Livermore on his way back

Injury may have ruined his 2015 season but that hasn’t stopped Jason Livermore from thinking big. Axed by a leg ailment during last year’s National Championship 100 metre final, the 27 year-old Livermore is already looking forward to this season’s Nationals. He says his coach, Michael Clarke, is helping him to get back to his best.

A late developer, the powerfully built Livermore slowly improved after finishing fourth in the 2007 Boys and Girls' Championships Class One 100 metre final won by Yohan Blake for St Jago High in the record time of 10.21 seconds. His patient work paid off in 2013 when he took a bronze medal in the 200m at the Central American and Caribbean Championships and reached the semis of the event at the World Championships in Moscow.

He followed that with a solid 2014 campaign and a bronze in the 200m at the Commonwealth Games. Sadly, the progress stopped last year. Not long after he helped Jamaica to win the 4x200m at the IAAF World Relays, his dreams of running in Beijing at the World Championships were crushed by his injury at the Nationals.

He isn’t looking back at that disappointment. “Things have been going great, thanks to God,” he said. “My coach is ensuring that I do the necessary things to get me back where I was and better than I was before.” His coach Michael Clarke had directed him to personal bests of 10.05 for the 100m and 20.13 seconds in the 200m in 2013.

He knows that he may need to be better than he was before to qualify for the Jamaican team to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.  In 2015, six Jamaicans ran faster than his 100m lifetime best and three surpassed his career best in the 200m. Livermore is undaunted and seems to relish the competition.
  “Things are looking forward for now in the sprints because there are a lot of athletes in Jamaica, especially young sprinters,” he observed. “Looking at the sprints right now,”  he projected, “2016 Jamaica trials is going to be a very lovely.”

His target is simple.

“It has always been the same ... just go to trials, make the finals and be in the top three,” he said.