Day Four Report from World Youth Championships - Morning Session

by Jim Spier

Updates, photos, videos and more on our Facebook Page

 

It was another very good day for the Americans on Friday.  Some highlights:

Keturah Orji jumping 44-11 in the triple jump for the bronze.  She missed the high school record by .75”

Two fine silver medalist performances in the 400 meters – Olivia Baker for the girls and Ryan Clark for the boys

A silver medal in the boys 110m hurdles by Marlon Humphrey.

    Day 4 Morning

Discus Qualifying – Boys (automatic qualifying standard is 190-3)

Amir Ali Patterson (Crespi, Encino, CA) threw 178-11, 179-4, then a longer foul to finish 8th in his group.  It is unlikely he will advance and did not.  Reno Tuufuli (Liberty, Henderson, NV) opened with 183-10 and was in 4th after the first round in his group.  He was sitting in 13th after a foul on his second throw.  With one to go, he needed to throw 185-1 to move ahead of the 12th place boy.  He threw 188-2 on his final throw to move into 10th place and advance to the final.

Heptathlon Long Jump

Alexa Harmon-Thomas (Lawrence Free State, Lawrence, KS) got a personal best on her first jump of 19-3, worth 810 points, giving her a total of 4085 and moving her to fifth place.  The big news is that Morgan Lake (Great Britain), with a best of 20-3.75, could only manage 15-2.25 and 2 fouls, moving her down to 3rd overall.  She had a world leading high jump mark yesterday of 6-2.75.  The leader now is Celina Leffler of Germany, whose jump of 19-11.75 helped to move her into first, her total now 4321 points.

Long Jump Qualifying – Girls (automatic standard 19-8.25)

Courtney Corrin (Harvard-Westlake, North Hollywood, FL) had an easy day of it, automatically qualifying on her first jump (20-8, +1.8).  Keturah Orji (Mount Holly, Flanders, NJ) just missed the auto standard on his first jump, jumping 19-7 [0.1].  Keturah had a very good second jump, leaping 20-6.25 [1.3] and qualifying automatically.

Swedish Medley - Girls (100-200-300-400; top 2 and next 2 fastest teams advance to final)

Jamaica took the world lead with their run – 2:07.85, with the very unofficial splits of 10.6, 24.3, 38.7 and 54.3.  The US took that lead  down with 2:07.13.  It was the team of Chyna Ries (East, Denver, CO) 10.8, Ky Westbrook (Chandler, AZ) 25.2, Olivia Baker (Columbia, Maplewood, NJ) 37.9 and Raevyn Rogers (Kincaid, Houston, TX) 53.1.  The U.S. is the leading qualifier with Jamaica second best.  These times compare to the 2013 New Balance Nationals Outdoor champion of Wakefield (Raleigh, NC) who ran 2:08.98.  Those were not all “youth” athletes, however.

Swedish Medley - Boys (100-200-300-400; top 1 and next 4 fastest teams advance to final)

The US team of Jaalen Jones (Thompson, Mobile, AL), 10.5, Noah Lyles (TC Williams, Alexandria, VA) 22.0, Ryan Clark (Benjamin Banneker, College Park, MD) 31.6 and Taylor Mc Laughlin (Union Catholic, Scotch Plains, NJ) 47.1 ran 1:52.19, the second leading qualifier to Japan by .01.  Jamaica, anchored by sub-50 400 meter champ Michael Manley, eased to a 1:53.78 heat 1 with Manley running 48.1.  As a comparison, Western Branch (Chesapeake, VA) won the 2013 NBNO in 1:53.54.

Our Partners