Road to USATF Junior Olympic Nationals Continues Here

FOLSOM, Calif. - July 3, 2008 - Talented, young track and field athletes who reside in northern and central California and northwest Nevada will compete at the USA Track & Field (USATF) Region 14 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, Friday through Sunday, July 11-13. Junior Olympic (JO) competition is conducted in age groups starting at ages 10 and under through ages 17-18. In particular, Pacific Association/USATF (PA/ USATF) athletes who have qualified for the meet are expected to bring home championship medals.

This year's Junior Olympic Region 14 Championship meet will take place at two venues: Laney College (Oakland, Calif.) on July 11 and Granada High School (Livermore, Calif.), July 12 and 13. The top three finishers in each event at the regional meet will advance to the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships (July 22-27, Omaha, Neb.), where over 6,000 qualified athletes from throughout the U.S. will participate.

Athletes qualified for the Region 14 Championship event by finishing in the top eight of their events at either the Pacific Association/USATF (PA/USATF) or Central California Association/USATF Junior Olympic Championship meets held last month.

A number of PA/USATF athletes recorded outstanding marks at the PA/USATF association-level Junior Olympic meet. Fourteen-year-old Ciarra Brewer (Union City, Calif.) set a national Junior Olympic triple jump record in the Intermediate Girls division. The James Logan High School freshman's record-breaking triple jump was 12.57 meters/41 feet, 3 inches. Brewer also set a PA/USATF Intermediate Girls long jump record with a mark of 5.72m/18-9.25. Also, among Intermediate Girls, Mackenzie Landry (age 15, Newcastle, Calif.) set a PA/USATF pole vault record of 3.65m/11-11.75.

Brewer's Mission Valley Track Club teammate, Tessa Runels (age 14, Union City) recorded a PA/USATF Youth Girls triple jump record of 11.89m/ 39-0.25. Runels will attempt to eclipse the national record of 11.92m/ 39-1.25 at the Region 14 Championship.

In the Youth Boys division, Byron Marshall (age 14, San Jose, Calif.) will seek to improve his fine long jump of 6.76m/22-2.25 turned in at the PA/USATF Junior Olympic Championship meet. Also, Kenneth Walker III (age 14, Oakley, Calif.) is coming off superb performances at the meet, where he helped his ISC International Youth Boys 4x100 meter relay team set a new PA/USATF standard of 44.36 seconds. Walker also captured individual Youth Boys first-place honors in both the 100-meter and 200- meter hurdles events.

Armand Shyne (age 11, Oakland, Calif.), who set a U.S. national record (135 feet, 0.5 inches) in the Bantam Boys turbo javelin event last year, is also qualified for the Region 14 Championship. Blair Wallingford (age 18, Roseville, Calif.), who set a personal pole vault record (5.21m/ 17-1) while topping the Young Men's division at the PA/USATF association JO meet, is also qualified.

For young athletes who compete in track and field combined events (triathlon, pentathlon, heptathlon, decathlon), the USATF Region 14 Junior Olympic Multi-Events Championship meet was held on June 14 and 15 at Granada High School. The top two finishers in each age group automatically qualified for the Junior Olympic national meet.

Dating back to the mid-1960's, the USATF Junior Olympic program is the most visible youth athlete developmental program in the world. Nearly 70,000 youth athletes compete each year in Junior Olympic Track & Field and Cross Country programs. Many of America's Olympians began as youth athletes, including stars such as Maurice Greene, Allyson Felix, Bryan Clay, John Godina, Deena Kastor, and Allen Johnson.