Issam Asinga breaks national high school 200-meter dash record
All that was standing in the way of Issam Asinga and a national high school record was the wind.
Asinga set a national high school record in the 200-meter dash on Saturday with a 19.97 at the Corky Crofoot Shootout in Lubbock, Texas. The Montverde senior's time broke the previous set by Noah Lyles (20.09) in 2016.
And he did it a week after running the fastest all-conditions 100-meter dash in high school history twice — wind-aided 9.83 and 9.86 marks in the same day.
Asigna, a Texas A&M signee, is running for Montverde Academy in Florida as a senior after winning Missouri Class 2 state championships in the 100, 200 and 400 as a junior.
Unlike his blistering 100 times the week before — which did not officially count as a record — his 200-meter mark was wind-legal with the wind assistance registering at 1.3-meters-per-second wind at his back, below the two-second legal threshold.
And better yet? When Asinga ran the wind-aided 9.83 at the PURE Athletics Spring Invitational on April 23, he narrowly beat Lyles, the previous 200 record-holder, who finished second with a 9.92.
Lyles is now a two-time World Champion and Olympic sprinter who won a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He attended T.C. Williams High School, which is now known as Alexandria City High School, in Alexandria, Virginia.
Running as a part of the Celerity Track Club at Texas Tech on Saturday against college sprinters, Asinga also won the 100-meter dash with a wind-aided 9.89 (3.2-meters-per-second wind advantage).
His previous personal best in the 200 came at the Florida State relays on March 25 when he ran a 20.57.
