Merritt, NSU's Brown advance to 400-meter final in Beijing

Posted to: Olympics Sports

Full results, men's 400m semifinal

Profiles:
LaShawn Merritt
Chris Brown

Blog: Merritt's reports from Beijing

More track and field coverage

The Virginian-Pilot
© August 19, 2008

A pair of local track stars advanced this morning to Thursday night’s final of the men’s 400 meters at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Portsmouth’s LaShawn Merritt, the Olympic Trials champ, won his semifinal heat in 44.12 seconds to easily advance.

His rival, fellow American Jeremy Wariner, won his heat in 44.15 seconds, just ahead of former Norfolk State All-American Chris Brown of the Bahamas. The 29-year-old Brown was timed in 44.59 seconds.

Thursday’s final is slated to begin at 9:20 p.m. Beijing time (9:20 a.m. in the U.S.). It is to be shown on tape-delayed basis during NBC’s primetime coverage Thursday evening.

Brown will be making his first individual Olympic finals appearance in his third trip to the games.

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