Sports

13-Year-Old Beats Hall of Famer Willie Banks in High Jump Clash of Ages

But former world record holder in triple jump returns to claim American age-group record at 56.

Updated at 1:05 p.m. Feb. 3, 2013

Sean Lee is 13. Willie Banks is 56.

Only at an all-comers track meet would a seventh-grader be competing against a Hall of Famer—a two-time Olympian and former world record holder in the triple jump.

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But the high jump is Sean’s specialty. He holds numerous youth records and titles.

When the bar was raised to 5 feet 11 inches Saturday at Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Peñasquitos, it was a showdown of two American age-group record holders—with Banks the best man over 55 (having cleared 6 feet last year) and Sean having been among the best preteens ever.

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The result: Three misses for Banks, a Carlsbad resident and La Jolla High School coach, and a second-try clearance for Sean of Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate School.

Watched by father Ron Lee—a coach at Trabuco Hills High School in Orange County—Sean had good tries at 6-1, which would have been 3 inches short of the American record for boys 13-14.

Asked what he thought about beating a legend, Sean just smiled.

Banks smiled too—especially after getting a great mark in the triple jump after fouling three times (by stepping over the takeoff board). On his fourth and last try, the Oceanside High product hop, step and jumped a distance of 42-7.

That beats the listed American record for men 55-59 by 16 inches. At first, for lack of a steel measuring tape, the mark was considered ineligible for ratification by USA Track and Field. A cloth tape had been used.

But Banks informed Patch Sunday that “they held up the event until a steel tape could be purchased from the nearest Home Depot, so the record will be ratified.”

Dennis McClanahan, the meet director and Mt. Carmel High School track coach, had made a call for a steel tape over the PA system, but none was produced at first. 

But the meet—fourth of five in the San Diego-Imperial USATF Winter Classic series—drew as many as 200 athletes from age 8 to the 60s, McClanahan said.

Results are attached to this story as a PDF.

In many events, such as the 55-meter dash and 1600-meter run, top finishers qualified for the Run for the Dream indoor meet two weeks from now in Fresno.

Begun in 80-degree weather under sunny skies, the 4-hour meet ended under a cloud cover with temps in the 60s. Runners, jumpers and throwers traveled from as far away as Orange and Riverside counties, paid a $10 entry fee and dodged a few stray raindrops.

Banks, who competed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1999. His world record in the triple jump of 58-11 1/2 lasted 10 years.

And Sean?  He’s 5-6 1/2, weighs 95 pounds and has won four straight national titles in Junior Olympics. He eventually will attend Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo, where his sister is a junior (and high-jumps 5-3), says his father.

The last Winter Classic all-comers meet is Saturday, Feb. 9, at Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley. See attached PDF for details.


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