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2003 World Championships
in Athletics

Aug 23-31, Paris France

USA Youth Movement


Notes from the Worlds: Youth Movement on Team USA

by Jill Geer, Director of Communications, USA Track & Field

PARIS 8/19/03 – Over the past several years, the average age of athletes representing the United States at international competitions has increased, reaching roughly 29 years of age, as the longevity of top stars has increased.

Team USA at the 2003 IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships, however, features a large contingent of youngsters whose prowess bodes well for the present and future of track and field in the United States. No fewer than five athletes age 21 or younger are on the roster for the U.S. during competition in Paris from August 23-31.

The 21-and-under crowd includes:

Allyson Felix: Felix is perhaps the best-known 17-year-old in the world of track and field. Breaking Marion Jones’ American junior record in the 200 meters while at the Mt. SAC Relays in April (22.51) turned heads, but it was Felix’s winning time of 22.11 May 3 in Mexico City – faster than the current world junior record and.01 faster than Marie Jose-Perec’s winning time at the 1996 Olympic Games – that made her a true international sensation. Fresh off a bronze medal at the 2003 Pan Am Games earlier this month, Felix’s 22.11 is the fastest time in the world in 2003. The World Championships will conclude a long and eventful season for the recent Los Angeles Baptist High School graduate. Felix was runner-up at the USA Indoor Championships on March 2 in Boston, breaking the national high school record previously owned by Sanya Richards with her time of 23.14. She was the youngest member of Team USA at the 2003 World Indoor Championships, where she competed in the semifinal round, and she was third at the USA Outdoor Championships (22.59).

Sanya Richards: A phenomenal high schooler and USATF’s Verizon Youth Athlete of the Year in 2002, Richards became an even more impressive collegian in 2003. The 18-year-old who just completed her freshman year at the University of Texas has achieved success at all levels: she is a U.S. junior record holder, World Junior Championships medalist, NCAA champion and U.S. champion. As a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2002, Richards broke the U.S. junior record in the 400 at the USA Junior Track & Field Championships (50.69). She went on to win silver in the 400 and bronze in the 200 at the 2002 World Junior Championships. At Texas, Richards placed second at the 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships in both the 200 (22.90) and 400 (51.87). Outdoors she twice broke her own 400m junior record, first with a 50.63 May 31 in Omaha, then with 50.58 June 13 in winning the NCAA title in Sacramento, the third- and second-fastest times by an American this year. Richards enters Paris after winning her first open U.S. title at the 2003 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Stanford, where she ran 51.01. She is the ninth-fastest 400m runner in the world so far in 2003.

Bershawn Jackson: Jackson, who turned 20 in May, made a name for himself in the 400-meter hurdles on May 17, when he ran an early-season, world-leading time of 48.51 in Atlanta. But Jackson hadn’t been a complete unknown. The 2002 U.S. junior champion (50.33), Jackson won the bronze at the 2002 World Junior Championships with a then-personal best of 50.00 seconds. Now training full-time under the tutelage of 2004 U.S. Olympic head coach George Williams in Raleigh, N.C., Jackson has lowered his PR to 48.23, which he ran July 19 in Madrid and which makes him the third-fastest man in the world this year. He was runner-up at the 2003 USA Outdoor Championships and is looking for more PRs in Paris.

Lauryn Williams: A top junior athlete on the world scene, Williams is part of the Team USA 4x100m relay pool in Paris. Williams has made winning a way of life, owning the 2002 World junior and U.S. junior championships in the 100 meters. Third at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the University of Miami sophomore responded by winning the gold medal at the 2003 Pan Am Games with a personal-best time of 11.12. Williams, who was seventh at the USA Outdoor Championships, will turn 20 on September 11.

Raasin McIntosh: The elder statesman of this group of young lions, McIntosh is 21 years old and, like her University of Texas teammate Sanya Richards, already has a U.S. title to her name. A 10-time NCAA All-American who in 2003 completed her junior season at Texas, McIntosh defeated an experienced field to win the U.S. 400m hurdle title in 54.62 last June at Stanford, ending Sandra Glover’s four-year reign as US. Champion in the event. McIntosh’s personal best of 54.60 came April 5 on her home track in Austin, and she was runner-up at the NCAA Championships. A multitalented performer, McIntosh won the 100m, 400m hurdles and ran on the winning 4x400m relay at the 2003 Big 12 Championships. She plans to attend law school following the conclusion of her track career, but based on her results thus far, she won’t need to submit her application anytime soon.

 

Paris World's 2003

 


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