Whereas most 16-year-olds are studying to drive and being pressured by their dad and mom to determine their profession path, Jonathan Simms of Allen, Texas, shattered a close to three-decade junior world document within the males’s 400m on the AAU Junior Olympic Video games on Saturday. Simms ran a brand new private document to win the 15-16-year-old boys’ championship in a U16 world document of 45.12 seconds.
Simms entered the race because the U.S. nationwide champion with a 46.09-second run on the Nike Outside Nationals in June, however his private greatest was 45.90, set on the Texas state championships earlier within the season. Simms gained the race handily by two and a half seconds and adopted up his win with a gold medal within the 4x400m relay later the place he cut up 44.76.
His new document time eclipses Obea Moore’s earlier mark of 45.14 from 1995 because the U16 world document. Moore held the document on this occasion for 28 years. He was anticipated to be the subsequent nice American quarter-miler, to comply with the good Michael Johnson, however he by no means lived as much as expectations.
Simms’s new document time is just a tenth of a second shy of the 2024 Olympic normal for the 400m (45.00). Earlier within the week, Simms additionally gained the 800m on the AAU Junior Olympics in 1:51.69, a brand new private greatest.
With such outstanding performances at a younger age, Simms has undoubtedly captured the eye of the observe and subject world as a rising star with immense potential for the long run.
