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:
POS | BIB | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | MARK | REACTION TIME | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1150 | LaShawn MERRITT | USA | 43.74 | WL | 0.256 | |
2 | 1148 | Tony MCQUAY | USA | 44.40 | PB | 0.155 | |
3 | 349 | Luguelín SANTOS | DOM | 44.52 | SB | 0.350 | |
4 | 176 | Jonathan BORLÉE | BEL | 44.54 | SB | 0.224 | |
5 | 330 | Pavel MASLÁK | CZE | 44.91 | 0.169 | ||
6 | 744 | Yousef Ahmed MASRAHI | KSA | 44.97 | 0.162 | ||
7 | 560 | Kirani JAMES | GRN | 44.99 | 0.186 | ||
8 | 210 | Anderson HENRIQUES | BRA | 45.03 | 0.157 |
Race Video from Universal Sports:
Post-Race Video Interview from Flotrack: