IAAF World Junior Championships 2014Jul 22, 2014 by Dennis Young
Bromell, Whitney, & Baisden lead Team USA
Bromell, Whitney, & Baisden lead Team USA
2014 World Juniors Sprints and Field Preview
By Dennis Young with additional notes from Mitch Kastoff
1) Lean forward and put your elbows on your desk, table, legs, whatever.
2) Cover your face with your hands.
3) Make a deeply frustrated sound with the back of your throat, something along the lines of “UNNNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY ARENT FRIDAY AND BROMELL RACING EACH OTHER WHY WHY WHY UNHHHNNNNNNNNNNHHHHH!!!!!!!”
A quick primer: the last time Travyon Bromell ran at Hayward Field*, he ran 9.97 to set the world junior record and become the first junior to run faster than 10.01. Two weeks later, Trentavis Friday ran 10.00 in the semis at US juniors— meaning that the two fastest juniors in world history ran their times in the same place two weeks apart and were set for a mouthwatering showdown in the final and a rematch at WJCs.
See the instructions at the top of this page. UNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHH— Friday false started before that final, meaning that any high-stakes race between him and Bromell has to wait nearly a year. (If they’re still in the NCAA, of course)
I don’t hate it. I mean, I really hate that Bromell and Friday were a few hundredths of a second away from two races in three weeks and now will have to settle for zero in nine months. But I don’t hate the mechanics that kept Friday out of worlds, i.e. our brutally Darwinian championship team selection format that we only share with Kenya and a few other lesser track powers. Our do-it-on-the-day or die system is extremely American, for better or worse.
Even without Florida State-bound Friday, the men’s 100 is one of the best events of the meet. With hot weather in the forecast, Bromell has a chance to inch the WJR closer to 9.90, and Yoshihide Kiryu of Japan is just 0.02 away from the Asian record. As it stands, Kiryu’s 10.01 is the fastest ever by an Asian-born athlete. Unbelievably, an American male hasn’t won the junior 100 title Ivory Morse in 2004.
Then there’s the man who’s been shrugging off the “The Next Usain Bolt” moniker. Anguilla's Zharnel Hughes ran 10.12 to win the legendary Jamaica ISSA Championships and break Yohan Blake’s 10.21 meet record from 2007. Hughes was prepared to compete at both the World Junior Championships and Commonwealth Games on July 27th, but a hamstring injury forced him to concentrate on the former.
Heats are Tuesday at 3:50 Eastern, semis are Wednesday night at 8:20, and the final is three hours later on Wednesday at 11:55.
*I’ve challenged myself to eat a Twizzler for every time I read or hear “HISTORIC HAYWARD FIELD” this week. The forecast so far: Type 2 diabetes.
Kaylin Whitney is only halfway through her pre-baccalaureate career and already has the American high school record. She’s run 11.10; with three more years as a junior (but only one more WJC in 2016), the likely-doped WJR (Editors' Note: it's from an East German in the late '70s) of 10.88 seems in real danger by the time Whitney ages out. The AJR of either 11.04 (Angela Williams) or 11.03 (English Gardner)* seems a formality by the end of 2017.
For now, though, we’ll have to lock in our myopia on Hayward, where Whitney is a slight favorite over the much older Brit Dina Asher-Smith. Whitney and Asher-Smith should have some epic tangles in the 100 (9:30 Tuesday/9:00 Wednesday/11:40 Wednesday), 200 (2:35 Thursday/9:10 Thursday/10:55 Friday), and 4x100 (final 8:20 Saturday).
*If anyone in Eugene this week can explain to me why Gardner’s 11.03 isn’t ratified as the AJR, your tab at Wild Duck is on me.
Kendall Baisden was only Texas’s third best 400 runner for most of this season. The Longhorns are so loaded, though, that Baisden is a heavy favorite to be crowned the best U20 quarter-miler in the world this week. Baisden has run 50.46; no one else has broken 51.60, and behind Miami’s Shakima Wimbley’s 51.68, no one else has dipped under 52.20.
Heats are Wednesday at 2:35 EST, the semi is Thursday at 10:05, and the final is Friday at 11:30.
Raven Saunders has the third best throw in the field at 17.28m; this story about her paying for her flight to USJs is worth reading. Hopefully the IAAF at least paid for a coach ticket this week.
The relays will be watched with bated breath; will this be the first generation of American athletes in forever that can ably circumnavigate the oval? I’m not going to list the times for the finals out of superstition.
By Dennis Young with additional notes from Mitch Kastoff
1) Lean forward and put your elbows on your desk, table, legs, whatever.
2) Cover your face with your hands.
3) Make a deeply frustrated sound with the back of your throat, something along the lines of “UNNNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY ARENT FRIDAY AND BROMELL RACING EACH OTHER WHY WHY WHY UNHHHNNNNNNNNNNHHHHH!!!!!!!”
A quick primer: the last time Travyon Bromell ran at Hayward Field*, he ran 9.97 to set the world junior record and become the first junior to run faster than 10.01. Two weeks later, Trentavis Friday ran 10.00 in the semis at US juniors— meaning that the two fastest juniors in world history ran their times in the same place two weeks apart and were set for a mouthwatering showdown in the final and a rematch at WJCs.
See the instructions at the top of this page. UNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHH— Friday false started before that final, meaning that any high-stakes race between him and Bromell has to wait nearly a year. (If they’re still in the NCAA, of course)
I don’t hate it. I mean, I really hate that Bromell and Friday were a few hundredths of a second away from two races in three weeks and now will have to settle for zero in nine months. But I don’t hate the mechanics that kept Friday out of worlds, i.e. our brutally Darwinian championship team selection format that we only share with Kenya and a few other lesser track powers. Our do-it-on-the-day or die system is extremely American, for better or worse.
Even without Florida State-bound Friday, the men’s 100 is one of the best events of the meet. With hot weather in the forecast, Bromell has a chance to inch the WJR closer to 9.90, and Yoshihide Kiryu of Japan is just 0.02 away from the Asian record. As it stands, Kiryu’s 10.01 is the fastest ever by an Asian-born athlete. Unbelievably, an American male hasn’t won the junior 100 title Ivory Morse in 2004.
Then there’s the man who’s been shrugging off the “The Next Usain Bolt” moniker. Anguilla's Zharnel Hughes ran 10.12 to win the legendary Jamaica ISSA Championships and break Yohan Blake’s 10.21 meet record from 2007. Hughes was prepared to compete at both the World Junior Championships and Commonwealth Games on July 27th, but a hamstring injury forced him to concentrate on the former.
Heats are Tuesday at 3:50 Eastern, semis are Wednesday night at 8:20, and the final is three hours later on Wednesday at 11:55.
*I’ve challenged myself to eat a Twizzler for every time I read or hear “HISTORIC HAYWARD FIELD” this week. The forecast so far: Type 2 diabetes.
Kaylin Whitney is only halfway through her pre-baccalaureate career and already has the American high school record. She’s run 11.10; with three more years as a junior (but only one more WJC in 2016), the likely-doped WJR (Editors' Note: it's from an East German in the late '70s) of 10.88 seems in real danger by the time Whitney ages out. The AJR of either 11.04 (Angela Williams) or 11.03 (English Gardner)* seems a formality by the end of 2017.
For now, though, we’ll have to lock in our myopia on Hayward, where Whitney is a slight favorite over the much older Brit Dina Asher-Smith. Whitney and Asher-Smith should have some epic tangles in the 100 (9:30 Tuesday/9:00 Wednesday/11:40 Wednesday), 200 (2:35 Thursday/9:10 Thursday/10:55 Friday), and 4x100 (final 8:20 Saturday).
*If anyone in Eugene this week can explain to me why Gardner’s 11.03 isn’t ratified as the AJR, your tab at Wild Duck is on me.
In the Men's 200-meters, Zharnel Hughes leads the way with his 20.32 mark from the Jamaica ISSA Champs, but Team USA’s Trentavis Friday is in phenomenal form.
A day after he was disqualified in the Men's 100-meter final at the U.S. Junior Championships, Friday bounced back to win the Men’s 200-meters in an astonishing 20.03. The only drawback? It was 0.9 m/s over the legal limit.
Jamaica’s Jevaughn Minzie and Michael O'Hara should both be threats as well. The duo, who are also entered in the Men’s 100-meters, have run 20.37 and 20.50 this season, respectively.
Team USA’s Kendal Williams and his 20.55 season best round out the top five seeds.
Heats are Thursday at 11:45 Eastern, semis are Thursday night at 7:40, and the final is Friday at 9:10.
Heats are Thursday at 11:45 Eastern, semis are Thursday night at 7:40, and the final is Friday at 9:10.
Five men have sub-46 this season, with Machel Cedenio taking the top seed in the Men's 400-meters. The 19-year-old from Trinidad & Tobago posted a personal best of 45.23 back in May at the Cayman International Invitational Meet.
Not too far behind him is the first half of Team USA, Michael Cherry. The Florida State Seminole ran a personal best of 45.37 at the NCAA East Regional before finishing third (46.12) at the NCAA Championships.
Eastern Michigan’s Tyler Brown makes up the second half for the red, white, and blue. Don’t consider Brown secondary to Cherry, though. Though Cherry posted a faster time this year, it was Brown who won the U.S. Junior Championships with a 45.74 personal best.
Kenya’s Alexander Lerionka Sampao (season and personal best of 45.84) and Bahrain’s Abbas Abubaker round out the top five.
Heats are Tuesday at 6:35 Eastern, semis are Wednesday at 7:45, and the final is Friday at 8:45.
Heats are Tuesday at 6:35 Eastern, semis are Wednesday at 7:45, and the final is Friday at 8:45.
Heats are Wednesday at 2:35 EST, the semi is Thursday at 10:05, and the final is Friday at 11:30.
Raven Saunders has the third best throw in the field at 17.28m; this story about her paying for her flight to USJs is worth reading. Hopefully the IAAF at least paid for a coach ticket this week.
The relays will be watched with bated breath; will this be the first generation of American athletes in forever that can ably circumnavigate the oval? I’m not going to list the times for the finals out of superstition.