Gladstone 8-year-old places 2 events at championships

Gladstone 8-year-old Deshanae Norman proved herself one of the best young track and field athletes in the nation July 28-29, placing in two events at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships in Baltimore, Maryland

Competing in the Sub-Bantam Division (ages 7-8) girls 400-meter dash and long jump, Norman made the finals and placed sixth in both events. She leaped a personal best 11-2 in the long jump, just five inches shy of the mark that won the third-place bronze medal.

Norman, who trains with the Mustang Track Club, was clocked at 1:16.05 in the finals of the 400. She had won her heat in the preliminaries of that event in a personal best time of 1:13.12, second-best preliminary time in a field of 45 girls in her age division. Had she run her preliminary time in the finals, she would have walked away with a silver medal.

Norman had advanced to the national championships by placing second in the 400 (1:15.68) and in the long jump (10-6-1/2) at the Region 13 Championship Meet. Earlier this year she set a Junior Olympic state age-group record (1:15.31) in winning the 400.

“It was a good experience for her,” said Mustang Track Club coach Fred Crowe. “She’ll be hungry to do well next year.”

Crowe noted that Norman’s success did not come without hard work.

“She ran 10 200s in 38 seconds (at a recent practice),” he said. “I’ve had high school girls who couldn’t do that.”