Carter advances to second Olympics in shot put
June 29, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. -- Former Texas Longhorn Michelle Carter added her name to the United States Olympic Team roster with a second-place finish in the shot put on Friday at the Track & Field Olympic Trials. Carter's mark of 18.57m (60-11.25) on her fifth attempt solidified her second-place position and guaranteed her the right to compete in her second Olympics. She began with a throw of 18.16m on her first attempt that placed her at the top of the standings after the first round. On a day when many of the top competitors' shot put marks were generally lower across the board, Carter improved her mark on each of her legal throws and never fell out of the top three. "It was pretty rough today. It started out really slow," Carter said. "I've been working a lot on my technique and on a lot of different things. The goal was to make the team and now we get ready to focus and get ready for London." "Michelle is a devil with a shot put and has so much fire in her," Texas head coach Bev Kearney said. "I'm very, very proud of the Texas Longhorns and how we will be represented in London. I'm excited that they are helping to continue carrying the torch of excellence." Texas also had solid representation in the 200m semifinals with Sanya Richards-Ross, Alex Anderson, Chalonda Goodman and Bianca Knight all qualifying in yesterday's preliminary round. Richards-Ross moves on to Saturday's final with the top overall time in 22.15 in her quest to compete at the London Olympics in two events. She ran in the second of three semifinal heats with LSU's Kimberlyn Duncan, the NCAA 200m Outdoor Champion in both 2011 and 2012, besting Duncan by two tenths of a second. "Yesterday I was a little bit tight, but today I felt really fresh," Richards-Ross said. "I was thinking I would go 22.3 so I was really pleased to see my time. I think this is going to be the hardest sprint event to make. You can run a great race and you can come first or sixth, so tomorrow I'm hoping that I put together another great race and that I'm in the top three."
Bianca Knight also moved on to the 200m final as one of two to qualify on time. Racing in the first heat, Knight appeared to be on her way to an automatic qualification before Tianna Madison passed her at the finish line. Although she finished third, Knight's time of 22.34 in the speedy heat advanced her fifth to the final overall. "Of course my goal was to secure one of those automatic qualifier spots," Knight said. "I didn't see Madison on the outside so she ended up leaning me out. I guess I slowed down too much because I thought I was comfortable, but I'm satisfied. I'm going to go out there tomorrow and hope to make my first Olympic Team individually." Sixteen of the 21 semifinalists in the 200m finished their race on Friday at or under the Olympic A Standard qualifying time. "I don't think it's ever been this deep," Knight said. "We definitely have eight ladies fighting for three spots so it's going to be very tough." Former Longhorn Alexandria Anderson and rising senior Chalonda Goodman also competed in the semifinals. Anderson finished 15th in 23.09 and Goodman was 17th in 23.23. Richards-Ross and Knight will close out Saturday's events in the 200m final at 6:50 p.m. Pacific. Rising junior Shanay Briscoe will compete for the Longhorns earlier in the day at 5:00 p.m. in the finals of the high jump. Results: Friday, June 29 200m Dash (semifinals) Texas Longhorns at the 2012 London Olympics |
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