Former Lady Tiger hurdler Lolo Jones won her first world championship in the 60-meter hurdles at the 2008 World Indoor Championships on March 8 in Valencia, Spain.
Now she will get a chance to compete on one of the sport’s biggest stages.
Jones won the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials on Sunday to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Jones finished with a wind-aided time of 12.29 seconds in the final, winning by .29 seconds. She ran the world’s fastest wind-legal time this season with a 12.45-second semifinal performance Sunday.
Jones finished her LSU career in 2004 as a three-time national champion and 11-time All-American.
“It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person,” said LSU coach Dennis Shaver. “She has prepared herself in Baton Rouge for about eight years for something like this to happen.”
Former Lady Tiger Muna Lee qualified for her second event for the upcoming Olympics by finishing second in the women’s 200-meter dash Sunday.
Lee was a 20-time All-American and won seven individual and relay national championships in four years at LSU.
She won four team championships with Jones while at LSU – three indoor and one outdoor.
“To have two LSU athletes win the 100 [meter dash] and the 100-meter hurdles, a couple of high-profile races, I think was fantastic,” Shaver said.
Reigning World Outdoor champion Allyson Felix won the women’s 200-meter dash with a time of 21.99 seconds.
Former Tiger Xavier Carter failed to make the Olympic squad after scratching himself from the 200-meter dash final Sunday because of a left-ankle injury.
Carter also failed to make the U.S. team in the 100-meter dash after finishing eighth in the final with a time of 10.11 seconds.
Shaver said Carter’s ankle started bothering him Friday at the start of the 200-meter dash trials. He said Carter may have a bone spur and a bone chip in his ankle.
“When you have a bone chip like that possibly floating in there, it could do a lot of damage to the cartilage in the ankle joint,” Shaver said. “[He] just decided not to run the final because it wasn’t worth the risk.”
Shaver said he didn’t know how Carter originally hurt his ankle.
“It probably was something that was just in there, and it just floated around in the wrong place,” Shaver said. “He was in a pretty decent amount of pain.”
Walter Dix, the 2008 NCAA champion in the 200-meter dash, won the men’s 200-meter dash final with a time of 19.86 seconds.
Former Tiger Walter Davis finished one spot short of making his third straight U.S. Olympic team in the triple jump.
Davis finished fourth in the finals, a half-inch short of third place. Athletes must finish third in their respective trials to make the Olympic team.
Davis won the triple jump at the 2005 World Outdoor Championships and 2006 World Indoor Championships.
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]