July 14, 2008
BYDGOSZCZ, Poland -- Washington State freshman Jeshua Anderson wrapped up his competitive running season with a second gold medal before 12,000 spectators at the 12th Annual International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Sunday.
Anderson anchored the USA men's 4x400m relay team to a winning time of 3 minutes, 3.86 seconds, out-distancing the second-place Great Britain relay squad by more than two seconds. In the final event of the World Juniors at Zdzislaw Stadium, the American men's 4x400m relay team won the 10th gold medal in this event and the fourth consecutive victory in this event for the U.S. following a six-year run from 1986 to 1996.
During the first three legs of the relay, Great Britain and Germany were in contention, but Mississippi State's O'Neal Wilder's split time of 45.4 seconds, and WSU's Anderson's split time of 46.1 seconds, completed the work put in by the first two legs by Baylor's Marcus Boyd (45.7) and Texas A&M'
s Bryan Miller (46.7).
In a post-race quote provided on the Track & Field News website, Anderson said, "I just wanted to stay relaxed on the anchor leg and keep the lead so we could bring home some medals. I was still a little to tight from the 400m hurdles."
Friday night, Anderson won the men's 400m hurdles final in a time of 48.68 seconds.
This ends a very productive year for Anderson who is from Woodland Hills, Calif. He set a school record and lifetime-best 400m hurdles mark of 48.69 seconds at the NCAA Championship final last month in Des Moines, Iowa. In other notable intermediate hurdles races in the 2008 season, Anderson won the Texas Relays, the Mt. SAC Relays, the Pacific-10 Conference Championship, and the NCAA West Regional Championship. He went on to win the 2008 USA Junior Championship 400m hurdles title with a meet and stadium record-time of 49.28 seconds in Columbus, Ohio. Anderson ran at the USA Olympic Trials in Eugene last month, finishing ninth in the men's intermediate hurdles semifinals (48.92).
A member of the Washington State football team, Anderson played in 12 games in 2007 with 12 receptions and 2 touchdowns as a wide receiver and a member of the kickoff return squad.
