Twelve-year-old Brianna Lyston is simply incredible.
Lyston a student of St Jago High School, represented her school at the recently concluded ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at Jamaica’s National Stadium.
Lyston broke the Class Four 200 metre mark twice, taking it down to 23.72 seconds at last week’s meet taking her just a mere 0.52 seconds outside the international senior qualifying time, with the qualifying standard for the women’s 200m at the Olympics is 23.20.
With this remarkable achievement international media outlets are hailing Lyston as the next Usain Bolt.
Media outlets DailyMail and Business Insider compared Lyston’s speed to that of track legend Bolt, given her age. Bolt attracted national attention at the same event when he won his first ever medal at the meet.
Lyston’s time of 23.72 seconds was almost one second clear of her closest rival, which the international media said placed it in the context of American Florence Griffith-Joyner’s senior-level world record of 21.34 seconds, set at the 1988 Olympic Games. Bolt’s 200-metre record is 19.19.
Lyston was equally impressive in the 100-metre final where she won in a time of 11.86 seconds, 0.20 seconds clear of the runner-up.
