Rookies Shine on Day 2 of 2012 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Trials

Rookies Shine on Day 2 of 2012 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Trials

The new kids on the blocks impressed on Day 2 of 2012 U.S. Paralympic Trials - Track & Field, perhaps none more so than Blake Leeper. Competing at the Michael A. Carroll Stadium on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Leeper set an Americas record in the men's 100m T43, becoming the first U.S. competitor in that classification to run the dash in under 11 seconds.

Leeper (10.95) finished second in the men's 100m T43/44 competition to Great Britain's Jonathan Peacock (10.85), who set the T44 world record in Indianapolis. Richard Browne (11.16) placed third.

"I'm feeling really good, it was a really good race," said Leeper, who also set an Americas best in the men's 200m Friday. "My teammates and all the guys at the starting line are really fast and they pushed me along the line. I was happy to finish strong and healthy."

World champion Jerome Singleton (11.17) finished fourth, whilst 2004 Paralympic champion Marlon Shirley(11.45) who was returning from multiple injuries finished seventh. He set the previous T44 world record in April 2007 when he ran a 10.91.

Shaquille Vance, who had his right leg amputated in April 2009 following an awkward twisting tackle during a pick-up football game, discovered Paralympic Sport about a year after his injury. "I just got a chance, I got an opportunity and I went with it. I needed something to get me going again, get me to compete again," Vance said.

And now he may be going to his first Paralympic Games. A day after botching the men's 200 T42, finishing second with a 28.35 mark well off the Americas record of 26.22 he set at November’s Parapan American Games, Vance rebounded to win the top prize in the men's 100m T52 with a 13.57. He outlasted Kortney Clemons (13.71.) and Rudy Garcia-Tolson (13.90).

Vance was also second in men's shot put (F40/42/43/44) with a final throw of 11.14m. Timothy Kujawa (11.91m) set the Americas record beating his previous record of 11.51m.

Garcia-Tolson, who swam at the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic Games, has already received a nomination to the 2012 Paralympic Games through swimming but is looking for his first nod in track. Clemons, who lost his right leg above the knee while serving as a U.S. Army medic, is hoping for his first ever nomination to a U.S. Paralympic Team.

"Making this team would mean a lot to me," said Clemons, who narrowly missed making the cut for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. "It would mean a lot to the people that have been supporting me: family, friends, people in the stands. It would be great. It's been a long journey and I'm looking forward to making the team."

Clemons is one of 28 U.S. military veterans or service members competing at the trials.

Angela Madsen, a Paralympic rower hoping to make her first track and field team, claimed the women's shot put T32-34/54-58. The former Marine threw a world record 9.30m in the finals.

David Brown topped the men's 100m T11 in the same decisive fashion he claimed Friday's 200m. In 2008, Brown traveled to the Beijing Games with the Paralympic Experience, a U.S. Paralympics program that introduces individuals with physical, intellectual and visual impairments to Paralympic sport locally, nationally and internationally.

"In 2008, I went on the Paralympic Experience and we went around and saw a number of different sports. Track and field was one of them," Brown said. "I remember just sitting up in the Bird's Nest, like way up there, and I couldn't even really see the field but I heard the crowd. I heard the 'Ready, set, go' and the gun shot. I remember just looking down toward the field and thinking that's going to be me one day."

The 54 nominees to the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team will be announced on 1 July following the conclusion of the competition.

While rookies made their cases for London, several veterans including April Holmes continued the dominance that led them to past Games. Already the victor of Friday's women's 200m T42/43/44, Holmes won the women's 100m T43/44, an event she won gold in four years ago in Beijing.

Tatyana McFadden, already nominated to the team in the marathon event, won the women's 100m T54 and her heat of the women's 400m T54 preliminary, adding to her 800m win on Friday. Hoping for a historic programme in London, with the 100m through the marathon, McFadden plans to race in the finals of the 400m and 1500m Sunday.