Seville seeks good technical race in Eugene

Last year, Oblique Seville fulfilled a dream of representing his country at the Tokyo Olympics. When he dons the black-green-and-gold on July 15 at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, his target will be a technically good race. The Glen Mills-coached sprinter feels sure that that will enable him to do his best.

Seville reached the 100 metres semi-finals in Tokyo, and he drew confidence from the achievement.

“For Tokyo, it was one of my dreams which I wanted to represent my country, so when I actually made the team and went to Tokyo, made the semi-finals, I realised that there is more I can gain from it because during my season, things were up and down for me. I was saying to myself, if I get everything next year, which is now, I think I can do greater things than I did in Tokyo,” he said on Wednesday.

Last year, his personal best was 10.04 seconds, and in 2022, Seville has breezed to times of 10.00 and 9.86 seconds on May 21 and 9.88 for the runner-up spot at last week’s JAAA National Senior and Junior Championships. He obviously is better than he was a year ago.

“In terms of times, yes,” he agreed. “I’m confident enough, so I’m just going to go and just do my best and give it a good shot.”

His times at the Nationals – 9.98, 9.92 and 9.88 seconds – have eased his mind.

“Well, I was a bit worried about if I can go back to 9.8, but when I see that I run back 9.88, I realised that I can do it,” he confided.

He lost the Nationals to experienced Yohan Blake, but Seville reckons a better technical effort will bear better results.

“In the execution of the 9.88, my start wasn’t good. My landings were on my heels. If I ran the 9.88 like how I ran the 9.86, it would be a better result and it would be faster than the 9.86, so I would have got a personal best,” he said in reviewing the race.

One key will be staying relaxed at the end of his races in Eugene.

“It’s a huge difference because even the last part of the race, I wasn’t composed. I was tense,” he pinpointed.

The St Thomas native first emerged in sports day races and eventually ran for his parish. He stands five feet six and about 150 pounds now, but in those days, “I was so small and tiny, it was like a disadvantage,” he recalled.

At Holmwood Technical, he reached the 2017 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships 2017 Class Two 100m final won by Sachin Dennis of St Elizabeth Technical. In Class One, he missed the 100m record of 10.12 seconds by his current Racers teammate, Zharnel Hughes, by 0.01.

In two weeks’ time, he will race the best in the world in Eugene.