1. Professional Moment
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11 days.
That's the timeline of which separated the announcements of 17-year-old Briana Williams and 16-year-old Tamari Davis, each of which turned professional in January of 2020.
A rarity, for sure, to have two high school athletes turn pro within two weeks of one another. But it also signaled the potential and future for the pair, both of whom have been competing against one another for years. Williams signed with Nike, while Davis inked with Adidas.
Williams, who ran to a high school national record of 10.94 seconds outdoors in 2019, is already in the mix among the Jamaican senior team. In 2018, at the age of 16, she won the 100m and 200m at the 2018 World Athletics U20 Championships in Finland. She followed in 2019 with a 100m win at the NACAC U18 Championships and Pan American U20 Championships and qualified for the World Championships before a positive drug test -- which she was later deemed "no fault" of -- thrust her upon the most difficult few weeks of her young career.
But Williams, who is coached by Ato Boldon, has also been among the most consistent young sprinters in the world over the past few seasons, running to professional-level times of 11.01, 11.02, 11.10, 11.11 and 22.50, 22.88, 22.89 and 22.95. To top it off, if Williams had been in high school in 2020, she would have broken the national high school record in the 60m when she posted a time of 7.18 seconds at the Millrose Games.
Williams signed with Nike on January 19.
Not to be out done, Davis may have been the youngest track and field signing in Adidas history when she signed on January 30.
Davis has an incredible future, one that saw a glimpse of it in her freshman year when she ran 11.13 seconds for 100 meters and 22.48 seconds in the 200m. As a sophomore, she posted bests of 11.27 for 100m and 23.06 for 200m. She's won three FHSAA Class 3A Outdoor Championships and much like Williams, ran what could have been the No. 2 high school indoor effort at 60m all-time with her 7.19 second effort at the Gamecock Open.
That performance was just one-hundredth of a second behind Williams. Here's to that matchup just beginning.