Akeem Bloomfield 44.93 400m at 17 Years old

Sub 45 seconds is the Holy Grail of 400m sprinters.  When you can say your PB is 44 point… nobody cares the rest of the decimal numbers, whether it’s 44.1 or 44.9.  44 point is 44 point.

As a 17 year old, Akeem Bloomfield ran 44.93 for 400m at the 2015 Champs in Jamaica.

It was a National Junior record, but not quite a World Junior record, which is held by Luguelín Santos.  But he broke Javon Francis’ meet record of 45.00 seconds set only last year!

Jamaica is showing a lot of talent in developing 400m sprinters, including Christopher Taylor’s 400m Age Group World Record for 15 year old, but where are they at the world elite level?  We’ve seen Jamaica win 1-2-3 at the Olympic 200m level, but shouldn’t we see this for 400m like USA?

Akeem Bloomfield is coached by Neil Harrison of Kingston College.  He quotes:

“I am proud of Akeem. He entered new territory, and there is no limit for him now”

His race plan was flawless.  Get in front of everyone at 250m and let everyone catch you.  He had to run the last 100m hard, and he even dipped for the line.  That earns my respect.  If he didn’t, he would have run 45.01 and not break either records!

You can see the list of all Age Group World records here at http://age-records.125mb.com or the European records here at http://statistics.homepage.t-online.de/a.htm

Age	Time	Athlete	Country	YOB	Location	Date
6	70.20	Torrie Cox	USA	2003	Orlando FL	2010
7	65.00	Torrie Cox	USA	2003	Orlando FL	2011
8	63.44	Tyler Mapson	USA	2003	New Orleans LA	2011
9	59.40	Tyler Mapson	USA	2003	Atlanta GA	2012
10	56.83	Kenneth Gilstrap	USA	1991	Omaha NE	2002
11	52.16	Bryce Love	USA	1997	Greensboro NC	2009
12	49.47	Bryce Love	USA	1997	Greensboro NC	2010
13	48.62	Bryce Love	USA	1997	Durham NC	2011
14	46.96	Kirani James	GRN	1992	Ostrava	2007
15	45.70	Kirani James	GRN	1992	Bydgoszcz	2008
16	45.14	Obea Moore	USA	1979	Santiago de Chile	1995
17	44.71A	Luguelín Santos	DOM	1993	Guadalajara	2011
18	44.45	Luguelín Santos	DOM	1993	Hengelo	2012
19	43.87	Steve Lewis	USA	1969	Seoul	1988