Virginia Tech Sprinter Advances in 200 Meter Olympic Prelims

Virginia Tech sprinter Keith Ricks advanced in the Olympic Trial prelims today in the 200-meter dash.  Ricks, who had a very successful season for Virginia Tech by making the NCAA Championships, is one of many Hokies competing in the Olympic Trials across a wide variety of sports.

Ricks decided to cut things close today, though.  Of the 21 qualifying spots in the 200-meter preliminaries, Ricks finished 20th – the second-to-last qualifying position.

The WR (world record) in the 200-meter dash is held by famous Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.  Bolt’s best time is 19.19 seconds and was set in August of 2009.

Ricks’ time wasn’t quite that of Bolt’s, but was still fast enough to qualify for the semifinals.  Ricks ran a 20.74 second 200-meter dash, but had the second worst reaction time of any runner during the prelims.

Keith Ricks will compete in heat #3 tomorrow at 6 p.m. PST.  The top eight runners in the semi-finals will advance to the finals on July 1.

Hopefully Ricks will have a better day tomorrow than he had today, but you can never tell beforehand.  As a former track runner myself, sometimes you never know how you feel until right before the race begins.

We here at Fighting Gobbler are certainly wishing Keith good luck as he tries to make the United States Olympic team!