Central and the final will be at 2:30 p.m. Rounding out the opening day of Olympic Track & Field competition for the Longhorns will be Leo Manzano in the first round of the 1500m. Manzano was the 1500m U.S. Trials champion in 3:35.75 after having been runner-up in the event in four of the last five years at the USA Outdoor Championships and the 2008 Olympic Trials. He will be running in his second Olympic Games after placing 12th in the semifinals of the 1500m in Beijing.
The opening rounds of the 1500m will be run on Aug. 3 at 2:05 p.m. Central. Semifinals for the event will take place on Aug. 5 at 2:15 p.m., and the final is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 7 at 3:15 p.m. Also competing will be Samyr Laine in the triple jump for Haiti. Laine, who holds the Haitian national record in the triple jump (17.39m) will be competing in his first Olympics and looking to win the first Olympic medal for Haiti since 1928. The qualification round for the triple jump will take place Aug. 7 at 4:45 a.m. Central and the final will be on Thursday, Aug. 9 at 1:20 p.m. Trey Hardee rounds out UT's Olympic contingent on the men's side in the decathlon. Hardee's runner-up finish behind new world record holder Ashton Eaton at the Olympic Trials earned him the right to compete in his second Olympics. After finishing runner-up at the 2008 Trials to eventual Olympic champion Bryan Clay, Hardee dropped out of the Beijing Games after eight events following a no-height in the pole vault. He rebounded in 2009 by winning the decathlon at the World Outdoor Championships and won his second World Championship in the event in 2011. The decathlon 100m dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m dash will be contested on Wednesday, Aug. 8. The multi-event will wrap up Aug. 9 with the 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m. NBC will carry coverage of track & field throughout the 2012 Olympics. Localized coverage schedules can be found by visiting NBCOlympics.com. 2012 Olympic Track & Field Information Texas Longhorns Competition Schedule (all times Central) Saturday, August 4 Sunday, August 5 Tuesday, August 7 Wednesday, August 8 Thursday, August 9 |
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