Allen High School senior Tsegaya Fazarro poses after winning the 100m and 200m at the UIL 6A -District 5-6 Area Championships
Photo credit: William Grundy/MileSplit TX
- - -
The world unexpectedly opened up like the Red Sea and then came down like a hail storm on top of Allen High School sprinter Tsegaya Fazarro. Skepticism, judgement, and all of the haters having things to say with Fazarro being in the center of it all. All the sprinter did to find himself in the midst of conversations of others was do what he has been trained to do by his coaches and raised to do by his parents -- give his all.
Track and field was passed down to Fazarro, it's a family thing as was being the best you can at whatever you do. That's why when he lined up for the UIL 6A - District 5 Championship, he had only done what was instilled in him through years of home training and athletic training
That's when he did what nobody was expecting. . . run a lifetime best, 10.10 in the 100m.
The time was fast, extremely fast. It's not often high school athletes come along and can perform at that level, so it's no wonder people were skeptical of the time. Message boards and social media lit up with comments about how Fazarro's performance wasn't real, wasn't legitimate, or how he isn't really that fast. All of it was out Fazarro's control and it wasn't in result of something he shouldn't have done.
It's popular belief that the race was wind aided and that Fazarro shouldn't be credited with the time. Was it a windy race? By looking at the video, yes, there clearly was wind present at the meet, but how much?
- - -
- - -
To credit the naysayers, we don't know if Fazarro's race was wind legal. We also do not know if the wind was under the allowable meters per second to count as a wind legal mark. Reason being is the meet did not have wind gauges at the meet to measure the wind.
It was all unfair, but it was unfair to Fazarro. He only did what he was suppose to do and run as fast as he could. The surrounding factors like mother nature and the lack of proper championship meet equipment wasn't his responsibility.
Also not having wind gauges was the UIL 6A - District 5-6A Area Championships where Fazarro once again ran a blazing fast time. He produced a 10.11 in what was another championship meet with windy conditions and no way to decipher if the time was legal or not.
In the absence of wind gauges and without a way to accurately how strong the winds were, they are listed as no wind indicator (NWI) performance for record keeping purposes.
The uncertainty of Fazarro's talent may still be in the air for some, but the Allen sprinter is as confident as ever, "It definitely feels like I have the ability, my body's in the form to run these kinds of times," he said.
He started the 2022 track and field season by running 10.75 at his first meet. From there, he would eventually run 10.68 and eventually 10.49 at the Texas Relays. With 10.34 and 10.10 performances coming last weekend and now 10.11, we can see the progress Fazarro had made to provide him with the confidence he is running with now. He added, "Once I finished district, I had a whole new level of confidence."
Now, it's on the area championship round for Fazarro and if things go well, that will be followed by the state meet. Both of the next two rounds should have wind gauges, so we'll get to see Fazarro display his true ability with accurate readings. Based on the outcomes, his next couple of races could still bring the opinions of outsiders. Fazarro's take, "I honestly could care less what people say, I'm just here to run and make it to state."
