Posted: 2:03 PM Jul 9, 2012 Reporter: Kevin Faigle
Monday July 9, 2012
Augusta, Ga--The Augusta area has two gold medal winners currently living in the Garden City. One is Jack Robinson, the other, Paine College track coach Latasha Colander Clark also won gold. Her's coming in the 2000 games part of the 4 X400 relay squad.
Clark ran the anchor leg on the team that won gold in Sydney, Australia. Now, she's hoping to lead a new crop of up and coming talent to run their best at Paine. When you strike gold in the Olympics, they are moments you will never forget.
"that dream was able to come to fruition and to become realized at the Olympic games." said Natasha Colander Clark " When I was able to be on the podium and really have a flash back of all of my experiences while standing there, thinking about when I was running in the cold, the rain, the sleet and the snow in high school, and being able to go through all the championships"
Even in the midst of the thousand and thousands of people on hand, Colander Clark was able to share a moment with her parents, who she was able to spot from the podium while receiving her gold medal.
"When the American flag is in the back ground and I'm crying and I'm looking in the stands and I'm able to pierce , just a little pierce, being able to see my father, my mother in the stands, crying and hugging each other close and tight because they're able to have a moment too."
Now she and her teammates almost had the medal stripped after Marion Jones was found to be doping during the games, but the medals were reinstated to her teammates. It now resides with her dad, who was a miliary man long before Clark came around.