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Rochester native Williams advances to finals of U.S. Olympic track and field trials
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EUGENE, Ore. -- Later tonight, Lauryn Williams will have her shot at London.
Williams, 28, a Rochester native, advanced to the finals of the 100-meter dash Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field with a time of 11.15 seconds that placed her third in her heat and seventh overall. The top eight moved on, led by Tianna Madison's 10.96 and Carmelita Jeter's 11.07.
Williams, the 2004 silver medalist in Athens and a fourth-place finisher in Beijing four years later, is trending in the right direction entering the finals. During Friday's preliminaries, she ran an 11.22.
To automatically qualify for London, she'll need to finish in the top three tonight. Her 11.15 was just five-hundredths of a second behind third-place English Gardner on Saturday.
Because Williams finished third in her heat, she had to wait and see if she would qualify based on her time. She barely edged Central Florida's Octavious Freeman, who ran an 11.17 in the final heat, to stay alive in her quest for Olympic glory.
First Published June 23, 2012 7:37 pm
