She was a two-time NCAA shot put champion at SMU but could not make this trip,staying hometo provide medicine for their 17-year-old dachshund, Ali, who has Alzheimer's. They send him gift cards in the mailso he can order Adidas gear online or in the store. Adding that he and his family would like to be a little more included with these things. He has so much untapped ability. Hailing from Tampa, Florida, the teenager entered his junior year at Tampa's Hillsborough High School in 2021, according to the high It's breaking us," his father joked. He is back in school, walking the corridors of Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida, brushing shoulders with current class-mates and former football team-mates. I wanted to be better than everyone else, he said. Knighton has to look no further than an Olympic peer, Trayvon Bromell, another former Florida high school sprinting star, to realize the possibility and fragility of world-class speed. When asked by Florida Today which athlete he considers himself most similar to, he responded, Probably Usain Bolt, just because hes tall like me.. SATELLITE BEACH Whoever coined the phrase "good things come in small packages" never met Jackson Cantwell. Erriyon Knighton reacts after placing third in the Mens 200 Meter Final during day ten of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at Hayward Field on June He never stopped training, said Sipp, himself a four-year starting center in college at the University of South Florida. Sipp remembers Knightons first track meet. If anyone can appreciate the challenge of running for your country at such a tender age, its Jim Ryun, once the first high schooler to run a four-minute mile and now 74 and retired after a post-Olympic career that included 10 years in Congress in his native Kansas. The Big Red Boys & Girls Track & Field programs are well coached and represented! Living in Tampa, with the championships from the Buccaneers and Lightning and even the Rays, the type of athlete that he is, hes embracing putting the city on his back and bringing awareness to track and field, Terry said. His dad played basketball, but Knighton knew that wasnt for him. At school, hes decked in everything Adidas. But when his coach asked him to join track in his freshman year, he He just didnt want it to become serious. Hes Getting Faster. "I'm getting there," said Jackson, who a year ago waited until his final throw to clinch the national shot put title with a personal-best throw of45-2.25. He also marked his personal-best record of 19.88 seconds in a heat that included world champion Noah Lyles, another Team USA athlete heading to the 200-meter final at Tokyo 2020. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Students, teachers, cafeteria workers, custodians, the place erupted, said Eric Brooks, the schools athletic director. I said, Excuse me. That means he bested legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolts under-20 record, too. Some goes to his phone bill and some to his mom. I think the betting would be that he could probably do it, he said. While hopes remain high for the rising Olympic star's sprinting career, Knighton's athletic roots were in football. Switching back and forth from his parents houses, visiting grandparents and cousins on the weekends, going bowling with his mom, and dreaming, not too unrealistically, of buying a Dodge Charger as his first car. It was a blazing 200 meters by the entire group and a tight finish but Erriyon Knighton did ithe finished 3rd to make the Olympic team as a 17 year old. He won the 100 meters as a freshman in his first meet, and his time in the 200 meters was around 21.2 seconds, not bad for a runner just starting to learn correct form and technique. I thought if I got a little more training, I could be one of them.. Knighton is still learning off the track as well. With the Tokyo Olympics getting underway later this month and a 200m personal best of 19.84 seconds, 2021 could be the year of Erriyon Knightons making. https://www.hhstoday.com/life/2021/02/25/erriyon-knighton-the-sprinter/#comment-89567. Hes not afraid to compete, and thats a big part of being successful in any athletic endeavor.. But Knighton shaved more than three-tenths of a second from his previous best of 19.84. Theyre looking from the outside in. More than 50 years later, he still holds the American under-20 record in the mile (3:51.3) and had kept the 800-meter record until this May. The next Olympics are only three years off, so Knighton can build on whatever hes able to do in Tokyo when hes 20 and competing for a spot in Paris in 2024, or even at age 24 when the Olympics are in Los Angeles in 2028. Erriyon Knighton, a 17-year-old whose 19.88 in the semifinals broke Bolts under-20 record, took third with a time of 19.84. He starts his day with like 10 eggs in the morning and likes a pound of ribeye every night. In an exclusive interview with Hypebeast, Smith discussed the new documentary and reflected on his bond with the shoes that bear his name. He has loftier thoughts. WebTwo-sport athlete in football and track. Im probably thinking about breaking the world record, Knighton said. Knighton has a chance to continue what has been a wildly successful run for sports in Tampa, with the NHLs Tampa Bay Lightning now three wins away from repeating as Stanley Cup champions, baseballs Tampa Bay Rays coming off a World Series appearance and the NFLs Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl in Tampa in February and now seeking another title. Theyre still calling me, longtime Hillsborough football head coach Earl Garcia said Monday. Its the biggest track meet on the planet, but his coaches will try to remind him the race is the same as any other hes run, focusing on the distance and himself and not the world watching him. Its crazy. The kid who can nearly dunk a basketball, and who likes playing football and baseball back home in Nixa, Missouri,can bench press 210 pounds. Even if you get mad at him, its hard to stay mad at him, because his personality is so fun-loving and he has such a big heart.. Furthermore, his mother tweets as @knighton Ms. Erriyon also has two siblings named Nasja and Quay. He considers himself a good student; he gets all his work done. The current age of Erriyon Knighton is 17 years old. Erriyon is more concerned with his work than with being involved in a meaningful relationship. He still has a lot of self-motivation. A final defender comes haring across, all pumping thighs and straining arms. All Rights Reserved. According to an HHS Today article from February 2021, Knighton was a receiver for the high school football team. This spring, Knighton improved his 200 personal best to 19.49 and his 100 to 10.04. Knightons speed was easy to see on the football field, making enough plays as a lanky receiver to draw scholarship offers from football programs like Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Tennessee and Auburn. Theres no ifs, ands or buts about it. Hes fearless, and that factors into how hard he trains. To score more touchdowns. The first of the horror-thriller trilogy hits the streamer on July 2. You will be there,' Sipp said. John Regis, agent of Knighton and the 200m record-holder in the UK, has some insights. A link that, via a search and scroll, leads to footage of an athlete who is neither on the track, nor professional. Knighton didnt play football that first fall, but Sipp, now in his 15th year as the schools offensive line coach and head track coach, told him his speed was something that would be special, that he would do well if he wanted to run track. Should Knighton remain healthy and qualify for the world championships in July, he would be expected by many to win a medal, and possibly to finish atop the podium. Hailing from Tampa, Florida, the teenager entered his junior year at Tampa's Hillsborough High School in 2021, according to the high school's HHS Today website. Knighton expressed surprise, saying he did not think he would achieve such a time until he was 20 or 21. Here is what we know. And while that contract has made his life more comfortable, his high school newspaper reported that his life is still pretty normal: "Switching back and forth from his parent's houses, visiting grandparents and cousins on the weekends, going bowling with his mom, and dreaming, not too unrealistically, of buying a Dodge Charger as his first car.". If you just go out and run like I know you can run, youll beat them. And he did, and he beat them. Some people dont know whats going on they think I dropped out of high school, but I be here everyday, he said. Refresh the page or click the button below to continue. At 18, Knighton has not yet peeked closely under the hood of his internal engine as he has under the hood of the $80,000 Dodge Hellcat he would like to buy. Try a week on us. They won't be the only ones getting familiar with Knighton's fame over the next few years. In Tokyo, Knighton finished a close fourth after the Canadian gold medalist Andre de Grasse and his American teammates Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles. Holloway, the head Olympic track coach, spoke to Knighton after the race. This week, his son's performancessoothed his soul. "I've got to qualify for the heat so don't exert too much energy, really," he said, appearing relaxed and confident. Fellow Florida athlete and Jamaican international Briana Williams, then 17, went with Nike in January of 2020. Knighton chose to turn professional while a junior at Tampa Hillsborough High School. When the track team started working out, he didnt participate and tried to avoid Sipp, saying football was his first love. Only three Americans of any age - Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek and Josephus Lyles - went faster that year. I think its remarkable, Ryun said. I take it they are not saying that now? As a Tokyo 2020 marks Knighton's first Olympic Games. Embedded in the community for over 20 years, we have established ourselves as Floridas primary access to the Caribbean community. Obviously, hes an extremely talented young man, but the thing that separates him from the average 17-year-old is his poise, Holloway said. After that race, he gestured to "Knighton" on his bib, as if to say, "Remember this name.". "Hopefully, by next year, our country will all be better off (ifthe COVID-19 pandemic ends) when they come up with a vaccine. Patrick Smith/Getty Images We were getting ready to go to our conference championship, and I remember him coming to me, like, Coach, Ive got to run against the Armwood (High School) and (Tampa Bay) Tech guys? Two and a half years ago, hed never been in a track meet. Saturday morning he was back at the Satellite High complex, tossing a 6-pound shot 17.26 meters (56-07.50 feet) to set a national age-group record. He could no longer compete for his school. you can hear one voice from the stands swear in disbelief as the stagger unfurls and the extent of Knighton's yawning advantage is revealed. Terry has to call his name to break the reverie. Knighton just smiles. He could no longer take up university scholarship offers. Now hes running for the Olympics. Southeastern Conference powers including Georgia and Alabama showed interest. That might as well have been a minute in the world of elite track and field, especially given that it was his first 200-meter race of the season. Congrats, to Joe Sipp for seeing the potential in Erriyon as a track & field athlete. I was running what pros were running, Knighton said. Erriyon hasnt disclosed his parents names to us, but his father was a 20.33 seconds is a short amount of time to change somebodys life. He just goes out, trusts the process. From that day, he never looked back. He thought he could win. At last weekends U.S. Olympic Trials, Knighton crossed the finish line third behind Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek, good enough to earn a spot in Tokyo with a new under-20 world record of 19.84 seconds. That goal was accomplished on that fateful weekend in August. The Background of the Usain Bolt-Beating Sprinter, Who Is Stan Smith? 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Knighton, who ranks seventh among Americans in the 200m since the start of this year, will face stiff competition to crack the top three and make the US Olympic team with Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek and Terrance Laird (who have each run 19.81 or faster) having separated themselves from the pack. The Jamaican won in 13.47 (-2.5m/s) to finish It was impossible. But when he took off from the line, he was in first, and he was surprised. Commemorating Chinese New Year to take place on January 22. He hits halfway at a gallop. Zango produced one of the first stand-out performances of 2021. How are people coping with having to make do with less? We bring the power and the strength, and hes got the speed, Sipp said. Sometimes at training, Knighton stares into the distance, daydreaming. At the time when the Jamaican sprinter set the record, he was 16-years-old. But his 131 is still a great throw and he's OK with it. I could make sure he was getting the right amount of sleep and eating right, so it was better that he stayed with us..