Weir, Minzie quit Racers Track Club
Published:Monday | August 13, 2018 | 12:00 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
Veteran athletics coach Glen Mills confirmed to The Gleaner yesterday that Olympic bronze medallist Warren Weir and Jevaughn Minzie will not be under his tutelage when training for the 2019 athletics season begins in the fall.
Mills, who is the founder of Racers Track Club, said that Weir informed him last week that he intends to leave the island and continue his training overseas, as he is no longer comfortable living in Jamaica.
"He (Weir) is really not happy with the current climate in Jamaica, and feels he is a target and he wants to take a breather from the country," Mills said.
The former Calabar High School standout will be moving to Florida to join Lance Brauman, who now coaches Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo and American speedster Noah Lyles.
Like Mills, Brauman is affiliated with Weir's equipment sponsor Adidas.
Weir has been struggling to find the form which brought him to international prominence when he finished third behind Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake in the 200m at the Olympic Games in London six years ago.
His last sub-20-second run came in 2014, when he registered 19.82 seconds in the 200m at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York.
Mills said that Minzie informed him that he would be moving to rivals MVP Track Club.
"He said that he will be moving to MVP and I wished him the best. I didn't ask him why. I just wished him well. Nothing is wrong if he feels like he stands a better chance of doing well at MVP," Mills explained. "He was doing well here. He qualified for the Olympics, but his spot was given to (Usain) Bolt."
He continued: "Any athlete can leave the club because we don't have a contract with any athlete that binds them."
Since Minzie blitzed his personal best 10.02 seconds to finish third at the Olympic Trials in 2016, he has also struggled to come close to that mark.