Aries Merritt, who graduated from Wheeler in 2003 and whose family resides in Mableton, raced to the gold in men's 110-meter hurdles race Wednesday in London, turning in a time 12.92 seconds.
He edged out fellow American Jason Richardson, who won the silver medal, and bronze medalist Hansle Parchment of Jamaica. Dayron Robles of Cuba, who was the gold medalist at Beijing in 2008, did not finish after pulling out due to an injury.
Merritt was a teammate at Wheeler with Reggie Witherspoon, a member of the U.S. gold medal-winning 4x400 men's relay team in Beijing.
A former college All-American at Tennessee, Merritt has had 2012 after a slow start to his professional career. This is his first Olympic Games.
His Olympic-winning time was his fifth in a row under 13 seconds.
