THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2008
SPORTS
3B
》TRACK & FIELD
Kansas Relays start tomorrow
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Jayhawks hope to maintain momentum from Saturday's invitational
Competitors line up to practice before the women's pole vault Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium. The Kansas Relays start today and end Saturday.
BY DANNY NORDSTROM
deartrom.com
dnordstrom@kansan.com
Home meets for track and field are rare. Home meets that feature Olympic athletes are even more rare. Starting today, students will have the opportunity to watch the Jayhawks compete with some of the best athletes in the world.
Kansas will host its 81st annual Kansas Relays at Memorial Stadium. The relays take place during the next three days and conclude on Saturday.
The jayhawks are optimistic after posting several impressive performances at the John Jacobs Invitational last weekend in Norman, Okla.
Senior hurdler Ashley Brown tied her school record in the women's 100-meter hurdles and junior Nickesha Anderson broke the meet record in the women's 200-meter dash, set seven years ago. Anderson's time of 23.7 seconds is currently the fastest women's 200-meter time in the NCAA.
In addition to Anderson and Brown's solid performances, nine Kansas athletes regionally qualified at last weekend's meet.
10:30 a.m. - Heptathlon 100 Meter Hurdles
Regionally qualifying for the women were Anderson, Brown, junior Victoria Howard in the 200-meter dash, senior Alicia McGregor in the 3,000-meter dash, senior pole-vaulter Libby Harmon, freshman pole-vaulter Julia Cummings and senior long-jumper Crystal Manning.
schedule
10 a.m. - Decathlon 100 Meter Dash
Manning competed against former KU athlete Charisse Bacchus in the long jump and took home the victory in an exciting finish. Her jump of 6.29 meters bested Bacchus's by two hundredths of a meter. Manning's 6.29-meter jump is the fifth best in KU history.
10:45 a.m. - Decathlon Long Jump
11:15 a.m. - Heptathlon High Jump
12:35 p.m. - Decathlon Shot Put
1:45 p.m. - Heptathlon Shot Put
Also successful for the women
2:25 p.m. - Decathlon High Jump
3:15 p.m. - Heptathlon 200 Meter Dash
4:30 p.m.-Decathlon 400 Meter Dash
was junior Zlata Trasova, who placed second in the women's hammer throw at the University of Georgia . She regionally qualified with her throw of 55.44 meters.
On the men's side of the event, senior Egor Agafonov took home the victory for the Jayhawks in his outdoor debut. The two-time national indoor champion won the event with his throw of 67.03 meters and regionally qualified.
The Jayhawks now look forward to the Kansas Relays. Kansas will face some tough competition with rivals Missouri and Kansas State. Missouri's five indoor All-Americans and Kansas States' 10 returning athletes from the 2007 outdoor season will present Kansas with a big challenge.
In addition to the competitive rivalries, the relays will showcase some world-class athletes in the elite athlete category.
Wallace Spearmon Jr. will compete in two events on Saturday. He is currently the American
record-holder in the indoor 200meter dash. Also competing are Olympian Muna Lee. 400meter hurdles World Champion Bershawn Jackson and shot put World Champion Christian Cantwell.
Lee, who is a graduate of Central High School in Kansas City. Mo., placed seventh in the
200-meter dash for team USA at the 2004 Olympics. She will run in the women's 400-meter hurdles on Saturday at 4:20 p.m.
The Kansas Relays take place all day today and conclude Saturday evening. Admission is free for students and $10 for adults.
Edited by Russell Davies
》 OLYMPICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Pakistani boy releases a dove during a rehearsal for the upcoming Olympic torch greeting ceremony at Pakistan Sport Complex in Islamabad, Pakistan Tuesday. The Olympic torch will arrive in Pakistan today on its 20-country, 137,000-kilometer (85,100-mile), global journey.
Torch run stumbles en route to Beijing
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLMABAD, Pakistan — The Olympic torch came to Pakistan early Wednesday for what the pro-China government hoped would be a festive and trouble-free leg of its world tour.
Protests against China's human rights record disrupted the torch's passage through Western cities last week, and Pakistani authorities took pains to avoid any repeat during its short stay en route to Beijing.
A jetliner bringing the torch from the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman arrived at the military section of Islamabad airport shortly after midnight. A Chinese Olympic official carried a lantern containing the flame down the steps to Pakistani sports chiefs and the Chinese ambassador.
After briefly posing with the lantern, the officials entered the terminal. State TV said the flame would be kept at a luxury hotel overnight.
Later Wednesday, Hassan Sardar, a field hockey gold medalist in the 1984 Los Angeles games, squash
star Jahangir Khan and some five dozen other Pakistani athletes were scheduled to participate in a torch relay.
They were to take turns carrying the torch during a ceremony featuring folk music and dances at the capital's biggest sports complex before a crowd expected to include President Pervez Musharraf.
Plans originally called for athletes to relay the torch along a nearly two-mile route from the white marble parliament building to Jinnah Stadium, but that was changed to just a run around the sports complex itself.
Col. Basee Haider, an army officer helping organize the event, said the change was made because of the "overall security environment" and the risk of bad weather. A violent hailstorm hit Islamabad on Tuesday.
The Pakistan Olympic Association urged independent broadcasters relaying state TV's coverage of the torch to avoid "negative comments" and make "no mention" of the conflict in Tibet.