Barron named USATF Youth Athlete of the Year
INDIANAPOLIS – Trevor Barron, of Bethel Park, Penn., has been named the 2010 Youth Athlete of the Year by USA Track & Field's Youth Committee. Barron will be honored on Saturday, December 4 at the Jesse Owens Awards and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Va. The event is held in conjunction with USA Track & Field's 2010 Annual Meeting.
Five American junior records in one year have helped to make the 18 year-old the new face of race walking in the United States.
"I thank USATF for this award, but even more so for including race walking as an integral part of its Junior Olympic and youth programs,” said Barron. “Without USATF's generous support I would not be race walking at all, let alone at an international level."
Barron’s re-writing of the record books began on February 7 in Surprise, Ariz., when he won the men's 20 km Open and USATF 20 km Western Regional Race Walk Championship in 1:31:51. Barron's performance shattered his own American Junior record of 1:37:49 set at last year's USA 50 km Championships in Santee, Calif.
Barron continued his record-setting ways on April 11, when he set a U.S. Junior men's 10 km road record Sunday at the 2010 IAAF World Race Walk Cup Trials in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Barron set the 10 km road American Junior record when he crossed the finish line first in 43:05 bettering the previous standard of 43:16 set by Will Van Axen in 1993.
On June 13, Barron walked a 44-second personal best and U.S. Junior Record with his winning time of 20:06 at the San Diego 5,000m race walk competition at Cuyamaca College. The previous record of 22:14 was set in 2005 by Zachary Pollinger.
The following month he smashed his own American Junior record (AJR) in the 10,000m race walk, stopping the clock at 41:50.29 to place seventh at the 13th IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada. Barron clipped more than 30 seconds off the previous AJR of 42:22.79. It was the best finish ever by an American at World Juniors.
Saving the best result for last, Barron posted an eye-popping performance at the Nordic 20 km Championships in Finland. Barron covered 20 km in a blistering 1:23:49.39, which is the fastest time by any American since 2007. His performance is the second-fastest in the world this year and bettered the U.S. Junior record by 18:31. His time was just nine seconds off the American record and 10 seconds under the Olympic qualifying standard.
“Trevor had an outstanding year, re-writing the race walking record books throughout 2010,” said USATF Youth Athletics Committee Chair Lionel Leach. “This is the first time that we have named a race walker Youth Athlete of the Year which goes to show what an outstanding year he had and the diversity of our youth program.”
For more information on the USATF Annual Meeting, visit www.usatf.org.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the World's #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.