Freshman 800m Phenom Donavan Brazier Says He Will NOT Run the Olympic Trials and Has No Idea Who Jim Ryun Is
by LetsRun.com
June 9, 2016
(Update: The article we wrote after the first round appears below, but Brazier has just won the NCAA 800 by running 1:43!! Talk about that race here on our messageboard / fan forum: Oh My God!!! 1:43.55!!!!!!!! for Brazier.
Here is a feature we wrote earlier in the year on Brazier: His 1:45.93 Opener Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg for 800 Phenom Donavan Brazier.
Here is a messageboard thread on Brazier from earlier in the year: MB: OMG. America’s newest star has arrived!! True frosh Donavan Brazier runs 1:45.93 in first-ever collegiate 800!!
But people were talkin about the phenom a lot last year as well:
MB: I just got a text from a top HS coach: “Grant Fisher is not the best kid in Michigan.” LetsRun, meet Donavan Brazier
MB: Watch out for Donavan Brazier – Hser runs 1:48.07 – Is Grant Fisher the best prep even in Michigan?
MB: It’s official: Donavan Brazier (45.92r, 1:48.07, 4:09) not Grant Fisher, is the most talented HSer in Michigan this year )
EUGENE, Ore. — After Texas A&M freshman Donavan Brazier blitzed a 1:45.07 personal best in qualifying in the 800 at the NCAA championships last night, he had some interesting comments on whether he’ll run the Olympic Trials and Jim Ryun’s NCAA record of 1:44.3.
First, on the Olympic Trials, Donavan reiterated what he said in January after he started his collegiate career by running one of the most surprising runs ever in the collegiate ranks (a 1:45.93 solo effort indoors): that he would run the USA Juniors instead of the Olympic Trials as his primary goal is to make a USA team this year and his best shot is to make the US team for World Juniors in Poland.
Doing both meets is possible as the 800 final at the USA Junior meet in Clovis, Calif., is on Saturday, June 25, and the 800m at the Olympic Trials starts the next Friday, July 1, in Eugene.
Brazier said that he does not want to race two weekends in a row so he will focus on USA juniors. However, he said if he was just choosing one meet to run it would be the Olympic Trials, but he doesn’t want to skip USA juniors, run the Olympic Trials and miss out going to the Olympics and World Juniors.
He said (video below), “If I don’t make the US (Olympic) team, then I’m out of the junior team. If I had a chance do the (Olympic) Trials and still had a chance to be on the junior team then I’d do that in a heartbeat. If I was going to give my all into something it would be the US (Olympic) Trials. I want to make a team for sure my freshman year. I don’t want to miss out on juniors because I’m being too greedy trying to make a US (Olympic) team my freshman year.”
Brazier does have the chance to be on the junior team and run at the Trials, but it would entail him competing two weekends in a row.
Jim Who?
The topic of Jim Ryun’s NCAA 800m record, which turns 50 on Friday, came up as well. When asked if he knew who Ryun was, Brazier shook his head no. That shows how old Ryun’s record is.
(Thanks to an email from Teddy Mitchell, we consider the collegiate record to be Jose “Tony” Parrilla’s 1:43.97 from the Olympic Trials in 1992, which he ran as a true sophomore. But Track & Field News doesn’t recognize marks after the end of the collegiate system. It’s not like Parrilla turned pro or anything – he won NCAAs in 1992, 1993 and 1994.)
Brazier said his focus is not on records or the other guys in the race, it is just on running his best and getting faster. “
“I just going in knowing I’m going to give it my all…. I don’t know anything about those records. It could be 1:42 [and it wouldn’t make a difference to me].”
He also has not let the 1:45s as a freshman get to his head as he didn’t sound to impressed by it.
“Once I can start running that (1:45) consistently and 1:44, that’s when it matters,” he said, showing a maturity beyond his years.
He said he still does not feel he’s 100% after recovering from an injury at NCAA indoors where his back tightened up and he wound up DNFing his prelim.
“I don’t think I’m back to 100% but I’m close.”
We’d love to see a 100% Donavan Brazier and we’d love to see him at the Olympic Trials. Let’s see how Friday’s final goes, but a good performance there may have Brazier reconsidering his summer plans. He could waltz through US juniors and still run the Olympic Trials six days later if he wants to do both, but depending on how he looks on Friday, we’d likely encourage him to just skip juniors altogether.
00
(Update: The article we wrote after the first round appears below, but Brazier has just won the NCAA 800 by running 1:43!! Talk about that race here on our messageboard / fan forum: Oh My God!!! 1:43.55!!!!!!!! for Brazier.
Here is a feature we wrote earlier in the year on Brazier: His 1:45.93 Opener Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg for 800 Phenom Donavan Brazier.
Here is a messageboard thread on Brazier from earlier in the year: MB: OMG. America’s newest star has arrived!! True frosh Donavan Brazier runs 1:45.93 in first-ever collegiate 800!!
and last year:
MB: I just got a text from a top HS coach: “Grant Fisher is not the best kid in Michigan.” LetsRun, meet Donavan Brazier
MB: Watch out for Donavan Brazier – Hser runs 1:48.07 – Is Grant Fisher the best prep even in Michigan?
MB: It’s official: Donavan Brazier (45.92r, 1:48.07, 4:09) not Grant Fisher, is the most talented HSer in Michigan this year )