Lauren Williams 2009 Bantam Girl Long Jump Champion
November 19, 2009
It is official, Lauren Williams of the Quiet Fire Track Club, L.A. CA is the 2009 Bantam Girl Long Jump Champion.
Long Jump Bantam Girls
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Nat’l Youth: N 4.66m 7/28/2007 Ramona Carryl, Knoxville,TN
JO Meet: J 4.66m 7/28/2007 Tiani Reeves, Gothenburg T C
Name Year Team Finals Wind
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1 5726 Williams, Lauren 99 Quiet Fire 4.53m 1.2 14-10.50
2 5448 Smith, Cynthia 99 14-38 Umoja TC 4.31m 1.6 14-01.75
3 5058 Tatum, Alexandra 99 37 Emerald Vall 4.20m 1.6 13-09.50
4 1725 Byrd, Myisha 99 14 Phantom TC J4.20m 1.0 13-09.50
5 6168 Austin, Kenyne 99 16 Durham Stride 4.08m 4.4 13-04.75
6 5769 Oguejifor, Adaugo 99 So Cal Comets J4.08m 1.9 13-04.75
7 758 Holmberg,Gabriella 99 0211 Greensburg 4.03m 0.9 13-02.75
8 6078 Wright, Braxton 99 16 Carolina Eagles 4.02m 1.7 13-02.25
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Sunday evening the call came from the Youth National Chair Lionel Leach expressing his joy in awarding offically the gold medal to Lauren and giving her the distinct honor of 2009 Bantam Girl Long Jump Champion. We were all on the call and when he announced that the committe in charge and 5 of the 6 officials involved in the original official measurments at the JO meet, met in October and they unanimously agreed that Lauren was the actual first place winner and thus should rightfully recieve the gold medal and title. Lauren’s smile could have lit up a Christmas tree,I am sure Henry’s and Mine could have as well.
I would like to extend a special thanks to D. Ries for his unsolicited effort to find the pictures that proved that Lauren W.was the rightful winner. Denice Smotherman of USATF So Cal Region15 and all the great track moms and track dads that encouraged me and wrote e-mails of discontent about this agregious error. Last but certainly not least The USATF for admitting the error and correcting it for the betterment of US Track and Field. They have allowed the youth track and field community to believe in “Winning with Integrity”
Our sport is a sport of times distances and measurements, if we can’t trust the the times,distances and measurements given to us, the credibility of our sport would quickly fall to ZERO.As Lionel Leach expressed to Lauren so eloquently “Sometimes we adults make mistakes,please for give us,except our apology and know we up hold the highest standards in Track and Field you are a true Champion and deserve this honor”.
Related posts:
- Bantam Girl Long Jump ..A Confusing Finish
- Angela Williams A Youth Track & Field Icon
- The Bantam Girl Long Jump Update
- The Golden Girl… Kendall Williams A National Champion Extraordinaire
- Bantam Girls 400m Go to Girl
Congrats Lauren. Perserverance prevails and is the true measure of a champion.
Coach Ron Jackson
RIGHT ON!! I am so happy to hear that this has officially been resolved. I have been wondering and wondering what the status was. I was going to e-mail you just the other day about it. I feel relief and joy that the proper outcome has been reached.
Way to go to USATF for doing the right thing in making this right for all involved. Will there be another awards ceremony? Tell Lauren we said CONGRATS again!!
Lauren has always been the champion throughout this ordeal. She handled it as a champion. Even though she was happy she was not selfish. When you are a true champion and have experienced being the best at what you do, the losses hurt but not as much. I was silently and selfishly hoping that she would use this as fuel to jump right out the pit! I guess I will have to settle for a gold medal
Lauren, great job in being a true champion! Parents great job in parenting and patience!
See ya in Virginia
Coach Mike
Ucity Xplosion/ Team Zuri
God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Congratulations she really deserved this.
Thanks for your support and love.I hope we all can learn from this experience and understand inthe best and sometimes worst times patience and grace in the face of adversity can help grow us and show us how to be an athlete of excellence win or lose.
Mike sometimes My husband and I felt very impatient but I came to believe they would do the correct thing. It has been a learning experience for our family and to a degree our track family too.
Brandon, Yes God is good and He is faithful. I am happy that by this time I was resigned that if she didn’t get the medal I would know there was light of competiton to look forward to. Sport has a way at it’s best to help us all grow parent and the athlete alike. I know this experience won’t be lost on us it will help us as we move forward in Lauren’s development.
Nicole, Your enthusiasm is wonderful! I don’t think they will have another ceremony,but I do have the picture above that shows even though that day many in the audience were not smiling nor happy Lauren put on the best face she could that moment.(yes her tears feel through later but they were not wasted)
Coach Ron, We are all never to young or old to understand and learn and appreciate the power of Perserverance.
All of your comments have blessed me greatly.
Thanks so much.
Congratulations!!!!! I am finally happy to see that usatf did the right thing. Common sense is so often overlooked in these matters. Lauren won the competition fairly, and she got her “just” reward.
Yeah Lauren! I am proud of you also.
I’m so glad to hear they *FINALLY* corrected this. I just don’t understand why it took so long….
Congratulations to Lauren & you guys. It is great that this mistake was corrected. However, it is some what bothersome that they took as long as they did to correct an obvious mistake….WOW! i am scared to see how they would handle a situation far more challenging…but, again Congratulations.
Yes Yes yes its about time the right thing was done! Good work and some faith is restored!
We are so suprised and extremely happy for you up here in Seattle. There were cheers for you at our recent Track Club Meeting of Wings of Eagles Track Club. We were watching one of our team compete in the event and saw the incident. We knew it would take more than the facts to change this result. It would take take photographic evidence and the willingness of USATF to be flexible after the fact. Both, highly unlikely. I was thinking I was going to have to been banned due to my blogging complaining about what I was going to call the Bantam Girls Long Jump Scandal. We didnt know who was supposed to first , but we knew the results were not correct if let to stand. We waited to all day thinking they would anounce a change. Checking the final stats later the next day I was amazed to see the 2nd place girl was your Lauren. God was smiling that day. The USATF were unlucky that Lauren and your website are well respected have been highly visible in only the most positive way. I think considering the seriousness of stripping the other Lauren (that was a weird coincidence as well) they couldnt rush this move. This hopefully this incident has shed light on the seriousness of the officiating of every event. You cant slack, just because it “just the little kids”. Take care and see you in Sacramento.
Your diligence is still an encouragement to people like us. Our head coach’s 13-year-old daughter competed in the youth girls javelin at the Region 2 JO meet this weekend. I (former head coach) didn’t make the trip this year, but I received this story last night: everyone knew Katelyn had finished third and made nationals, as she threw 24 meters and only two other kids had any throw over 20 meters. But somehow the officials had marked one throw by another girl as 25 meters and they awarded that girl third place. Katelyn was in tears and the other girl and her mom apparently grabbed their medal and took off. Happily onlookers’ protests moved the officials to realize something was wrong and the Region 2 coordinator reportedly has already made arrangements for Katelyn to be qualified for the national JO even though she finished “4th.” Along the way the regional coordinator told our head coach the “bantam girls long jump” story from last year, which I had already discovered from your web postings last fall. We always encourage parents to be patient with officials since they are all volunteers, but also to doublecheck everything they can because officials can make all kinds of mistakes. Have a great day.