Gainesville freshman phenom Tamari Davis was all set to run the 100m dash at the Flo Golden South Classic and improve her personal best of 11.29s from the Florida Relays. However, mother nature had other plans and Davis was forced to add another meet to her schedule. The 3A runner-up in the 100 and state champion in the 200m dash headed to Georgia for the Atlanta Relays and a head to head match up with one of the best in the Caribbean, Jamaica's Kevona Davis.
Tamari Davis was hoping to face her Jamaican counterpart as well as Briana Williams who beat her at state in the 100m dash, but neither were in that event. Instead her competition came from Tina Clayton of Edwin Allen in Jamaica. Clayton jumped out to a fast start, but Davis' top end speed was too much to handle as she crossed the line in 11.38s with Clayton second in 11.54. Davis time, into a -1.2 m/s wind, was the fourth fastest in her career.
Tamari Davis and Kevona Davis would show down in the 200 meter dash. The Jamaican star was the World Youth bronze medalist in 2017 and Carifta Games U17 100m champion in 2017. In 2018, she set the Jamaican youth record in the 200 with a best of 20.77. Recently, Tamari Davis blew the doors off the world age group record at 200 meters when she ran 22.48 at the state meet.
The Florida product took that advice and won the race in a time of 23.01s (-1.2 m/s) ahead of Kevona Davis (23.79) and Trinity Price of Georgia who was third in 24.05. The only prep girls to ever run faster than Tamari Davis are Allyson Felix, who set the high school national record at 22.11 in 2003, and Candace Hill, who ran 22.43 in 2015 to win the World Youth Championships. Both women turned pro as high schoolers.
According to Coach Gary Evans, she will only compete in three more events this season and those are the Star Athletics Sprint Series in Clermont (June 9th) where she will run the 100m against a professional field, New Balance Nationals in the 100 and 200m dash, and then conclude the year with an all star 4x1 and 4x relay with the ladies from American Heritage at the USATF Junior Olympics.
