It's hard to believe those 6 days of the World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon are over!
Being able to watch the entire meet (for FREE!) on both Universal Sports and USATF-TV feeds made the meet so much more enjoyable, getting to live every dramatic record broken (or those which came sooooo close!) and all the record drama that meets like this bring forth, that those 6 days sped by TOO fast!!
But, speaking of speed, let's take a look AT those 6 days of fierce competition.
Seven Meet Records were broken (though 1 of those was a tie).
And 4 United States HSR's were broken, with one of them being broken TWICE!!
(One of the MR's was also broken twice, which I'll explain in just a minute!)
The event that saw BOTH Meet Records broken were the 10000 Meter Walks.
These took place entirely on Hayward Field's track, so the spectators got to see every step (and mis-step!).
Anezka Drahotova of the Czech Republic took the lead right away, and never gave it up.
She hit 5000 in 21:21, then did 21:26 to get the MR in 42:47.25.
I don't keep Walk records, but this was also a World Junior Record, not to mention the Czech Republic National Record.
Some interesting facts about her:
She's also a runner, qualifying for the 3000SC here. (She didn't run it, as the heats came just a day after her Walk effort!)
And she's a champion bicyclist too!
She has a twin sister, Eliska, who also raced here.
The Men's Walk also produced a Meet Record.
Daisuke Matsunaga of Japan kept a metronomic pace (kept looking at his watch to make sure he was on record pace!), and was successful, clicking off a 39:27.19 for the MR.
(An aside: I really LOVE those Japan team uniform tops!! Great design and colors!)
The 3000SC is rarely run in the USA High School system.
In fact, even the 2000SC isn't a standard event.
So when Colorado's Bailey Roth came to the fore in 2013, it became known that he'd never even SEEN a SC hurdle (or water pit), let alone jumped over one, up to maybe 2-3 weeks before his initial 2000SC race.
But he took to the Steeple like.....heh!.....a fish takes to water!
He ran about 5:45 last year over the 2000 distance.
And this year, at the NBN meet, he lowered that to 5:41.67, the HSR.
Right after that, I tweeted him that, based on his 5:41, he had an excellent chance to take down the HSR over the 3000SC distance.
I won't take credit for his doing so, but he did it.
TWICE!
Coming in with a 9:03 PR (from the WJC Trials earlier this month!), he crushed that mark, AND the HSR of 8:50.1 by Jeff Hess in 1979, with a stunning 8:48.60.
And that was enough to qualify for the final!
He finished 10th, but nipped his own HSR with his time of 8:47.04.
This is, of course, also the HS Senior Class Record!
And it (the first record) moved him from 9th A-T HS up to 1st.....where he remained after the final!
Another "ancient" HSR to fall came in the Women's 100H.
It was clear from the start that the USA's Kendell Williams and Dior Hall would be heavily favored.
However, the Netherlands Nadine Visser made this event more interesting than the pre-meet formsheet indicated.
Visser ran a windy 13.01 in her semi, improving her overall (windy or not) PR by almost two-tenths of a second.
Could she pull off an upset?
Alas, no.
But she DID push the 2 Americans to incredible times!
Williams, who just finished her Freshman year at the University of Georgia, ran a Meet Record time of 12.89.
That record, by Cuba's Aliuska Lopez, was 12.96 from 1988!!
A very close 2nd, Hall ran 12.92, claiming the HSR of 12.95 set by Candy Young way back in...1979!!
(That made TWO 1979 HSR's broken in less than one week!!)
She also, obviously, gets the HS Senior Class Record!
This moves her from 2nd A-T HS into 1st.
But she missed the Age 18 record (by Kristi Castlin) by....0.01 seconds!!
Visser wound up getting a PR with her excellent 12.99!
The MALE version of Kendell Williams ALSO had a pretty fair meet!
To say 9.97 man Trayvon Bromell was the favorite going in would be the understatement of the year!
(Especially after 10.00 guy Trentavis Friday false-started at the Trials!)
So it appeared that Bromell had a clear road ahead to victory.
The only question left was.....How fast could he go?
The answer, sad for him, was not fast enough to win!
Yes, amazingly, Bromell lost, and Williams won!
He'd run a PR of 10.23 in his heat.
This moved him from 23rd A-T HS (tied with 6 others!) up to 15th.
But in the final, he powered to the finish in 10.21, edging out Bromell for the Gold.
This latter time moved him up 3 more spots on my HS DDD list, where he's now 12th, tied with 3 others.
Frenchman Wilhelm Belocian cut through the (invisible) tape in 12.99 in the Men's 110H final.
This too was a Meet Record.
(The race used 39 inch hurdles!)
The overwhelming Men's Triple Jump favorite, Cuba's Lazaro Martinez, just 16 years old (!!), came through as expected.
He didn't PR, but his first jump measured 56-0.50 for the MR.
Then he did it again....for good measure (heh heh, pun intended!!).
His 56-2.50 claimed his own Meet Record!!
He's a pretty big guy physically, and VERY impressive!!
If he stays healthy, and competes a few more years, I could easily see him claiming the World Record someday.
My DDD's for the HS Decathlon is for those using international (adult, professional level) implements (hurdle heights, etc).
The WJC, being a meet for Juniors, obviously used the JUNIOR-size props.
That said, the Czech Republic's Jiri Sykora broke the MR with his 8135 point total.
He's also an impressive looking athlete, and should go on to much success on the Pro circuit.
The two Pole Vaults produced record performances of one kind or another.
And both produced ding-dong battles for places.
While the MR wasn't broken, the Men's vault nabbed a great mark for the USA's Devin King.
Despite getting the same mark as the Silver and Bronze medal winners, King finished just 4th with his PR of 18-0.50!
I want to say this was his first 18 foot vault, but a few days earlier, he'd vaulted 18-0 in a STREET vault!
I don't know (yet) if that mark is acceptable for HS list purposes.
If it is, then THAT was his initial 18 footer.
If not, his WJC mark was.
Whatever the case, his WJC prevailed anyway (by half an inch!).
He moves from 11th A-T HS, tied with 3 others, up to 6th.
And the Women's PV had a humdinger of a battle too.
Russia's Alena Lutkovskaya pulled out the win with her Meet Record-tying height of 14-9.
Two girls got marks of 14-7.25, with America's Desiree Freier prevailing for Silver with her latest HSR.
In fact, she got TWO of those babies in this meet!
The first came when she cleared 14-6.
This was her OUTdoor PR (She'd earlier this season gotten 14-6 INdoors!!), so claimed her own HSR at that height.
She then went higher, her 14-7.25 getting her 2nd place, but 1st place on the A-T HS list.
It's also, of course, the HS 12th Grade Class Record, again breaking her own mark.
AND......it's better than the COLLEGIATE Frosh Class Record!!
This five foot tall (Tall?? LOL) wunderkind misses the United States All-Time Top 24 Performers list by....one-quarter inch!!!
Finally (in the Women's PV), Eliza McCartney claimed the NATIONAL Record (not just the JUNIOR NR, but the OVERALL NR!!) of New Zealand with her Bronze medal-winning height of 14-7.25.
(She had more misses than Freier.)
All 4 Relays were of high quality, but none of them captured the Meet Records.
The closest were the two 4X100's.
The United States won both, missing the Men's MR by a mere 0.04 seconds!
The USA Women won too, but missed the MR by 0.06 seconds!!
In the meet's two closing races, the 4X400 Relays, the MR's weren't threatened, but the USA won both of them fairly easily.
(Japan, however, surprised some by capturing 2nd in the Men's 4X400!!)
Morgan Lake of Great Britain, just 17 years old, won the Heptathlon with her PR of 6148 points.
She HJ'ed a PR of 6-4.25 in that 7-eventer.
She also competed in the Open HJ, winning there with 6-3.
In both jumps, she made 3 attempts each at 6-5.50, which would've been the Age 17 record if she'd succeeded!
Ashlee Moore of the USA scored a PR of 5466 points, but she remains in 5th place on the A-T HS list!
So what happened to the "BIG STAR" of the WJC pre-meet hype?
(aka Mary Cain!)
She did quite well, thank you!
Would you believe she WON the 3000?
And would you also believe she was the first American of either sex to win a distance race in the WJC's??
Not only that, she beat a few Kenyans and Ethiopians while doing so!!
I'll have a post sometime soon about the great depth of HS (and College Frosh) middle and long distance runners on the female side.
In that, I'll speak to the question of whether to accept Cain's marks run AFTER turning Professional as HSR's.
For the nonce, I AM accepting those marks, and including them on my HS DDD's.
Thus, the following should be read with that caveat in mind!!
Mary Cain won the 3000 meters race in 8:58.48.
This broke Lynn Bjorklund's 1975 HSR of 9:08.6.
Finally!!
It also claims the HS Senior Class Record.
And it moves her from 8th A-T HS into 1st.
The race itself was great.
The K splits were a "jogging" 3:03 and 3:04 (6:07 at 2K), with Cain and the Africans in a pack, Cain in 2nd on the inside.
They started to RUN at around 250 or 300 to go, but Cain seemed boxed in.
On the final curve, she tried to break out, but one of the Africans wouldn't let her go.
She actually slowed down, thinking maybe to cut around her from the back.
Then (magically, it seemed to me!!), the African girl ALSO seemed to stop (!!), and Cain sprinted hard into an instant lead, giving it her all the rest of the way, winning by a clear 20 meters!!
This was the Mary Cain of 2013 and Indoors 2014 we all have learned to know and love.
On that final straightaway, I've never seen a better Mary Cain!!
IMHO, she can run 8:35 or thereabouts.
The two "NEXT Mary Cain's", Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny were in the 1500.
They easily made the final, both taking the needed 4th in their heats to qualify.
But they were going up against the much-vaunted Dawit Seyaum of Ethiopia, who had a 3:59 to her credit.
However, their PR's showed them as the 3rd (Efraimson) and 5th (Cranny) fastest runners coming into the final.
It opened a bit fast, but soon became another of those maddening jog-and-kick affairs you see WAY too often in Championship meets.....on any level!!
Both of them ran tactically smart races, with Efraimson sticking closest to the front, Cranny not far back.
This continued through laps of 68 and 69 (2:17 at 800), and they hit the bell (1100 meters) at about 3:08, with the Americans still close.
Could they pull a Cain, and beat these "unbeatable" Africans?
Wish I could say YES!, but alas, it was no.
Alexa tried......really tried.
When Seyaum finally took off, Efraimson sprinted too.
And stuck close for maybe 20 meters.
Then Dawit was GONE!
But she still sprinted, finally running out of gas on the straight, where (somewhat shockingly!), Cranny passed her.
Cranny took 4th, with Efraimson 6th!!
We should remember that in the WJC in Barcelona in 2012, Cain took 6th also, behind Faith Kipyegon's 4:04.96 Meet Record.
A couple of other highly-rated USA High School girls did fairly well, but neither PR'ed.
Raven Saunders got the Silver medal with her final round put.
But TJ'er Keturah Orji just didn't have it here, and didn't medal or PR.
The HSR remains intact, and that 45 foot barrier will have to wait for another prodigy to come along!
The biggest upset of the meet, besides Williams over Bromell in the 100, came in the Women's 800.
Cuban Sahily Diago, despite a PR of 1:57+, was beaten by Margaret Wambui of Kenya!!
Wambui had come in with a PR a full 6 seconds slower than Diago!!
Before I close here, let me report a couple of oddities that occurred!
One was heartWARMING.
The other was heartRENDING!
The latter happened in the heats of the Men's 4X400 Relay.
Nigeria's 2nd man was allowed to cut in after the first turn.
He didn't!!
He continued running the ENTIRE LAP in the FOURTH lane!!!
(I'm not an expert, but my guess is he ran an extra 20 meters!!)
Finally, just before the hand-off, he realized his mistake, sharply cut over to where the 3rd man was waiting for the baton!!
Embarrassing, to say the least!!
I'm sure his Coach and/or the Officials will have to answer for this egregious error!!
The more positive dramatic element took place in the Women's 100 heats.
Angela Tenorio of Ecuador "false-started", and was told to leave the starting line.
She did.....in tears and bewilderment!
Later, it was decided she did NOT false-start!
So the officials created a "race".....just for her.....to see if she would "qualify" for the semi's!
She needed to run at least 11.77 to make it.
She was in her blocks......all by herself.......waiting to get down to her start position, when right in front of her, apparently not knowing she was about to run the most important race of her life, the Kenyan 10000 winner, flag draped over his back, ran past her on his victory lap!!
However, after this amusing, yet much loved delay, she finally ran the race.
In 11.27!!
She was in the semi's, and she finally wound up taking the Silver medal!!
And Ms Tenorio was probably the most popular and beloved Silver winner ever!!
That wraps up my report on the WJC of 2014.
I have a few older marks, plus a few new marks to report, but this is far too long already, so will include them when I do my post (on August 2nd!) at the conclusion of the ongoing Commonwealth Games, happening now in Glasgow!!
Hope you all enjoyed the meet (and were able to see it either in person or online....as I did!).
And hope you enjoyed this report.
If you did, please refer my blog to your friends who want ALL the news on T&F Records and Marks, past, present, and future!!
See you in a few days!
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