USA Track & Field – News – Holden named USA Track & Field Youth Athlete of the Year

INDIANAPOLIS – Sydney Holden (Los Angeles, Calif.) has been named USA Track and Field’s Youth Athlete of the Year after setting an age-group record and winning the sub-bantam National Junior Olympic Championships in the 400m.
 
Even at the young age of 8-years-old, Holden has been running track for three years with the L.A. Jets Track Club. This year she set a personal best in the 400m of 1:10.69 at the Region 15 Junior Olympic Championships to record the best ever performance for a sub-bantam girl.

"I am really happy and excited about winning the Youth Athlete of Year,” Holden said. “I was surprised when I found out because there are a lot of great athletes who could have won…I'm only eight years old."

Holden demonstrated great versatility as she also finished as the runner-up at the Junior Olympic Championships in the 1500m in 5:37.57. She also helped her L.A. Jets teammates to a national age-group record in the 4x400m relay as well.

The Youth Athlete of the Year award was established in 2001 to recognize an outstanding performance by an athlete under the age of 19. Past winners have included Sanya Richards-Ross, LaShawn Merritt and Jason Richardson.  
   
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USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track & field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, the World's #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.

 
Katie Branham
USA Track & Field
Communications Manager
317­-713­-4672
Katie.Branham@usatf.org