Lady Vol Junior, Head Coach J.J. Clark’s Family Members Continuing Team USA Preparations In Crete
CRETE — After a short trip to Athens, Greece, for the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies on Friday night, University of Tennessee junior Dee Dee Trotter and J.J. Clark’s family members, Jearl Miles-Clark and Hazel Clark, are back on the nearby island of Crete.  The trio with Lady Vol ties will get in a final few days of practice at Team USA Training Camp prior to making the trek back to Athens for the track & field portion of the Olympiad.Miles-Clark, wife of UT’s J.J. Clark, and Hazel Clark, his sister, will be the first to see action, competing in the first round of the 800-meter run at 10 p.m. Athens time, or 3 p.m. Eastern, on Aug. 20.  The semifinals are slated for 8:40 p.m./1:40 p.m. ET on Aug. 21, while the final will be contested at 8:55 p.m./1:55 p.m. ET on Aug. 23.Miles-Clark is making her fifth Olympic appearance, while Clark is taking part in her second.  They joined former Lady Vol Joetta Clark (eldest sister of Hazel and J.J.) to comprise the U.S. 800m contingent at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.  Hazel was seventh in 2000, while Jearl, suffering from a bad head cold, advanced to the semifinals before bowing out.  After competing in her fourth Olympiad, Joetta retired, but J.J. continues to coach his family members, just as he did four years ago.Trotter, meanwhile, will get her first taste of the Olympics at 9:45 a.m./2:45 a.m. ET on Aug. 21 in the first round of the 400-meter dash.  Should she advance to the semifinal round, the Decatur, Ga., product would next run at 10:15 p.m./3:15 p.m. ET on Aug. 22.  For those advancing in the quest for precious metal, the final is slated for 10:50 p.m./3:50 p.m. ET on Aug. 24.The first active Lady Vol track & field athlete since 1988 and the initial underclass UT female since 1984 to compete in the Games, Trotter is making her Olympic debut as a 21-year-old.  A 400m semifinalist at last year’s IAAF World Championships, Trotter enters with a career-best and UT-record mark of 50.23, which she established in a third-place finish at the Zurich Weltklasse meet on Aug. 6 in Switzerland.  Trotter was the third-place finisher at the U.S. Trials and is the reigning 2004 NCAA champion.Trotter helped the U.S. win gold in the 4x400m relay at the 2003 Pan Am Games and ran in the prelim round to assist the U.S. to victory at the 2003 IAAF World Championships.  On Aug. 8, she ran with Hennagan, Miles-Clark and Richards at the Team Athletics Challenge in Munich, Germany, as that group charted a time of 3:20.91 to barely finish second behind the lineup of Henderson, Robinson, Lashinda Demus and Sheena Johnson (3:20.88).

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