Twelve-year-old Gaven Williams, a rising seventh-grader at Radnor Middle School, has qualified for the USA Track & Field National Junior Olympic Championships later this month on the campus of Sacramento State University.

Williams punched his ticket in the 200-meter dash and the 400 meters, courtesy of a pair of superb performances earlier this summer, first at the Mid-Atlantic Championships, then at the Region 2 Championships.

At the latter, Williams who competes in a division for boys ages 11 and 12, won a gold medal in the 200 meters in 25.78 seconds. He also took gold in the 400, clocking in at 57.93, almost four seconds better than the second-place finisher.

“Gaven never gives up,” Alicia Williams said of her son. “I’m inspired by the fight I see in his face as he crosses the finish line.”

Dating back to the 1960s, the USA Track & Field Junior Olympic program is the most visible youth athlete developmental program in the world. Nearly 70,000 youth athletes compete each year in its Track & Field and Cross-Country programs. The Mid-Atlantic Championships narrow the field to the cream of the crop in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Gaven’s older brother, 14-year-old Cameron, earned a spot atop the medal stand at the Mid-Atlantic Championships, as he finished fifth in the 100 meters and sixth in the 200 meters in 13-14 division.

Cameron will be a freshman at Radnor High School in the fall.

During the spring, both boys run with the Radnor Runners Track Club in the Suburban Development League at Lower Merion High School.