SHERBROOKE, Canada - One made it look extraordinarily easy and the other did it the hard way, but the end result was the same Friday night as Jessica Onyepunuka and Jason Richardson raced to Team USA’s first gold medals at the 3rd IAAF World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada.

Onyepunuka, an Arizona high schooler from Peoria whose parents both ran the sprints for Nigeria, rocketed out of the blocks in the women’s 100 meters final and never looked back as she set a Championships record and recorded the fastest youth time in the world this year with an 11.31 clocking. Her time is the ninth-fastest ever by a U.S. high schooler, and stunned the crowd that braved cold, dreary conditions all day.

Teammate Krystin Lacy was a slight favorite going into the final after setting a Championships record of 11.43 in the prelims, but a slow start hurt her gold chances and she had to settle for a silver in 11.50 seconds.

“I’m shocked. I’m stunned. I don’t know what to say,” said Onyepunuka,. “I am so proud of both of us, we came out here and did what we were supposed to do. It’s all about national pride. We tried to make our country proud, our parents proud, our family proud and our coaching staff proud.”

Richardson surely must rank as one of the top young hurdlers in history if today’s performance is anything to go by. The Cedar Hill, Tex., high schooler came from behind to win the 110-meter hurdles in a world youth-leading 13.29 seconds only 37 minutes after winning his semifinal of the 400 hurdles in 51.30, the fastest of all qualifiers. Kevin Craddock of the U.S. was fifth behind Richardson with a personal best 13.87.

“This was extremely hard,” Richardson said. “I was cramping before the 110s, and the problems with the starter (several delays and false starts) actually helped me. It gave me a little more time to rest. It is hard running over lower hurdles in the 110’s, because the hurdles appear to come up quicker and it seemed like I was a lot closer than I usually would be over the higher hurdles. (note: the World Youth 110 hurdles are 36 inches high, while the U.S. high school highs are 39 inches.) I am really confident about the 400 hurdles final, because now I know I can go all out and try to break the meet record and run under 50 seconds. I had to conserve my energy over the past two days, but now I can let go. I was running pretty conservatively in the 400H semifinals.”

In tonight’s other finals: - Brittany Daniels bounded 12.83/42-1.25 in the fourth round to place fifth in the triple jump, two spots ahead of Erica McLain, who had a best of 12.74/41-9.75 on the day. - D’Andra Carter garnered a fifth-place finish in the women’s discus with a 45.00/147-8 toss on her final attempt, and Misti Barber used a fifth-round 43.31/142-1 throw to place eighth. - Chad Brown, who had the best throw of the qualifying round in the men’s javelin, ended up seventh in the final with a 69.08/226-8 effort. - Multi-eventer Adam Fretwell was ninth in the octathlon with a personal best score of 5897 points. Teammate Dan Kinsey was 19th at 5592. - Zack Midles was 12th in the men’s hammer throw with a 190-3 toss.

Team USA continued a hot streak in qualifying rounds of other events, led by Domenique Manning and Pavi’elle James in the women’s 100 hurdles. Manning zipped to a personal best 13.35 to finish second in the first semi, while James also set a PR in semifinal two with a 13.51 run to take third and advance to the final.

Natasha Hastings, who has the best youth women’s 400 time in the world this year, made easy work of her semi, advancing with a 54.03, and Brandi Cross moved on to the finals with a 54.80 to take third in her semifinal heat.

Other advancers on Friday were Cedric Goodman in the men’s 400, Jamaal Charles in the men?s 400 hurdles, Michael Haddan in the men’s 800 and Cody Harper in the men’s 1500.

Goodman turned in the fourth fastest time in the semifinals, winning his heat in 47.84 to qualify for the final. The big news in the event was the no-show by pre-meet favourite Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who complained about the lengthy wait on the track before his heat, the first semifinal.

Charles, one of the most highly-touted young running backs in high school football, fell behind early but made a late charge over the final three hurdles to secure a berth in the finals, clocking a personal best 52.36 in the process.

Haddan used similar tactics in the first semifinal of the 800, coming from fourth place over the final 50 meters to finish second and earn an automatic spot in the final with a 1:53.35.

In the 1500, Harper kept close to the lead pack throughout the race and slipped into the final as the 12th fastest runner at 3:58.77.

FRIDAY MORNING SESSION NOTES

After glorious weather for the first day of competition at the 3rd IAAF World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada, Friday’s morning session was beset by cold temperatures and steady light rain.

The conditions didn’t slow down Team USA too much, though, as all but one of the squad’s competitors advanced to the next round.

Courtney Champion, who earned Verizon Athlete of the Meet honors at last week’s USATF Youth Athletics nationals, turned in the fastest qualifying time in the women’s 200 with a windy 23.50 in heat one. Teammate Cleo Tyson set a personal best of 23.61 to finish second in heat seven and move on.

In the men’s 100 heats, another Verizon Athlete of the Meet from Buffalo, Michael Grant, easily advanced to the semifinals with a second-place finish at 10.71 in heat six. Jay Cooper also placed second in heat one at 10.76 to advance.

Kansan Trisa Nickoley made easy work of heat three of the women’s 800, winning in 2:09.57 to qualify for the semifinals.

A personal best in heat one of the men’s 2000 steeplechase helped Ben DeLay earn a trip to the final. DeLay clocked 6:00.80 to finish seventh, while Andres Urbina grabbed a finals spot with his fifth-place finish in heat two at 6:01.39.

Inclement weather forced meet officials to cancel today’s women’s pole vault and hammer qualifying rounds. Both events will be contested as straight finals.