Masai Russell reacts to losing high school track coach Clarence Franklin a month after winning gold medal at Paris Olympics 2024

By Soumik Bhattacharya

Modified Sep 17, 2024 14:57 GMT

Masai Russell has reacted to the demise of her high school coach Clarence Franklin. This comes just a month after her successful campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she clinched a gold medal in the Women's 100m hurdles event.

Franklin was a part of the track and field program in the Bullis School where Russell completed her high schooling. The track and field coach breathed his last on September 6 (as stated by Bullis School's head coach Joe Lee in his Instagram post) with the reasons for his death still to be confirmed.

Russell took to her official Instagram handle to share a story reacting to the death of her former coach. She shared an image of Clarence Franklin and wrote:

"Going to miss you coach, rest easy"

Russell's Instagram story screenshot (Image via Russell's Instagram handle)

During her time at the Bullis School, Russell competed in various track meets and was also included among the top 300 US high school hurdlers.

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Masai Russell clinched consecutive podium finishes in Zurich and Rome Diamond League meets

Russell during the women's 100m hurdles finals at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (Image via Getty)

Competing after a fifth-place finish in Silesia, Masai Russell made a strong comeback in the Rome and Zurich Diamond League meets. In Rome, Russell clinched the second position in the Women's 100m hurdles event (run time of 12.31 seconds), finishing just behind Jamaica's Ackera Nugent, who clocked a world lead run time of 12.24 seconds.

Consequently, the Rome event was Russell's first Diamond League podium finish in this 2024 track and field season. Following her second-place finish in Rome, the 24-year-old reflected on her life after the gold medal-winning Olympic campaign in Paris. She said (via Wanda Diamond League):

"My life has not change that much since winning the Olympics, since I am still in season. I think it might change after the season is over. I went home for 1.5 weeks after Paris, just to reset, but I am ready for more races. The plan for the future is to win more races and medals."

Russell continued her impressive run in Zurich, finishing third in the Women's 100m hurdles event. She registered a run time of 12.47 seconds to finish behind Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (12.36 seconds) and Cyrena Samba-Mayela (12.40 seconds).

The Zurich event was the last Diamond League event for Masai Russell as she didn't participate in the Brussels Diamond League finals.