LIVE

|

RACES

|

RESULTS

|

ENTRIES

|

SCHEDULE

|

INTERVIEWS

|

MEDALS

|

PICKS

|

CONTEST

By Todd Grasley of FlRunners.com

Three of the youngest athletes at the IAAF World Championships this weekend in Beijing all hail from Florida, the Sunshine State. Kaylin Whitney and Khalifa St. Fort are both 17 and will represent the United States and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively, while Trayvon Bromell just turned 20 last month. To say the future is bright for this trio is an understatement.
 

Usain Bolt is 28. Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, the top two American sprinters are in their prime at 33. Enter Trayvon Bromell who just turned 20 last month. The former Gibbs High School standout and Baylor rising junior has had the year of his life. Bromell was consistently under 10 seconds in his final meets of the season culminating in a runner-up finish at the USATF Outdoor Championships in a time of 9.84 after running a wind-aided 9.76 in the semi-finals. He will compete in both the 100m dash and 4x100m relay this weekend for Team USA. We caught up with Trayvon on the eve of the World Championships. 

 

How do you stay calm on arguably the biggest stage of your career so far?

I treat it like every other race. No race bigger no race smaller. It's all about having fun.
 

You've said this before, but you really go out and don't fear anyone do you?

No, I don't fear anyone, no man but God. We are all the same and with God I know I can do all things through him.
 

You did a small race against Japan, Australia, and New Zealand running 10.2 into a wind and won. Was that just to get a little competition in and what did you take away from that race?

The Japan race was just to get a race in, not to run fast. Just something to get my legs moving.
 

What have you been working on the past couple weeks?

I've just been working on endurance. Because I know it's going to be fast rounds so I want to be able to recover.
 

What is it going to take to stick with the top talent like Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin, and Tyson Gay?

To stick with anyone in any field, it's going to take the perfect race.
 

I noticed Wallace Spearmon and several others have taken you under their wing, called you little bro and shown you the ropes so to speak. What does that mean to you?

This is just a learning experience for me. The older athletes have shown me love and helped me deal with running at a meet like this and it's all a blessing.
 

We also talked to Bromell’s coach Michael Ford about the Baylor standout’s mental and physical state two days out from the World Championships.
 

"He is looking good. He is ready for Saturday. The goals for the weekend are to get through the rounds healthy and to take each race one at a time. Execute, execute, and execute. He needs to just be the best Trayvon Bromell out there, and not focus on the other runners,” Ford said.

The possibility of Bromell turning professional is a hot topic in the track and field community, but he told Flotrack, that the outcome of this race will have a large impact on his decision, and that no matter what he decides, his commitment to his education will be first and foremost.
 

Ford shared several videos of Trayvon working on block starts filmed by Hiroyasu Tsuchie.

 

"Today was the only day athletes could use the actual track and do starts with the head and back-up starters. His start is set up in races, he reacts well to the gun. I think the big key is staying relaxed at the end, like the last 15m against those guys (Bolt, Gatlin, Gay, etc.). Honestly, I believe he can run with those guys, but he must just run his race and focus on his lane,” Ford said. 

 

Kaylin Whitney, United States

Kaylin Whitney announced on her 17th birthday that she was signing with Nike, and has been working full-time on the road to the World Championships and Rio Olympics. Last year, Whitney was a triple medalist at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, Ore. Now one year later, she is a member of Team USA's 4x100m relay team in Beijing, serving as an alternate. At the USATF Outdoor Championships she just missed out on making the team in the 200m, clocking a world youth best mark of 22.47. She followed that up with two gold medals at the Pan Am Games in Toronto. She has experience as the anchor for the red, white, and blue on the senior level, bringing home the gold at Penn Relays, World Relays in the Bahamas, and most recently in Monaco where she helped set a world leading-time of 41.96. Whitney, the youngest member of Team USA, says Monaco went really well and set the tone for what is to come.

"It made this team stronger and more comfortable with each other. My training is going well, it has been pretty intense at home. Once we got to training camp we transition from grinding it out to fine tuning things,” Whitney said. 
 

Knowing Whitney only has one event lined up makes her more relaxed.
 

"It does take pressure off me knowing I'm only here for the relay. My job here is to be on deck just in case something doesn't go as planned. I am only comfortable as the anchor, but I am planning on becoming more versatile in the future. I love being here with my teammates and coach. It's nice being in such a big stage with people who have been there before. It's comforting,” Whitney said. 

 

Khalifa St. Fort, Trinidad and Tobago

Khalifa St. Fort left her high school team after the Texas Relays and trained with Trinidad and Tobago Olympian Ato Boldon full time at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar. That decision has paid huge dividends for the seventeen-year-old star. St. Fort saw her times drop dramatically and her stock rise as she won the Golden South Classic and was third at the Adidas Dream 100 before starting international competition.

 

She won gold at the Trinidad and Tobago Junior National Championships and followed that performance with a silver medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Colombia, running one of the fastest times in the country at 11.19. The road was just being paved as she headed out to the Nike Elite Sprint Camp in Oregon to learn from the professionals like Allyson Felix. The rising senior added more gold to her collection finishing first at the Pan Am Junior Games in Toronto. This weekend the youngest member of Team T&T was originally scheduled to compete in the 100 and in the 4x100m relay, but Boldon who is also one of the coaches for the team, says she will just partake in the relay.
 

"Because Semoy Hackett ran a faster time at Pan Ams and is using the 100 to get ready for the 200 Khalifa will run the relay only. It's too bad because her practice times were very close to Kelly Ann Baptiste which confirmed that she was ready to PR here again, but she has her whole career ahead of her and three people will never beat her at Trinidad Nationals so she'll be fine."
 

St. Fort hasn't run in a relay since Texas Relays nearly five months ago in March. Boldon says she will anchor the team, but only in the rounds.
 

"She's never really been trained to pass or receive the baton at this level. It took a lot of coaching up in the past week. By putting her at anchor she has the least to do while still getting her feet wet. In the finals we will go with the veterans. The only way she runs the final is if something happens to one of the other three thru their 100 or 200 rounds."