Milkevics Advances to 800-Meter Semifinals

Athens, Greece ? Dmitrijs Milkevics, a sophomore-to-be on the Nebraska track & field team, qualified for Thursday’s semifinal round of the men’s 800-meter run Wednesday at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

 

Milkevics, competing for his home country of Latvia, tied for first place in the seventh of nine heats in a time of 1:46.66. Antonio Manuel Reina of Spain also finished the heat with the same time. The first two finishers in each heat automatically advanced to the semifinals, followed by the next six fastest competitors overall.

In his freshman season as a Husker, Milkevics earned dual All-America honors for identical sixth-place finishes in the 800-meters at both the 2004 Indoor and Outdoor NCAA Championships. The Riga, Latvia, native’s personal-best time of 1:45.60, which was set this summer at a meet in Belgium, is the second-fastest time in school history.