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Evans on track for Olympics

Aaron Evans (left) with his University of Georgia relay team at the Drake Relays.

Aaron Evans showed the kind of form which he hopes will take him to the Olympic Games later this year as he helped himself to two gold medals over the weekend while representing the University of Georgia at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.The Bermudian got his first win while anchoring the medley relay team, which included fellow senior Torrin Lawrence, sophomore Waymon Storey and freshman Chris Foster.Evans was the final leg for the four-man team that earned a national best time of 3:16.46.The event consisted of two 200 metre runners, a 400 metre runner, and an 800 metre runner, Evans’ preferred distance.His second victory came individually in the 800 metres as he hitting the tape in one minute, 49.36 seconds, beating the second placed runner by just .10 seconds. It was his second college win of the season“It was a good weekend for the whole team, we were trying to break the Drake relay record but the weather conditions didn’t really allow us to meet this mark but it felt good to win it,” said Evans.“My time was pretty fast and the team’s time was the fastest in the world this year. It was the first time I’ve done it. It’s not a normal event you would do at a competition but it was thoroughly enjoyable.”While his individual time wasn’t close to the Olympic standard, Evans believes he will make the grade of 1:46.3, having already clocked 1:46.2..He will have more chances to book his ticket for London with the school heading to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) meet before focusing on the Regionals and NCAA National Championships.The first of the three outdoor championship meets takes place May 10 through May 13“Winning the 800 metres was another good thing but the time wasn’t close to the Olympic standard but I have six weeks to make the mark and everything I have done thus far leads me to believe that I can reach the standard.“I have done the time before but not in this window so I compete in two weeks and will look to get it fairly soon.”His coach, Wayne Norton, backs Evans to run even faster than before as he pursues the Olympic dream.“Aaron’s win in the 800 was doubly good because it added to UGA’s win total for the day and it showed again that he is ready to run extremely well this year,” said Norton. “He was able to run 1.47 and 1.49 in the same day. His fitness level is very good right now.”