Gamecocks assistant to coach US women at world championships

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Longtime South Carolina track assistant Delethea Quarles was named the head coach for the U.S. women’s track and field team to compete in the world championships in China this summer.

Quarles is a former heptathlete who’s spent the past 18 years on the staff of Gamecocks head track coach Curtis Frye. She has served as a U.S. assistant coach at the previous two IAAF world championship meets. Quarles will head up the team of about 90 competitors who’ll head to Beijing in August.

Quarles said her time at South Carolina working under Frye has prepared her to lead the American team.

Quarles was head coach for the U.S. team at the 2007 Pan American Junior Championships in Brazil.