As the summer track season is coming to a close there's only one meet left, the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. One of Florida's very own is going to make the trip all the way across the world to compete for his country. Andrew James, a recent Cardinal Gibbons transfer will be running the 400m and representing the USA at this prestigious meet.
AJ has done a lot to prepare for this meet that is still about three weeks away. Even though it was late decision to participate in the games, he has putting in those extra hours to be ready for this opportunity. He made his summer debut at the AAU Club Championships as a part of the 17-18 age group team that broke the sprint medley record. James split a :20.6 on the opening 200m leg. He was a bit disappointed with his 49 in his open 400m to just missing out of the finals and he also placed 4th with his team in the 4x400m relay. Prior to this meet AJ had only trained for about twoweeks, but it shows how much more he can improve.
Since there are no more summer meets happening anymore, AJ is training not with a group of guys like he was leading up to the AAU Club Championships, but just one, Paul Willis. The Boyd Anderson Cobra had a late surge of personal bests last season to place 5th in the 3A Region 4 meet with a personal best at the time of :48.9. During the summer he was only getting faster as he made it into the 17-18 400m finals claiming the last spot with his new personal best of :48.95. Paul makes a great training partner for AJ because he hardworking and is still at the top of his game to the point where it will make both of them better in the long run.
AJ and Paul have been training since the AAU Club Championships and Coach Dawn Spann of Boyd Anderson has captured some of their workouts to give us a sneak peak on how AJ is looking going into this big event.
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