Bolt equals World junior 200m record, as USA dominates Pan Am Junior Champs

Bolt equals World Junior 200m record, as USA dominates Pan Am Junior Champs

21 July 2003 - Bridgetown, Barbados - The Jamaican sensation Usain Bolt, the reigning World Junior 200m champion equalled the World Junior record with a superb 20.13 performance, as the USA regained its overall supremacy in the 12th Pan American Junior Championships in Barbados National Stadium in Waterford, St. Michael.

Bolt, who will turn 17 on August 21, equalled the previous record time set by USA’s Roy Martin in 1985. The 1.95 tall athlete had already showed his potential this season when winning the National High School Champs in 20.25 in April, and added the World Youth title to his promising CV, with a 20.40 clocking on the 13 July in Sherbrooke, Canada.

With a neutral wind (0.0), Bolt led USA’s David Neville (20.63) and Brazil’s Jorge Celio Sena (20.70) home in a fast race in which three other men dipped under 21 seconds: USA’s Aaron Collins (20.83) US Virgin Islands’ Adrian Durant (20.83) and Netherland Antilles’ Churandy Martina (20.84), who had won the 100m the previous day.

Bolt also ran the final leg in the 4x100 relay team, which finished second with 39.40, behind the USA quartet, who clocked 39.29 to smash the championship record of 39.42, set by another USA squad in 1982.

The 200m World Junior record last belonged to Jamaica, when Don Quarrie ran 20.56 in the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, and Bolt has certainly inherited the 1976 Olympic champion's sprinting mantle.

Led by sprinters Shalonda Solomon, Ashton Collins and hurdler Kenneth Ferguson, the USA recovered the overall No.1 spot in the medal tally, after sending a small team to the previous championships in Santa Fe, Argentina (2001), following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Solomon, 17, achieved a 100-200 golden double, breaking the championship record in the longer distance with 22.93. She added a third title when anchoring in the USA 4x100 relay with Ashley Owens, Juanita Broaddus and Alndra Sherman.

Ferguson, the 2002 Kingston World junior silver medallist in the men's 400 metres hurdles, dominated both the 110m and the one lap Hurdles with 13.60 (championship record) and 50.07 times. The Detroit native ran the third leg on the 4x400m relay team that set another event standard of 3:02.88, bettering the 3:03.53 mark, established by the USA in 1991.

Collins outran his countryman Jeremy Wariner in a close 400m clash: 45.59 to 45.63. He also anchored in both winning 4x100 and 4x400 meters.

A total of 14 championships records were broken: USA’s Julene Bailey in the Pole vault (4.05), Donovan Kilmartin in the Decathlon (7486), Cuba’s Yudelkis Fernandez in Long Jump (6.46) and Triple Jump (13.89), 2002 World Junior champion David Giralt in the Triple Jump (16.93), Canada’s Jim Steacy in the Hammer throw (70.70), and Saint Lucia’s Erma-Gene Evans in the Javelin (49.67).

Using the 6kg implement for the first time in the history of the event, USA’s Garrett Johnson set the new men’s Shot Put standard with 19.95m. In the women’s 2000m steeplechase which made it's debut as an event at these championships, USA’s Angela Marvin was the inaugural winner after a 6:37.84-minute effort.

Cuba's Yudelkis Fernandez (Long and Triple Jump), her compatriot Yuneisy Santiusty (800-1500), and Peru’s Ines Melchor (3000-5000) completed golden doubles to help their respective countries improve in the medal tally. Melchor had finished sixth in Sherbrooke, two weeks earlier.

Erma-Gene Evans and heptathlete Juana Castillo gave Saint Lucia and the Dominican Republic their first titles ever in the championships’ 12-year history.

Two recent World Youth Championships gold medallists, Argentina’s German Chiaraviglio (Pole Vault) and Brazil’s Julio Cesar Oliveira (Javelin) added another crown to their promising careers.

The USA, with a team of over 80 athletes, dominated with 48 medals (20 gold, 18 silver and 10 bronze). Cuba, with only seven competitors, finished second with nine medals (7-1-1), followed by Brazil (5-2-3), Argentina (2-1-2), Peru (2-0-0), Jamaica (1-9-5), Canada (1-4-6) and Mexico (1-4-0). A total of 21 nations won at least one medal.

2003 Pan American Junior Champions:

Men:

100m: Churandy Martina AHO 10.33 (0.0)
200m: Usain Bolt JAM 20.13 (0.0) CR EWJR
400m: Ashton Collins USA 45.59
800m: Thiago Pereira Chyaromont BRA 1:48.76
1500m: Maury Castillo CUB 3:47.13
5000m: Galen Rupp USA 14:20.29
10,000m: Brett Gotcher USA 30:39.51
3000m st: Christian Patiño ECU 9:05.70
110m H: Kenneth Fergusson USA 13.60 (0.0)CR
400m H: Kenneth Fergusson USA 50.07
PV: German Chiaraviglio ARG 5.15
LJ: Wilfredo Martinez CUB 7.70 (0.2)
TJ: David Giralt 16.93(-0.5) CR
SP (6kg): Garrett Johnson USA 19.95 CR
DT: Gustavo Gomes de Mendonça BRA 58.76
HT: Jim Steacy CAN 70.70 CR
JT: Julio Cesar Oliveira BRA 68.42
10,000m W: Francisco Flores MEX 46:27.34
Decathlon: Donovan Kilmartin USA 7486 CR
4x100: USA (Carlos Moore, Aaron Collins, Ashton Collins, Willie Hordge) 39.29 CR
4x400: USA (Elzie Coleman, Jeremy Wariner, Kenneth Fergusson, Ashton Collins), 3:02.88 CR

Women:

100m: Shalonda Solomon USA 11.35 (0.1)
200m: Shalonda Solomon USA (0.0) CR
400m: Stephanie Smith USA 52.52
800m: Yuneisy Santiusty CUB 2:04.77
1500m: Yuneisy Santiusty CUB 4:24.56
3000m: Ines Melchor PER 9:57.96
5000m: Ines Melchor PER 16:53.37
2000m Steeple: Angela Marvin USA 6:37.84
100m H: Dawn Harper USA 13.42 (-0.2)
400m H: Amanda Dias BRA 58.09
PV: Julene Bailey USA 4.05 CR
LJ: Yudelkis Fernandez CUB 6.46 (-0.4) CR
TJ: Yudelkis Fernandez CUB 13.89 (0.0) CR
SP: Michelle Carter USA 16.23
DT: Amarachi Ukabam USA 52.05
HT: Jennifer Dahlgren ARG 58.61
JT: Erma-Gene Evans LCA 49.67 CR
10,000m W: Alessandra Picagevicz BRA 52:27.57
Heptathlon: Juana Castillo DOM 5381
4x100: USA (Ashley Owens, Juanita Broaddus, Alndra Sherman,Shalonda Soloman) 44.00
4x400: USA (Jasmine Lee, Angel Perkins, Natasha Hastings, Stephanie Smith), 3:34.08

CR- Championships record
EWJR- Equals World Junior Record