College hurdler goes full "Superman" to win gold medal in close race
A hurdler left it all out on the track during a dramatic finish at the 2019 SEC Track & Field Championships over the weekend. Infinite Tucker, a junior at Texas A&M University, is the new SEC 400-meter hurdle champion after he went full "Superman" to the finish line in a close race Saturday.
After clearing all the hurdles, Tucker and teammate Robert Grant were neck and neck as they approached the end of their championship race. Once the finish line was in close enough proximity, Tucker dived with his arms out and beat Grant by a nose. The New York native fell to the ground, but earned a gold medal for his last-second leap.
"Honestly, I'm glad I got the win and competed against the best," Tucker told his school's website. "Me and my teammates all worked hard for this and I came out with the win. I'm happy and thankful for that. The mindset was to score as many points as possible, we wanted to go 1-2-3-4. It really didn't matter which one of us won first place, we knew if we gave it our all we would be happy with each other."
Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry joked about Tucker's impressive win.
"I've told Tucker 'you can't get there faster diving, just run through and you'll be fine,'" Henry said. "He thought he was a swim team guy today."
According to Texas A&M, Tucker's finish resulted in a winning time of 49.38 seconds, which ranks among the top performances for the school. It was a redemption of sorts for Tucker, who finished second in last year's championship race.
Currently, Tucker is the U.S. and collegiate leader for the 2019 season and ranks 10th on the world list.
