Bralon Taplin (born 8 May 1992) is a Grenadian sprinter. Taplin is currently serving a seven year competition ban due to two separate violations against the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules. His ban is due to expire in September 2026.

Career

He competed in the 400 metres event at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing without advancing from the first round. He switched his allegiance from the United States to Grenada in December 2012. Previously he ran for

Stony Point High School Stony Point High School is a high school in the Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) in Round Rock, Texas Round Rock is a city in Williamson and Travis County, Texas, United States, part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. I ...

, winning the Texas state championship in the 400. then spent two years at

South Plains College South Plains College (SPC) is a public community college in Levelland, Texas. It also has five locations in Plainview, at the Reese Technology Center (formerly Reese Air Force Base), in western Lubbock, the Lubbock Downtown Center and th ...

, winning the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the governing association of community college, State college (disambiguation), state college, and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 sepa ...

Championship. He completed his college career at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

. In 2016 he represented Grenada at the Rio Olympics and progressed to the final where he eventually placed 7th with a time of 44.45 seconds. In 2017 he started his season by participating in the

IAAF World Indoor Tour The World Athletics Indoor Tour, formerly the IAAF World Indoor Tour, is an annual series of indoor track and field meetings, held since 2016. It was designed to create a Diamond League-style circuit for indoor track and field events, to raise th ...

. The first event he would take part in as part of the Tour would be the

PSD Bank Meeting The PSD Bank Meeting was an annual indoor track and field competition which took place in February at the Arena-Sportpark in Düsseldorf, Germany. The inaugural edition ''1. Internationales Indoor Meeting Düsseldorf'' was held in 2006 and attra ...

, held in Düsseldorf, Germany where he finished first in his group but second overall with a time of 46.25. His second race of the Tour was the

Copernicus Cup Copernicus Cup is an annual indoor track and field competition which takes place in February at the multi-purpose sports and entertainment Arena Toruń in Toruń, Poland. The meeting is currently an IAAF World Indoor Tour Meeting. In 2019, the co ...

. He not only finished first overall but he also established a new meet record with a time of 45.59 seconds. The third and deciding race of the Tour was the Müller Indoor Grand Prix which took place in

Birmingham, England Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands region, in England. It is the largest local authority district in England by population and the second-largest cit ...

. In this race Bralon placed fourth with a time of 46.38 seconds. The fourth-place finish meant that Bralon would have missed out on the " Wild Card" entry into the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham. Aside from the Tour Bralon set a National record in the 300m sprint (indoor) with a time of 31.97 seconds. His time was the fourth fastest indoor 300m time when it was set and was achieved at the Czech Indoor Gala in

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Bralon began his individual 2018 season with a world leading 45.48 indoor at the Ted Nelson Invitational in College Station. At the Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station, Texas on 3 February, Bralon ran a 44.88 indoor lifetime best over 400m. He became sixth man in history to better the 45-second barrier for 400m indoors. Bralon's time ranks him fifth on the world indoor all-time list, just two places and 0.08 behind his countryman

Kirani James Sir Kirani Zeno James GCNG COG (born 1 September 1992) is a Grenadian professional sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011 and won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. In the ...

, the 2012 Olympic champion.

Competition record

Personal bests

Outdoor *

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

– 20.83 (+0.4 m/s, San Angelo 2012) *

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

– 44.38 (Monaco 2016) Indoor *

– 20.80 (College Station 2015) *

300 metres The 300 metres is an uncommon (meaning not on an Olympic or World Championship program) sprinting event in track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contes ...

– 31.97 (Ostrava, Czech Republic 2017) NR *

– 44.88 (College Station, USA 2018)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taplin, Bralon 1992 births Living people Grenadian male sprinters World Athletics Championships athletes for Grenada Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Grenada Athletes (track and field) at the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Grenada People from St. George's, Grenada Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Grenada NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners Texas A&M Aggies men's track and field athletes NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners Junior college men's track and field athletes in the United States