BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field teams will play host to their home finale on Saturday with their annual Alumni Gold meet, and head coach Dennis Shaver met with members of the media on Tuesday at Walk-On’s Bistreaux to discuss what fans can expect when they come to the track for Super Tiger Weekend.
The finals of this year’s LSU Alumni Gold will begin following a brief opening ceremony at 2:45 p.m. CT at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium. All preliminary events will be held earlier in the day beginning at 9 a.m. in the field and 11:30 a.m. on the track.
The LSU Alumni Gold attracts a world-class field year in and year out, and the 2009 edition is no exception with a number of professional athletes scheduled to compete on Saturday.
Among the star attractions at this year’s meet will be the outdoor debut for LSU greats Lolo Jones and Richard Thompson in their respective events.
Jones, a 2008 U.S. Olympian and World Indoor champion, will run her first race in the 100-meter hurdles of the 2009 season on Saturday. Thompson, who won silver medals in the 100-meter dash and 4×100-meter relay at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, will run the 100 meters for the first time this spring. Both are preparing for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics this summer.
“Of course, this is the traditional weekend when many professional athletes who still train here at LSU and others from across the country come and open up their outdoor seasons,” Shaver said. “I know they love this meet, and we expect quite a few to come and compete and make this a really outstanding meet for us once again. That’s something the fans can definitely look forward to.”
Shaver also stressed the importance of the Alumni Gold for those athletes still competing for LSU as this marks the last time during the regular season that many will have the opportunity to record NCAA regional qualifying marks in their respective specialty events.
The 2009 NCAA Mideast Regional Championships are scheduled to run May 29-30 in Louisville, Ky., at Cardinal Park Stadium on the campus of the University of Louisville.
“We’re really looking forward to coming back and lining up at home for the last time this spring,” Shaver said. “This weekend is really the last opportunity our athletes will have to run their events prior to our championship season because the only remaining meet we have for the regular season is the Penn Relays, where our athletes will be able to run many of the different relay events while not being able to run in their open events on the track.”
Shaver and his staff are taking steps toward making the LSU Alumni Gold an event to which fans can come and enjoy the sport of track and field like they would at the professional level and at the Olympic Games as the production of the meet will be unlike anything ever seen at LSU.
“This is just going to be a great track meet for our fans to come and see,” Shaver said. “What they can expect after we have our opening ceremony at 2:45 p.m. is a maximum of two heats of any one event with the top entrants in the track meet competing at that time. We will have some of the preliminary races and other things earlier in the day, but that will be the true start of the meet.
“We also have a brand new video board that allows us to do a lot of different things to inform our fans about the sport, as well as to entertain throughout the afternoon. This is really the first time I can say that we have been able to put on a production of a track meet that we’d like to put on. It’s going to be a lot of fun for all of us.”