BERLIN — Sharon Day, regarded by many as the greatest athlete from Costa Mesa High, earned the eighth spot after four events in the heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany Saturday.
Day’s highest finish came in the high jump. She cleared 1.89 meters (6.2 feet) to take second and earned 1,093 points.
She finished fourth in the shot put with a mark of 13.42 meters (44.04 feet), a personal best, and garnered 755 points.
She was eighth in the 200 meters, third in her heat, finishing in 25.15 seconds. She also came in 20th out of 29 competitors in the 100 hurdles, coming across at 13.90.
Overall, Day scored 3,714 points.
Jessica Ennis of Great Britain leads with 4,124 points.
Day will complete the heptathlon today, with the javelin, long jump and 800 events.
Results can be found at berlin.iaaf.org.
ROSS, KESSY REMAIN IN CONTENTION
SAN FRANCISCO — April Ross, a former Newport Harbor High standout, and her teammate Jen Kessy beat the “Mom Team” of Kerri Walsh and Rachel Wacholder for the second straight week to advance to the semifinals of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals San Francisco Open Saturday.
Walsh and Wacholder, playing in their second tournament back from each recently gave birth, couldn’t force a third set as they did in Hermosa Beach a week ago. This time, Ross and Kessy, the No. 2-seeded team, scored the victory, 21-14, 21-18, to move on today’s semifinals.
They opened with an easy 21-9, 21-12 win against Angela Lewis and Diane Pascua that took just 31 minutes. Ross and Kessy then battled against No. 7-seeded Brooke Hanson and Lisa Rutledge to earn a 21-16, 19-21, 15-12 victory before taking on the No. 3-seeded duo of Walsh and Wacholder.
Costa Mesa resident Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal of Corona del Mar are the only locals who remain in contention in the men’s tournament.
Gibb and Rosenthal, the 2009 Manhattan Beach Open champs seeded third, will play in today’s contender’s bracket finals, facing No. 6-seeded John Mayer and Jeff Ngyaard.
In the second round, Gibb and Rosenthal were victims of an upset that knocked them to the contender’s bracket. They lost to 14th-seeded Will Strickland and Aaron Wachtfogel, 14-21, 21-12, 15-11.
But Gibb and Rosenthal recovered with four straight wins in the contender’s bracket. Two of those featured eliminating teams with locals ties.
