Fellow New Jersey sophomores Myasia Jacobs and Najee Glass have advanced to the finals of their events in the Youth Olympics in Singapore.
Jacobs, who attends Paramus Catholic, won her heat of the girls’ 100, running 11.74, the second-fastest time of Tuesday’s preliminary round.
“I was happy that I made it to the finals, but I wasn’t happy with my time, because I was hoping to go under 11.5,” Jacobs said. “I’m going to try to go 11.2 in the finals…. In the finals, everyone’s going to push me. I like running with competition.”
The fastest time of the qualifying round was 11.70, by Fany Chalas of the Dominican Republic. Jacobs’s personal best is 11.44.
In the boys’ 400, run on Monday, Glass, who attends St. Peter’s Prep, finished second in his heat in 47.83 and advanced to the final as the sixth-fastest qualifier. He was leading until passed in the homestretch by Nikita Uglov of Russia, who won the heat in 47.43.
“That’s my style,” Glass said. “I get out the first 200 to intimidate everybody. The last 100 I see what I have left, try to maintain that, but as you can see, I need to work on that.
“My goal for the final is of course to get gold, but also to get that 46. That’s what I really want.” Glass’s PR is 47.32.
The fastest qualifier was Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic, who ran 46.82. /JP/