Velvere finishes sixth in her heat of the women's 800 at world indoors...

PORTLAND—Washington State volunteer assistant coach Liga Velvere (left/photo by Howard Lao) of Latvia finished sixth in her heat of the women’s 800 meters at the IAAF World Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Oregon Convention Center Saturday morning.

Running  in the second of three qualifying heats, Velvere finished in a time of 2:05.20, as Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi won the heat in a national record time of 2:02.37, and was the only runner in the heat to advance to Sunday’s final.

Velvere qualified for the world indoor championships by running 2:03.08 at the House of Track high performance meet last month on the very same track.


In Tuscon at the Willie Williams Classic hosted by the University of Arizona, Washington State alum Jeshua Anderson finished third in his heat of the men’s 400 and fifth overall in a time of 47.98, one day after running the fastest time in the world this season in the 400 hurdles.

Brandon Lucas of Central Arizona, who was in the second of five heats, was the overall winner in 47.35.

Federal Way native Hannah Cunliffe ran the third leg of Oregon’s 4 x 100 relay team that won in a time of 43.31.

Tacoma’s Marcus Chambers ran the anchor leg of Oregon’s 4 x 100m relay that won in 40.18.  He also finished fourth overall in the men’s 100, running 10.48 in winning his heat.

The Ducks are in Tuscon during the school’s spring break while training for the upcoming outdoor season.


NOTE:  The IAAF, and the sports information offices of the University of Arizona and the University of Oregon contributed to this report.

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