KIRANI JAMES FEELS GOOD AFTER RUNNING WORLD LEADING TIME
By Clayton Clarke

Alabama, February 7, 2010 -- Reigning World Youth double champion Kirani James says he feels good after clocking the fastest time in the World in the 400m indoors. Running his first race indoors for the University for Alabama, 17 year old James ran a world leading 45.79 seconds at the Meyo Invitational at the Loftus Center , Southbend, Indiana, on Saturday.

Speaking on the university’s website after the race, James said: “It feels good, but this race was just to see where I’m at. It’s not for me to make any statements or anything like that. It was just to see what I need to improve on to get better.” The lanky Grenadian began his studies at Alabama in January.

According to a report on the website “James blazed his way around the oval to claim the individual title with a NCAA automatic qualifying time of 45.79. The freshman was hardly pushed, as the second place finisher was almost a full second behind at 46.43.”

James’ world leading time is 0.02 seconds faster than the 45.81 set by Tabari Henry of the US Virgin Islands in Texas on 30th January. (Henry was 4th in the men’s 400m finals at the 2009 World Outdoor Championships in Berlin, Germany). James returned at the end of the day to lead off the 4×400m relay team which returned a time of 3 minutes 09.27 seconds to finish second in the race.

James holds the world age group records of 46.94 seconds at 14 years and 45.70 (15 year old).