T&T's Deon Lendore became a hero for his school Texas A&M, yesterday, when he rewrote a 45-year-old record after running the second fastest time in the world this year to claim 400m gold in 44.36 seconds, at the Southeastern Conference Track and Field Championships, in Lexington, Kentucky.
The 21-year-old college junior, who easily qualified for the final leading the heats with a 45.34 effort a day prior, made waves all the way to T&T, where he became second in the country's all-time 400m leaderboard behind Ian Morris (44.21). He leaped over marks set by Jehue Gordon and Renny Quow in the process. In the final, Lendore finished comfortably ahead of another Louisiana State University's (LSU) Vernon Norwood (45.17) and University of Florida's Najee Glass (45.40).
That performance and the one earlier in the afternoon, when he anchored the Texas A&M 4x100m relay to gold (with Shavez Hart, Aldrich Bailey and Prezel Hardy), were also instrumental in the school finishing first on the men's points table. The relay team clocked 38.50 seconds for a new meet record, ahead of LSU (38.68) and Florida (38.68).
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