From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Natalie Dumas is the first South Jersey athlete to win a gold medal at the Under-20 World Championships in 40 years.

Dumas won gold when the U.S. mixed 1,600-meter relay team set a world Under-20 record of 3:15.31 Wednesday after Dumas split 52.35 on the 2^nd leg in the semifinals earlier Wednesday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

I spent a chunk of time Thursday looking through all-time World Under-20 results going back to the first meet in 1986 in Athens, Greece, and only found one other champion and two other medalists from South Jersey in a meet that was until recently known as World Junior Championships.

In 1986 in Athens, Kingsway’s Denise Liles ran the 3^rd leg on the U.S. 400-meter relay team, which won the final in 43.78.

“Winning that gold medal in Athens is something I’ll always remember, because it was the first time the (World Under-20) Games were held,” Liles said in an interview P.J. Wajda at my old paper, the Gloucester County Times, after she returned home to Woolwich Township.

“We will be known as the first winners of the relay, which I think is a good accomplishment. Going into the meet, we were a little nervous because we heard that the team from Nigeria was supposed to be good. But by the time the race started, we were relaxed and we ran our race. As it turned out, Nigeria wasn’t even a factor.”

The only other South Jersey medalist at World Under-20 that I found was Braheme Days Jr. of Bridgeton, who placed 3^rd in the shot put with a 65-7 ¾ at the 2014 meet, also at Hayward Field in Eugene.

“I showed up at the meet and felt good,” Days told the Gloucester County Times. “We worked really hard this year and it’s nice to get the medal. The biggest thing I can take from it is to work hard, show up and compete as good as I can and maybe next time I can win the gold or silver.”

Dumas will race in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles semifinals on Saturday.

Rowan’s David Brown, an NCAA Division 3 national champion this past year as a freshman, advanced to the final in the high jump Thursday at the World Under-20 Championships.

Click to access AT-HJ-M-q—-.RS6.pdf

Brown, competing for Jamaica, cleared 7-0 ¼ on his 2^nd attempt and advanced as one of the top 12 finishers in the qualifying round.

The top 12 plus anyone else who cleared 7-3 advanced to the final. Five jumpers in Group A and seven in Brown’s Group B cleared 7-0 ¼ or better to make up the top 12.

The final is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. on Saturday.

Brown, from Edison High School in Middlesex County, cleared the first two heights – 6-6 ¾ and 6-8 ½ – on his 1^st attempt before getting over the bar at 6-10 ½ on his 3^rd and final attempt and finishing by clearing 7-0 ¼ on his 2^nd try. Since he clinched a top-12 finish there was no need to continue jumping.

Brown is ranked 16^th in the world in Under-20 with his season-best and PR 7-2 ¼ from the Ott Center in West Philly this past February. That’s 7^th-best in NCAA Division 3 history indoors and a D-3 indoor freshman record. It’s 13^th-best on the combined D-3 indoor and outdoor list.

Brown, 19, was 3^rd in the high jump at the NCAA Division 3 indoor meet with a 6-10 ¼ in Birmingham in February and won outdoors at 7-0 ½ in La Crosse, Wisc. In June, he won the Jamaican national Under-20 title in Kingston with a 6-8 ¾.

The Under 20 Championships are open to athletes who don’t turn 20 by midnight Dec. 31. Brown turned 19 on May 24.

Recent Eastern graduate Natalie Dumas advanced to the semifinals in the 400-meter hurdles Thursday at the World Under-20 Championships in Eugene, Ore.

Dumas placed 2^nd in the 6^th and final qualifying race with a time of 58.86 at Hayward Field. The top four in each race and the next three-fastest times advanced to Saturday’s semifinals.

Dumas was 2^nd in her heat to Rebekka Feirle of Germany, who ran 57.89.

https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-u20-championships/oregon26/results/women/400-metres-hurdles/round-1/summary

Dumas is the No. 5 seed with her season-best 56.13 on the same track in June to win the U.S. Under-20 championship, although her PR of 55.99 from 2025 West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field is 2^nd-fastest in the field. That 55.99 is 12^th-fastest in U.S. Under-20 history.

The semifinals are scheduled for 9:15 p.m. EST on Saturday, with the final following at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Dumas won a gold medal on the U.S. mixed 1,600-meter relay team after splitting 52.35 on the second leg in the semifinals on Wednesday. The U.S. set a world Under-20 record of 3:15.31 to win the final later Wednesday.

Pennsauken rising junior Hope Edwards, the fastest sophomore in the country this past spring, ran 1:00.42 but did not advance to the semifinals. Edwards was competing for Haiti.

Natalie Dumas earned a gold medal at the World Under-20 Championships Wednesday night without stepping on the track.

Dumas, a June graduate of Eastern, ran for the U.S. mixed 4-by-400 team that led all qualifiers earlier Wednesday in the semifinals at Hayward Field in Eugene with the 3^rd-fastest time on the all-time Under-20 mixed 4-by-4 list, a 3:18.26.

With a potential three rounds of the 400-meter hurdles coming up over the next four days, the U.S. coaching staff replaced Dumas in the finals. Every runner who races in any round receives the same medal as those who ran in the final, so when the U.S. won the final in 3:15.31, a world under-20 record, Dumas became an Under-20 World Championship gold medalist.

In the semis, Dumas ran the 2nd leg with a 52.35 split.

Dumas, ranked 5^th in the world Under 20 at 56.13, will be in Lane 4 in the 6^th of six races in the first round of the 400-meter hurdles on Thursday.

Hope Edwards of Pennsauken, the fastest sophomore in the U.S. this year at 58.72, is in Lane 4 in the 1^st heat.

The first four finishers in each of the six heats along with the next three-fastest times advance to the semifinals, scheduled for 9:15 p.m. EST on Saturday. The final is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Pleasantville’s Gabriel Moronta, running just 3-100ths of a second off his lifetime best, won the 400-meter dash at the XXV Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Moronta ran 44.70, his 2^nd-fastest 400 ever, winning by more than a 3^rd of a second over Luis Aviles of Mexico, who was 2^nd in 45.06 in the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Moronta has now run sub-45 in his last three races and four of his last five. He’s ranked 36^th in the world, and he’s 3^rd-fastest in New Jersey alumni history behind Andrew Valmon of Manchester Township [44.28 in Eugene in 1993] and Willingboro’s Lamont Smith [44.30 in Atlanta in 1996].

Moronta, competing for the host Dominican Republic, just missed his PR of 44.67, which he ran when he won the Pan American Athletics Championships in Medellin, Columbia, on June 28.

Moronta is the 3^rd-fastest 400 runner in Dominic Republic history. The national record is 44.11 by 2012 Olympic silver medalist Luguelin Santos when he placed 4^th in the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.

Recent Eastern graduate Natalie Dumas and the U.S. mixed 1,600-meter relay team ran the 3^rd-fastest time in history Wednesday afternoon at the World Under-20 Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Dumas split 52.35 on the 2nd leg and while she won’t run in the final later Wednesday so she can rest up for a likely three rounds of the 400-meter hurdles, she will earn a gold medal if the U.S. wins tonight.

The U.S. team ran 3:18.26, fastest in the world since 2022, and led all qualifiers into the finals just before midnight EST Wednesday.

Dumas teamed up with Joshua Shelton of Pearland (Texas), Jaelen Hunter of Mayfair High in Lakewood, Calif., and Olivia Harris of Buford (Ga.) to easily win the third of three semifinal races. Shelton split 47.37, Hunter 47.01 and Harris 51.53.

The U.S. will race in the final at 11:50 p.m. EST.

The next-fastest qualifying time was a 3:19.59 by the Australian Under-20 team.

The only faster mixed Under-20 4-by-400s were run by the U.S. and India at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Columbia, a 3:17.69 by the U.S. and 3:17.76 by India.

Dumas, who will race in the 400-meter hurdles on Thursday, was named earlier this week to the U.S. relay pool, making her eligible for both the mixed and women’s 4-by-4. It is not known yet whether she will run in the women’s 4-by-4 either in the trials or finals.

The first round of the 400-meter hurdles is scheduled for 1:41 p.m. EST on Thursday, with the semifinals at 9:15 p.m. Saturday and the final at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Dumas, 17, has PRs of 51.14, 2:00.11 and 55.99 and is the only woman in world history to run that fastest for the 400, 800 and 400-meter hurdles, all at last year’s West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field.

Based on 2026 times, Dumas is seeded 3^rd in the 400-meter hurdles at 56.13, behind Tumi Ramokgopa of South Africa [56.05] and Alexandra Ștefania Uță of Romania [56.09].  Stefania is the only woman in the field who has run faster than Dumas with a 55.55 PR

Gabriel Moronta, a 2021 Pleasantville graduate, led all qualifiers into the final in the 400-meter dash Tuesday at the Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe – the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Moronta, competing for the host Dominican Republic, ran 44.79 in the 3^rd of three semifinal races, qualifying for the final at 6:45 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

That 44.79 is his 3rd-fastest time ever.

The first two finishers in each of the three races advanced to the final automatically and the next two-fastest runners advanced as small-q qualifiers.

Moronta, 23, is ranked 36th in the world with his PR and season-best 44.67, making him the No. 2 seed in the competition.

David Brown, the NCAA Division 3 high jump champion for Rowan, will compete at the World Under-20 Championships representing Jamaica this week in Eugene, Ore.

Brown won the Jamaican Under-20 title with a 6-8 ¾ clearance last month in Kingston. but he has a 7-2 ¼ PR from a meet in February at the Ott Center in West Philly. That’s 7^th-best in NCAA Division 3 history indoors and a D-3 indoor freshman record. It’s 13^th-best on the combined indoor and outdoor list.

Brown’s outdoor PR is 7-0 ½ from his win at NCAAs in Oshkosh, Wisc., in May. That’s 20^th-best all-time in Division 3 outdoor history.

Brown’s 7-2 ¼ ranks 16^th in the world in the Under-20 Division, which is open to all athletes who are still 19 as of New Year’s Eve. He’s tied for the No. 15 seed at the World Under-20 Championships.

https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/6a6d03e1fc4ec3d39295f1c3.pdf?_gl=1*fqrnto*_gcl_au*Mjk2NTUyNzMuMTc4MDcwNzkwNw..*_ga*MjE0NTY4NDkyNS4xNzY1MDM4MjA3*_ga_7FE9YV46NW*czE3ODU2MzA3ODgkbzQ1MyRnMSR0MTc4NTYzMjg4NSRqMTEkbDAkaDA.

Brown graduated from Edison High School, where he was 2^nd in the Meet of Champions at Pennsauken in 2025 to Highland’s Jayden DeLeon.

High jump qualifying at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. EST on Thursday with the final scheduled for 9:10 p.m. Saturday.

Gabriel Moronta will race in the Central American and Caribbean Games this week in Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez at Cento Olimpico Juan Pablo Duarte in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Moronta, a 2021 Pleasantville graduate, will run the 400-meter dash with semifinals at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and the final scheduled for 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday.

Moronta is 2nd-fastest this year of the 18 runners entered in the 400 with his PR of 44.67 in Medellin, Columbia, in June. The only faster entrant is Javier Gomez of Venezuela, who ran 44.66 – 1-100th of a second faster at Estadio Monumental de Puerto La Cruz at José Antonio in Anzoátegui, Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela.

Moronta, who anchored South Florida’s NCAA-champion 1,600-meter relay team in June 2025 at Hayward Field, has dropped his 400 PR every year since he was in high school – from 48.79 in Toms River in 2020 to 46.24 in 2023 in Clemson, S.C., to 45.81 in 2024 in San Antonio to 45.01 last year in Jacksonville to 44.67 this year. Incredibly, he never ran a 400 in 2021 or 2022 while he was at Mississippi State before transferring to South Florida. Now he’s one of the best in the world, currently ranked 36^th.

Moronta’s 44.67 is 3^rd-fastest all-time by a Dominican quarter-miler, behind Luguelin Santos [44.11 in Beijing in 2015] and Lidio Andres Feliz [44.64 in La Nucia, Spain, in 2022.].

Moronta is the 3rd-fastest quarter-miler New Jersey has produced and fastest in 20 years.

44.28 … Andrew Valmon [Manchester Twp.], June 19, 1993, Eugene
44.30 … Lamont Smith [Willingboro], June 19, 1996, Atlanta
44.67 … Gabriel Moronta [Pleasantville], June 28, 2026, Medellin, Columbia
44.79 … Najee Glass [St. Peter’s Prep], April 24, 2015, Gainesville, Fla.
45.01 … Kevin Lyles [Franklin Twp.], April 7, 1995, Knoxville, Tenn.

Hope Edwards, who was the fastest sophomore intermediate hurdler in the U.S. this past year while competing for Pennsauken, will race in the World Under-20 Championships this week in Eugene.

Edwards, who just turned 16 on July 2, will represent Haiti in the 400-meter hurdles. Her mom is from Haiti, giving her eligibility to compete for Haiti.

Edwards is the youngest of the 55 competitors in the 400-meter hurdles.

The World Under-20 Championships are open to athletes who haven’t turned 20 by the end of this year.

Edwards ran her PR of 58.72 when she placed 3rd at West Philly Nationals in June. That is 8th-fastest in state history and 3rd-fastest by a sophomore, behind Sydney McLaughlin and Natalie Dumas, who is also entered. It’s 8th-fastest in state history and 3rd-fastest in South Jersey history, behind Dumas at 55.99 and Winslow’s Krystal Cantey, who ran 56.83 in 2005.

Edwards ran 55.94 in the 400 indoors and then outdoors broke 60 in the 400IH for the first time with a 59.17 when she was 2nd to Dumas at the state Group 4 meet before her breakthrough 58.72 at Franklin Field.

Edwards is also ranked 18^th in the world in the Under-18 division.

Edwards is scheduled to race in the trials at Heyward Field at 1:41 p.m. EST Thursday. The semis are at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, with the finals following at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.