Posted: June 24, 2004

Athletics: Richardson headlines 2004 USA Junior Championships

COLLEGE STATION – The 2003 Verizon Youth Athlete of the Year, Jason Richardson headlines a strong field at the 2004 USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships June 25-27, in College Station, Texas.

The championships will bring more that 700 of the country’s finest athletes ages 19 and under to southern Texas, where they will compete for the right to represent Team USA at the 2004 IAAF World Junior Championships July 13-18 in Grosseto, Italy. At the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, Team USA won 21 medals – including nine gold - to set a record for the most medals ever won at a single World Junior Championships.

Richardson, of Cedar Hill, Texas, plans to continue his success after setting a new meet record in winning the men's 400m hurdles Saturday at the 2004 adidas Outdoor Championships in Raleigh, N.C. Despite a stumble near the finish that may have cost him a national high school record, Richardson won the race in 49.79 seconds, eclipsing the two-year-old meet record of 50.55. The University of South Carolina bound Richardson won the gold medal in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles at the 2003 IAAF World Youth Athletics Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada.

The 2004 NCAA 400m hurdles champion, Kerron Clement from the University of Florida should provide some excitement with the second-best qualifying time of 48.77 in the men’s 400m hurdles. UCLA’s Brandon Johnson, a native of Texas also enters the 400m hurdles with the third-fastest time of 48.85.

Returning to this year’s championships will be U.S. junior 200mrecord-holder Allyson Felix, who enters the women’s 200m with the fastest qualifying time of 22.71. The 2001 World Youth 100m gold medalist, Felix will compete in the 100m with the second fastest time of (11.28) behind 2003 Pan Am Junior 4x100m relay gold medalist Ashley Owens of Colorado (11.20). Defending USA Juniors 100m and 200m champion Shalonda Solomon plans to compete after winning the 2003 Pan Am Junior 100m and 200m crowns in Barbados.

Top prep thrower Mark Lewis of Arroyo Grande High School (Texas) enters the men’s shot put with the top qualifying mark of 20.10m/65-11.5. He will be joined by two of the nation’s best prep distance runners Galen Rupp of Central Catholic, (Portland, Ore.), and Joshua McDougal of Peru, NY. The 2003 Pan Am Junior 5,000m champion, Rupp earlier this year posted the eighth-fastest American high school mile time ever of 4 minutes, 1.8 seconds at the Nike corporate campus in Beaverton, Ore.

Other top competitors include 2004 ACC Outdoor 200m and 400m champion Ashlee Kidd of Georgia Tech, entering with the fastest qualifying time of 51.76 seconds in the women’s 400m. Kidd will have tough challengers vying for the top two spots to make the Team USA roster with the University of Miami’s Ginou Etienne entering with the second-best qualifying time of 51.94, followed by defending 400m champion Stephanie Smith of the University of South Carolina (51.96).

The U.S. Junior program has contributed greatly in the development of many of America’s finest track and field athletes. Past junior champions include all-time greats Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Marion Jones, Lynn Jennings, Mike Conley and Renaldo Nehemiah, among many others.

The championships will take place at the Frank G. Anderson Track & Field Complex on the campus of Texas A&M University, which hosted the 2004 NCAA Midwest Regional May 28-29.

For more information on the 2004 USA Junior Championships and the Verizon Youth Series, including results and a complete list of the athletes entered in the event, visit the redesigned USATF website at www.usatf.org.