Javon Francis clocks season’s best a month out from Trials
Published:Sunday | May 15, 2022 | 12:13 AMRobert Bailey - Gleaner Writer
JAMAICAN QUARTER-MILER Javon Francis continues his good form this season after clocking a season’s best time for second place at the Felix Sanchez Invitational in the Dominican Republic yesterday.
Francis, who recently recovered from a groin injury he sustained in the semi-finals of a 400 metres at the National Trials last year, clocked 45.53 seconds for second place. The event was won by Lidio Feliz from the Dominican Republic, in 44.83.
The 27-year-old Francis switched training camps at the start of the season, after spending three years in Texas with coach Darryl Woodson. He is now coached by Jamaican Olympian Sanjay Ayre at Chase Athletics in Baltimore, Maryland.
The former Calabar athlete has now improved on his previous season’s best time of 46.09, which he ran at the American Track League Orange County Classic in California last Saturday. Francis is now the joint third-fastest Jamaican in the world with Nathan Allen this year. Jevaughn Powell, 45.29, and Sean Bailey, 45.42, are the athletes ahead of the two.
Ayre, who is a former national quarter-miler, is happy with the progress that Francis has been making this season.
“I am very happy with his performance because this is his first race outside of the United States and so I am very optimistic that he will be ready for the National Trials next month,” said Ayre.
NEW RACE STRATEGY
“We have been working on a new race strategy and we tried it out for the first time at this meet and it worked, and so I am pleased about that,” he said.
“He is injury-free now and we are trying our best to bring him back and to ensure that he is in excellent shape for the Trials next month,” said Ayre.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games individual 400m bronze medallist is most famous for a blistering anchor-leg run at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which helped the country to secure the silver medal in the 4x400m.
Other Jamaicans at the meet enjoyed placings as well, with Andre Clarke (49.44) and Kemar Mowatt (49.48), finishing second and third, respectively, in the 400-metre hurdles. The race was won by Khallifa Rosser from the United States in 48.45. Roneisha McGregor finished second in the women’s 400 metres in 52.53. The event was won by the Dominican Republic’s Fiordaliza Cofil in 51.11. McGregor was also second in the women’s 200 metres, in 23.38 behind Cofil, who stopped the clock in 23.07.