Andrew Riley harbours lofty Olympic ambitions
ANDREW Riley has closed in on his bid to run the 110m hurdles and make an attempt for the sprint relay at this summer’s London Olympics.
The 23-year-old Riley, a senior at the University of Illinois at Champaign, clocked a personal beat 10.19 seconds in the 100 metres and kept on track for the sprint hurdles at the NCAA Division One National Preliminary Round (West) at the Mike A Myers Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin.
Jamaica’s reigning sprint hurdles champion and 2010 NCAA Division One champion, Riley won quarter-final one of the NCAA Division 1 West Preliminary in a wind-aided (2.2m/s) 13.33 seconds.
Fellow compatriot Keiron Stewart of the University of Texas was third with 13.51 seconds.Trinidad & Tobago’s Wayne Davis II of the University of Texas A&M took quarter-final three in a wind-aided (4.1m/s) 13.31 seconds.
The NCAA Division One Championships will take place at the Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa from June 6-9.
Illinois head coach Mike Turk said: “Andrew ran extremely well. He easily qualified by winning his heat. Riley will make his fourth consecutive appearance at the NCAA D1 Champs.”
Riley was runner-up last year.
However, it was his performance in the 100m that turned heads for the orange and blue-clad team, nicknamed The Fighting Illini.
The Calabar High past student advanced to the short sprint at the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career.
He ran 10.03 seconds in the second round of the 100 metres, which would have been a school record had it not been so windy (4.3m/s).
Noted head coach Turk: “Andrew was very focused and in control the whole way.”
If Riley succeeds in running the sprint relay, he will be the first sprint hurdler since the late Keith Gardner to compete in more than one event at the Olympic Games.
Gardner, who just died at the age of 82, competed at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games in the 100 metres, 100m hurdles, 110m hurdles and the 4x400m hurdles.
Riley is hoping to become the 11th man to compete in the 110m hurdles for Jamaica at the Olympic Games, after Sydney Foster, Gardner, Godfrey Murray, Andrew Parker, Richard Bucknor, Anthony Knight, Robert Foster, Chris Pinnock, Richard Phillips, and Maurice Wignall.
