While there might not be much
track going on in New York State, there is plenty of history to pore
through. In our time off, we are looking to revisit all of the State
Records for the Outdoor Season. Who these athletes were, where their
marks came from, and where are they now. Twice a week, we'll be
releasing "Snapshots Of A State Record," where you can learn what it
takes, to be put your mark on history. Tune in!
We look here at the twelfth-oldest record still on the books for the boys. Enjoy!
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Edino Steele is set to go on a gusty day down in Greensboro NC on July 25, 2004 at the Russell Blunt - East Coast Invite. He's lined up for the first of two sections in the semifinals after running a strong 10.60 in prelims for the third best time overall. That prelim time was run with a 2.8 mps wind behind him, which doesn't matter for results except in the decision about whether a time counts as a meet state record.
The wind is going to play a big factor here, though not so much in either who is going to win this semis race or who is winning the 100m finals later. J-Mee Samuels of Mt. Tabor HS in NC is way faster than anyone here, 10.22 in prelims and he will run a 10.07 in semis, both well over the wind limit of +2.0. But Steele, of the Velocity Track Club of Brooklyn, is just running to get to finals, and he isn't giving much thought to how strong the wind is blowing. The number that the wind gauge shows will have a big impact though on his place in the record books though.
At the gun, Steele is off and way but he is given a stiff challenge from Travis Padgett of the Charlotte Elite Track Club who had the second-best time behind Samuels in prelims. Steele has to respond, and he speeds to a time that is likely somewhere between, in thousandths, 10.391 and 10.394. Meet results show the time as 10.39, but HS record books will follow standard procedures for citing times in the hundredths and round the time up to 10.40. Whichever way you look at it, the time is a state record, breaking the old mark of 10.46.
Ah, but back to that wind gauge, which on many occasion has cruelly disappointed an athlete who thought he had just pocketed a record. For Steele in the semis section 1, the reading is 2.0. A tenth of a meter per second more and the 10.40 would just be another fast time slotted into the 100 Meters - Winded Aided list of marks that do not count as records. So whether he knows it now or not, Steele can exult over an NY best.
Likely though, Steele is too focused on the rest of the day here at the Blunt Invite to worry about the wind. In the finals, Samuels will run a 10.25 to breeze to the win, while Steele will have a comfortable sprint to 2nd place at 10.59. The wind is well over the legal limit for finals.
The wind gauge will look favorably on Steele in the 200m. In prelims he breaks the 21.0 mark with a 20.99 that at that time is the second best ever for NY behind only Jermaine Stafford of Benjamin Franklin in 1993. His semis time is a fraction slower at 21.01, but the wind gauge though a little higher than in prelims is right at the 2.0 limit. Steele settles a little further back at 21.12 in finals with the wind gauge up at 2.8, but he wins all three races by more than .30 and walks off with the win.
And his superman action is not over, because he is a team player. Although he can only boost his Velocity TC team to a 7th place at 42.94 in the 4x100m, he is getting set for his future with a great leg on the 4x400m squad that earns them a 2nd place at 3:17.83. Not bad, though in 9 years he will be running on a Jamaican squad that will break 3 minutes.
The Man of Steele has leaped over tall barriers to land at the top of the NY record books.
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Like so many elite sprinters, Edino Steele got his running going in Jamaica. Born in Kingston to parents that included an elite 400m runner father, Steele got an initial taste of the track while attending Lannaman's Preparatory school in the city, though we were not able to dig up any times that he ran there in his very early days.
He moved to Brooklyn in 1998 when he was 11, and he stayed with the running. It wasn't until he was in high school though at Sheepshead Bay that he really began to gravitate to, as he said, the "running thing."
Records are a little sparse from this period, but Steele was definitely running with Sheepshead Bay in his freshman indoor track season when he posted a 1:37.94 in a meet in December and then ran a 6.79 in the PSAL championship at the Armory for 6th place.
What happened for Steele in his 2002 frosh outdoor season and the 2003 sophomore indoor season is unknown, but by May of 2003 he was on the way to earning his Man of Steele nickname in the newspapers. In the middle of the month at the PSAL-Brooklyn Boro championship, he posted his best time of 11.04 in the 100m semifinals and then won the event with a much slower 11.23. He also threw in a 20-9 long jump for 2nd, so it was likely a fairly tiring day.
A week later at the PSAL championship, the finals were run in a downpour and Steele got an upset win with a time of 10.95, which was very fast under the conditions and a slow start. "I just tried to get out fast," he said, "but I didn't really get out fast."
On to the 2003 States meet, Steele posted the fourth best time in the 100m prelims to earn him lane 3 in the finals. The duel to the finish was very close, but Steele got the win in the rain and the Federation state championship title with a 10.85 time.
After his sophomore season, Steele transferred to Pacific HS, which existed in Downtown Brooklyn until 2011. Pacific did not have a track team, so Steele joined the Velocity Track Club that operated out of the nearby YMCA facilities. No longer able to compete in the PSAL meets, Steele worked out with fellow track club members for big opportunities ahead. They came first in early June at the Junior Olympic regionals where he ran a PR of 10.73 in the 100m prelims but then got edged in the finals as he ran 10.89. He did win the 200m though at 21.43, and it showed that Steele was moving to a little longer distances on the track.
2004 would end for Steele with two meets down in NC. At New Balance Nationals Outdoor later in June, he swept the 100m with a best time of 10.71 in prelims and also the 200m with a 21.34. He also had a huge 23-0.25 leap in the long jump for 3rd place and ran a leg of the 4x100m for Velocity TC, which finished 15th. A month later he traveled down with his club to Greensboro for an elite end-of-season meet. He came away with a win in the 200m and a state record in the 100m.
There isn't a lot of info about Steele's senior year at Pacific. During the indoor season he ran at the Seton Hall College meet in December and ran a 21.93 in the 200m, a time that would have put him at US #4 for the season if listed. Two weeks later at the MAC Holiday meet he ran a 33.74 in the 300m that was the top US time for the year, and he also ran a 1:21.7 in the 600m that if listed would have slotted him in among the nation's top 5.
After graduation, Steele headed out to Pasadena City community college near LA and was the star of the Lancers track team for two years, twice sweeping up four wins in individual and relay events in championships. He became more focused on the 400m, which he definitely had the build for. After college he went back to Jamaica and competed for his birth country in 2006, racking up medals in Caribbean championships and also competing in World Juniors and taking 5th in the 400m. He won a silver medal with the Jamaican 4x400 team at the 2008 IAAF World championship. And as long as he was running outdoors in the bright light, there was always the prerequisite sun glasses.
Splitting his training and competitions between Jamaica and the US during the following years, Steele was expected to have a big year in 2012 at the London Olympics. A case of the hiccups at his nation's trials cost him a chance to compete for an individual title but he did earn a place for the 4x400m squad at set a PR of 45.38 that July. In London though his spot was given to an injured athlete who pulled up in prelims and cost Jamaica a shot at the gold.
Steele did get another silver medal with the Jamaican 4x400m squad at the 2013 IAAF Worlds with a time of 2:59.88. In January of 2014 he broke Usain Bolt's meet record in the 400m at the Queens - Grace Jackson meet, and in February at the Camperdown Classic in Kingston he upset his renowned running partner Yohan Blake. Steele was still running the 400m through 2015.
And yes, being on the Jamaican team did give him the chance to practice new hand-shake routines with Usain Bolt.
Before Steele ran his 10.40, the state record had been held by Benjamin Franklin's Jermaine Stafford. In his senior season in 1994, Stafford went out to the Arcadia Invite in April and ran a 10.46 to best his own record of 10.49 set at the 1993 States meet.
Below from ten years after his NY record, Steele runs really well in the Camperdown Classic.