VA's own Lashawn Merritt wins IAAF World Champ title in 400 meters!

In case you missed it earlier today at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia...Portsmouth, VA's own in Lashawn Merritt (a 2004 graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School) destroyed the finals field of the men's 400 meter dash in a world-leading time of 43.74, which is the 5th fastest time ever recorded in the event! A redeeming gold medal race for the 2008 Olympic gold medalist Merritt after a hamstring injury caused him to pull up and miss the finals in last year's London Olympic Games and had also lost to Kirani James of Grenada two years ago in the last IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. James had been the pre-meet favorite coming into this World Championships over Merritt, but Merritt got out quick on James in the first 200 meters and then put the hammer down to pull away from James and the rest of the field in the final 100 meters. Watch his dominant race performance on video as well as post-race video interview below! 

 

Results from IAAF.org:

13 AUG 2013 21:50 

POS BIB ATHLETE COUNTRY MARK   REACTION TIME
Details 1 1150 LaShawn MERRITT USAUSA 43.74 WL 0.256
Details 2 1148 Tony MCQUAY USAUSA 44.40 PB 0.155
Details 3 349 Luguelín SANTOS DOMDOM 44.52 SB 0.350
Details 4 176 Jonathan BORLÉE BELBEL 44.54 SB 0.224
Details 5 330 Pavel MASLÁK CZECZE 44.91   0.169
Details 6 744 Yousef Ahmed MASRAHI KSAKSA 44.97   0.162
Details 7 560 Kirani JAMES GRNGRN 44.99   0.186
Details 8 210 Anderson HENRIQUES BRABRA 45.03   0.157

 

 

Race Video from Universal Sports:

 

Post-Race Video Interview from Flotrack: