Albany runner brings home the gold

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - An Olympian in the making.

Marianna Wright, a rising sophomore at Monroe High School came home with the gold this week after winning the 400 meter high hurdles at the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics held at Sacramento State University in California.

“I was kind of surprised when I looked at how fast I ran. And it just felt good. You know this was the last race of the season, so I was like you know I put everything I had on the track and it’s over. I’m done, " said Wright.

Wright ran her personal best of 59.88 seconds. Almost 2 seconds faster than her qualifying time.

Paul Jones, head coach of the Ruff Riders Club believes Marianna has what it takes to run at the next level.

“She’s running college times. And that’s the main thing that we run for. We trying to get better each year. We don’t just run to run. We try to find out what the colleges need and the times. And so right now she’s running D-1 times.”

Each summer Marianna continues to grow. Last summer she won the youth national championship at 14 years-old, and just a year later she is a junior Olympic national champion.

Marianna has accomplished so much at such a young age and she’s hungry for more. But what keeps her grounded are her friends, family, coaches, and younger teammates who look up to her.

“It’s very motivating me cause you know sometimes track is hard so it’s just good to have people pushing you, supporting you and telling you you can do it, said Wright.”

“Everybody on the team love her. She got that character about herself. She about business. She ain’t about all the lollygagging and you don’t find that kind of child at that age, said Jones.”

Now that summer track has come to an end, Wright is looking forward to entering her sophomore high school season and defending her state championship in the girls 300-meter hurdles.

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