Just a few months earlier, he was a fifth-place finisher at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships, unsure of exactly where he stood among the nation’s best. Now, he was wearing a Team USA uniform and competing on an international stage as one of 33 hurdlers to run sub-13.
“I got a little bit nervous because I knew that if I played my cards right here, then I could actually win this and get the first-ever Ultimate Champion title,” Franklin said.
Franklin eventually placed third in the World Athletics Ultimate Championship final with a time of 13.01 seconds. While he did not get first, he knew he just broke out as one of the best runners in the world. Something that the guy at the NCAA meet could never have said.
When Franklin entered the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championship in June as a SoCon record holder and aspiration to be a collegiate champion.
“I went in wanting to win, but I think that NCAA’s showed me where I was compared to everyone else and what I still needed to do,” Franklin said. “Getting fifth was a great opportunity for me. Obviously, I underperformed a little bit, but it’s kind of hard to stay on your feet when somebody sets a world record right in front of you.”
After NCAAs, Franklin had several meets scheduled for the summer, beginning with the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis, Tenn.
Franklin entered the qualifying round of the race with trepidation after a minor strain on him hamstring for the rest of the summer. Those worries were quickly alleviated when he placed first and entered the finals next to Jamal Britt, the time no. 2 in the world at the time,
“I ended up getting second in that race,” said Franklin. “I was leading for the majority of it, but I ended up making a couple of mistakes at the end of the race and Britt ended up coming from behind and beating me. But it was still a very good experience being able to race against a professional like that.”
The next major meet Franklin had scheduled for the summer was the USA Track and Field Championships. Because there was no World Athletics championship requiring qualification for Team USA that summer, the field was not as deep as it typically would be. But Franklin still had an opportunity to test himself against Cordell Tinch, who at the time was the world champion.
“I ran in the preliminary race, and I ended up running a 13.04 with legal wind this time, meaning it was an actual personal record,” Franklin said. “Tinch only ran 13.12 in his prelim, so I was the top seed going into the final.”
The final came down to a lean at the end that went Tinch’s way, but Franklin still took a lot of pride in being less than a tenth of a second away from a USA title.
After that success, Franklin began considering the World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
“I knew about this meet the entire season, and I was thinking it would be really cool if I could qualify for this,” Franklin said. “But it was more of a pipe dream.”
To qualify he would need to put himself in top 16 of the world in his event so he had to find one more meet that could improve his rank.
“We eventually ended up finding out about a meet in Italy called the Grand Prix Broshia,” Franklin said. “I won it by a pretty significant margin, actually. I beat both Cordell Tinch and Jamal Britt, and I ended up taking my first professional victory, which was really, really great for me.”
That victory was enough for Franklin to punch his ticket to the World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
So, Franklin flew to Budapest.
“After we landed and I got my credentials, I was given the Team USA kit, and it was just quite surreal to look at that. Wearing the actual Team USA uniform is what most athletes dream of.”
While Franklin was disappointed not to win, he had the perspective to appreciate where he has been at this point in his career.
“I know that I still have quite a lot to go and I have a lot of things planned for this upcoming season, but I would say this was a very successful summer season,” Franklin said.
Now that he is back on campus, Franklin is taking time to rest his body and focus on school. But while he takes a break from running, he will continue to dream about winning not only SoCon titles, but NCAA, National, International or any other titles that will prove his is the best in the world.
Sports Editor
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