[Missouri-l] FW: Incredible blind runner competes in sprints, sets school's pole vault record

[Denny Huff]

Incredible blind runner competes in sprints, sets school's pole vault record

By

Cameron Smith

|

Prep Rally

-

Tue, Apr 3, 2012 7:49 AM EDT

2Fhighschool-prep-rally%2Fincredible-blind-runner-competes-sprints-sets-scho
ol-pole-CATEGORY:  DatingAndMatrimonials

At the Texas Relays, one of the nation's most prestigious prep track and
field events,

a 14-year-old freshman turned heads with her blazing speed in the 400 meters
and

impressive height in the pole vault. Her name in Charlotte Brown, and it
turns out

that the most impressive part about her feats isn't that she's only a
freshman --

it's that she is legally blind.

As reported artfully by the Dallas Morning News' Matt Wixon,

Brown ran the anchor leg of Emory (Texas) Rains High 400-meter relay

, and she finished her segment of the race in an impressive 62 seconds.
Among her

other achievements, Brown counts earning a spot on

the school's basketball team, running with the cross country team and,
somehow, holding a school record in the pole vault

.

She's done all of this by the age of 14, and done it with 20/400 vision in
her right

eye that she claims

is like looking through a blurry coffee stirrer

. Remarkably, the vision in her left eye is even worse;

she can only see through a tiny pinhole

.

[Rewind:

Blind surfer fulfills inspirational dream by riding waves at Pipeline

]

How the heck does Brown pull off that panoply of athletic achievements?
According

to the teenager, through lots and lots of repetition and hardened routines
that help

her make sure she's always on the right track.

"Fourteen steps to the vault. I just count my strides and I go," Brown told
the Morning

News. "I know when to put the pole down and jump."

Her routine with basketball was even more involved, and could occasionally
create

confusion where there was a turnover, which she had no idea had just
occurred. Yet

Brown still starred on the junior varsity team by guarding the ball handler
by listening

to the dribbling pattern and lunging in for steals when the opponent would
try to

cross over her dribble. Somehow

she even scored on breakaway layups after some steals

.

What next for a thriving freshman who hopes to qualify for the state track
and field

meet, either this year or another season soon?

Possibly the 100-meter hurdles

. Seriously.

"If I can count the steps to the hurdles and the hurdles are all the same
distance

apart," she said, "I could do it."

Based on her success so far, she would probably do a lot more than simply
try the

hurdles. She might just win.

More sports news from Yahoo! Sports:

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://moblind.org/pipermail/missouri-l_moblind.org/attachments/20120405/b276ae78/attachment.html>