Only one Wildcat left in Beijing
8/21/2008 5:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Track & Field
BEIJING -- Former ACU national champion Marvin Essor is the only Wildcat athlete left in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and he'll try to win a medal this weekend on Jamaica's 4x400 relay team.
Essor and his Jamaican teammates will run in the 4x400 relay semifinals Friday at 7:10 a.m. (Abilene time) with the final set for 8:05 a.m. Saturday. The Jamaican team has the third-best performance in the world this year going into the Olympics with a time of 3:02.00, trailing only the United States (2:59.71) and Australia (3:01.52) on the world lilst in 2008.
If Essor is part of a medal-winning team, he will be the first former Wildcat to win an Olympic medal since Albert Lawrence and Greg Meghoo were part of Jamaica's silver-medal 4x100 relay team at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Essor won the 2005 NCAA Division II indoor and outdoor national championship in the 400 meters, and he also won the 400 at the 2004 World University Games.
Earlier Thursday, Richard Phillips finished seventh in the 110-meter hurdle final in 13.60 seconds. Phillips ran for the Wildcats in 2002 (earning NCAA Division II all-America honors) before transferring to George Mason University for his final three season.
The only other Wildcat in the Olympics was Wanda Hutson, who ran on Trinidad & Tobago's 4x100 relay team. However, the Trinidad team did not finish its semifinal heat and will not run in the final.
