FLEET-FOOTED PROSPECTS

BRUCE JAMES, president of the renowned MVP Track Club, reckons that Jamaica may well have several men breaking 10 seconds in the 100 metres in 2022, and if that happens, more than one man in a black, green and gold vest in the World Championships final in Eugene, Oregon.

His outlook is based on the fact that many of the nation’s best-ever under-20 sprinters are still actively training and competing.

After counting off the 11 Jamaicans who ran under 10.20 seconds during their junior years, James reasoned: “If they’re able to make the transition, the fact that they are all, 10 of the 11, still active, I believe there is high potential for us to have multiple sub-10 athletes in the 2022 season.

“If you have multiple sub-10 Jamaican athletes in the 100 metres in one season, some are going to get into that World Championships final in Eugene,” he said.

The 11 includes long-retired three-time Olympic finalist Raymond Stewart, 2021 Olympic 400m finalist Christopher Taylor, and Michael O’Hara, who did the 110-metre hurdles in recent seasons. The other members of the Jamaica all-time junior top 11 are Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville, Sachin Dennis, Dexter Lee, Jevaughn Minzie, Nigel Ellis, Julian Forte and Ryiem Robertson.

James thinks Dennis, Ellis and Seville could be next in line.

“His 10.15 is perhaps the most exciting of all our athletes because three years ago, Sachin Dennis actually ran a personal best of 10.20. Now, if in 2018 you’re running 10.20, somebody could say you’re not doing very well if you’re just running 10.15 in 2021, but I would argue that he was still a junior when he ran 10.15 now and it just shows that he has had some issues, whether injuries or otherwise,” James proposed.

“Time is on his side,” James added.

Like Dennis, Ellis is a product of the STETHS programme and clocked 10.16 as a junior.

“This year, he was able to get that PB to 10.04 and he could be rounding into that kind of sub-10 shape right now,” James said of Ellis.

Seville, a former Holmwood and Calabar notable, who is now at the Racers Track Club, did 10.13 seconds as a junior and reached the Olympic semis. James rates his chances highly.

“He’s extremely exciting because was also born in the 2000s, born in March 2001, so he’s still just 20 years old when he ran his senior PB of 10.04,” noted the MVP president.

He doesn’t figure that the newcomers need to aim at the 9.80-second barrier immediately.

“The world of men’s sprinting again has become a sub-10 event and so if you’re sub-10, I think you have an opportunity to score on the world stage. You don’t have to be sub-9.8 any more,” James observed.