‘Hard work always pays off’

A decade has passed since Brigitte Foster-Hylton, OD, hung up her spikes, calling time on a long and successful international career.

And in a Sunday Gleaner interview last week, the former women’s 100-metre hurdles World champion shared that the discipline she honed on the track was carried over to her life away from it as she gives her all to husband Patrick Hylton and son Neron.

“Of course, it helped. It helped me in preparing for motherhood, but I think motherhood is the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life, even after everything I’ve been through in track and field,” she said . From pregnancy into the early stages until now, I brought everything into it, and I try my best to be a 101 per cent mother,” said Foster-Hylton, who medalled at several top international sporting events, including bagging gold at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

Though he did not witness any of her triumphs on the track, six-year-old Neron is now realising the accomplishments of one of Jamaica’s most decorated sprint hurdlers.

“I think he’s starting to understand because he’ll make comments like, ‘Even though my mother is a champion, I’ll beat her’. That’s what he tells his friends. He tells them, ‘When we race, I beat my Mommy, even though she’s a champion’,” Foster-Hylton shared with pride, noting that she is exposing Neron to a wide range of sports.

“There are so many benefits from doing sports and even if he’s not really doing anything, I really want him to do something.”

In between her duties as mother and wife, the former athlete is staying fit by playing tennis, a sport she fell in love with when she was still on the track.

“I used to watch Venus and Serena Williams even when I was training as a track athlete,” she recalled.

“I would sleep and wake in the night to watch the Aussie Open or Wimbledon,” she said, referencing two major tennis championships. “So I started watching tennis and falling in love with it because of Venus and Serena and their story. So the moment I retired, I started taking lessons, and the rest is history.”

TEST OF CHARACTER, WILL

Asked to pinpoint her favourite track and field memory, she didn’t hesitate.

“I have to say the World Championships, where I won gold in 2009 in Berlin,” said Foster-Hylton of the achievement which also landed her the RJR Sports Foundation’s National Sportswoman of the Year title.

That victory was the culmination of a journey that started when she reached the 100-metre hurdles final at the Sydney Olympics 2000.

“That’s where I made my breakthrough. That’s where the world got to know Brigitte Foster, and that’s when I started to believe in my talent and my ability, started believing what Mr [Stephen] Francis told me when we first met – that I could be world class,” she shared of the internationally acclaimed coach.

“I didn’t really believe all of that. I was a 13.3 [seconds] runner, and at the time, even though I made NCAA, I didn’t make much of that because I know on the world stage, it’s a different story. In Jamaica, we had a deep field of sprint hurdlers – Gillian Russell, Michelle Freeman, Delloreen Ennis, and Dionne Rose – and I’m like, ‘Does he really think I can beat these ladies to make the Jamaican team?’”

She recalled saying to Francis, “If you say so, let’s work and see.”

She had a date with destiny in Berlin, topping the field in 12.51 seconds and the moment still gives her chills.

“Because of everything that I’ve been through, all the championships that I’ve gone to, all the ups and downs, all the injuries, all the surgeries, it was a moment of accomplishment for me. Like, finally, I can win something; I can be on top of the podium. I’m not a bronze medallist or a silver medallist and I actually pulled through injury free,” Foster-Hylton said, reliving the marvellous triumph.

After winning silver at the 2003 World Championships and bronze in 2005, injury threatened to derail her career when disaster struck in 2007.

“My hamstring came off the tendon completely and they had to reconstruct the hamstring, putting staples and screws in my hamstring. I thought I would never hurdle again, but the doctor was like, ‘You can hurdle again’. Anyhow, I got brave and I worked super hard in the rehab and on the track, and in 2009, I was the World champion,” Foster-Hylton shared, even now, her relief still tangible.

Coach Francis saw her dedication.

“I remember him saying to me, ‘Brigitte, if you take this attitude into life, you know, after track, you will succeed at whatever you do. I’ve never met anyone who gives everything their 101 per cent effort’,” she reminisced. “That’s how I was. I was just very intense about my training. I was very serious.”

COACHING GLORY, ROAD AHEAD FOR JAMAICA

These days, Foster-Hylton coaches hurdlers at the MVP Track and Field Club and she took great joy when one of her charges, Ronald Levy, won the bronze medal in the 110-metre hurdles at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

“Words can’t explain it,” she said with a smile. “It brings so much satisfaction. Levy is dear to my heart. He’s special, not only because he went to St Elizabeth Technical High School, but also he’s been quite unfortunate with some really bad injuries – injuries that could have been career-ending, so I can actually put myself in his shoes.”

Her continued link to the sport has led to a balanced view on how things have gone in Jamaica’s track and field development since her retirement.

“I think we’re heading in the right direction, but I also see ways in which we could definitely get better,” she reflected.

“We have three finalists in the women’s triple jump, and two finalists in the women’s high jump. We have a 20-year-old in the 100-metre final for men,” Foster-Hylton said, looking on at performances this year at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. “Shericka Jackson, who won the 200 metres, is only 28 years [old].”

And the future looks bright.

“We have an Under-20 girl who just did sub-11 seconds, Tina Clayton,” she continued. “The Under-20 4x100 world record wasn’t ratified for some technicalities. We have a guy who just broke a 45-year-old record, Navasky Anderson, in the 800 metres,” Foster-Hylton enumerated.

“We are covering ground, having representation in events where we never had before and doing well. But I also believe that if we want to really get more medals and get closer to the bigger countries who are topping the medal tables, then we need to look more into the field events. I also believe we could review the high-school programme and find out why our athletes are not transitioning to the senior level.”

Foster-Hylton thinks a focus on non-traditional events could pay dividends for Jamaica.

“I believe, also, we could create greater interest in the middle-distance and the long-distance races, and the less popular disciplines like the pole vault, the hammer, the javelin. I don’t know how we’re going to do that, but I would say probably deepen the talent pool of coaches to coach these events,” she suggested.

She also had high praises for Jamaica’s sprint and hurdles coaches.

“I’m very encouraged by the present work of the coaches in the hurdles and the sprints for sure, and I see where hurdles is now introduced at the prep school level and I think that’s really good. By the time they get to high school, they would have mastered the fundamentals, I hope,” she said.

The World, Pan-Am and Commonwealth Games champion concluded with a word of advice to newcomers with big dreams: “Be prepared to work hard. Be disciplined and stick to it in the good and the bad. It’s not overnight success. It will take some a little longer than others, but believe in your talent.

“Believe in your ability. Believe in your passion. And, oh yes, you’ve got to surround yourself with good people because sometimes you can have the wrong persons guiding you, so surround yourself with good people who give you good advice and just stick to it. Hard work always pays off.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com