Trio of Former Wolverines Ready to Compete at World Championships
8/3/2017 12:13:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Three former University of Michigan track and field standouts are set to take on the planet's best athletes 16th IAAF World Championships starting this weekend in London.
Current volunteer assistant coach Nicole Sifuentes (Canada), Nick Willis (New Zealand) and Tiffany Porter (Great Britain) will all represent their countries starting Friday (August 4) in the sport's highest-level competition outside the Olympic Games. The IAAF World Championships are held on every odd-numbered year.
The three will race -- Sifuentes and Willis at 1,500 meters, and Porter in the 100-meter hurdles -- within the confines of the same London Stadium that hosted the 2012 Olympic games, in which all three of these former Wolverines excelled. Both Willis and Porter were finalists in their respective events, with Sifuentes making it to the semifinal round.
Sifuentes will be the first to take to the track starting on Friday, followed by Willis next Thursday (August 10) and Porter next Friday (August 11).
Fans can follow the action on the NBC family of networks (NBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel and NBC Sports Gold) or via live results provided by the IAAF.
Sifuentes, who won a national title and 10 All-America honors during her time at Michigan (2005-08) and has gone on to earn a bronze medal in the mile at the 2014 IAAF Indoor World Championships, will make her third Worlds appearance in the 1,500 meters competition.
A Worlds semifinalist two years ago in Beijing, she will begin the quest to make her first outdoor IAAF World Championships final in Friday's preliminary rounds. Racing in her opening heat at 7:35 p.m. local time (2:35 p.m. EDT) against the likes of reigning 1,500-meter champion and world record-holder Genzebe Dibaba (Ethiopia) and reigning Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semenya (South Africa), she will need to be among the top six finishers in her heat to automatically advance to Saturday's semifinal.
She could also advance by being among the six fastest women from among all three heats who finished seventh or lower.
The semifinal will be held Saturday (August 5) at 7:35 p.m. local time (2:35 p.m. EDT), with the final to be contested Monday (August 7) at 9:50 p.m. local time (4:50 p.m. EDT).
Willis, a two-time Olympic medalist and IAAF Indoor medalist who amassed two national titles at five All-America honors during his Michigan career (2003-05), is aiming for his first-ever top-three finish at the outdoor IAAF World Championships. A fixture at the IAAF World Championships having competed in five of the last six editions, Willis has twice been a top-10 finisher during that time, taking sixth in 2015 and 10th in 2007.
His sixth Worlds appearance kicks off next Thursday at 8:25 p.m. local time (3:25 p.m. EDT) with the preliminary rounds, followed by potential appearances in the semifinals on Friday (August 11) at 8:10 p.m. local time (3:10 p.m. EDT) and the final on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. EDT) in what will be the final individual race of the championships.
Start lists for the men's 1,500-meter competition have not yet been announced.
Porter will be the final Wolverine to begin her pursuit of international glory, with both the preliminary and semifinal rounds of her signature 100-meter hurdles event taking place Friday (August 11) at 10:45 a.m. local (5:45 am EDT) and 7:05 p.m. (2:05 p.m. EDT), respectively.
A five-time national champion during her Michigan career (2006-09), Porter has gone on to great success at the world level. She has finished top-five at the IAAF World Championships in each of the last three editions of the meet -- highlighted by a bronze in 2013 -- to go along with a silver and a pair of bronze medals at the IAAF Indoor World Championships. She qualified to each of the past two Olympic Games, finishing seventh in Rio last summer.
Should Porter make it through both rounds on Friday, she would advance to Saturday's final at 8:05 p.m. local (3:05 p.m. EDT).
Start lists for the women's 100-meter hurdles competition have not yet been announced.
