400 METERS
Heats, Wednesday; Semifinals, Thursday; Final, Friday.
Gold: Monique Henderson (1999), Stephanie Smith (2001),
Natasha Hastings (2003), Ebony Eutsey (2009).
Silver: Jerrika Chappel (2001), Michelle Brown (2009), Olivia Baker (2013).
In what promises to be a marvelous match-up between the No. 3 and 4 Youth runners in the world, Symone Mason of Southridge (Miami, Fl.) will likely face off with Salwa Eid Nasar of Bahrain. Both runners have bests of 52.80. World Youth leader Sydney McLaughlin of Union Catholic (Scotch Plains, N.J.) is otherwise occupied in the 400 hurdles and No. 2 Samantha Watson of Rush-Henrietta-Sperry (Henrietta, N.Y.) will be in the 800. Mason's best came in winning the U.S. trials where she defeated Lynna Irby of Pike (Indianapolis, In.), who ran 53.36 to rank No. 10 in the world. Nasar's best came in the B final of the Bulgarian national championships - a time that was faster than the winner of the A final. Rosxana Gomez of Cuba has a best of 52.95 to win the Caribbean Scholastic Invitation in Havana in June and Catherine Reid of Great Britain has a best of 53.34.