Aug. 26, 2009

GREENSBORO, N.C. – As fall sport teams continue to prepare for the upcoming 2009 season, mid-August leaves several spring sport student-athletes idle. Mid-August was anything but idle for several track and field athletes who have connections to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The conference made its impression felt around the globe at the IAAF World Championships, a nine-day meet which spanned from August 15-23 in Berlin, Germany.

A total of 18 current or former track and field student-athletes from ACC member institutions competed at the World Championships and placed in a combined 11 finals events. Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest each had connections to the meet via current or former student-athletes. The athletes represented a total of nine countries (United States, Belgium, Commonwealth of Dominica, France, Great Britain, Israel, Jamaica, the Netherlands, and Zimbabwe). In addition, Maryland head coach Andrew Valmon, Virginia assistant coach Carrie Lane, and Wake Forest director of track and field Annie Schweitzer Bennett were on the USA coaching staff, while North Carolina assistant coach Anthony Parker coached for Haiti.

Former Georgia Tech standout Angelo Taylor claimed a gold medal with a 2:57.86 showing in the men’s 4x400-meter relay, in which he ran the first leg. Taylor previously helped the tandem turn in a 3:01.40 time as the anchor to lead the first of two preliminary heats. Recent Wake Forest graduate Michael Bingham followed Taylor as the second leg of the silver-medal winning Great Britain relay team as it finished in 3:00.53, and rising Florida State sophomore Kevin Borlee helped the Belgium squad to a fourth place-showing in 3:01.88.

Bingham also finished seventh in the 400-meter dash finals in a time of 45.56, while Borlee advanced to the semifinal round where he clocked a 45.28.

Clemson great Shawn Crawford ran the 200-meter dash in 19.89, good for fourth place. Crawford won both of his heats in the preliminary round (20.60) and the quarterfinal round (20.37), and qualified for the finals with a 20.35 time in the semifinals. Also competing in the 200-meter dash was rising Florida State senior Charles Clark, a 2009 ACC track most valuable performer, who placed sixth with a 20.39 finals time.

Lauryn Williams, a former Miami Hurricane star, won both of her heats in the 100-meter dash prelims (11.36) and the quarterfinals (11.06) and qualified for the finals with a semifinal time of 11.01. In the 100-meter finals, Williams matched her 11.01 semifinal time to finish in fifth.

Former Duke Blue Devil Shannon Rowbury recorded the best individual event showing for any current or former ACC student-athlete with a third-place finish in the women’s 1,500-meter run. Rowbury ran the preliminary and semifinal stages in the 4:10 range before knocking more than six minutes off her time to record a 4:04.18 in the finals. Recent Florida State graduate Susan Kuijken, the 2009 ACC Women’s Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year, also competed in the 1,500 for the Netherlands.

North Carolina got into the mix as former Tar Heel Shalene Flanagan ran to a fourth-place finish in 31:32.19 in the women’s 10,000-meter run, and rising senior Mateo Sossah, competing for France, finished 29th in the decathlon.

In field action, Chaunte Howard Lowe, a former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket, took seventh place in the women’s high jump with a 6-foot, five-inch showing.

Other current track and field student-athletes who competed at the IAAF World Championships include Florida State rising junior Kim Williams, the 2009 triple jump and long jump national champion and ACC field most valuable performer, and Virginia Tech rising senior Yavgeniy Olhovsky, who competed in the pole vault for Israel.

ACC alumnae that competed include Florida State’s Brian Dzingai, who competed for Zimbabwe in the 200-meter dash, Ricardo Chambers, who represented Jamaica in the 400-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay, Erison Hurtalt, who also competed in the 400-meters for the Commonwealth of Dominica, Great Britain’s Tom Lancashire, who ran the 1,500-meters, and Duke’s Jillian Schwartz, who competed in the pole vault.

More information about the 2009 IAAF World Championships can be access at https://www.berlin.iaaf.org.