The Human Cheetah

If any of you remember watching the 2004 Summer Olympics, then I'm sure you heard the name Justin Gatlin mentioned frequently. The track and field star gained popularity then by winning a gold medal in the 100 meter race with a time of 9.85.

That was his best personal time until today, when he broke not only his personal record but the world record earning him the title as "The World's Fastest Human".

At the Qatar Grand Prix (Qatar is a Middle Eastern country located by Saudi Arabia, in case you didn't know.I didn't know before I looked it up!), he ran the 100m in a time 9.76. The previous record was a time of 97.7, held by Asafa Powell of Jamaica.

Now Gatlin's next goal is to break his own record! "If I continue to stay focussed on my work I can do 9.72, 9.73. But now I can say I am the fastest man on earth," he said in an interview on Yahoo.com.

A 9.72!!! Do you know how fast that is? If any regular track star ran the 100 m in 10.00 flat, that would be a personal accomplisment in itself.

In the competition Gatlin ran in, the second place runner Nigeria's Olusoji Fasuba set an African record with a time of 9.84 (Yay for Africa!! Those are my people!!!)
Shawn Crawford (10.08), the Olympic 200 metres champion, was third in the race. So Gatlin was smokin'. I know he can break the record.

I wonder if any of the runners on the track and field teams at C.C. can compete with Gatlin. Today starts the Southern California Regional Championships, which will be held at Mt. San Antonio College throughout the weekend. The men's team has 11 competitors while the women's team is sending 15 competitors.

I'm pretty confident that our athletes will place among the top. Some noteworthy athletes to look out for include Jacqueline Taylor,Meryl Follosco, and Sherrelle Dilworth for the women's team. For the men's team look out for Joshua Muwwakkil, Lyndon Wyse, and Deangelo Mingo.

Who knows, the competition might prove that Cerritos has its own futue Justin Gatlin(s) in the midst!