Wow: Guy who didn't even score a point at SECs or make it to NCAAs, LSU's Jahnoy Thompson, wins Jamaican 200 title in 20.21

Maybe Jamaica is going through a dry spell with developing sprinters?

Luv2Run wrote:

Maybe Jamaica is going through a dry spell with developing sprinters?

Eh a lot more talented Jamaican youth are trying out other events. Examples Christopher Taylor(18) just won JAM national champs in the 400m in 44.8 i believe. Also Auburn has a pair of great Jamaica 400m runners who finished 2nd and 3rd at NCAAs. Bloomfield 2nd in 43.94 and Allen 3rd in 44.13. If theses 3 stay healthy next year then Jamaica will easily medal at worlds 2019 and i hope they challenge USA for the the gold.

D2sprinter wrote:

Luv2Run wrote:

Maybe Jamaica is going through a dry spell with developing sprinters?

Eh a lot more talented Jamaican youth are trying out other events. Examples Christopher Taylor(18) just won JAM national champs in the 400m in 44.8 i believe. Also Auburn has a pair of great Jamaica 400m runners who finished 2nd and 3rd at NCAAs. Bloomfield 2nd in 43.94 and Allen 3rd in 44.13. If theses 3 stay healthy next year then Jamaica will easily medal at worlds 2019 and i hope they challenge USA for the the gold.

I don't know if you noticed, but there were some fast 400 US guys at NCAAs...

There certainly has been a bit of a void as far as 100-200m sprinters for Jamaica. After Bolt retired and Blake has lost form, they haven’t had a real 9.8x guy or consistent 19.8x guy. Certainly they have talent with the Auburn guys and this guy maybe breaking through. Still, you’d have to look as Michael Norman, Noah Lyles, Christian Colemen and Fred Kerley as the more talented prospects. Not to mention guys on par like Ronnie Baker at 100, and international studs like Van Niekerk, Gardiner, Haroun, Munyai and Makwala. Rest of the world has caught up.

Maybe the speediest talents are all scooped up early by college fotball these days?

Just goes to show how competitive the NCAA system is in the sprints. What happened to Jamaica? Did they run out of their magic yams? Or did the more stringent doping controls ruin their system?

jknj wrote:

D2sprinter wrote:

Eh a lot more talented Jamaican youth are trying out other events. Examples Christopher Taylor(18) just won JAM national champs in the 400m in 44.8 i believe. Also Auburn has a pair of great Jamaica 400m runners who finished 2nd and 3rd at NCAAs. Bloomfield 2nd in 43.94 and Allen 3rd in 44.13. If theses 3 stay healthy next year then Jamaica will easily medal at worlds 2019 and i hope they challenge USA for the the gold.

I don't know if you noticed, but there were some fast 400 US guys at NCAAs...

Just the 1 actually. Nothing wrong with his statement at all, he didn't say they'd beat the USA but perfectly reasonable to suggest they can challenge for gold

Once you take the drugs away, Jamaicans are so slooow.

Sounds like this guy should move up to the ultramarathon.

USC fielded a historically fast 4x4 at both indoors and outdoors.

Jknj wrote:

USC fielded a historically fast 4x4 at both indoors and outdoors.

So? One of those guys is a hurdler and the other two haven't shown world class potential as individuals. The second and third place finishers behind Norman were both Jamaicans. Add in this 18yo guy and Jamaica has 3 world class 400 runners under the age of 21 ready to compete with the US.

relays dont count

The Starved Elephant wrote:

Jknj wrote:

USC fielded a historically fast 4x4 at both indoors and outdoors.

So? One of those guys is a hurdler and the other two haven't shown world class potential as individuals. The second and third place finishers behind Norman were both Jamaicans. Add in this 18yo guy and Jamaica has 3 world class 400 runners under the age of 21 ready to compete with the US.

Plus the fact that the aforementioned hurdler at USC isn't American.

If you need any more proof that there's plenty of Jamaican talent at 400m coming through, just take a glance at this year's world U20 rankings

shpeshal wrote:

The Starved Elephant wrote:

So? One of those guys is a hurdler and the other two haven't shown world class potential as individuals. The second and third place finishers behind Norman were both Jamaicans. Add in this 18yo guy and Jamaica has 3 world class 400 runners under the age of 21 ready to compete with the US.

Plus the fact that the aforementioned hurdler at USC isn't American.

If you need any more proof that there's plenty of Jamaican talent at 400m coming through, just take a glance at this year's world U20 rankings

https://www.iaaf.org/records/toplists/sprints/400-metres/outdoor/men/u20/2018?regionType=world&timing=electronic&page=1&bestResultsOnly=false

Just FYI, Rai Benjamin is trying to change his allegiance to the USA, but because of the IAAF's current freeze on changes, he can't do it right now.

JamaicaUSASprints wrote:

There certainly has been a bit of a void as far as 100-200m sprinters for Jamaica. After Bolt retired and Blake has lost form, they haven’t had a real 9.8x guy or consistent 19.8x guy. Certainly they have talent with the Auburn guys and this guy maybe breaking through. Still, you’d have to look as Michael Norman, Noah Lyles, Christian Colemen and Fred Kerley as the more talented prospects. Not to mention guys on par like Ronnie Baker at 100, and international studs like Van Niekerk, Gardiner, Haroun, Munyai and Makwala. Rest of the world has caught up.

re: "Rest of the world has caught up"

I don't think that is a correct statement, remove Bolt from the equation and the world as never behind. Bolt is the only Jamaican male sprinter that has consistently won global titles and it was also Bolt who anchored all of those winning relays.

The NCAA meet is an international competition. Look at the U./s. Championships. Paled in comparison to the NCAA Champs.

quote]LetsRun.com wrote:

Indoors at SECs he ran the 400 46.67 and didn't make the final. Outdoors, he ran 47.53 and didn't make the final.

He then ran the 200 at regionals, runnign 20.39 in the first round but 20.66 in the next round and just missing out on Eugene.

Now he's the Jamaican champ thanks to a 20.21 pb.

Can someone tell us his story? We thought perhaps he'd been injured and they were keeping him out of the 200 for most of the season but t hat doesn't appear to be the case as it's not like he was a guy with a ridiculous PB. Coming into the year, the former NAIA champ only had a pb of 20.90 and 46.97!!

A full recap of the final day of the Jamaican champs appears below:

https://www.iaaf.org/news/report/jamaican-championships-2018-taylor[/quote

]

The Starved Elephant wrote:

Jknj wrote:

USC fielded a historically fast 4x4 at both indoors and outdoors.

So? One of those guys is a hurdler and the other two haven't shown world class potential as individuals. The second and third place finishers behind Norman were both Jamaicans. Add in this 18yo guy and Jamaica has 3 world class 400 runners under the age of 21 ready to compete with the US.

I wrote about this in a post a several weeks ago. When you add in Chantz Sawyers, Dashawn Morris, and Anthony Carpenter, Jamaica actually has about a half-dozen world-class sprinters aged 21 and under. Jamaica also has several older world-class quarter-milers. The Jamaican 400-meter pipeline is full and I expect them to do very well in the '19 and '20 global championships. On the junior level, it is pretty much a wrap that Jamaica will win World Juniors 4x4. That are that good! Jamaica has 2 U20 athletes that can run low 45, they are missing a quality 4th leg, but even Jamaica's lesser quality 4th athlete can probably run low 46 and with a sub 45 from Taylor on the anchor, he can more than make up that difference. Running sub-10.5 and/or sub-21 is commonplace at the Jamaican High School Championships. In the U.S, at the next level, a sub-10.5/sub-21 high school or U20 athlete would most likely end up running the quarter mile, whereas in Jamaica those athletes would stick with the short sprints...the Jamaican kids wanted to be the next Bolt or Powell. World-class short sprinters are special and rare, but just about any athlete with near world-class speed in the short sprints can develop themselves into a world-class quarter-miler if you are willing to put in the work. - Jamaica finally gets it!

Btw, in the history of World Juniors, this is the only year where the U.S. is not the favorite in the 4x4.

LetsRun.com wrote:

Indoors at SECs he ran the 400 46.67 and didn't make the final. Outdoors, he ran 47.53 and didn't make the final.

He then ran the 200 at regionals, runnign 20.39 in the first round but 20.66 in the next round and just missing out on Eugene.

Now he's the Jamaican champ thanks to a 20.21 pb.

Can someone tell us his story? We thought perhaps he'd been injured and they were keeping him out of the 200 for most of the season but t hat doesn't appear to be the case as it's not like he was a guy with a ridiculous PB. Coming into the year, the former NAIA champ only had a pb of 20.90 and 46.97!!

A full recap of the final day of the Jamaican champs appears below:

https://www.iaaf.org/news/report/jamaican-championships-2018-taylor

This not too uncommon, over the last decade, Jamaica has had quite a few athletes with somewhat marginal 100m PRs become world-class and global champions in an amazingly short period of time. SAFP went from 11.4 one year to 11.01 the next and then 10.74 the following year. Elaine Thompson improved her 100m PR on average by 3/10ths of a second every year for 4 years in a row, Even Bolt went from unranked in the 100m, to 10.03, 9.69 to 9.58 in 3 years. There are many others. This is the type of progression you hope for in young sprinters, but it rarely happens like that. The U.S.'s Noah Lyles went from 10.1 to 9.88 in one year, which isn't too extreme when you consider he ran 10.14 the years before he ran 10.1.

This not too uncommon, over the last decade, Jamaica has had quite a few athletes with somewhat marginal 100m PRs become world-class and global champions in an amazingly short period of time. SAFP went from 11.4 one year to 11.01 the next and then 10.74 the following year. Elaine Thompson improved her 100m PR on average by 3/10ths of a second every year for 4 years in a row, Even Bolt went from unranked in the 100m, to 10.03, 9.69 to 9.58 in 3 years. There are many others. This is the type of progression you hope for in young sprinters, but it rarely happens like that. The U.S.'s Noah Lyles went from 10.1 to 9.88 in one year, which isn't too extreme when you consider he ran 10.14 the years before he ran 10.1.