The U.S. Track and Field team put together a dominating performance at the World Championships in Finland and new Drake Relays’ director Brian Brown says he is surprised because it is such a young squad. The U.S. team finished with 25 medals, one short of its all-time record and continue to dominate the sprint events. Jeremy Wariner won the 400 and Justin Gatlin won both the 100 and 200 meters. In fact the American men claimed the top four spots in the 200 and the women claimed gold and silver in the 200. He says the U.S. has always been fairly dominant n the 400 and 200, but now he says they’ve dominated in both the mens’ and womens’ and that gives a lot of hope for the future.Many of the top performers just finished their collegiate career. The average age of the gold medalists is just over 23. Brown says with so many young athletes competing at the international level it will be important for the Drake Relays to identify and highlight competitors who may be the Olympic champions of the future. He says they need to give the newcomers and opportunity to be shown. He says once they get an opportunity, they’ll come back once they gain more notoriety because they’ll remember their early experience. The U.S. team won a record 14 gold medals at the World Championships.
