University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky track and field alumnae Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Team Puerto Rico and Team USA’s Keni Harrison swept gold and silver in the Olympic 100-meter hurdles final on day four of athletics track & field competition.
Devynne Charlton of Team Bahamas, a volunteer assistant coach for Kentucky track and field and a Purdue University alumna, finished sixth in finals with a time of 12.74.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Photo provided)
University of Kentucky College of Medicine student Gerek Meinhardt will bring home his second bronze medal as part of Team USA in the men’s team foil competition at the delayed 2020 Olympics. The team defeated Japan 45-31. Meinhardt previously won a bronze medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Team USA’s starting lineup for the day included 2016 Olympic individual silver medalist Alex Massialas, of San Francisco, California, who competed in college at Stanford University; six-time Senior World medalist Gerek Meinhardt, a native of San Francisco, who competed for Notre Dame University; and 2018 Junior World Champion Nick Itkin, of Los Angeles, California, who also competed for Notre Dame. Race Imboden, of Brooklyn, New York, a 2019 Senior World Team Champion with Massialas and Meinhardt, was subbed in during the second rotation.
Team USA defeated Germany, 45-36, in the quarter-finals, but lost to the Russian Olympic Committee, 45-41.
The bronze medal win by Team USA marks the second Olympic medal in the men’s team foil event for the United States since 1932.
Gerek Meinhardt (Photo provided)
Meinhardt earned his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame, where he met his wife, fellow UK medical student Lee Kiefer, the gold medal winner in women’s individual foil.
Camacho-Quinn, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, earned the Olympic record in the 100m hurdles semifinals (12.26) around 16 hours before her gold medal performance (12.37).
Her gold medal is redemption for the Rio 2016 Olympics when she came close to a finals berth but tripped on a hurdle in semifinals.
Harrison, the world record-holder in the 100m hurdles, ran for silver with a time of 12.52. She failed to qualify for Rio 2016 despite winning nearly all her races except at the Olympic Trials final, but redeemed herself by setting the world record of 12.20 in another competition in July 2016. Harrison, a native of Clayton, North Carolina, holds a bachelor’s degree in community and leadership development from the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
Read more on all 22 Wildcats competing in the delayed 2020 Olympics here.
