USA U20's 4x4 Wins Silver; J. Robinson Splits 44.7

It was a big weekend in Finland for Hazelwood West's Justin Robinson. The world was properly introduced to what Justin is capable of. We've seen it for awhile now here in Missouri, but even we are astonished at what this young man accomplished this weekend.

Robinson was selected to represent the United States in the 4x400m at the IAAF U20 World Championships. Saturday his 4x400m team won their preliminary with a U20 World Leading time of 3:05.57. In that race Robinson split an outstanding 45.96. Absolutely incredible.

But he wasn't done yet.

Heading into the final Team USA looked poised to win the gold. However, the baton was dropped in the exchange between the first and second leg making even medaling seem like a long shot. Enter Justin Robinson. Running third leg, he took the baton in 6th place and had the Americans up to 5th after the first turn. 4th had roughly 10m on him, 3rd place was around 20m ahead. By the time he got to the 200m mark he had caught both the 3rd and 4th place runners. He over took them on the turn and pulled away on the final stretch. By the time he handed off the American's were right on the heels of 2nd place team, and the anchor leg beat them out. In that incredible leg by Robinson that got Team USA back into medal contention, he split and mind boggling 44.70. FORTY FOUR. UNBELIEVABLE. That is not only a top level Division 1 level time, that is a Pro Level time. Absolutely remarkable, especially considering he has 2 full years of high school left.

A huge congratulations to Justin on such a fine performance.