THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507280173
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Shareef Webb traveled 200 meters in 29 seconds earlier this month. Because of that, the 10-year-old sprinter from the Princess Anne Plaza area will now travel 1,200 miles on Tuesday.
Shareef turned in the personal best time during the National Junior Amateur Athletic Union semifinals in Baltimore early in July. The race qualified him for the national finals in Des Moines, Iowa, in August.
His fleet feat is made all the more remarkable because this is Shareef's first year of competitive track. He runs for the Fast Start Track team, coached by Lisa Dixon and Sandy Coles.
``Shareef made his big breakthrough at the Hershey meet,'' said Coles. ``That was when we knew we had a special talent.''
Shareef attends Plaza Elementary School, where he will enter the fifth grade in September. He has been preparing himself for the Iowa trip with plenty of workouts and miles of running, although he's a sprinter. Shareef has played community league football and basketball for the Plaza Recreation Association the past couple of years.
Dixon, Coles and company have been spending Wednesday afternoons on the track at Norfolk Academy. The school hosts informal, open meets each week.
``Anybody can just come out and run. It doesn't matter how old you are or how fast - or slow - you are,'' said Dixon, who has had the Fast Start Track team for three years. ``It's good experience because you run against all ages.''
On a recent hot, hazy and humid Wednesday, Shareef burned around the rubberized track in the 100-meter and 400-meter races and the 4-by-100 relay. His team finished first in its age-division in the relay and he turned in a respectable 1:11.52 in the 400.
But it is in his specialty, the 200-meter, that Webb's ability is most apparent. His long fluid stride propelled him around two turns in the track and brought him to the finish line in 30 seconds, one second off his Baltimore time.
Shareef seemed uncomfortable talking about himself. He was more comfortable giving credit to the people he said have helped him.
``My father (Neil) works with me, and my mom always comes to watch me run,'' he said, pointing to the bleachers where Yolanda Webb sat with Dixon, Coles and several Fast Start supporters. ``And my grandma (Nola Webb), too. Can you say something about her? She has helped with money and in other ways. She always tells me I can do it if I want to and work hard enough.'' MEMO: For more information about the Fast Start Track team, call Lisa Dixon at
467-2605 or Sandy Coles at 474-9062.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
In his first year of competition, Shareef Webb, 10, ran a 200-meter
time that qualified for the National Junior AAU finals in Iowa.
by CNB