LEFORD Green of Johnson C Smith University ran a personal best 50.29 seconds to place second Friday in the College Men 400m hurdles at the Penn Relays.

A Kingston College and Bridgeport High past student, Green’s training in the hurdles event has been paying dividends as just last week he became champion at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Outdoor Championships.

In his pet 400m, however, 23-year-old Green took the silver at the same CIAA outdoor championship in Petersburg, Virginia.

At Franklin Field, University of Pennsylvania meet, Green was beaten only by winner and 21-year-old American Johnny Dutch of the University of South Carolina with American Brent LaRue of Wake Forest University third in 50.93 seconds.

Green, under the guidance of Johnson C Smith University head coach Jamaican Lennox Graham over the past three years in the one-lap hurdles, has improved his performance from 52.69 in 2007 to a personal best 50.47 seconds now. In his last year of high school at Kingston College, Green ran 50.81 to take the silver at Champs 2006, after Josef Robertson won in a national junior record 50.24 seconds.

Green also ran the anchor leg in preliminary of the college men 4x400m relay for Johnson C Smith , which qualified for the 4x400m final of the college men Championship of America.