LOS ANGELES — Allyson Felix moves at a dizzying pace. When she's not sprinting to record times on the track, she's hurrying to the weight room for workouts and rushing to class as a high school senior.

That's life when you're the world's fastest teenager, perhaps even the next Marion Jones.

Felix gained the teenage title early this month at a meet in Mexico City with a time of 22.11 seconds in the 200 meters. She set a world junior record and defeated a field of professionals that included 1999 world champion Inger Miller, LaTasha Jenkins and Kelli White.

Her time was the fastest in the world this year and tied Olympic champion Jones' best time last year.

"She's taking elite athletes and running them down from behind, which you don't expect from a high school kid," said Barry Ross, the volunteer weightlifting coach at Los Angeles Baptist.

Felix's success is more surprising because she didn't take up track until ninth grade at the 600-student private school in suburban North Hills that lacks much of a track-and-field tradition.

"She's assumed the identity of a world-class athlete at the age of 17, and that's the phenomenon," said Jonathan Patton, the school's walk-on sprint coach.

Felix's talents will be on display Sunday at the Home Depot Track & Field Invitational, the first event at a new facility in suburban Carson.

Jones won't be there; she's taking the season off to have a baby.

The meet begins a busy summer for the teenager with the braids and big smile. Felix will defend her titles in the 100 and 200 at the California high school championships June 6-7.

In April, she won the 200 in 22.51 at the Mount SAC Relays in Walnut, beating Jones' 11-year-old national high school record by .07 seconds.

Felix got Jones' autograph at last year's Mount SAC meet. In 2001, she raced against Jones in the same preliminary heat of a senior-level meet and finished fourth out of eight, missing the finals by .01 seconds.

"She's not afraid to run anybody," Ross said. "Heaven help her if you beat her once, because she's going to come back at you like you wouldn't believe."

Felix is comfortable with the constant comparisons to Jones, a triple gold medalist at the 2000 Olympics who first gained recognition as a prep star in suburban Thousand Oaks.

"I take it as a compliment because I admire her and she's done great things, but also there's the other side of it," Felix said. "I want to be something different, and I am something different."

Felix's immediate goal is the national championships in late June, where she'll concentrate on the 200. Her aim is a top-three finish, which would qualify for the world championships in August in Paris.

After that, she's scheduled to attend Southern California, where her brother Wes, a sophomore, recently won the 200 at the Pac-10 championships.

Felix wants to major in education and teach elementary school like her mother, Marlean. Her father, Paul, is an ordained minister.

But she also could skip college, turn pro and accept big money. Next year, Felix says all her training will be geared to making the Olympic team and earning a medal in Athens.

"It would be a surprise to me if she competed four years at USC, because after one year, she's going to be untouchable," Patton said.

Felix is called "chicken legs" by her high school teammates: at 5-foot-6, she's mostly all legs. The 125-pounder has deadlifted 270 pounds. She spends as much as nine hours a week practicing, a light load for a high school athlete.

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"She makes her own decisions on what and where she's going to run," Ross said. "It's all her, she's pushing herself. If she burns out, it's because she just got tired of it."

"She has a huge heart for competing and working out. She never backs off anything, whether it's in the weight room or out here, if it's hot or cold, if she's tired or not tired."

Patton said she has yet to miss a practice in four years. Even on days she may not feel like working out, Felix pushes herself.

"Those are the days you think about your goals and you think your competitors are out there doing it," she said. "So you can't slack off."

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