HELSINKI, Finland — The 2005 summer track and field season wraps up next week for 13 current and former LSU standouts as they travel to Helsinki, Finland, for the IAAF World Championships, Aug. 6-14, at Olympic Stadium.
The group will consist of four men and nine women, representing six different countries.
Lady Tiger sophomore Kelly Baptiste is the only current member of the LSU squad to make the trip to this year’s World Championships. The three-time All-American will compete in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 relay for her native country of Trinidad and Tobago.
The United States will be represented by three former LSU greats, in Derrick Brew and Walter Davis on the men’s side and Muna Lee on the women’s side.
Brew, who won Olympic gold in the 4×400 relay in 2004, will once again run on the relay squad for the U.S. team.
Davis is scheduled to compete in both the long jump and the triple jump. The two-time Olympian is coming off a win in the triple jump and a fourth-place showing in the long jump at the USA Championships.
Lee will run for Team USA in the 100 meters and the 4×100-meter relay. Lee finished second in the 100 at the USA Championships to secure her position in both events.
Four former athletes will be representing Jamaica in Helsinki.
Decathlete Claston Bernard will be making his second straight World Championships appearance.
Peta-Gaye Dowdie, Ronetta Smith and Debbie Parris will each be in action on the track. Dowdie is slated for the 100 meters and 4×100 relay, Smith will appear in the 400 meters and the 4×400 relay and Parris, a two-time Olympian and five-time World Championships competitor will close out her career in the 400-meter hurdles.
LSU will also have two representatives in the women’s 800 meters. Former NCAA champion Marian Burnett will compete for Guyana and Neisha Bernard-Thomas, a two-time NCAA champion and eight-time All-American for the Lady Tigers, will run for Grenada.
Also competing for Grenada will be Alleyne Francique and Hazelann Regis.
Francique, an Olympian and the 2004 World Indoor 400-meter champion, will take to the track in the open quarter and the 4×400 relay.
Regis, a 2004 Olympic semifinalist in the 400 meters, will run in the same events on the women’s side.
In addition, former Lady Tiger Laverne Eve will be making her ninth World Championships appearance in the javelin.
Action from Olympic Stadium begins Saturday at 2:05 a.m. (CST).