Stewart blessed with hurdles talent

WHEN ROSHAWN Clarke won the 400-metre hurdles at the recent National Championships, it added a layer of confirmation for his coach Okeile Stewart.

Clarke scored a world under-20 record of 47.85 seconds and underscored Stewart’s belief that he has been blessed with talent.

Like most Jamaican coaches, the Swept Track Club founder and coach loves the sprints, but his major successes have come with 400-metre hurdlers Rushell Clayton, Jaheel Hyde and now 2022 World under-20 bronze medal winner, Clarke.

In 2019, Clayton placed third at the World Championships. Last year, Hyde reached the World Championship final and produced a stirring personal best, 48.03 seconds, there.

Clarke’s 47.85 moved him past Hyde and 2004 Olympic silver medallist Danny McFarlane into the Jamaica all-time number two spot behind 1992 silver medallist Winthrop Graham, who holds the national record at 47.60.

“I want to say I have a bias towards the event, to be frank, because I spent two and a half years in South Korea and that was the event I spent a lot of time with, so I think that’s how I developed a lot of proficiency in dealing with athletes who are competing in the event,” said the man who coached in Korea from 2012 to 2014.

HIGH PRAISES

Understandably, he has high praises for his athletes.

“Rushell Clayton had a lot of motivation. She had a lot of fire. Jaheel Hyde, who we know has a big heart, and young Roshawn Clarke now, who is trying to make a name for himself. They all come to the table with something, and it makes the work a little bit easier for me to achieve the results that I do achieve, well with some work, because I must first understand them as an athlete, and as a person before I can develop the programme to suit them, the athlete,” he said.

Clayton has moved to the Elite Performance Track Club and Hyde now trains abroad after a couple of seasons as Clarke’s senior training partner.

Stewart coached the lanky Clarke at Camperdown High, where he is head coach, to a 2022 Boys and Girls’ Championships victory and the first of two Carifta titles.

Quizzed about his favourite event to coach, the man who coached Oral Thompson to the 2010 National 400-metre title replied, “To be honest, I always prefer the 400, flat four, but the love for the sprints is there.”

He hopes someday to get blue-chip sprint prospects.

“Most of the more talented ones would have gone to the established clubs and as such, I have to be building ones from the grassroots up. So, like most clubs, based on the fact that sprints is the blue riband, I mean, we all tend to gravitate towards that, but I have been blessed with talent at the 400 and 400 hurdles, so I embrace it.”