The LSU track and field program has produced countless world-class athletes and champions with many going on to wear the red, white and blue in the Olympic games. This year is no different, as LSU has produced eight athletes from four different nationalities who will travel to London to compete in the 2012 Olympic games next month, including former LSU standout Lolo Jones. Jones will be the lone American to come out of Baton Rouge when she lines up for the 100-meter hurdles after posting a 12.86-second qualifying time in Eugene, Ore., last week. “I’ve not been running well,” Jones said in a news release. “A lot of 12.9s and a lot of 13.0s, a lot of losing and just filled with doubt and fear this whole season. I woke up today and didn’t even think I would make the team. I was fighting a constant head battle just trying to have confidence and fight through this. I’m just thrilled that I was able to overcome and make this team.” Jones’ qualification comes four years after she lost the very same event in the 2008 Beijing games when she clipped the final hurdle of a race she was favored in, famously falling to the track in tears on the world stage. Jones has also had to overcome hamstring injuries in recent months that put a hint of doubt that the former Lady Tiger would even compete. “There were times when I just wanted to give up this season,” Jones said. “I had the surgery, and then I had two hamstring tears, both requiring a lot of treatment. There were a lot of times where I didn’t think I would be ready in time. I was just trying to overcome those doubts and fears for what I could do and execute technically. It really was quite a battle. It’s great to now have a month to prepare for the Olympics.” While Jones will be the only LSU athlete donning the red, white and blue this summer, other countries will feature some purple and gold as well. Trinidad and Tobago has the most Tigers set to wear its flag with four athletes in its lineup. Kelly Ann-Baptiste and Semoy Hackett will line up against one another in the 100-meter dash and then with one another in the 4×100-meter relay in London when the two compete the for island nation. Hackett has earned the most qualifications of any former or current LSU athlete with three, including the 200-meter dash, an event that her fellow Lady Tiger and Bowerman Award finalist, Kimberlyn Duncan, failed to qualify in for the Americans. Ade Alleyne-Forte and Richard Thompson will be the two Tigers flying the red and black of the Trinidad and Tobago flag in August. Alleyne-Forte was selected for the country’s 4×400-meter relay, while Thompson earned a spot on the 4×100-meter relay and, what many consider to be the highlight event of the games, the 100-meter dash. Damar Forbes will be the only LSU athlete to compete in something other than a dash, relay or hurdle in London, as well as the only Tiger competing for Jamaica. The Kingston native earned his first Jamaican long jump championship with his 25 feet 10 ¾ inches long jump in his final attempt at the Jamaican National Senior Championships. Nickiesha Wilson will be the only Lady Tiger to compete for the yellow, green and black when she hits the London track for the 400-meter hurdles. Neisha Bernard-Thomas rounds out the list of Tigers on their way to London after qualifying for Grenada in the 800-meter run.
 
____ Contact Mike Gegenheimer at [email protected]