A 17-Year-Old Broke the Junior 100m World Record — At a Dawn Meet

Dawn meets exist for one reason: cool air, still wind, honest times. At 6:41 a.m., with a breeze reading of 0.0 m/s, the teenager ran 9.98 — the fastest junior 100 metres ever recorded under legal conditions.

The stadium held perhaps 300 people, most of them other athletes wrapped in blankets. On the broadcast you can hear the starter exhale before the gun, then nothing but spikes on track.

Her coach says the plan for winter is deliberately boring: no senior championships, no distance races, just "school, sleep and strides". The sport, briefly united, agrees.

“9.98 seconds, a tailwind of exactly zero, and a stadium so quiet you could hear the starter's breath on the broadcast.”