(Enlarge) Loch Raven High graduate Stann Waithe finished second among 40 competitors in the 400 meters during Trinidad and Tobago’s championships to earn a spot on the country’s 1,600-meter Olympic relay team that will compete in the Beijing next month. (Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan)

University of Michigan sprinter Stann Waithe is going to Beijing next month.

He had been training up to seven hours a day for the last three months in hopes of shaving a half a second off his personal-best time in the 400-meter dash.

It was all part of a successful plan to earn a berth on the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago -- his home country -- Olympic team.

The Loch Raven High grad's training was also in preparation for both the Big Ten and the NCAA championships meets.

The extra work paid off when Waithe placed third in the 400 in the conference meet and ran the anchor leg on fourth-place 1,600 relay team in the NCAAs.

Then he really went to work, earning an Olympic berth.

"I am probably in the best shape of my life right now," Waithe said in a phone interview from Michigan.

And Waithe, who was born in the Caribbean nation and moved to the United States as a toddler, has also probably never been more focused than he is now.

The fifth-year senior competed in the NCAA championships June 14 in Des Moines, Iowa, then took the law school entrance exam two days later before plunging back into his rigorous preparations for the Trinidad and Tobago championships (June 20-22).

"He ran a great a race," Michigan associate coach Fred LaPlante said about the NCAA championships. "And two hours later after that race he is in the lobby of the hotel studying for his law exam."

After his native country's championships, Waithe will continue his busy track schedule by competing in the North America-Central America Caribbean Games in Columbia in early July.

If the 5-foot-10, 158-pound Waithe failed to qualify for the Olympic team, he even had a fall-back plan that involved competing against some very fast professional runners.

However, joining the European circuit now would be a step down for the Olympian.

Looking ahead, the 23-year-old plans to pursue a law degree at the University of Michigan or at a school in the Baltimore-Washington area.

He earned his undergraduate degree in geology in April after carrying a 3.3 grade-point average.

Lowering a scant half-second from his personal-best 400 time ( 46.15) had taken all of his attention lately.

Waithe wishes he could be as dominant in the individual 400 as he has been in his 400 leg of the four-man 1,600 relay.

In order to earn a spot on Trinidad and Tobago's 1,600 relay team, Waithe needed a top individual performance in the 400.

"It is my kryptonite," Waithe said of the 400. "After all these years, I haven't put a (45.55) race together."

Waithe is a different and better runner when he anchors the 1,600 relay, as opposed to the individual 400, in which he tends to start slowly.

"I can maybe think of only two countries, Jamaica and the United States, where he wouldn't be good enough to me a member of their Olympic relay team," LaPlante said. "There's something extra inside of him when he has a baton running with three other guys. He is one of the better runners in the world when he is doing that."

For example, Waithe was particularly impressive at the Penn Relays, in Philadelphia, in April.

"He had the fastest split of any college runner at the meet," said LaPlante, who works with the Wolverine sprinters. "It's the biggest relay (meet) in the world. There are probably 75 teams running the (1,600)."

After being on a winning relay team at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2005, Waithe also excelled in individuals events, finishing third six times in the 400 during indoor and outdoor conference championships.

In regular season meets this spring, Waithe won the 400 four times, including in the Eastern Michigan Invitational and Jesse Owens Classic.

He attended Michigan on an athletic and academic scholarship after winning eight individual state track championships at Loch Raven.

"He was very unique," Loch Raven coach Dave Kreller said. "He had this swagger that he was one of the best runners and he always had such a desire to keep learning and growing."

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