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2012 Olympics: Arizona high jumper Brigetta Barrett in Saturday's finals

By Kevin Zimmerman
Getty Images

Arizona high jumper Brigetta Barrett advanced to the finals of her event with a 6-foot, 4-inch (1.93 meter) high leap on Thursday. Her only miss on the day was the first attempt at 6-foot-4.

Her final is set to go at 11 a.m. MST on Saturday, and for the four-time NCAA high jump champion could be fit to medal. She was inches away from breaking an NCAA record of 6-foot-6 in the event in May.

And while she was ranked points-wise as the 12th best high jumper in the world, that might be because Barrett hasn't had the competition of some of the world's best. That meet in Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Championships was at 2.01 meters, tied for the third best jump in the world this year.

The rising senior will likely have competition from fellow USA star Chaunte Lowe and Russia's Anna Chicherova, among others.

  • Also prepping for the finals -- well, the only race of his event -- is former UA marathoner Abdi Abdirahman. Patrick Finley wrote this nifty piece about the 35-year-old's journey up to his fourth Olympic games. While the other three were 10,000-meter runs for Abdirahman, this year he's only hoping to make people wrong about age. And hey, that's the theme of these Olympics, right? Of all the talk about a washed up Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Misty-May Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and even Kobe Bryant, betting against the proven winners has not been the best of ideas.

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