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TrackLife/DPalmer photo
Francis, left, goes through her drive phase in training.
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Chamique Francis is undoubtedly a rising star in track and field. This endorsement was solidified by her performance at the 2010 New Balance National Scholastic High School Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, when she ran a PR (personal record) of 53.20 seconds, edged out at the tape by Brianna Nelson (53.16) for second place in the high school girls 400m finals. She is now ranked among the top three high school female 400m runners in the US.
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DPalmer/TrackLife Photo
Francis runs the 4x4 at the Armory.
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In the 2009 New York State Championships, the lanky quarter-miler ran a personal best of 53.43 seconds and was named New York City Public School Athletic League (PSAL) Athlete of the Year.
Francis, who is of Jamaican roots, is a senior at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens, New York and is presently entertaining track scholarship offers from several top colleges, such as Louisiana State University (LSU), Texas A&M, and UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), just to name a few. She says her personal goal for the 2011 season is to run sub-53 seconds in her pet event. She, however, identifies her current PSAL 100m record of 11.46 set at the 2010 City Championships and her role on the Benjamin Cardozo high school girls 4x400m relay at the 2009 Reebok Grand Prix at New York’s Icahn Stadium as two of her premier achievements on the track. In the latter race, her team demolished an elite field, which included top Jamaican high school squads, to win in 3:39.96 seconds.
While Francis can best be described as a determined technician on the track, her phenomenal rise in the sport didn’t begin in high school. It started as early as age 7, when her mother, Claudette, a Jamaican and a formidable athlete in her time, saw her long-legged daughter as a prodigious talent for track and signed her up with Ruff Kutz Track Club in Queens, under the direction of Coach Charles Weeks. Since then, Francis’s progress, achievements and, in some cases, dominance on the track is well documented in the USATF (USA Track & Field) and AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) annals.
At the recent Indoor Hispanic Games at the Armory in New York (Jan. 8, 2011) Francis, a favorite to win the High Girls Invitational 400m race, was upset by Sandrae Farquharson of Medgar Evers Prep High School of Brooklyn. But Francis says she welcomes the challenge from Farquharson, a former star athlete at Jamaica’s Manchester High School, and views her presence as the motivation she needs to propel her to achieve her goal of running sub-53 for the 2011 season.
High Points of Chamique Francis’s High School Profile
100 Meters 11.46 seconds 2010 NYC PSAL Championships (Outdoors)
200 Meters 24.23 seconds 2010 NYC Mayor’s Cup (Outdoors)
300 Meters 38.21 seconds 2010 NYC PSAL Championship (Indoors)
400 Meters 53.20 seconds 2010 NB National Scholastic High School Championships
High Jump 5’ 4” 2010 NYC PSAL City Championships.