Sammy Watson will break two minutes in the 800m
Rush-Henrietta's Sammy Watson has not lost an 800m to a junior athlete since 2014. That includes gold medal wins at both the IAAF World Youth Championships in 2015 and IAAF World U20 Championships in 2016.
In that time, she's improved her PR from 2:06.35 as a freshman to 2:03.54 as a sophomore to 2:02.91 as a junior.
Watson ran her last PR en route to gold at the USATF Junior Nationals. That time qualified her to the U.S. Olympic Trials and made her the eighth-fastest performer in prep history. Only three high school girls have broken 2:01 in the half mile: Mary Cain (1:59.51), Kim Gallagher (2:00.07) and Ajee' Wilson (2:00.91).
Watson has drawn many comparisons to Wilson, who was also a world junior champion and teenage phenom, and the as-of-yet uncommitted senior may follow her predecessor's footsteps and turn pro if she can crack the vaunted two-minute barrier.
- jojo