With the IAAF World Juniors coming up this week, I thought it might be a good time to peruse the lists for youths, juniors, and u-23s. In general, European athletes seem to show up best on junior and u-23 lists, and not so well on the youth lists, where they can't compete with the peoples who undergo puberty before they turn 10. So, hopefully, the youth picture isn't as grim as it appears.
Youths of note:
100 and 200--none whatsoever, although a lot of US high schoolers that we've read about are conspicuously absent from these world lists. Perhaps their times haven't been submitted or accepted.
400--Nikita Uglov--Rus--born 10/11/93, yet has run 46.6
800--Zan Rudolf (born 93), SLO, 1:49.47, and Mark English (93--IRE), 1:49.71
1500--Richard Goodman--GBR--3:45.77 (born 93)
Robert Denault (born 93)--3:45.87.
Haven't seen pictures of any of above.
Juniors--under age 20--the picture gets more promising.
100--still weak, only Grzsegorz Zimniewz--POL--(born 91)--10.37, slightly ahead of Watrin, but both are way behind the top flight. But remember, LeMaitre is just a month too old for this category, or he would be the easy #1.
200--Kieran Showler-Davis--(born 91)--20.75--a legit contender with that time. Extremely impressive for his age.
Aliaksandre Linnik--BLR--(born 91)--20.91.
400--There are two Europeans currently ahead of our man Gehret:
Marcell Deak Nagy--(born 92)--46.03
Marco Kaiser (born 91)--46.30
800--Finally! The future looks very bright here, as we dominate with the familiar names Robbie Andrews and Cax Loxsom, as well as Britain's Niall Brooks and Australia's Alex Rowe. The 800 seems to be a sweet spot (with 400 second best). Rogestedt has been hurt all year.
1500--Really only Britain's Niall Brooks (3:38:62)
If we go up to u-23, the names are more familiar, so I'll leave them off. Some barely-mentioned ones we should keep our eyes on:
400--Vladimir Krasnov--45.12 (sandwiched between the Borlees)
800--Jakub Holusa--1:45.56 CZE adn Adam Kszczot (POL) 1:45.74. Again, the 800 looks strong.
I don't know if there are any good articles, sites, photos of most of these guys.
Of course, we can only hope that some no-names soon pop up and do something great as well.