Kadecia Baird is making a run at the Guyana Olympic team, though the odds are against her.
Baird, a rising senior at Medgar Evers high school, may not be running for her native country of Guyana in the London Olympics because of a technicality, but she proved on Friday that she probably should be.
In a dazzling performance that should further spark debate over whether she should be allowed to compete in London, Baird registered the fifth-fastest time in U.S. high school history in the 400 meters at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, finishing second in 51.04 seconds.
That time exceeds the Olympic A standard qualifying time needed to automatically gain entrance to the Games. Baird won the silver medal behind 19-year-old Ashley Spencer, a rising sophomore at the University of Illinois, who won the race in 50.50, breaking a 22-year-old meet record in the process. Spencer is the NCAA champion in the 400.
For Baird, who already recorded the fastest junior time in the U.S. this year in the 400 meters, the performance is a personal best and marks a new junior national record for Guyana, according to Baird’s coach at Medgar Evers, Nicola Martial, herself a former Olympian for Guyana in the triple jump.
Baird’s achievement should revive debate on whether she should be headed to London instead of another athlete who was selected based on a time she ran nearly a year ago.
“This is the time that we were fighting for,” said Martial, who didn’t make the trip to Spain, but spoke to Baird by phone on Friday. “There will be ramifications for this in Guyana. People will be asking a lot of questions of why she’s not going to London. But I’m done with that. This is a great day for the school and a great day for sports in Guyana. We’re not trying to go back into that controversy.”
But others may be more inclined. After the 17-year-old Baird registered a time of 52.14 at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals in North Carolina on June 16, Martial thought it was a given that Baird would represent her home country of Guyana in London this summer. After all, no one from Guyana had achieved a faster time in the 400 meters this year, and with Guyana not having team trials to select its Olympic athletes, Martial thought Baird had earned the right to represent her country.
But unbeknownst to Martial and Baird, the Guyana Olympic Association had already chosen Aliann Pompey – a three-time Olympian – to represent Guyana in the 400 meters in London based on a time that Pompey registered in July of 2011 of 51.66, according to an article in the June 17 edition of the Guyana Times, which Pompey emailed to the Daily News.
When Pompey ran a 400-meter time of 52.10 at the U.S. Club Championships in Omaha, Neb., earlier this month, it appeared that the Guyana Olympic Association had gotten it right. But now the conversation will take another turn with Baird’s performance on Friday.
There was a chance that Baird could go London as a reserve for Guyana, since she had qualified for the Games. But Martial said on Friday that she had yet to hear back from Colin Boyce, president of the Athletic Association of Guyana, giving her little hope that Baird will make it to London. (New York Daily News)
