Goule hopes Holmwood’s Mitchell breaks 1500 record

JODYANN MITCHELL of Holmwood Technical has pulled the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships Class I 1500-metre record into view.

In fact, her winning time at the recent Central Championships -- 4 minutes, 30.31 seconds (4:30.31) -- would have won all the gold medals since Natoya Goule set the record in 2010. Fittingly, Mitchell has been given the greenlight to go for the record, 4:29.81, by no less than Goule herself.

Speaking on March 13 from her training base at Clemson University, Goule reasoned, “For it to have lasted this long, that’s wonderful. But it’s also disappointing to me, because I’m not seeing a lot of the youths, you know, trying to reach that level in the 1500 metres, and, you know, trying to be on the professional scene in the future for the 1500 metres. They shy away from it. Yes, they run it at Boys and Girls’ Champs, but they shy away from it. But I think that if they put in more effort, then, you know, just like in the other events at Champs, basically all the years in Champs, the records are shattered because the athletes are getting better and better.”

Mitchell’s 4:30.31 at Central Champs has convinced Goule that the Champs record could fall.

“I think so. If she goes and gets the record, I am happy because as I said before, because that means distance running is in good hands,” said Goule.

“So I am wishing her all the best,” the 2018 Commonwealth 800-metre bronze medallist added, “because a lot of persons, when they see a Natoya Goule record broken, they’re like ‘Wooo, okaaaay!’ They know how hard I train, and always running, so I hope she breaks it, but it would be nice to have it a little longer. But I just want her to go out there and just run. If you run 4:29, girl, then you know your future is bright.”

Looking back to 2010, she recalled, “I just wanted to break the record, because the previous year I had run 4.27.48 at the Carifta Games, so I know I had it in me.” Competing for Manchester High School at Champs for the last time, she was in fine form. “When I look back at that race, I’m like, wow, I was going fast.”

Mitchell, a former Class II and III winner, can repeat as champion if she can hold Edwin Allen’s Rackiesha Simms and the formidable Kishay Rowe of Alphansus Davis High at bay as she did at Central Champs.

She also defeated Rowe and Simms at last weekend’s Carifta Trials.

Goule used her experience to offer some advice.

“Just stay relaxed, because sometimes we overthink it; and sometimes when we try to go for a record, we don’t end up getting it because we do too much. So, I’m advising her to go out there, remember how you ran at Central Champs, and just probably put a little more oomph in it, and then you’ll get the record.”