Tabarie Henry on Sunday became the first Virgin Islander to run in the semifinals of the Olympics 400-meter run in the territory’s 44-year Olympic history.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t advance past that to the finals, which will be the highlight of Monday’s Olympic activity. Henry ran his 400 prelim in 45.15 seconds, but that left him in sixth place.
Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago won Henry’s heat in a time of 44.58 and Demetriu Pinder of the Bahamas was second in a time of 44.94.
Even though Henry bowed out, the Caribbean region will be well-represented in the finals.
Of the eight runners who will compete in Monday’s final, five are from the islands. Along with Gordon and Pinder, the finals will include Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic, Chris Brown of the Bahamas, and reigning champion and this year’s favorite Kirani James of Grenada. They will be joined by Steven Solomon of Australia, and Belgian brothers Jonathan and Kevin Borlee.
This is the first year since 1980 that the winner of the Olympics 400 will not be from the United States. For that matter, according to Sports Illustrated’s online coverage, it will be the first time since 1980 that no American made the finals of the event. And of course, 1980 was the year the Olympics were held in Moscow and the U.S. boycotted the games in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
