Taylor chooses 200m for World U-20 Champs
THOUGH HE is now the fastest Jamaican junior of all time over 400 metres, Christopher Taylor of Calabar High School has elected to run the 200 metres at the World Under20 Championships in Tampere, Finland. Taylor says he has made the choice because he has already won a World title in the 400m.
However, it doesn’t mean he prefers one event to the other.
Speaking last Saturday at the National Stadium, the 18-yearold explained: “I looked into myself, and I said I have a Youth title at 400m already. “I want a title at the junior level in another event, so I picked the 200m.”
He was referring, to 2015 when he crossed the line first in the 400 metres at the World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia. The decision comes as a surprise because he won the one-lap race in a Jamaican Under-20 record of 44.88 seconds at the National Senior Championships on June 24.
That run, which lowered the Akeem Bloomfield standard of 44.93 seconds, makes Taylor the fastest in the world in the Under20 age group. The 2018 Calabar High track and field captain is also the world Under-20 leader at 200 metres at 20.35 seconds from the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships. No slouch in that event, the slim speed merchant is the 2017 PanAmerican Junior champion and reigns as Carifta champion as well.
FAVOURITE EVENT
Interestingly, he said,”I still haven’t decided what’s my favourite event.” Though he has excelled in the one-lap event, he confessed, “I started out in the 400m, and I love the 400m, but sometimes, it’s just very difficult.”
He gave these insights not long after he delighted fans and amazed himself in the 100 metres at the Jamaica Under-18 Invitational on June 30 at the National Stadium. Known for his prowess in the 200 and 400 metres, Taylor breezed through a special 100-metre race in 10.11 seconds to match the national junior record set by Yohan Blake in 2007.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” the 18-year-old Taylor said after quashing his personal best of 10.44 seconds. “I came out here, and I equalled the national record in an event that is not my main event,” he remarked.
He leaves this week with the Jamaican team for the World Under-20 Championships, which begins on July 10.