By Stan Friedman
LONDON, ENGLAND (August 7, 2012) – Covenanter Janay DeLoach will go for Olympic gold Wednesday when she competes in the long jump finals.
DeLoach, who attends Crossroads Covenant Church in Loveland, Colorado, finished second in today’s qualifying round. Afterwards she tweeted, “God stood by me for my first and only jump of the qualifying round. I made it through. Game face on for tomorrow’s final!”
DeLoach needed only the one jump to earn an automatic mark in today’s qualifying round. She leapt 6.81 meters. Any jump of at least 6.7 meters is an automatic qualifier.
“That was the plan, to do a one-and-done so I can stay as fresh as I can to go for the gold,” DeLoach told the Denver Post. The short night meant she was able to conserve her strength for Wednesday’s finals.
DeLoach finished behind Shara Proctor (6.83m) of Great Britain. DeLoach is capable of surpassing that distance. The 26-year-old jumped a career best of 7.03 meters when she qualified for the U.S. team at the Olympic Trials.
She will compete against 11 others in the finals, which will be live streamed at 1 p.m. (MDT).
