'No pressure' for teen Lutkenhaus, Team USA's youngest worlds athlete / Photo: Patrick Smith - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
'No pressure' for teen Lutkenhaus, Team USA's youngest worlds athlete
US teen Cooper Lutkenhaus insists he feels "no pressure" about the coming world championships in Tokyo, where he will rub shoulders with top racers in the highly competitive 800m.
Lutkenhaus will be 16 years 8 months and 28 days old when he takes to the track at the National Stadium on Tuesday, becoming the youngest runner to represent the United States at a world championships.
The track star earned his ticket to the Japanese capital with a brilliant effort to finish second at the US trials in Oregon, where he set an under-18 world record time of 1min 42.27sec.
That was the fifth-fastest time over two laps for a US runner.
The Texas high school student promptly turned professional, signing a contract with Nike -- the youngest American athlete to do so.
"The journey has been awesome," Lutkenhaus told reporters on Friday alongside a clutch of far more experienced US teammates.
"To be able to sit in this seat next to some of the best athletes in the world at such a young age, it's really exciting.
"I'm just trying to do as best as I can here and represent Team USA as well as I can. There's just a lot of excitement going into this weekend."
Lutkenhaus acknowledged that he had not been shy in learning from his older teammates.
"They've shown me a lot these few days that I've been here," he said.
"There's a lot of experience on this table, so to be able to learn from them and other athletes that are also on the team like Donovan (Brazier) and Bryce (Hoppel), I feel like that I can go a long way in a few years when I'm a little bit older."
Semi-finals are scheduled for Thursday and the final on Saturday.
- Good prep -
Lutkenhaus, however, will have his work cut out to advance in the loaded 800 metre field.
The gruelling, lung-busting event has been one of the stand-outs of the circuit this season, with Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Canada's defending title holder Marco Arop seeking to break David Rudisha's 2012 world record of 1:40.91.
"The prep has been going really well," Lutkenhaus said. "US trials were very crazy. The past few weeks have been crazy, but the past two weeks leading into Tokyo have been going very smooth with training.
"I'm just trying to keep everything as normal as possible.
"We've done that pretty well ever since after the US trials, just making sure I keep doing what I need to do. And hopefully it pays off."
Lutkenhaus said his key strength was "being able to know when to make moves".
But the teenager has his sights mainly trained on trying to enjoy this part of the ride.
"I don't think I have any pressure or outside noise on me, so if that's a final, if that's a semi-final, if that's a prelim, I'm walking out of the stadium with my head held high, being able to represent Team USA."
L.Scott--EWJ
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