Shelby Greany (Suffern) begins her quest for a medal in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase Tuesday morning at the World Junior Championships in Moncton, New Brunswick. Greany, who broke the American Junior record this spring as a freshman at Providence College, will run in Heat I of the preliminary round.
In Monday’s initial event, the women’s 3,000 final, Americans Jordan Hasay and Emily Sisson ran lifetime bests but finished well back in the field. Hasay, the University of Oregon freshman, recorded her outdoor best, 9:15.78, good for ninth place, one spot ahead of Sisson, a Nebraska high school senior, who was 10th in 9:16.80. That time puts Sisson eighth on the all-time high school list, just ahead of what Hasay ran in high school. Sisson will be a freshman at Wisconsin in the fall.
The winner of the race was Mercy Cherono of Kenya, who ran 8:55.07. Athletes from Ethiopia and Azerbaijan finished 2-3, also running 8:55.
In Tuesday morning’s women’s 800 prelims, Ajee Wilson (Neptune, NJ), the high school sophomore, will run in Heat III. The other U.S. competitor, Laura Roesler, a North Dakota prep bound for Oregon, will be in Heat I along with Natoya Goule of Jamaica. Goule starred for four years at the Penn Relays for Manchester.
In the afternoon session, Evonne Britton, Penn State freshman, will run in the preliminaries of the women’s 100-meter hurdles.
In the women’s 100 heats on Tuesday evening, the U.S. will be represented by Takeia Pinckney and Ashton Purvis, both of whom distinguished themselves at the Armory this past winter. Pinckney ran at the New Balance Collegiate meet for LSU, while Purvis was double sprint champion in March at the National Scholastic. Purvis, from Oakland, Calif., has signed with the University of Miami. The favorite in the event is Jodie Williams of Great Britain. Williams, the reigning World Youth champion, has run 11.24. Purvis won the California state meet this year in 11.17. /JP/