Wednesday, May 31, 2006

13.69, 50.35, 21.9, 47.64, 1:53.1, 16:44, 2.15 and 7.16.

What kind of times can you turn in?
Tell him an 18-year-old boy did all this,'' a reporter asked a translator sitting next to Liu at a news conference. In order, the marks represent performances in the 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles, 200, 400 and 800 meters, 5 kilometers, high jump (7-03/4) and long jump (23-6).

"He's very good,'' said Liu, 22. "Some of the times are better than when I was 18.''

David Klech's marks from recent high school track and field competitions reflect a rare body of work from an unlikely source: a gangly, effusive teenager raised in a comfortable, nurturing environment by parents Bill and Yvonne Klech in the Contra Costa County suburb of San Ramon. No gritty triumph-over-adversity story here.

"He's wired differently than 99 percent of the other athletes out there,'' said Mark Karbo, Klech's track coach at California High School. Make that 99.9 percent.

"He's an American original, not just a guy who runs fast,'' said UCLA coach Art Venegas, who, in the fall, will be the beneficiary of Klech's surpassing, and often surprising, talent. "He's unique in the way he expresses himself.''

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

At the 400M hurdles, I read that this kid is being fingered as the next Edwin Moses. He doesn't hurdle, he runs over them the way Moses did.