 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Youth track members bring home medals
By JON WILSON © St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- Running in the national final of her specialty event, Ashlee Kidd stalked the front runners for 300 meters. Then she blasted past them to win the AAU National Junior Olympic Games 400-meter championship for her age group. "I didn't take the lead until the last straightaway" of the 400-meter track, said Kidd, 15. She said she opted to stay back in third or fourth place for most of the race. "I passed one on the last curve and one on the straightaway," Kidd said. Her time: 55.62 seconds, the fastest she has ever run the quarter-mile race. (The AAU Junior Olympics record for girls in Kidd's age group is 53.70 seconds, set in 1980.) Kidd easily won her semifinal heat, coasting in 57 seconds. Kidd, representing Fast Forward, was one of three St. Petersburg youth track club members to win a national championship. Fast Forward's Corey Henderson, 11, won his age group's long jump in the AAU Junior Olympics with a leap of 16 feet, 6 inches. And the St. Petersburg Striders' Brianna Brown, 10, jumped 15-21/4 to win her division's long jump in the USA Track Junior Olympics in Buffalo, N.Y. The Lightning Bolts won two third places and two fifths in the AAU event, which was held in Orlando. The Bolts' Jacquez Gibbs, 12, was third in the long jump with a 16-3 effort, and Arsenio Corbin, 16, cleared 6-8 in the high jump to take another bronze medal. Corbin teamed with Kenneth Wiggins, Marquel Mott and Leonard Genes to take fifth place in the 4-by-100 relay, finishing in 42.5 seconds. And Leon Wright, 12, long-jumped 15-11 for fifth place. Lightning Bolts coach Garlynn Boyd said each of her team's 52 qualifiers finished among the nation's top 15 in their respective events. Meanwhile, Kidd's 400-meter time was one of the nation's fastest this year for a 15-year-old, though it wasn't quite quick enough to crack this year's national top 10 for high school girls. A second-place winner at the state track meet's 400-meter race this past spring, Kidd has three more years to run track at St. Petersburg High School. The International Baccalaureate student said she will run cross country this fall. "I don't really like it, but it conditions me for track. It keeps me in shape," Kidd said of the longer distances the fall sport offers. At the Junior Olympics, Kidd also finished sixth in the 200-meter event. Fast Forward's other top finishers included Marquise Gray, 11, second in the 1,500-meter race walk in 8 minutes, 42.9 seconds; and Micah Poole, 9, third in the 100-meter dash in 13.95 seconds.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
