One of the biggest stories from the first day of the 2015 World Youth Trials was someone who will not be advancing onto the World Youth Championships in Columbia. Damion Thomas, the sophomore from Northeast High School in Orland Park, Florida was expected to be one of America's gold medal contenders in Cali, Columbia later in July in the 110 meter hurdles. Thomas had set the U.S. national record for 15 year olds earlier in the year at the Florida Relays and won the elite Brooks PR Invite two weeks ago.
The US #4 ranked hurdler looked very much in control of his race but on the second to last hurdle, something went wrong and Thomas appeared to suffer a muscle injury and struggled to finish with a third place time for his heat of 14.63. The time would rank him 10th fastest overall among the prelim heats and prevent him from making the finals, but he may have been unable to race the finals regardless as he was looked at by trainers in the medical tent for a while after the race.
The loss of Thomas will be felt much more in a few weeks at the World Youth Championships as the chances of a gold medal finish from an American in the 110 meter hurdles may have been weakened, but then again there are three legit sub 14 second hurdlers in tomorrow's finals between Norman Grimes and Isaiah Lucas of Texas as well as Joseph Anderson of California. The two eventual qualifiers that the U.S. sends to Cali, Columbia will still have some big shoes to fill in the absence of Thomas.
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One of the biggest stories from the first day of the 2015 World Youth Trials was someone who will not be advancing onto the World Youth Championships in Columbia. Damion Thomas, the sophomore from Northeast High School in Orland Park, Florida was expected to be one of America's gold medal contenders in Cali, Columbia later in July in the 110 meter hurdles. Thomas had set the U.S. national record for 15 year olds earlier in the year at the Florida Relays and won the elite Brooks PR Invite two weeks ago.
