Youth Outdoor Championships sprint into Greensboro
Posted Tuesday, 27 June, 2006
Contact:
Jill McCormick
Communications Intern
USA Track & Field
317-261-0500
INDIANAPOLIS- More than 2,000 of the top youth track & field athletes in the U.S. will be on hand this week at the 2006 USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships, June 27- July 2, at the Irwin Belk Track at North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Championships are a national competition with entry based upon qualifying standards for each event and have the same age divisions as the USATF Junior Olympic program. Bantam (10 and under), Midget (11-12), Youth (13-14), Intermediate (15-16) and Young Men/Women (17-18). The Youth Outdoor Championships are also scored for team championships in all age divisions and are a popular competition for clubs around the country. In addition, this year's meet will serve as one of the selection pool competitions for the 2007 IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Top athletes scheduled to compete in Greensboro include:
2005 Intermediate Girls pole vault champion Katie Veith will face a new age division this year as she aged out of the Intermediates. Veith holds the Youth leading clearance of 4.26 meters/14 feet 0 inches which she cleared in Reno, Nevada at the 2006 National Pole Vault Summit. That mark is a foot and a half above second ranked Katie Stoever. Veith cleared 4.03 m/ 13-2.5 at Nike Outdoor Nationals to win the meet and set a new meet record.
Returning to the competition is 2005 Young Men's pole vault runner-up Michael Morrison of Chesapeake, Virginia. Morrison cleared 5.35 meters/17 feet 6.5 inches at the Virginia Eastern Region meet two weeks before winning the Virginia State meet. Morrison set a meet record at Nike Outdoor Nationals with his winning clearance of 5.26 meters/17 feet 3 inches.
Ebony Collins,the 2006 USA Junior 400mH runner-up, enters the meet with the fastest time in the 400 meter hurdles (55.99 seconds), the 100 meter hurdles (13.82 seconds) and holds the second ranked time in the 100 meter dash (11.50 seconds). In 2005 she won the Intermediate Girls 400m hurdles and was second place in the 100 meters.
2005 USA Youth 1,500m and 5,000m champion Trevon Rainford will defend his two titles this week. Rainford, a graduating senior at G.W. Carver HS of Engineering & Science (Philadelphia, Penn.), was the runner-up in the 1,500m at the 2005 USA Junior Olympics.
For more information on the 2006 USA Youth Outdoor Track & Field Championships, visit www.usatf.org.
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