Tyrese Cooper breaks the USATF 15-16 Year old 200m Record/20.98 (+1.5) - USATF Natonal Junior Olympics 2015

by DrBob - DyeStat Florida

We've come to expect big things from Tyrese Cooper.  The Miami Gardens Xpress track club member just finished his 8th grade year and will be a rising frosh at American High School for the fall semester.  Today, in the prelim's, Tyrese set a USATF National 15-16  Junior Olympics record going 20.98 with a slight +1.5, legal tailwind.

How fast is that?

Fast enough to be top 10 in the USA right now and Tyrese hasn't even set foot on his high school campus yet.  He'll be attending American High School along with other teammates, most notably Jamal Walton who finished 4th in the 400m at the recent IAAF World Youth Championships. 

What makes the record even more amazing at this point in Tyrese's career is he just recently started using starting blocks.  During his prelim today, his blocks slipped as the race started necessitating a restart.  Even during the restart, you could easily tell that Tyrese is still figuring things out with the starting blocks.  The future sure looks bright for Tyrese once he gets use to getting out of the blocks and we expect his times to drop considerably as he was noticeably slow out of the blocks during the restart today.

Newly appointed American HS Coach Darius "D" Lawshea will have quite the complement of talent for his first year as Head Coach at American.  During the post-race interview with DyeStat Florida's Peter Cabrera, Coach Lawshea commented that it's important "to make them believe, believe they can do anything".

Still on tap for Tyrese during the Championships are the 200m Finals and an eagerly anticipated 400m where he hopes to go 45 point.  Tyrese this year has already run 46.44 at New Balance Outdoors. 

Watch the post-race interview with Tyrese and Coach Lawshea

Watch the national record setting 20.98 200m by Miami Gardens Xpress Tyrese Cooper