The Province

Deceased daughter motivates U.S. sprinter

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — She ran the 100 and 200 metres — just like dad. She was so fast and would’ve been a college standout. This he has no doubt.

That’s why Tyson Gay nearly walked away from racing. It was too painful with his daughter gone. So painful that when he trains he feels the stress in his back and can’t shake it off.

Only, she wouldn’t want him to quit. So he keeps sprinting in the memory of his 15-year-old daughter, Trinity, who was shot and killed in October outside a restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky.

“It’s crushing and it never goes away. But you try to live with it,” said Gay, who competes in the first round of the 100 on Thursday night at the U.S. track and field championsh­ips. “You try to think about the good times.”

Like how she used to visit him in Florida for spring break or Thanksgivi­ng. Or how they had the same teacher in high school and the teacher once playfully told Trinity how much better of a student she was than her father. Or how when he couldn’t spell a word, he would turn and ask her. Out of habit, he still does that. “I think about my daughter every day,” Gay said as he sat in a hotel lobby after a training session. “Every day.”

He didn’t hear the phone ring in the early morning hours on Oct. 16. His sister came downstairs and woke him up. Trinity was shot outside a Lexington restaurant after witnesses told police that gunfire was exchanged between two vehicles. She was hit by a stray round.

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