1. One Competition Not Enough For Curtis Thompson
Curtis Thompson of Mississippi State won the Junior Men's Javelin Throw before placing sixth in the Senior Men's competition.
Mississippi State freshman Curtis Thompson was apparently just getting warmed up with his 237-4 javelin win at the USATF Junior Championships.
About three hours later, he jumped into the Senior Championships just to see what would happen.
"[I wanted to compete in both], one, for the experience, and two, hopefully I can make another team if possible and really, I just want to throw against the actual best that hopefully in the future I'll be throwing against later on."
Now, the Florence Township, N.J. alumnus is certainly no rookie. He placed third at the NCAA D1 Championships this month and owns a personal best of 248-1.
Thompson took sixth in the senior level competition, throwing 237-8. Sean Furey won the competition in 272-7, with Riley Dolezal runner-up in 264-11 and Samuel Crouser third in 249-1.
Just a slight personal best could have catapulted Thompson to a third place, World Championships qualifier. But the precocious freshman was not visibly upset, despite fouling on his third and best throw.
"It shows that I can get up there and compete with them," he said. "The fact is whatever they threw, it was good and I just had to show up and throw. I had one big foul on my last throw and that probably could have moved me to third or fourth, but you live and you learn. Really, it's just trying to get my steps right and my rhythm on. I didn't feel like I was on my rhythm for seniors, like I was for juniors.
"It wasn't that I was intimidated, it was that I was a little nervous. But you're always gonna have the little nerves in meets."
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1. One Competition Not Enough For Curtis Thompson