-Harris knocked out of 200m in first round
Adam Harris failed to advance in the men’s 200m yesterday when he clocked 21.36s and placed sixth in the first round to end Guyana’s quest for an Olympic medal at the 29th Olympiad in Beijing, China.
Harris, a second generation Guyanese and senior at the University of Michigan, could not reproduce his personal record of 20.75s which he clocked in May this year to qualify for the event.
Running out of lane three, the 21-year-old Harris reacted fastest to the pistol (0.162) but was only able to beat two of the eight competitors. According to the official website for the Olympic Games (http://results.beijing2008.cn), the heat was won by defending Olympic champion in the event Shawn Crawford of the U.S. who clocked 20.61s.
Marcin Jedrusinski of Poland (20.64s), Stephon Buckland of Mauritius (20.98s), and Jiri Vojtik of the Czeck Republic (21.05s) and Kenosi Fanuel of Botswana (21.09s) all reached the line before Guyana’s only track athlete to qualify for this year’s Olympics.
Guyana’s chef de mission Noel Adonis told Stabroek Sport via email, “the quest by the Guyana team for Olympics glory at the XXIX Olympiad currently being held in Beijing, China, came to an end earlier today when Adam Harris, the final athlete to enter competition in Beijing, failed to qualify for the second round in the 200m race category. This would have followed the earlier exits of Niall Roberts in the first round of the 50m freestyle swimming event and Marian Burnett similarly in the 800m athletics event,” he said.
However Adonis singled out Aliann Pompey for giving an impressive performance at the event.
“Aliann Pompey was quite impressive in getting through the first round in the 400m to book a place in the semi-finals for that event in a time of 50:99s. In the semi-final heat, however, although improving her performance and emulating her personal best time of 50:93s in the event, it was not sufficient to take her into the finals, scheduled for Tuesday evening at the National Stadium, Beijing. She is to be commended, however, for her valiant effort and of the 56 women who participated in the 400m, Aliann’s final ranking was 11th overall,” he said.