Somerset Academy (Pembroke Pines, FL), Southwest Ranches, FL, c/o 2025
AthleticNET Bio
At the Brooks PR Invitational at Renton Stadium, Alessa Samuel lined up next to Akala Garrett, the ‘22 World U20 400mH champion in the girls 100 meter hurdle final. Samuel had credentials of her own. A 13.26 into a -2.0 wind at the Louie Bing Invitational on Feb 19, plus a second place at the Florida Relays(13.49, +1.6) in April, and a trifecta at the Florida State 3A championships- 110m(11.44, +3.3), 100m hurdles(13.67, +0.6) and the 200m(23.84, +1.3) in June.
As the gun went off, Samuel was out- “ I do have a good start”- and over the first two hurdles she was even if not in front of Garrett. She matched her hurdle for hurdle until the fifth. Then Garret started to pull away and the field slipped by Samuel. She finished fourth by thousandths of a second in 13.43(+0.6) with Garrett winning going away in 13.13.
The race went almost to plan. “ Leesa” as she is nicknamed thinks the poorest part of her race is her first two hurdles. It’s not the start, but the ability to carry her speed from her start over the first two hurdles. In this race she led Garrett through those first two hurdles. Garrett’s last last loss in the 100m hurdles was the Nike Outdoor Nationals in ‘21.
In the strongest part of her race, Leesa had problems. Her strength is typically in the latter part of the race.
“When I get to the third hurdle I can feel my momentum picking up. It’s just perfect after that. My momentum builds. I think that’s the biggest strength.”
However, in this race, the momentum didn’t come. It reflected a problem she feels when she is in a race at times. She sheds light on the problem and what happened at Brooks PR:
“When I run against competition, I get a little nervous and forget all about my technique and stuff. I knew she was competition, like coming into it. When we were running and she was up there, I got nervous. I’m not sure if I hit a hurdle or I stumbled a little bit, but that’s what happened. It’s just like that when it comes to competition.”
It was a tough loss and as she reflects on her entire season, she just wasn’t able to reproduce the great race she had in her opener at Louie Bing.
“When I was doing indoors, it was a little iffy. When I got to outdoors, it started to get better by Louie Bing . On the first day it was okay, but then the second day, I did way better in the finals in my hurdles and other races. Then…
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