London 2012: Oyepitan unhappy with semi-final showing

Saturday, August 4, 2012
8:42 PM

Olympic 100m: Veteran sprinter comes up short

Harlesden sprinter Abi Oyepitan’s hopes of making the women’s 100m final were ended after she finished last in her semi-final on Saturday evening.

The Shaftesbury Barnet athlete was always struggling in a field headed by world champion Carmelita Jeter and Veronica Campbell-Brown and could only manage a time of 11.36 seconds, well short of her season’s best.

Oyepitan admitted: “I’m not happy with my race, particularly the time. I got out okay and I think I drove pretty well but the later part of my race wasn’t great.

“I wanted to be in the final and I’m really disappointed, I can’t lie – it obviously wasn’t meant to be.”

The 32-year-old, who competed in the 2004 Games before being plagued by injury, has since made an astonishing comeback and won two medals at the Commonwealth Games two years ago.

And Oyepitan will have another opportunity to bounce back on Monday when she lines up in the heats of her preferred event, the 200m – in which she reached the final at Athens 2004.