Seven years after starring together at James Logan High School, track teammates Nkosinza Balumbu and Kevin Craddock shared the national stage Saturday in Eugene, OR.
But they also shared disappointment—falling short of their Olympic dreams.
Craddock, who turned 25 this week, missed the finals of the 110-meter high hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials by five-hundredths of a second. He took third in his heat in a personal record 13.42 seconds, navigating muggy cool weather and a wet track.
Jason Richardson won that semifinal heat in 12.98 seconds—and came back 2 hours later to record another 12.98 in taking silver behind the 12.93 of Aries Merritt.
But Craddock had the satisfaction of beating David Payne in the next lane. Payne was the 2008 Olympic silver medalist in Beijing.
Balumbu, also 25, made the triple jump finals, and took sixth with a third-round jump of 53 feet, 9¼ inches—short of his all-time best of 54-5¼. Christian Taylor won on his first effort, going 57-10¼.
On Friday, 2010 James Logan graduate Thandi Stewart, a sophomore at the University of Miami, was seventh in her semifinal heat of the 400-meter hurdles in 56.75 seconds—and failed to advance to Sunday’s final.
