BATON ROUGE – LSU’s Class of 2014 signee Daeshon Gordon is certainly one of the nation’s top hurdle recruits in the wake of a brilliant senior season at Northeast High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and she will now compete on an international stage with Jamaica at the IAAF World Junior Championships to be held later this month.
It has still yet to be determined which event Gordon will be selected for participation at World Juniors as she is the reigning gold medalist in the 100-meter hurdles and silver medalist in the 400-meter hurdles with her performance in the finals at the recent Jamaican Junior Track & Field Championships held on June 15 at the National Stadium in Kingston.
Gordon was announced as a member of Jamaica’s World Junior team by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association following the Central American & Caribbean Junior Championships last week.
Gordon joins Lady Tiger freshmen and Team USA members Nataliyah Friar (long jump) and Rebekah Wales (javelin) as part of LSU’s contingent that will compete at this year’s IAAF World Junior Championships that will be held at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene in just two weeks from July 22-27.
A native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of Jamaican descent, Gordon has smashed her personal bests in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and 400 hurdles during an outstanding senior season at Northeast High School in 2014.
She is currently the No. 1-ranked 400-meter hurdler in the United States at the high school level in the Class of 2014 with her personal best of 58.70 seconds clocked in a silver-medal-winning runner-up finish during the final at the Jamaican Junior Championships last month. Her seasonal-best time of 58.70 is also the No. 2-ranked time nationally in the high school ranks regardless of classification.
Gordon eclipsed her previous personal best of 58.92 in the event that she set a year ago when she was crowned the 2013 Jamaican Junior Champion in the event in only her third career appearance in the event.
After sweeping Florida’s Class 4A state championships in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles at the state meet in May, Gordon smashed her wind-legal personal best with a seasonal-best time of 13.61 (+0.4) in capturing a 100-meter hurdles title at the Golden South Classic held in Orlando earlier this spring. Gordon’s PR of 13.61 makes her the No. 9-ranked sprint hurdler nationally and the No. 5-ranked hurdler in the Class of 2014 for this outdoor season. She also owns a career-best wind-aided time of 13.46 (+2.5) set earlier this season.
In addition, Gordon opened her senior season outdoors back in March by clocking back-to-back personal bests of 41.85 in the preliminary round and 41.45 in the final to win the 300-meter hurdles at the Sam Burley Hall of Fame Invitational that was held in Miami. That effort ranks No. 9 nationally among all classes and No. 5 nationally among members of the Class of 2014 this season.
Gordon was recently selected as the Sun Sentinel’s Florida Class 4A-3A Girls Track Athlete of the Year on the strength of her outstanding senior season in 2014 at Northeast High School.
