A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

[richxx87]

True Freshman track sensation Brandon Johnson from Orange Texas, set a personal record in the 400m Hurdles with a smoking 48.85 in the Pac-10 finals on Saturday. He beat the second place guy by almost 2 full seconds! The time is the fastest in the world this year and automatically qualifies him for the Olympic trials. He is recently recovered from an injury and likely will run faster in the next few weeks. His time on Saturday in Arizona puts him .3 behind Danny Harris' World Junior Record.
Btw, the world record is still held by my former UCLA classmate Kevin Young, set in the Barcelona Olympics, making it THE longest standing running record for events in the Olympics (so it does not include the rarely run 25k track event for example).
Here's a short outdated Bio on the UCLA website: http://uclabruins.collegesports.com/spo ... don00.html
Wow! Go Brandon!

[gh]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

From 51.15 to 48.85 in one race? Yow! But then, those of us born on March 2 have always been special. :-)

[EPelle]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

Gary, what are you doing up at 02.15 on a Saturday night? I have an excuse: it is 11.45 on Sunday here.

[Pego]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

<Gary, what are you doing up at 02.15 on a Saturday night? I have an excuse: it is 11.45 on Sunday here.>

I'm curious. What about those extra 30 minutes. I thought all time zones go by 1 hour.

[DentyCracker]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

Several half hour time zones exist

[Truth Squad]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

>a smoking 48.85 in the Pac-10 finals . . . The time is the fastest in the world this year<

Nonsense! Four guys have run faster, two of them Americans.

[hj197steve]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

Newfoundland for one is a half hour example

[tafnut]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

gh - you let this by? He's #5 in the world and he's .8 off the AJR. Still great stuff though.

[gh]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

Note that he's only 5-9, which may mean he'll have trouble getting too much better, although note this post by ffanin from an earlier Bershawn Jackson thread:

<<I watched few Jackson's reces in 2003 (Rome, Madrid & WC); he has good speed and quite good technique but a great problem in a "giant" event:
he's only 5-8. Onky one hurdler so "short" has broken the 48.00 barrier (Japan's Dai Tamesue).
But since the last two WChampions, Fabrizio Mori (5-8&3/4) and Felix Sanchez (5-10), are not much taller, never say never... >>

[tafnut]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

he may have a high split - I can't see being 5'9 as a huge deterrent to sub-48.

[Husky Dude]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

I'm just waiting for Realist to find a way to throw a dose of cold water on this one apparently he doesn't allow people to improve hugely out of the blue.

[Realist]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

Oh, cut me to the quick! I love great improvements. I just like to look deeper to figure out why. In this instance, such an improvement, while immense isn't all that out of line, given that he was a 36-second 300 hurdler in high school and still apparently has just a handful of races under his belt. As a 46-second flat 400 guy he obviously has the speed, so if he can master a good stride pattern (something that doesn't need to be done in the heat of battle), a big breakthrough isn't out of line.

Duck! Here comes the cold water. As somebody noted on the w10K thread, Tucson is at a not-insigificant altitude and what nature taketh away (air to run distances in it) it giveth back (air to get in the way of sprinting). Wouldn't surprise me if he didn't gain a half second over what he can do at sea level.

[tafnut]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

.5 at 700m? I don't have the estimates in front of me (problematic as ever), but that's a little steep, I believe.

[richxx87]

To "Truth Squad" re sub 48.85 this year

I read that on the Pac-10 recap that 48.85 was the fastest this year, but you say four have run faster. I agree that is entirely possible, but what could they have meant... like this calendar year 2004 (Or maybe they meant just US colleges -- like maybe college track to some writer is THE WORLD)? OR Are you talkin' the last 12 months? Can you point me to the website that gives the most recent times worldwide? Anyway pretty impressive for a 5'9", 19 yr.old guy who has only run the 400H about 15 times in his life and took up the 300H quite late in high school.
Thanks.

[You guys are funny]

Re: A UCLA/World Superstar is Born!!

We will see UCLA has a habit of having freshman do great things and then fading of with an ocassional good time here and there. and the fact that no one was there to challenge him is the thing to look out for. Let's see what happens to him when he has someone there on him adding pressure that is where true champs are born winning the close ones not the easy ones. We will see time will tell. I just want to know what is going to happen at the oly trials b/c the 400 and the 400h in college is looking really hot it will beinteresting to see how many make to the oly trials and if any hold on to make the team.