Olympic Trials: A&T alum advances as others fall short

As the USA Olympic trials draw to a close, there are still a few HBCU products in contention for a shot at going to Tokyo.

North Carolina A&T alumnus Michael Dickson got off to a good start for his bid, finishing second in his 110m heat to automatically qualify for Saturday’s semifinals. His time of 13.26 was a career-best, placing him fifth overall in the field.

“Today is just the first round. You just want to build confidence, and take away confidence,” Dickson said after the race. “So I just wanted to go out and compete for the first round, because if you can’t make it out of the first round – no shade to the guys that didn’t make it out, but – the first round is just to build confidence, really. And then the next two is where you have to be ready to be off.”

Speaking in a post-race zoom shirtless, Dickson seemed confident for sure. The race got off to a rough star, for him, but he was able to rebound.

The first step I gave up, he just held it and I didn’t want to do too much and hit too many errors. I just stayed in my rhythm and then tried to compete at the end at the line.

Dickson will run in the semifinals on Saturday at 9:03 PM. The finals will be held at 10:51 PM EST.

The rest of the HBCU representatives competing in the Olympic trials on Friday didn’t do as well.

A&T sophomore Cambrea Sturgis saw her Olympic hopes fizzle out in the 200m. The NCAA champion at both the 100m and 200m, Sturgis won her heat on Thursday, but was unable to put herself in the finals. She ran a 22.68.

Livingstone alumna Quanera Hayes also saw her 200m journey come to an end. Hayes, of course, had already clinched her Olympic spot in the 400m.