Berlin, Germany – Former Husker national champion and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep was impressive at the 12th IAAF World Championships on Tuesday afternoon in Berlin, as the Whitby, Ontario, Canada, native posted the top time in the women’s 100-meter hurdle preliminaries.
Running in the fourth of five heats, Lopes-Schliep blazed to a time of 12.56, just shy of her personal best of 12.51, which she recently set at the DN Galan in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 31. Out of 37 hurdlers, Lopes-Schliep was the only one to run below 12.60, with Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton running the second-fastest time in the field at 12.67.
Lopes-Schliep and 23 other athletes will return tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. (Central) (6:45 p.m. local time) for the semifinals, with the hopes of then making the finals tomorrow night at 2:15 p.m. (Central). A new champion in the event will be crowned tomorrow night, as defending champion Michelle Perry (USA) came into the preliminaries injured and was unable to advance after a 34th-place finish.
Prior to Lopes-Schliep’s race tomorrow, the Huskers will be represented by former two-time national champion Becky Breisch (USA) in the preliminaries of the discus at 3:10 a.m. (Central) and by current Husker Lehann Fourie (South Africa) in the 110-meter hurdles preliminaries at 4:35 a.m. (Central). Fans interested in watching the current and former Huskers should check out www.universalsports.com, as they have free live video coverage of the entire meet.
Prior to today, two other former Huskers, Carl Myerscough (Great Britain) and Peter van der Westhuzien (South Africa), also competed at Olympic Stadium.
Starting at 10 a.m. (local time) on Saturday, Myerscough advanced to the finals of the men’s shot put with a 10th-place toss of 66-2 1/4 in the preliminaries. A two-time national champion both indoors and outdoors in the shot put at Nebraska, Myerscough then returned at 10:15 p.m. (local time) for the finals, where he placed 11th with a toss of 60-5 1/4. Myerscough still holds three NU records, including the indoor shot put (70-6 1/4), outdoor shot put (71-1) and discus (213-7).
Also on Saturday, Peter van der Westhuizen advanced past the preliminaries of the 1,500 meters by finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 3:42.33. Out of the 53 runners in the field, van der Westhuizen’s time ranked 16th best. A four-time NCAA qualifier, van der Westhuizen then moved onto the semifinals on Monday, where he was unable to advance to the finals after finishing 22nd with a time of 3:40.00. The young South African got out to a very quick pace as he was the leader in his heat at both the 400 and 800 meter marks, but was unable to hold his lead in the last 200 meters of the race.
Two other Huskers are still waiting to get on the track in Berlin. Former Husker and 2005 outdoor 800-meter national champion Dmitrijs Milkevics (Latvia) will run in the preliminaries of the 800 meters at 4:45 a.m. (Central) on Thursday. Current Husker and 2009 indoor long jump champion Nicholas Gordon (Jamaica) will compete later in the morning at 11:10 a.m. (Central) in the preliminaries of the long jump.
