I know both Brendan and Ychilindria and they are both 17. In the case of
Brendan, he has been running AAU since he was a tyke and wants to run with
his friends. There is only one club here in Austin that runs in USATF meets
and they are new and not yet very competitive. I coach a AAU team and we
have faced the teams that you have mentioned and in some cases have defeated
them. Results for the AAU JO and the USATF JO are not always that far
apart. Case in point, two years ago our 17-18 boys ran a 3:11.19 while the
USA winner ran 3:11.17. We had a 75-100 meter lead so we very well could
have gone faster but had no one to puish us. Brendan ran 20.78 last summer
and holds the sophmore record in the 200m. People run one or the other down
here for many reasons but at least they are running. Last year, a lot of
the USATF teams ran AAU meets because the JO was at Disney while the USA JO
was in Buffalo and they did not want to make that trip. Neither AAU nor
USATF dominated the qualifying meets and they all did well at Disney.
********************************************
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 07:22:07 -0500
From: Patrice Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: t-and-f: Youth question
John:
I hate to tell you this, but whoever said Texas doesn't turn out for USATF
J.O.'s is smoking something. Several LARGE clubs (over 100 athletes on each
team) from around Texas compete no matter where the meet is. See the Texas
Heat, Track Houston, Texas Elite, Wings, Dallas Gold, Track Dallas, and
several others. By my count we had 4 athletes from Texas on the team.
Again I should reiterate, when USATF is paying for the trip to the World
Youth Games, why should they select a non-member. I know of no
international team that you can make without being a member of USATF and
appearing in their championships. Are those 2 athletes you mentioned even
age appropriate for the World Youth Team? Remember 15-17 or no go. Have
either one of those athletes ever participated in summer track. There are
no turf battles in the selection. The staff as well as the athletes were
selected straight from USATF J.O.'s and Youth Athletics meet last year.
They had to be selected last year due to passport issues, clothing, entries.
There were even entry standards that had to be met and they had to be
achieved in a sanctioned meet. Why not select an athlete who does follow
the procedures. Again, you should compare results. AAU results
are inferior to those obtained at USATF.
Patrice Wilson
Youth Chair
USATF-IL
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