Karene King posts 23.27w (2.1) mps to win Mt. SAC 200m on April 20
APRIL 21—Sprinter Karene King got the weekend of competition for the territory’s top athletes going on Friday afternoon at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California, when she ran a 100m personal best and narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympic Games 200m, because of a 2.1 meters per second wind.
King, running on the outside corridor from Lane 9, powered out the blocks in the first heat of the 200m, led every step of the way, to win in 23.27 seconds—the fastest time of all the heats. While the time was under the Olympic Games B qualifying standard of 23.30, the wind was 2.1 mps, just over the allowable 2.0, robbing her of the qualifier.
Athletes have until July 8 to meet the qualifying standard. Last week, King ran a personal best of 23.72 at the Hurricanes Alumni Invitational in Miami.
Earlier in the meet, she ran a 100m personal best of 11.52 seconds, shaving .08 off the 11.60 she ran in Palo Alto, during the Stanford Invitational on April 6.
Portland State University Vikings’ Sr. Dominique Maloney, had a season’s best of 25.00 seconds in the 200m at the Oregon Relays. She was fourth in her heat and 10th overall.
Tahesia Harrigan-Scott, Ashley Kelly, Britney Wattley and Chantel Malone, are all expected to see action today.
Next weekend, Harrigan-Scott, Kelly, King and Malone, will begin seeking an Olympic Game berth in the 4x100m Relay, when they line up against the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, USA Red and USA Blue, in the USA vs the World, at the Penn Relays. The race is scheduled to go off at 1:15 p.m.