BATON ROUGE – Four LSU Track & Field alums have made the trip to Sopot, Poland, to compete at the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships set to begin Friday as former Lady Tiger Cassandra Tate (United States) joins former Tigers in Ade Alleyne-Forte (Trinidad & Tobago),Damar Forbes (Jamaica) and Gabriel Mvumvure (Zimbabwe) in the competition.
Each is set to debut for the first time at the IAAF World Indoor Championships after recently wrapping up their collegiate careers with the Tigers and Lady Tigers.
While making their first World Championships appearance indoors, Forbes and Mvumvure have represented their nations in each of the last two IAAF World Championships in Athletics outdoors in Berlin, Germany, in 2011 and Moscow, Russia, in 2013. Mvumvure will run the 60-meter dash and Forbes will compete in the long jump during the meet.
Forbes is quickly establishing himself as one of the world's top young long jumpers in the wake of his senior season with the Tigers in 2013 in which he swept SEC Outdoor and NCAA Outdoor championships in the long jump before finishing in eighth place overall while qualifying for his first major international final at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
Mvumvure, a three-time All-American and 2008 NCAA champion in the 4x100-meter relay while at LSU, has lined up in the 100-meter dash for Zimbabwe at each of the last two World Championships outdoors before a trip to Poland to compete in the 60 meters this weekend. He enters the meet with a 2014 seasonal best of 6.70 seconds in the event.
Alleyne-Forte has been a key member of Trinidad & Tobago's 4x400-meter relay pool in recent years, which includes running the third leg on the team that set a national record of 2:59.40 in winning the Olympic bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England. Alleyne-Forte earned five All-America honors with the Tigers in the 4x400 relay during his collegiate career from 2009-12.
Tate is set to make her first ever international appearance for the United States after earning her spot in Team USA's 4x400-meter relay pool with a lifetime PR of 52.40 in her fourth-place finish in the 400-meter final at the 2014 USA Indoor Championships held in Albuquerque, N.M., two weeks ago.
Tate has made her name as one of her country's top young 400-meter hurdlers after winning the NCAA Outdoor title and finishing in fifth place at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials as a college senior in 2012.
This year's IAAF World Indoor Championships will begin Friday and run through Sunday's finale at the Ergo Arena in Sopot, Poland. Forbes and Mvumvure will be the first to compete as the qualifying rounds of the long jump and 60-meter dash will be held in Friday's afternoon session. Alleyne-Forte and Tate will follow by running in the preliminary round of the 4x400-meter relay on Saturday.