Norman, Oklahoma - Darold Williamson of Baylor University showed  that he�s ready for the NCAA championships and perhaps a good deal more as yesterday (28 May) he ripped off a couple of excellent 400s at the NCAA Midwest Regionals, a qualifying meet for the real NCAA championships in Sacramento (8 � 11 June).

Williamson first won the individual 400m in 44.76, to the great delight of his (and Michael Johnson�s and Jeremy Wariner�s) coach, Clyde Hart, who said, �he executed perfectly. I told him if he executed, he�d run 44. He went  through  the 200 in 21.6, exactly what we wanted, and the rest of the race perfectly.�

Even though the next two finishers Andrae Williams and Dirk Homewood, ran impressively (45.29 and 45.34 respectively), Williamson made everyone else  look like they were running in sand. 

A little over two hours later, Williamson took the baton trailing by a few metres as the 4x400 went into is final lap. He made his 43.9 look easy.

The other top performer was Shauna Smith of the University of Wyoming.  She won the women�s 400m Hurdles by 25 metres in a PB of 54.37,  and then pulled a double similar to Williamson�s by coming back to lead off her 4x400 relay team in 52.2.

Other noteworthy performances included:  rising sprint star Marshavet  Hooker,  who  won the women�s Long Jump Friday with 6.45,  took the women�s 100 metres today with a quick 11.13; Canadian Priscilla Lopes won the 100m Hurdles in 12.94; and Latvian Dmitrijs Milkevics upset 1:44.77 man and U.S. Olympian Jonathan Johnson, winning in 1:46.48 to runner-up  Jeremy Mims (1:46.51) and Johnson 1:47.27).

reprinted from the IAAF, written by James Dunaway, photo by Victah Sailer

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