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July 7, 2008

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Louisville throwers D'Ana McCarty and Chinwe Okoro will represent Team USA at the IAAF World Junior Championships starting Tuesday in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The duo will be the first ever Louisville women to compete in the event and the first Louisville track and field athletes since the trio of Tone Belt, Andre Black and Cory Thorne competed in 2006.

McCarty, a native of Indianapolis, Ind., will open the event on Tuesday at 5:40 a.m. ET in the qualifying round of the women's hammer, while the final is set for Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET. Okoro, a native of Russell, Ky., will compete in the qualifying round of the women's shot put on Wednesday at 12:10 p.m. ET, while the final is set for Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

U of L's best-ever finisher at the IAAF World Junior Championships, which includes athletes ages 19-and-under, was Belt's silver medal finish in the long jump in 2006.

Okoro, who completed her freshman season at U of L in May at the NCAA Mideast Regional in Fayetteville, Ark., earned her spot on Team USA for the World Junior Championships after winning the women's shot put at the USA Junior Championships on June 22 in Columbus, Ohio. She had a personal best throw of 53 feet, 0.25 inches (16.06m) to defeat a field of 24 other throwers and become U of L's first junior national champion since Cory Thorne's 3,000m steeplechase title in 2006.

McCarty, who also completed her freshman season at U of L in May at the NCAA Mideast Regional, earned her bid to the World Junior Championships with a second-place finish in the hammer throw at the USA Junior Championships on June 20 with a personal best throw of 182-07 (55.65m).

Louisville's summer of international events will conclude with head coach Ron Mann serving as the men's middle distance coach for Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Aug. 8-24.