Virginia Tech Sprinter Fails to Make Finals of Olympic Trials
By Ty Hodges
Virginia Tech sprinter Keith Ricks failed to qualify for the finals of the 200-meter dash yesterday. Ricks, who was the second to last qualifier the day before in the preliminaries, finished second to last in the semi-finals.
Out of 21 runners, Ricks finished 20th. Ricks did, however, finish last among all runners who actually raced in the semi-finals. Charles Silmon of TCU false started and was disqualified from the race, thus landing him in last place automatically.
While Ricks managed to get off the blocks better in the semi-finals than he did in the preliminary round, he lost his ground at about the 125-meter mark and faded quickly from the pack. Ricks finished with a time of 21.39 seconds.
The winner of Ricks’ heat was Shawn Crawford, who ran 20.48 seconds to finish 3rd overall in the semi-final round.
The winner of the 200-meter dash finals today was Wallace Spearmon Jr. Spearmon qualified by running the 200 meters in 19.82 seconds, easily beating the next competitor who ran a 20.14.
That loss put an end to Ricks’ Olympic dreams for the year, but he can hang his hat on a very successful NCAA season in which he helped propel Virginia Tech men’s outdoor track and field team to an ACC championship.