ROAD TO CHAMPS | #CHAMPS22Munro laying foundation for the future

WESTERN BUREAU:

MUNRO COLLEGE plans to build a strong foundation for the upcoming years, with a number of young field event competitors leading the charge in their first appearance at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championship (Champs) since 2018.

Omar Bryan, the track and field team’s interim head coach, said that while they started training fairly late, they have some talented youngsters who are poised to make their mark at the event, which is slated for April 5-9 at the National Stadium.

“We are building from the base,” Bryan noted. “We have mostly 13 and 14-year olds, so it’s building from the bottom going up, and I think that we are poised to do well in another two or so years.”

Weighing their chances, Bryan noted: “I don’t want to pre-empt anything, to be honest, because you can’t be sure in these times ... but all being well, we’re looking to do well with Javontae Smith, Bryan Dobson and Luke Ridgaard.

“These are mostly Class Three and Class Four athletes. So Luke and Javontae will be Class Three next year, and Brian Dobson will be in first-year Class Two next year. He (Dobson) is a very good prospect for the javelin and, with Javontae Smith, we’re looking to try to break the Western Championships records in the Class Three shot put and the discus next year. So these are some good throwers that we are looking to do well for Munro College in the next few years.”

Bryan pointed out that with limited training, Smith won the discus gold medal at the recent Western Championships.

“Javontae, after about three weeks of training, got the gold medal at Western Champs in the discus. They didn’t throw the shot put, unfortunately. Bryan Dobson actually had a few throws that could have easily got the gold medal, but he’s doing two sports and had to share his already-short training time between football, as a starting goalkeeper at under-14 level, and track and field. This got in the way of his preparation going into Western Champs,” the coach said.

PREPARATION

In terms of overall preparation, Bryan said the school would have loved to have gone through a longer period of not only training, but getting meet practice as well.

“To compete at Champs, you’re looking at six months of preparation at least. Ideally, you would want 10 months of preparation,” he reasoned.

“So we would have had about six weeks of preparation going into Champs, and over the years, we usually would have gone to about 10 (development) meets to prepare us for Champs. This year we’ve gone to probably four development meets, and so we are way, way behind,” he added.

Still, Munro College will be aiming to do its best.

“So this is not necessarily ideal (preparation), but we’re working with what we have, and we are doing the best we can; and the aim is to maximise on what we have for Champs,” Bryan said.