AAU Junior Olympic Games - Givan Onuaguluchi-May

Here we are at the AAU – (American Amateur Union) for Track and Field taking place in Humble Texas near Houston for the 2012 AAU Junior Olympic Games the annual National Championships. We arrived via Southwest Airlines on Saturday, 7/28/2012 for Givan’s second trip to an AAU National Competition. Last year this time the family drove to New Orleans for the event for approximately 15 hours on the road. It was a good time and ultimately a family vacation since after leaving the competition we drove to Montgomery, Alabama and then 50 miles south to visit my father’s side of the family. It was a great trip all around with the competition ending earlier since it was the first for the kids and while they enjoyed the opportunity to compete at this level it was clearly an experience to log for future preparation and training in the arena of highly competitive track and field. So here we are once again (Only Givan and I this time since he was the only one able to qualify this time around). He qualified for three events for the competition that will run from Monday, 7/30/12 to Saturday, 8/4/12 depending on how well he does in the preliminary events earlier in the week. He kicked off his competition yesterday in the Sub-Bantam 9 year Boys as a member of the Aurora Flyers track team (Based in Aurora IL.) competing in the 100 meter dash. This is the most competitive of all the sprints in track in field and is known for identifying the fastest male or female in the world. It was a field of over 80 competitors from across the US competing for the top three awards of Bronze, Silver and Gold. Givan was in the 4^th heat of 12 and with an average of 8 competitors per heat. He warmed up before the race near what they refer to as tent city, a common occurrence during a national competition because of the heat and exposure to the elements most of the teams bring tents for the members of the team. The warm up track was located about a quarter of a mile from the main event to provide the athletes a place to stretch and loosen up their muscles for the upcoming events. The temperature was in the 90’s with high humidity so getting use to heat was also important prior to the race. Givan was ready and excited and while he knew from checking out the seating for the race his best time would not be enough to win but it could get him into the next qualifying level for the race…since it is quarter, preliminary and then the finals. The quarter eliminates all but 24 of the fastest and the preliminary narrows it to 8 plus for the final depending on heat winners and next fastest times. This was only one of the three events Givan was able to qualify for during the regional track meet held in Bloomington IL., nearly three weeks ago. He also qualified for the 400 Meter dash that he is currently the 2012 AAU State Champion and USATF State Champion for his age group and the 2^nd place (Silver Medal) holder for AAU 7- State Region and USATF 7- State Region.  In addition to the 100m and 400m races he and his three other teammates (Quinn, Dante and Aiden) qualified and will compete on Friday, 8/3/12 in the 4x100 meter relay Bantam 10 year olds. So how did he do in the 100m dash for AAU National 2012 he made a strong showing with an unfortunate stumble out of the blocks and finished 49^th  in the national for the race.