Pole vaulter Shawn Barber will join middle-distance runner Clayton Murphy next month in Brazil.
There will be two former University of Akron track and field national champions heading to the Summer Olympics.
Shawn Barber will represent Canada next month in Brazil after winning the men’s pole vault during Saturday’s Canadian Championships and Rio Selection Trials. He joins former Akron teammate Clayton Murphy, who won the 800-meter run last week at the United States Olympic Trials.
Barber’s win comes as no surprise. The reigning world champion set a Canadian championships meet record with a vault of 18 feet, 4.75 inches.
“I’m super excited to go to Rio and compete in the Olympics,” Barber said in a statement released by Akron. “Now everything we are focusing on from this point forward is doing our best at the Olympic Games.”
Barber and Murphy will be the first two track and field athletes who competed for the Zips to appear in the Olympics.
From: http://www.cantonrep.com/sports/20160710/barber-gives-akron-track-and-field-two-olympians
