Tia in top form at JAAA/PUMA meet

A lot has happened since Tia Clayton was more prominent than her speedy twin, Tina. Since the 2019 Boys and Girls’ Championships Class Three 200 final, won by Tia over Tina with a slim margin, Tina has become most pundits’ pick to become the next great Jamaican sprinter. Perhaps briefly, the tables turned last Saturday at the JAAA/PUMA Fuller/Anderson Development Meet at the GC Foster College as Tia laid down the fastest time in the women’s 60 metres.

Tia zipped out of the blocks like a rocket and held her form well to stop the clock at 7.22 seconds, with 200m specialist Jodean Williams well back at 7.37. The aiding wind stayed steady at 1.5 metres per second for Tina’s heat, and she beat two-time Barbados’ World Championships 400m bronze medal winner Sada Williams, 7.27 seconds to 7.30.

A cheerful Tia was grateful for the win. “Maybe there are some things I need to work on but it was a good race,” she said with a broad smile afterwards. Looking trim and light on her feet, she explained that she is more comfortable with the training regime she follows at the MVP Track Club. “Training is going good. Last year, it was so hard,” she said, but this year, I’m coping because I’ve gotten used to it now, so training is going well.”

When the twins were both at Edwin Allen High School, she was the first to hit the headlines. She outran Serena Cole to win the 2018 Class Three 100m gold medal at Boys and Girls’ Championships, and defended the title ahead of Tina in 2019.

Tina won the 2021 Class Two 100m after Tia false-started.

Tina went on to win the 100m at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, and she repeated in 2023, with Tia a super anchor on Jamaica’s record-breaking 4x100m teams. Speaking in 2022, Edwin Allen coach Michael Dyke remarked, “She’s very cognisant that her sister has gone ahead of her, way ahead of her, by leaps and bounds, and I think that now creates a little jealousy, that she wants to regain her top form and get back on par with her sister, you know, but I think she has to improve in some of the areas.”

He described Tina as “probably more disciplined with especially her nutrition and all of that”.

Tia twice ran a personal best of 11.23 last season.

Now the twins and 2022 World Under-20 100 runner-up Cole are teammates at the MVP, which has produced some of the finest female sprinters in history and male World Championships medallists Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Asafa Powell. The latter has the world record total of 97 sub-10 100-metre times.