Kingsway’s Ryan Allen, Millville’s Brianna Craig and Highland’s Floyd Whitaker will be in action this week at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in South America.
The six-day meet opens Monday and runs through Saturday at Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium in Santiago de Cali, Colombia.
World Athletics finally got around to posting official entry lists here.
To be eligible for the Under-20 meets, athletes can’t turn 20 during the year of the event.
Ryan Allen: Allen, who graduated last month from Kingsway, qualified for World U20s by winning the 10,000-meter racewalk at the U.S. Junior Championships in Eugene. Allen was timed in 49:53.14, a two-minute PR.
The 10,000-meter racewalk is a one-race final by time scheduled for 9:35 a.m. Friday in Cali, which is 12:35 p.m. Friday EST.
EDIT: Allen’s name does not appear on the entry list for Cali, so either he needed to hit a certain time to qualify despite winning USATF Juniors or he was unable to travel to South American for another reason. the USATF web site literally is no help at all figuring any of this stuff out.; But good luck to Ryan as he continues on with his career!
Bryanna Craig: Craig scored a PR 5,388 points – the 11th-highest score ever in the high school record book – at Junior Nationals but initially didn’t qualify for World Under 20s because she finished in 3rd place, 13 points out of second. But because of an administrative issue facing one of the finishers ahead of her, Craig – as the 1st alternate – got one of the two qualifying spots for Cali.
Craig, who grew up in Millville, graduated from Ruston (La.) High School this month and will be a freshman this fall at Purdue. The heptathlon gets underway Wednesday with the hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 and concludes Thursday with the long jump, javelin and 800.
Craig is ranked 24th on the World Athletics Under-20 heptathlon performance list, and she’s the No. 17 seed overall.
The first event Wednesday is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. EST and the first event Thursday is slated for 12:30 p.m.
Floyd Whitaker: Whitaker took 2nd at Junior Nationals with a 50-4 ½. He had two 50-foot jumps and a 49-10 that was the best wind-legal jump of the competition.
Whitaker is ranked 55th in the world on the World Athletics Under-20 performance list, and he’s the No. 14 seed this week. He has a PR of 51-5 1/4 from January indoors in Minneapolis.
Qualifying for the triple jump is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, with the final slated for 7:55 p.m. Friday.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 