Go to college – Frater - Former sprinter urges youngsters to consider collegiate system before going pro

Add Michael Frater to the list of those worried about the state of men’s sprinting in Jamaica.

The retired speed stalwart thinks one fix is for our young sprinters to go to college to gain experience before they become professionals.

“I’m very worried myself. A lot of people have come up to me especially in the last year, asking me why have I retired,” said the 37-year-old Frater.

The 2008 Olympic finalist sees a gap between the high school system and the professional ranks.

“There’s a missing piece right there. I think maybe a lot of the athletes are trying to go professional too early when I think they should actually go to college, get more experience and better transition to the professional scene,” recommended Frater.

“Jamaica is a very talented country but it’s just about having them transition correctly into the professional scene,” he pinpointed.

Frater himself won the Pan-Am Games gold while at Texas Christian University and said: “the college scene is a semi-professional arena, so it doesn’t make any sense pushing a kid that is 17 years-old to run with grown men, professionals, who have doing this for a while. We have to remember that they are still young.”

In the 2012 Olympics, he ran with Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake to set a world record in the 4x100m relay and is aware that neither of them went to college.

‘Not everyone will transition’

“Everybody wants to be Usain, but Usain is very exceptional. Yohan is very exceptional. They are the two fastest men who have ever lived, so everybody is not going to be able to transition from high school to the professional,” he explained.

According to Frater, fast in high school isn’t enough to merit an immediate move into the pro ranks.

“So, most of these guys, you may see them running 10.2 or 10.3, send them to college,” he added.

The 2005 World silver medallist drew on American Matt Boling as an example.

“I see a guy from the US, he ran 9.9 wind-aided but he still ran 10.1, he didn’t go professional, he went to college,” Frater said about Boling who clocked 10.11 seconds to beat Jamaica’s Oblique Seville at the Pan-Am Junior Championships in July.

“You can learn so much from college, not only is it a semi-professional scene, but you also get an education and your level of thinking is developed,” added Frater, who at 9.88 seconds is the sixth fastest Jamaican of all time.

“Some have going to UTech and UWI which has working, so that’s not bad but the majority of them should go through college,” he concluded.