Ramiah Elliott Earns Two National Titles at AAU Jr Olympics



While thousands of students in Indiana were headed back to the classroom for their first days of school, now sophomore Ramiah Elliott was busy earning two more national titles in Greensboro, NC at the AAU Junior Olympic Games.

On Friday, Elliott picked up her first title in the 200 with a dominating win of 23.45, just .03 off the national record for the 15-16 year old division. A little later she had the 400 prelims, where she made running a 400 look like nothing, cruising to a 54.94 with a nearly 4 second win in her heat and the 2nd fastest time of the prelims. 

Saturday, all she had to focus on was the 400 finals which came mid-afternoon. From the gun, she looked smooth and in control of her own race. Coming off the turn with 200 to go, Elliott found another gear and was racing nearly stride for stride with North Carolina's Kaylyn Brown. With just under 50 meters to go though, Elliott managed to break away from Brown and come across the line in 52.89. Her time would end up being the fastest finals time out of any of the girls 400 finals of the day. If she had raced that same time in the 17-18 year old division, she would have won by about 2 seconds. 

This mark now moves Ramiah Elliott up to No. 3 all-time in Indiana for the 400 and improves her freshman class record. The only two athletes standing in her way of being No. 1? Maciel Malone, who also graduated from North Central and Lynna Irby, who ran for Indiana Storm TC like Elliott. This also marks the 3rd Indiana female to run sub-53 in history while still in high school. 

Now it's back to Indiana where she will start her sophomore year of high school at North Central and back to training with the big goal ahead of breaking Lynna Irby's record of 51.39.





All AAU Jr Olympics Race Videos